Tyres HQ Library · Problems & Diagnostics
Tyre Problems & Diagnostics
Something not right with your tyres? These symptom-led guides help you diagnose wear patterns, punctures and damage, vibration, noise and pulling.
When a tyre wears oddly, vibrates, loses pressure or makes a noise, it is usually telling you something. These guides work backwards from the symptom to the likely cause, so you can understand a problem early, before it costs you a tyre or turns into something bigger.
Wear patterns
The way a tyre wears is a map of what is happening underneath the car. There are guides to diagnosing uneven wear in general, then the specific patterns: inner or outer edge wear, centre wear from over-inflation, both edges worn from under-inflation, cupping and scalloping, feathering, flat spots, and a single tyre wearing faster than the rest.
Punctures & damage
Things go wrong, and these guides cover what to do about them: the steps to take after a puncture, how to go about finding a slow puncture, what to do with a nail or screw in the tread, the repair-or-replace decision once the damage is known, and the honest answer on driving on a flat tyre.
Vibration, noise & handling
When the car shakes, drones or wanders, the cause is usually at the wheels and tyres. There are guides to a vibrating steering wheel and vibration that builds with speed, to the causes of tyre road noise and a humming or droning noise, and to a car pulling to one side.
Pressure & ageing issues
The slow, nagging faults: a tyre that keeps losing pressure, a TPMS light that will not turn off, and sidewall cracking and dry rot as a tyre ages.
All problems & diagnostics guides
Can You Drive on a Flat Tyre?
Driving on a flat tyre, even a short distance, can wreck the tyre and the wheel. When it is unavoidable, how far is too far, and what run-flats change.
Why Is My Car Pulling to One Side?
A car that drifts left or right usually points to alignment, uneven tyre pressures or a tyre fault.
Humming or Droning Noise: Diagnosing It
A hum or drone that rises with speed is usually tyres or a wheel bearing. The cornering test that separates the two, and the wear patterns that cause the noise.
My Tyre Keeps Losing Pressure
One tyre that needs topping up again and again has a leak somewhere. The five places air escapes, how to narrow it down, and which ones a garage has to fix.
Nail or Screw in Your Tyre: What to Do
Spotted a nail or screw in your tyre? Whether to pull it out or leave it, how to tell if it can be repaired, and the steps to take before it strands you.
What to Do When You Get a Puncture
The calm, correct steps after a puncture: getting off the road safely, telling a slow leak from a blowout, and the realistic ways to get moving again.
Repair or Replace a Tyre: How to Decide
Whether a damaged tyre can be repaired or needs replacing comes down to a few clear factors: where the damage is, how big it is, the tread left, and the tyre's age.
Sidewall Cracking and Dry Rot
Fine cracks in a tyre's sidewall are the rubber perishing with age and weather. How to tell cosmetic crazing from dangerous dry rot, and when the tyre has to go.
Slow Puncture: How to Find and Diagnose It
A tyre that keeps going soft usually has a slow puncture. The common causes, the simple soapy-water test to pinpoint it, and when a garage needs to take over.
Why Is My Steering Wheel Vibrating?
A steering wheel that shakes usually traces back to the tyres and wheels: imbalance, a buckled rim, uneven wear or a flat spot. How to read the speed it happens at.
TPMS Light Won't Turn Off
A tyre-pressure warning light that stays on after topping up has a reason: a real leak, a sensor that needs relearning, a dead sensor battery, or a flashing fault.
What Causes Tyre Road Noise?
Loud tyres can be down to the tread pattern, the road surface, wear and pressure, or a fault. How to tell ordinary noise from the kind that signals a problem.
Tyre Vibration at Speed: Causes
Vibration that arrives at a certain speed and where you feel it, in the wheel, the seat or the floor.
Both Tyre Edges Worn: Under-Inflation
When both shoulders of a tyre wear while the centre survives, under-inflation is the cause. Why it happens, the fuel and safety cost, and the simple fix.
Centre Tyre Wear: Over-Inflation
A tyre worn down the middle while the edges look fine is the textbook sign of over-inflation. Why it happens, what it costs you, and how to set pressures right.
Tyre Cupping and Scalloping
Scalloped dips around a tyre, often with a droning noise, usually mean worn suspension rather than the tyre itself.
Diagnosing Uneven Tyre Wear
Tyres wear in patterns, and each pattern points to a cause. A guide to reading uneven wear, where it sits, what it means, and which fault to chase down.
Tyre Feathering: Causes and Fixes
Tread blocks worn sharp on one side and smooth on the other, feathering you can feel with a hand. It points squarely to toe alignment.
Flat Spots on Tyres: Causes and Fixes
A worn patch on one part of a tyre, often felt as a vibration, can come from hard braking or from standing parked too long.
Inner or Outer Edge Tyre Wear: Causes
Wear on one edge of a tyre almost always points to alignment or camber. What inner-edge and outer-edge wear each mean, the usual culprits, and how to put it right.
One Tyre Wearing Faster Than the Rest
When a single tyre wears out ahead of the other three, something specific is wrong at that corner, or the tyres were never rotated.