Tyre Markings Explained.

Adam Mechanic

A description of what your tyre markings mean, and why they are important. Please like and follow for more content.

Transcript

00:00Hi everyone just a quick video on tyre markings and meanings so most important

00:05tyre markings are these ones here so if you're ordering new tyres these are the ones that you're

00:08always asked what they are on the car at the moment so 205 so 205 represents the tyre width

00:15so the width of the tyre across it from shoulder to shoulder the 205 or the other number that you

00:21might get on your car is always in millimetres so it's 205 in this case millimetres across is

00:27the width of the tyre the next one along is 55 55 is the size of the shoulder here so it's called

00:35the aspect ratio and it's a related ratio between the tread and the sidewall so in this case 55%

00:41of the width of the tyre is also in the shoulder so the 55 represents a percentage in the sidewall

00:49compared to the tread area R represents radial so that is a radial construction tyre spin this

00:56tyre around here it will say that it's a radial tubeless steel belted so that's the construction

01:03type of tyre so all tyres since the 80s are radial construction and it just means the metal bands in

01:08the tyre go around just like a radial engine so the metal band goes all the way around the tyre and

01:14that's what makes it soft but also gives it its strength whereas the tyres before this were cross ply

01:19so if you see classic cars from the 70s and 80s where they've got really narrow hard tyres they

01:25were the previous design which was cross ply and they were crisscrossed rather than all the way around

01:30the tyre so this is a radial construction tyre like most of them are these days 16 is inches for the wheel

01:36rim so the 16 inch rim designed to go inside here so it's a 16 inch tyre and then we've got speed and load

01:44rating so 91 is a load index so load index is how much weight this tyre can take without failing so

01:51obviously if you've got a light car or a small car compared to a four-wheel drive off-roader you're

01:56gonna have a different number 91 in this case represents 615 kilograms obviously times that

02:02by four and make sure those four tyres can safely hold the weight of the vehicle and V so the next one is

02:09your speed index so the speed index is obviously how fast this tyre can perform without failing so

02:15V in this case would be 149 miles an hour here in the UK so this tyre would be structurally unsafe

02:23beyond that speed so bear that in mind when you are buying tyres for your vehicle that you can take

02:27the weight or the load and the speed as well look in a bit more detail you've got tread wear here

02:33420 so the industry baseline is 100 and that's how that's the tyre life so 420 will go 4.2 times

02:42longer than a tyre that says tread wear 100 on it traction traction goes from A to C A is the one

02:50that's going to clear the water the best by the time you're getting down to C you're on semi slick

02:54racing tyres so most tyres that are designed for road cars will have A on there for traction

02:59and then temperature temperature you've got double A A B and C and that's how the air pressure or the

03:06heat that's generated within the tyre when it's rolling obviously want that to be as good as

03:10possible because again when you get to the the speed index and the heat and the pressure building

03:14up in the tyre you want to make sure that you get a tyre with a good heat rating so that the pressure

03:20and the temperatures don't build within the tyre. Other information on the tyre worth looking at

03:25DOT is Department of Transport this next one A to E will be the company and the factory where this tyre is built

03:33and the PW6 sorry PWP6 that will be the batch number so if there's a fault with a set of tyres

03:40and there's a manufacturer recall that will be the reference to recall the tyre and the next one

03:4616 17 16 is the week of the year and 17 is the actual year itself so this tyre was made on the 16th

03:54week of 2017. There's only one other thing worth mentioning with tyres that's very important for

04:00MOTs and making sure the car clears water rather than builds it on this particular tyre here it says

04:05rotation sometimes it can say direction that always has to be pointing the correct way so if you get a

04:11directional tyre the tread's only designed to clear water in one direction if you put it the wrong

04:16way rather than clearing water it will build up water and you'll likely aquaplane so if you do have

04:21a directional tyre that says rotation or direction do make sure that it's pointing the right way

04:26otherwise not only is it dangerous it's also an instant MOT fail hope that makes sense and it helps

04:31see you next time

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