Vehicle maintenance: Testing tires

Transcription

(Musical background throughout the video. The video begins with text on a blue background featuring the CAA-Quebec logo.)   

Vehicle maintenance do it YOURSELF    

How to test tires for wear 

(Our automotive expert, Jesse Caron, stands in a garage in front of a white car and faces the camera. A blue banner displays his name and title at the bottom of the screen. He is holding a small object in his hands, a depth gauge.) 

Car tires are like anything else: they eventually wear out. 

It’s important to periodically check the tread depth of your tires. 

There are two ways to do this. The most accurate is using a tread depth gauge. You can find one in any big-box store for a few dollars. Any reputable garage should have one as well. 

Otherwise, you can resort to the old coin trick. I’ll show you how easy this is. 

(While saying this, Jesse bends over in front of the vehicle’s wheel and, with a quarter in hand, inserts it into a slit in the tire.) 

Take a quarter, and with the caribou head pointing down, insert the coin into one of the tire tread grooves. 

(A blue box appears in the top left corner of the screen, in which it is indicated that measurements are to be taken in three places: inner groove, middle groove and outer groove. It also shows that wear is considered acceptable if the caribou’s muzzle is inside the slot, but critical if it is outside.) 

We insert it into one of the tire’s grooves so that the nose is hidden. This means the tire is still good, but if you can see the tip of the nose, it means the tire is worn too much. 

With a depth gauge, you insert it in the groove and check the reading. 

(Close-up shot of Jesse’s hand as he inserts a depth gauge into one of the tire’s central grooves. Then, zooming in on the depth gauge, we are shown the various measurements, as Jesse points to the minimum standard.) 

It must not be less than 2/32 of an inch. Which is the minimum allowed by law. CAA-Quebec recommends, however, that you never start a season with tread depth of less than 6/32 of an inch. 

(A text on a blue background appears on the screen with the CAA-Quebec logo underneath.)   

Vehicle maintenance do it YOURSELF  

For more details, go to caaquebec.com    

(End of music and video.)