Always check the inflation pressure when the tyres are cold. Do not reduce the
higher pressure of warm tyres.
With greater additional load, adjust the tyre inflation pressure accordingly.
Driving style
Fast cornering, sharp acceleration and braking increase the wear of your tyres.
Balancing wheels
The wheels of a new vehicle are balanced. When driving, however, there are a
range of factors that may result in an imbalance. This may become apparent by
“vibration” in the steering.
Have the wheels rebalanced after replacing the tyres.
Wheel alignment errors
Incorrect wheel alignment at the front or rear leads to excess wear of the tyres.
Tyre damage
Drive over kerbs and other such obstacles slowly and at right angles wherever
possible in order to avoid damage to tyres and wheel trims.
We recommend checking your tyres and wheel rims for damage (punctures, cuts,
splits and bulges, etc.) on a regular basis. Remove foreign bodies (e.g. small
stones) from the tyre tread immediately.
Replacing wheels
If significantly greater wear is present on the front tyres, we recommend swap-
ping the front wheels with the rear wheels as shown in the diagram » Fig. 136.
You will then obtain approximately the same life for all the tyres.
We recommend that you swap the tyres every 10,000 km in order to achieve evenwear on all tyres and to ensure optimal service life for the tyres.
Storing tyres
Identify disassembled tyres so that the previous direction of rotation can be
maintained if the tyres are reassembled.
Always store wheels or tyres in a cool, dry place that is as dark as possible. Tyres
which are not fixed to a wheel trim should be stored upright.
Wear indicators
The base of the tread of the tyres has 1.6 mm high wear indicators installed.
These wear indicators are arranged evenly spaced around the circumference of the tyre a number of times depending on the make » Fig. 135 -
. Markings on the
walls of the tyres through the letters “TWI”, triangular symbols or other symbols identify the position of the wear indicators.Tyre age
Tyres age and lose their original characteristics, even if they are not being used.
Therefore, we recommend not using summer or winter tyres older than 6 or 4 years old respectively.
New tyres
First read and observe the introductory information and safety warn-
ings
on page 172.
Only use radial tyres of the same type, size (rolling circumference) and tread pat-
tern on one axle on all four wheels.
The tyre/wheel combinations which are approved for your vehicle are indicated in
your vehicle documents.
Where possible, replace tyres by axle. Always fit the tyres with the deeper tread
depth to the front wheels.
Explanation of tyre markings
185/65 R 14 86 T
What this means is:
185Tyre width in mm » Fig. 135 on page 173 - 65Height/width ratio in % » Fig. 135 on page 173 - RCode letter for the tyre construction – Radial » Fig. 135 on page 173
- 14Diameter of wheel in inches » Fig. 135 on page 173 - 86Load index » TSpeed symbol »
The date of manufacture is stated on the tyre wall (possibly on the inside). e.g.
DOT ... 10 13...
means, for example, that the tyre was manufactured in the 10th week of 2013.
Load index
This indicates the maximum permissible load for each individual tyre. 487 kg
515 kg
530 kg
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