Check your tyre size correctly

A job for wednesday had been to fit 2 new tyres to a Vauxhall Corsa in West Chiltington. The customer had read the tyre size off of one of the tyres on the car, which is the correct way to do it. (Rather than using the number plate system which is only 80% accurate).

Unfortunately she had read the size off of the spare tyre which was on the car but was a different size.

I arrived at the job, and did a quick check before starting the job and realised that the had the wrong size. I also noted that one of the other tyres was right down to the legal limit. I explained this to the customer, and we booked her back in for the following day to have 3 tyres changed.

This is not the first time this has happened, as customers automatically assume that the spare tyre if fitted, is the same size as the main tyres. Another customer had made the same mistake, driving for a month on the spare and kept wondering why the car was pulling to one side.

So if you are booking your car in for a tyre change, please check the tyre on the wheel you want us to change. And remember that with some cars the front and rear wheels can be different sizes. For more info on how to read the markings on a tyre click here.