Household tyre change!

Hometyre Norfolk, the mobile tyre service that comes to you, received a call to a job in Hepworth, a village located between Diss and Bury St Edmunds, close to Stanton. We were called to a 54 Peugeot 206 to remove two old budgets and fit twin new mid-range Maxxis HP5 tyres (195/55/15 85V). The customer wanted these fitted to the front, however, we pointed out basic tyre safety for vehicles without Tyre pressure monitoring systems (TPMS) it is always better to fit the newer tyres to the rear of the vehicle. This is because the tyres the customer had at the rear of the vehicle, were already 2years old. It is better to have the older tyres at the front, in case of a blow-out or sudden loss of pressure(a puncture perhaps) as it is easier to control the vehicle from the front, you want to have the best grip at the rear, or the vehicle could spin out. We also do this for the tyre's life span, as the recommended age for a tyre is 3-5 years. As the vehicle was a front wheel drive, the treads on the front will go down quicker than the treads in the rear, which were already two years older. The customer was very happy with this safety advice and opted to have the wheels swapped from front to rear. Whilst doing so, we also rebalanced all four wheels to make sure the customer doesn't have any discomfort while driving.

Upon changing these wheels, the customer had mentioned about having to pump up a tyre every couple of weeks, and could we look into why. When we removed the tyre, we found that the seal of the rim, where the tyre sits, was corroded and eating into the tyre causing the tyre to slowly lose pressure. We showed the customer the problem and we offered another service, a bead seal. This is where we take and air gun,with a wire brush end and file down all of the corrosion, leaving the seal nice and smooth. Then we put a bead sealer around the top and bottom seal that dries like a hard rubber, stopping any corrosion reaching the new tyres.

The customer was very happy with our service and asked us to check her husband's vehicle whilst we were there. We identified he needed two new tyres, due to two 5 year old tyres, over the recommended life span and were badly perishing. We ordered two more Maxxis tyres (205/55/16 91V) again swapping his tyres from front to rear with balancing. On further inspection with our free tyre safety check, we noticed that the two older tyre valves were leaking. However these tyres were only about a year old, a lazy garage had not bothered to replace the valves when changing the tyres. We also at an additional cost, replaced the two leaky valves. leaving a very safe and happy household.