At what tread depth do YOU replace your tyres?

Around 2.5mm usually on mine (i.e. a mm above the wear indicator).

Gives enough time to shop around for tyres, order them, get them fitted, and not have worn down to the indicator.
 
[TW]Fox;24711069 said:
Thats a fairly shocking attitude to car maintenance, you'd have rightly had 6 points had you been pulled over. How can you not notice running that far below the legal limit? Even the limit itself is fairly low. They must have looked like slicks.
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Meh, they wore far faster than I expected them to, they looked to have enough life in them ~a month before that. Now I check them monthly

Started the thread to see if anyone would replace at 3mm or wait until they're at the indicators.
 
The Smarts rears have just gone sub 3mm so they will be replaced very shortly. Usually after they hit the 3mm mark I start to look around for a decent deal - then I can hold off a month or so if there is no decent prices at that time :)

I'd never go down to the legal limit as all the tyres I've had so far get plenty hairy enough before that in the wet!
 
I'm not sure what my tyres are on currently, I think one needs replacing because it is at 1.6 - 1.8mm, but the other three are nearly new. (the worn one was the spare)

I'll probably put a part worn tyre on the one which is in need of replacement soon, and replace them all at about 2.5mm.

*edit* or then again perhaps even 1.6 - 1.8mm. We shall see. Car doesnt go fast, I don't drive fast (because the car wont let me :p), it isn't very heavy, the tyres aren't very wide.
 
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3mm.

When I had my S2000 the handling was so sensitive I knew almost immediately when I was at 3mm. The grip just fell off massively.

Based on that, on both cars since, tyres have been changed at 3mm. There is clearly a grip difference, and whilst I don't deny Colin McRae antics down the backlanes are one thing and many people won't do that.... the emergency stop when a kid runs out between parked cars in the rain... every centimetre could count.
 
Until they're slick, then I can drive turbo quick, innit. Brap brap.


Seriously though, once they're close enough to the tread wear indicators, new rubber gets slapped on. I drive too quickly to gamble on safety. Pads also get replaced when they're at 70% wear.
 
Aeleys said:
This.
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Lolwut. Who is the muppet, someone who drives hard and replaced their tyres while they are still good. Or is it the one who drives around on nearly bald tyres thinking they are super safe, ignorant that they could be one good puddle away from an aquaplaning related accident?

I'm hardly one to preach, but that statement is ironic to the extreme.
 
2mm for me.

I work in a tyre place and plenty of people come in for a 'puncture' completely oblivious the fact their tyre has gone flat because there is physically nothing left to hold the air in.

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andy_mk3 said:
2mm for me.

I work in a tyre place and plenty of people come in for a 'puncture' completely oblivious the fact their tyre has gone flat because there is physically nothing left to hold the air in.

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How the hell do people even drive on that without killing themselves? :/
 
Beats me. It's sadly not a rare thing to see. People generally don't give a ****. It's not often someone comes in and asks for a specific brand because of it's performance, it's usually always the cheapest!

I recently swapped my tyres front to back, I'm on about 5.5mm at the front and 4mm at the back. I'd probably change them when they're between 2 and 3mm actually. Once you get below 3mm the performance starts to degrade a lot, especially in wet conditions.
 
As soon as my highly calibrated finger nail can't feel a noticeable step from the wear marker to the tread block I'd guestimate this equates to about 2.0 to 2.5mm.
 
Depends on the time of year they're getting low. Generally speaking if its in summer I'll let them go beyond 2mm then change, if its winter time I'll normally have changed by then as I find you can start to really feel the difference under 3mm in lots of rain/cold
 
I had a mildly terrifying incident joining the M6 yesterday. I must just have missed the rain but the road was pretty wet, so I was in lane 2 of the road that joins the M6 going around a bend behind a van doing 50-60 when I saw the van go through some pretty deep standing water. Big splash and then I'm going through and I lose pretty much all control and start drifting into lane 1, which has another car in it.

Luckily I didn't panic and brake or turn the steering wheel too much (still had a bit of a wiggle when I hit solid ground again) and got away with it.

My tyres are legal, and I guess it's not entirely usual to drive through deep water like that but I'll be checking them over today and seeing about replacing if they are getting close.

Got the adrenaline pumping somewhat! I'm on rainsport 2's, I guess maybe that made me a bit complacent or something. :o


Edit - The guys saying 'I drive sensibly so don't need lots of tread' should probably take note of this, I wasn't breaking the speed limit and would have been fine if it weren't for something I wasn't expecting and didn't have a lot of control over happening. Also a lesson to take it REALLY easy when the roads very wet.
 
Typically by handling, and how much spin/sliding I'm getting in certain situations. When I get fed up of it, new tyres. It's normally around the legal limit, but depends on the manufacturer. I'm not quite as anal as the 1mm under and you're a shocking child killer.
 
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