Tire maintenance tips

Federal officials have ordered the recall of 450,000 tires imported from China.  These lack a safety feature that prevents the tire tread from separating. While Consumer Reports has not tested this brand of tires, it's important to follow the basics of proactive maintenance and inspection, particularly with summer just starting. Heat is the enemy of any tire, and with summer heat combined with high levels of summer travel, we recommend that consumers do the following:

• Inspect your tires. Replace any worn out tire as well as any tire with a bulge, crack, or cut. We'd even suggest replacing all four if they're nearly worn out. This keeps the best tread on all four corners of your car instead of only one. Check the wear across the tire's tread and determine if it is wearing evenly or wearing more on one side than the other. Uneven wear could be a telltale sign of wheel misalignment, suspension damage, or wrong inflation pressure. Have the vehicle serviced.
• Check the inflation pressure. It is important to do this routinely, preferably monthly. The correct inflation pressure is on a tire information placard found on the driver's door jamb. Adjust the inflation pressure when the tires are cold or when the car has been parked for three or more hours. 
• Watch the load capacity. Adhere to the vehicle load capacity recommended on the tire information placard. Too high a load and/or low pressure will overstress a tire and could lead to failure.
• Check your steering. Should you experience a vibration or steering pull, stop and inspect the tires, and replace a tire with the spare if needed. If you can not determined a tire abnormality, then either drive or have the car towed to a service center immediately. Always avoid highway speed travel on the way to the service center.

When it comes to your tires, consult our performance ratings on the tire that best suits your needs. Also, see our complete Ratings and recommendations on all of the tires that we've tested. For more in-depth information see our reports on the early signs of tire failure and tire maintenance. 

--Jon Linkov