Linda Cate

Steering wheel shake at speed, floor vibration, and cupped tread often mean a wheel-and-tire assembly is out of balance. If you’re wondering whether your tires need balancing, pay close attention to what the car does on smooth pavement. A tire balance issue usually shows up as a speed-linked vibration. The car may feel calm around […]

Most road glass won’t pierce a healthy tire’s tread, but sharp shards can cut a sidewall or start a slow leak in a worn tire. Broken glass looks nasty on the road, and drivers often picture an instant flat. That can happen, yet it is not the usual outcome. A modern car tire is built

A 275 tire is 275 millimeters wide, or about 10.8 inches, though the mounted width can shift with wheel width and brand. A 275 tire sounds huge if you only know the number from the sidewall. Once you decode it, the size gets easy to picture. The “275” is the tire’s nominal section width in

Most tire pressure sensor fixes cost $50 to $250 per wheel, with lower bills for a reset and higher ones for a full sensor swap. If your dash suddenly throws a tire pressure warning, the first question is usually the money question. A tire sensor repair can be a small shop charge or a bigger

Usually no; all-wheel-drive vehicles often need closely matched tread depth on all four tires to avoid drivetrain strain. A flat tire on an AWD vehicle can turn into a bigger bill than most drivers expect. You might walk into a tire shop thinking you need one replacement, then hear that you may need two or

No, four fresh tires do not always call for an alignment, but uneven wear, pulling, or an off-center wheel are strong reasons to get one. Getting four new tires can feel like a clean slate. The catch is simple: tires replace rubber, not suspension angles. If the car was driving straight and the old tread

A tire can usually be plugged only for a small tread puncture; sidewall cuts, shoulder damage, and large holes call for replacement. Plugging a tire is only safe in a narrow set of cases. A repair is usually on the table when the puncture sits in the main tread area, the hole is no larger

Falken is made by Sumitomo Rubber Industries, a Japanese tire maker that launched the brand in 1983 and sells it worldwide. If you’re staring at a set of Falkens and trying to work out who sits behind the name, the answer is clean. Falken is made by Sumitomo Rubber Industries, or SRI, a long-running Japanese

No, snow tires can handle light slop, but deep mud packs their tread and cuts traction, so mud tires usually pull better. Snow tires and mud seem like a decent match at first glance. Both deal with slick ground. Both ask for grip when the surface turns messy. That overlap is real, but it is

Start with your door-jamb tire size and load rating, then match tread type, weather, ride comfort, and budget to how you drive. Buying tires gets easier once you stop chasing brand slogans and start with fit. The right set is the one your car was built around, the weather you drive through, and the trade-offs