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Steering wheel a bit shakey so took the car into QuickFit.

They can do an alignment, probably out of synch due to all the sodding pot holes, but they also say i need new front tyres. A bit of a difficult question to answer, but do i need the new tyres? They're about 18 month old (as is the car) and they seem alright to me*.

I'd rather pay £50 than £400 so thought i'd try and do some research.

If i do get the new tyres, can i keep the old ones and sell them? How does that work as they're surely worth somet?

*I am absolutely useless at all things car.

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42 minutes ago, MattSantos said:

Steering wheel a bit shakey so took the car into QuickFit.

They can do an alignment, probably out of synch due to all the sodding pot holes, but they also say i need new front tyres. A bit of a difficult question to answer, but do i need the new tyres? They're about 18 month old (as is the car) and they seem alright to me*.

I'd rather pay £50 than £400 so thought i'd try and do some research.

If i do get the new tyres, can i keep the old ones and sell them? How does that work as they're surely worth somet?

*I am absolutely useless at all things car.

I don't have much knowledge of the mechanics of cars, but I did get a wheel alignment done here in Greece about 12 years ago.

From what the guy who did the alignment said, you should try to look at the pattern of wear on the treads. If your wheels are out of alignment, you might see a line of wear in the tread. Properly aligned wheels should spread the wear evenly across the width of the tread and not leave a wear line along the length of the tread. If your tyres show this wear pattern, you should get them replaced. If they don't, the garage should be able to correct the alignment on the existing tyres.

If you are in doubt, think about this. Your tyres provide the only contact between your car (containing you and your loved ones) and the road. It's a small price to pay for your safety. Ask any of the many bike riders on here and they will tell you not to take a chance on your tyres.

HTH.

Edited by tonyXIII

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To add, I've just googled "patterns of tyre tread wear". Some images, explanations and advice on there.

Good luck.

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Check the tread. Legally, you can drive on them until they reach a minimum depth of the tread of 1.6 mm, across 75% of the tyre's width and all around its circumference.

If you've got that on all wheels, ask the tyre firm to swap the back wheels onto the front. Ask them to balance the replacement front wheels to prevent steering-wheel shudder.

 

Edited by Wolford6

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2 hours ago, Angelic Upstart said:

Do you have another service centre you could go to? For a second opinion type of thing. There are quite a few centres that will do a free alignment check, and just ask them about the tyres.

Its only place wi any availability and we need car at weekend. They're all booked up for weeks.

I don't mid paying the cash, i just feel as though i'm being ripped off.

This is going to make me want to look at new cars now...

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4 minutes ago, MattSantos said:

 

I don't mid paying the cash, i just feel as though i'm being ripped off.

 

kwik fit would sell and fit a choke on a brand new electric car if they thought they could get away with it - would never use one of these places - whats your location MS?

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9 minutes ago, graveyard johnny said:

kwik fit would sell and fit a choke on a brand new electric car if they thought they could get away with it - would never use one of these places - whats your location MS?

Helensburgh, Scotland

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If the vibrating is when you are going quite fast 50-60-70mph it could be a simple thing as wheel balancing. But if you're in a hurry to get it sorted you may be back to the same problem of when you can get it booked in. I'd ring round again and see if anyone can just check the balancing, explain you're going away but try not to sound too desperate.

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If it is a tread pattern issue caused by misalignment and the current front tyres are still legal tread depth then just ask them to swap the front and rear tyres around as the rear ones shouldn’t have been that affected (assuming it’s a front wheel drive car and it’s just the front wheels misaligned).

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17 hours ago, Wolford6 said:

Check the tread. Legally, you can drive on them until they reach a minimum depth of the tread of 1.6 mm, across 75% of the tyre's width and all around its circumference.

If you've got that on all wheels, ask the tyre firm to swap the back wheels onto the front. Ask them to balance the replacement front wheels to prevent steering-wheel shudder.

 

Most tyres have a little marker in the tread which shows whether the tread is too low or not. If unsure you can also use the edging on a 20p to help measure the tread. 

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On 01/02/2023 at 17:07, MattSantos said:

Its only place wi any availability and we need car at weekend. They're all booked up for weeks.

I don't mid paying the cash, i just feel as though i'm being ripped off.

This is going to make me want to look at new cars now...

As it's the only place with availability, that should tell you something.

I know it's too late but, had it been me, I would have considered hiring a car and sorting your car when another garage could fit it in. Wheel alignment isn't so expensive and I doubt you need new tyres when the existing ones are only 18 months old. The money you'd have saved by avoiding Kwikfit more than likely would have easily paid for car hire if you only needed it for the weekend.

With Halloween coming up I decided to go to my local fancy dress shop to see if I could get a Dracula costume. After a few minutes the assistant handed me a Hull KR shirt asking "Is this suitable?", I replied "I think you may have misheard me, I said I wanted to look like a count."
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On 01/02/2023 at 13:16, MattSantos said:

Steering wheel a bit shakey so took the car into QuickFit.

They can do an alignment, probably out of synch due to all the sodding pot holes, but they also say i need new front tyres. A bit of a difficult question to answer, but do i need the new tyres? They're about 18 month old (as is the car) and they seem alright to me*.

I'd rather pay £50 than £400 so thought i'd try and do some research.

If i do get the new tyres, can i keep the old ones and sell them? How does that work as they're surely worth somet?

*I am absolutely useless at all things car.

Buy a tread wear guage, and check tyres across the width of the tread. They cost peanuts, and its a couple of minute job to check all four. 

A bit late now, but if they're wearing unevenly, particularly on inside or outside edges then it's likely the alignment is out. Excess wear on both edges indicates they've been running under inflated and excess wear in the centre indicates over inflated. 

 

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