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Wet weather, winter car safety

Coming into winter, and the inclement weather that comes along with it, now is the time to go over a few safety components of your vehicle. Read on to find out how.

Tyres

Tyres are the only part of your vehicle that contacts the road. At the end of the day, all the accelerating, steering and braking forces must pass through the tyres.

When driving in the rain and wet, the tyre must push water out of the way and make contact with the road. The reason why street tyres have a tread pattern is to give water on the road somewhere to go, making channels that water can escape from in front of a tyre.

If water can not evacuate from under a tyre quickly enough, the tyre will ride on the water, losing grip with the road surface. This is called aquaplaning. When this happens, the vehicle will lose most of its ability to accelerate, steer or brake.

Factors that increase the likelihood of aquaplaning are; vehicle speed, depth of water, vehicle weight and tyre width.

In Australia, the minimum legal tread depth is 1.5mm across the tread face. Performance in wet weather typically starts to taper off after 3mm of tread remaining.

Measuring tread depth is easy, you can use a cheap gauge from an auto store, or a ruler where the scale reaches the end of the rule.

While you’re paying close attention to your tyres, make sure your tyre pressures are set correctly too. Information about correct pressures can be found on your tyre placard, often located in your door jamb.

Wiper blades

Just as tyres have a responsibility with keeping the vehicle on the road, a vehicle is only as good as the instructions it gets given from the driver. If the windscreen wipers aren’t able to maintain a clear, streak-free view out of the windshield then straight away you’re at a disadvantage.

Streaky wipers and wipers that skip and jump can be caused by a few reasons, the most common is road grime, oils and dirt accumulating on the windscreen. If you can run your fingers over the windscreen and it feels gritty, the first step is to clean the windscreen.

To verify if your rubber wipers are in good condition you can run your fingers along the edge and check to ensure the wiper is still soft and malleable on the edge, with no cracks or chipped sections.

If you’re still having trouble with the wiper performance, check to ensure the wiper is being held perpendicular to the windscreen, sometimes worn wiper arms can be bent and this will cause wipers to skip across the windscreen. At this point, we would recommend replacing the arm or booking your vehicle into Donnellans. We’re not just a tyre store, we’re a full mechanical service centre.

Blown bulbs

The lights on your vehicle are as much for you to be able to see the road, as that other road users can see you. In inclement weather, using your headlights can ensure your vehicle is easier to see.

It takes only a few minutes to check the lights on your vehicle, even less if you have a helper. Make sure that your indicators work, as well as your park lights, headlights, brake lights and tail lights are all functional.

If your vehicle has daytime running lights, also known as DRL’s make sure they work too.

Changing a blown bulb can be an easy job that doesn’t require any tools, or it can be a long, painful process. If you’re unfamiliar with your vehicle, book in with us today and we can do a full safety check on your vehicle, including lights, wipers, tyres, brakes and more.

Contact us today

Donnellans The Tyremen are your local one-stop shop for tyres, wheel and automotive servicing. With 5 convenient locations across South-East Melbourne, we have a location near you.

Come see the expert team today, find our locations here and call today