Tire Care and Maintenance Guide

The easiest way to help ensure satisfactory mileage and performance from your Goodyear tires is to give them simple, monthly inspections for proper inflation, even tread wear, and damage.

Maintain proper inflation pressure in your tires
Proper inflation pressure is necessary in giving you the best tire performance, safety, and fuel economy. Remember to frequently (at least once a month) check your tires (when they are cool) with an accurate tire pressure gauge.1

Maintain inflation pressure at the recommended level
The recommended level can be found on the vehicle placard or in your vehicle’s owner’s manual. Maintaining proper inflation pressure is the single most important thing you can do to help your tires last longer and stay durable.

Under inflation is the leading cause of irrepairable tire damage and may result in severe cracking and subsequent air loss. It reduces load capacity, allows excessive sidewall flexing, and increases rolling resistance, resulting in heat and mechanical damage.

Over inflation increases stiffness that may cause an uncomfortable driving experience and generate unwanted vehicle vibration. It also increases the chances of impact damage.

Don’t spin your tires excessively
Avoid excessive tire spinning when your vehicle is stuck in snow, ice, mud or sand. This may cause tire over-heating and irrepairable damage. Use a gentle backward and forward rocking motion to free your vehicle. Never stand near or behind a tire spinning at high speeds, for example, while attempting to push a vehicle that’s stuck or when an on-car spin balance machine is in use.

Check your tires for wear
Always remove tires from service when they reach 1.6mm remaining in tread depth. All new tires have tread wear indicators that appears as smooth banks in the tread grooves when they wear to 1.6mm level. Wet weather accidents may occur from skidding on bald or nearly bald tires. Excessively worn tires are also more likely to suffer punctures.

Check your tires for damage
Frequent (at least once a month) inspection of your tires for signs of damage and their general condition is important for safety. If you have any questions, have your tire dealer inspect them. Impacts, penetrations, cracks, knots, bulges, or air loss always require tire removal and expert inspection.

Proper tire repair
Note: Goodyear does not warrant any inspection or repair process. The repair is entirely the responsibility of the repairer and should be made in accordance with established Rubber Manufacturers Association (RMA)
procedures.

Tire pressure monitoring system alert
Refer to your vehicle Owner’s Manual for more information on what to do if the tire pressure warning system activates.

Don’t attempt to mount your own tires
Serious injury may result from explosion of tire/rim assembly from improper mounting procedures. Remember to follow your tire manufacturer’s instructions and match tire diameter to rim diameter. Only specially trained persons should mount tires.

Don’t mix tire of different sizes and types on the same axle
For the best handling and control, Goodyear recommends fitting four tires of the same type and size as specified by the vehicle manufacturer.

Warning
Before replacing your tires, always consult the vehicle’s owner’s manual and follow the vehicle manufacturer’s replacement tire recommendations. Vehicle handling may be significantly affected by a change in tire size or type. When selecting tires that are different from the original equipment size, see a professional installer to make sure that proper clearance, load-carrying capacity, and inflation pressure are selected. Never exceed the maximum load capacity and inflation pressure listed on the sidewall of the tire. When replacing tires, you must maintain the outside diameter and load-carrying capacity of the original equipment tire. Inflation pressure may need to be adjusted to avoid overloading the tire. Consult the Tire & Rim Association Load and Inflation Tables, ETRTO or JATMA standards for correct load and inflation information.

Never fit tires with less load-carrying capacity than required by the vehicle’s original equipment manufacturer
You must make certain that the replacement tires have a load-carrying capacity equal to or great than what the original equipment manufacturer specifies.

NOTE: Goodyear manufactured and/or marketed European-Metric passenger tires and P-Metric passenger tires are interchangeable as long as they are the same section width, same aspect ratio and same rim diameter.

CAUTION: Never substitute a “Standard Load” (SL) tire for an “Extra Load” (XL) tire. If the vehicle was originally equipped with “Extra Load” (XL) tires, replace those with same sized XL tires.

Follow these additional guidelines

• When installing two tires, fit the tires with the deepest tread depth on the rear axle.
• If radials and non-radials must be fitted to the same vehicle, fit radials on the rear axle.
• Never mix radials and non-radials on the same axle.
• When fitting snow tires or all-season tires to performance vehicles, always fit in sets of four.
• It’s not recommended to fit tires with different speed ratings.
• If tires with different speed ratings are installed on a vehicle, they should be with like pairs on the same axle.
• The speed capability of the vehicle will become limited to that of the lowest speed rated tires.
• When changing tire sizes, always consult a dealer for optimum rim width and carefully check vehicle/tire clearances.

Don’t overload your vehicle
Check your vehicle’s owner’s manual to determine the load limits. Overloading your vehicle places stress on your tires and other critical vehicle components. This can also cause poor handling, increased fuel consumption and may cause tire damage. Never fit your vehicle with new tires that have less load capacity than shown on the vehicle tire placard, and remember that optimum rim width is important for proper tire load distribution and function.

Maintain vehicle suspension & wheel alignment, & balance & rotate your tires
Lack of rotation, worn suspension parts, under inflation, over inflation, wheel imbalance, and misalignment can cause vibration or irregular tire wear. Rotate your tires according to your vehicle manufacturer’s recommendations or at maximum intervals of 6,000 mi./10,000 km.

For additional information, see the “Be Tire Smart/Play Your Part” brochure published by the Rubber Manufacturers Association (RMA), a copy can be downloaded from the RMA website: http://www.rma.org/product/be-tyre-smart-safety-brochure.

You can go to an authorised Goodyear outlet for replacement tires and all warranty service.

How to read a tire D.O.T. serial number
D.O.T. stands for Department of Transportation. This number is located on the lower sidewall of each tire, showing that the tire meets or exceeds the Department of Transportation safety standards.

Understanding Tire D.O.T. serial numbers
12-digit number: 2000’s production
11-digit number: 1990’s production

M6MJEH0R0911
M6: Mfgr Plant Code
MJ: Government Size and Ply Code
EHOR: Manufacturer Construction Code
0911: Tire Build Date (9th week of 2011)

Tire Service Life
Tires are built to provide thousands of mi./km of excellent service. For maximum benefit, tires must be maintained properly to avoid tire damage that may result in removal from service before the tread is worn down to minimum depth. It’s not practical to accurately predict the service life of any specific tire in chronological time since service conditions vary widely.