Fine for bald tyres!!?

[Heavymental]

My mate just told me that apparently its a £2.5k fine per tyre if you get stopped by the police and found to have bald tyres!!

Pretty ridiculous isn't it! I reckon I'd prefer to take the consequences of driving off and pushing the car into a river or something and pretending that you had some drugs in the car you didn't want them to find! If you had 4 bald tyres you'd get fined 10k. Needless to say I'd be wiped out financially.

 

[Dick Bowman]

On the whole I think I'd rather have you wiped out financially than have me wiped out physically because you skidded over me on your bald tyres.

 

[Heavymental]

On the whole I think I'd rather have you wiped out financially than have me wiped out physically because you skidded over me on your bald tyres.

Sorry...I should of put in the fact that I realised the dangers of having bald tyres etc ect :SLEEP: but having the odd bald tyre doesn't necessarily mean you're going to start sliding all over the road taking out innocent bystanders and 2.5k seems like a lot to me even if it does act as a deterrent. I would feel pretty annoyed if a random check at the roadside resulted in a good few years of debt. Surely the standard £60 and 3 points is enough?!

 

[HiFiWigWam]

Got a new set of boots and tracking etc on my Mondeo yesterday. £150.00 is a small price to pay to ensure my car stays pointed in the right direction.

£2.5k seems unlikely but fair IMO.

 

[Sid and Coke]

It always seems to me that the courts make a concerted effort to fine law breakers the barest minimum that they can, especially if they plead guilty straight away ! So the chances of getting the full £10K are pretty slim.

If my wife or children got killed , or badly injured because I'd taken a risk with my tyres to save myself a few quid , or tried to squeeze a little more life out of tyres that i new were borderline/dangerous then i'd never forgive myself, just as bad would be for me to have an accident and wipe out some poor family, child , etc that got in my way and i lost control , or couldn't stop due to dodgy tyres.

In Novemeber 2004 my missus wrote off my car with my eldest daughter in the passenger seat. The car was completely smashed, with every surface buckled and damaged, luckily they were both completely unhurt. The car righted itself after going on its side and didn't turn on its roof, thank god for dry stone walls ! They crashed on a notorious bend near my home that my wife has driven round probably tens of thousands of times in the last 14 years that we've lived here. The road was wet, and my missus was in a 'convoy' of traffic doing about 45 mph on a 60 mph road but still she lost it.

The Police did look at my tyres, but they were fine with plenty of tread. Whilst reflecting on this incident I've often wondered whether buying cheapo steel radials, purely on cost, rather than the reasonably decent branded tyres i always used to buy was such a good idea. If i'd bought the Continental Eco-Techs that I was thinking of getting ( they were OEM's when i got the car new - I always liked them especially in the wet ) at the last MOT maybe she wouldn't have been put at such risk.

I can see where you are coming from regarding your post, but i don't think it is perhaps the most intelligent of subjects to be getting indignant about ??

 

[Heavymental]

okok...when you think of the worst case scenario then its seems entirely justified but the fact is you are not necessarily going to have an accident on balding tyres and I'm sure the 2.5k is not going to make any more difference than if the fine was £1000 or £500.

 

[mr cat]

I think that the coppers in county durham had a crackdown and there were going to fine you I think it was 1k per bald tyre...but I'm paranoid about tyres now - as with my peugeot 306 - that had bald(ish) tyres and i wrote that off going round a corner in the wet, and I've had 3 flat tyres in 2 months with my uno - all different tyres on different wheels!!

 

[amazingtrade]

I think that the coppers in county durham had a crackdown and there were going to fine you I think it was 1k per bald tyre...but I'm paranoid about tyres now - as with my peugeot 306 - that had bald(ish) tyres and i wrote that off going round a corner in the wet, and I've had 3 flat tyres in 2 months with my uno - all different tyres on different wheels!!

Get down to Costco get four brand new tyres, get the tracking done and that should solve the problem It certainly did with my dads car for a couple of years.

 

[angi73]

You don't have a hope in hell if you hit standing water on the motorway with bald tires. I think its entirely approiate, as you would be imposing a risk to others

 

[Saab]

Yes,to actually get fined you have to have less than 1.5mm over at least 25% of the tyre,I think,I can't remember exactly,but those tyres must have been pretty ****

 

[Anex]

You don't have a hope in hell if you hit standing water on the motorway with bald tires. I think its entirely approiate, as you would be imposing a risk to others

Thats not true, I drove a van for a while on completely shagged tires, not out of choice, I moaned about it every day but the company I was working for were extremely slow to do anything. Unfortunately I was only temping so couldn't really say 'I won't drive till you fix it' cuz they'd have got someone who would and I needed the money. Anywho, its not THAT bad, it was bad but like Heavymental said, just cuz the tire is bald doesn't mean your just going to crash straight off the road. I think its a bit extreme too personally. They've had the tires done now though, thank god. Now they just need to service it.

 

[PBirkett]

Most coppers will give people the chance to get them changed - they did with me. Of course, if you are mouthy to them, they'll probably fine you.

 

[Tenson]

My Dad wrote off his car doing 20mph just by going round a corner in the wet and having to stop quickly as there was a queue. He skidded into on coming traffic. That was with perfectly fine, top range Pirelli tyres and a diesel turbo 205 (heavy engine) that sticks very well to the road under most conditions. I don't think many people realise just how much control you can loose under wet conditions.

 

[angi73]

Thats not true, I drove a van for a while on completely shagged tires, not out of choice, I moaned about it every day but the company I was working for were extremely slow to do anything. Unfortunately I was only temping so couldn't really say 'I won't drive till you fix it' cuz they'd have got someone who would and I needed the money. Anywho, its not THAT bad, it was bad but like Heavymental said, just cuz the tire is bald doesn't mean your just going to crash straight off the road. I think its a bit extreme too personally. They've had the tires done now though, thank god. Now they just need to service it.

yes but what if you were doing 70 on a wet motorway and had to stop quickly in standing water or many other situations. Admitedly maybe you should be going slower in the first place. The company would surely be liable for the tires if you have repeatedly told them.

I'ts amazing what a difference the type of tire, wear and tyre pressure can make to the handling of a car. Not somewhere to skimp.

 

[Sid and Coke]

I drove a van for a while on completely shagged tires, not out of choice, I moaned about it every day but the company I was working for were extremely slow to do anything.

The driver is responsible for the condition of their vehicle. ( I know you probably knew that already )

I don't think many people realise just how much control you can loose under wet conditions.

Me, my missus and my eldest daughter certainly do now. By some bizarre twist of fate though my Insurance company gave me top dollar for my trashed car. We'd had it since it was 3,500 miles old and were pretty much sick of it anyway. She much prefers the car we got from the auction with the insurance cheque

 

[cat]

ok, i work for the Michelin, now it matters not if you have a £120k ferrari or £100 fiat there are only four things keeping you in contact with the road, yes...you got it, the 4 bits of rubber on each corner of your car, ignore them at your peril guys, they can save your life or end your life, simple as that, you could have as little as 5inch x 2inch x4 rubber contact with the road at any one time, at 70mph+ that`s scary so you`d be advised to make it the best rubber you can afford, similarly to hi-fi you get what you pay for but you can also be ripped off, you don`t want super-expensive competition grade slick tyres for your 5am trip to work. We hear it all the time, 420bhp at 7000revs, £350 for a super-chip, £400 for a super-dooper ecu box, £500 for a big bore exhaust, skimmed head, high lift cams, 2k i.C.E, etc etc and £100 for a set of part-worn tyres off a mate who`s sold his motor and has got some spares in his garage. It is far more important to be sorted with decent rubber than fastening your seatbelt, a seatbelt will save you in a crash not stop it happening, your tyres will keep you on the road and if you àint on the road you`re in the ditch or the hedge or the wall.
As for the fine, if it forces you to take steps to potentially save your own life and the lives of others then I`m all for it.
You get one shot at this life, make it your best........!

 

[PBirkett]

Hey, if you work for Michelin, does that mean you could get me some cheap Pilot Exalto 2's ?

 

[la toilette]

Don't knackered shock absorbers cause as many accidents as bald tyres? What's the fine for defective shock absorbers? They can cause very strange behaviour under intense braking and cornering if knackered....not so easy to spot by non-diy mechanics, and probably more easily ignored as it's not a visible fault.

 

[Sid and Coke]

Don't knackered shock absorbers cause as many accidents as bald tyres? What's the fine for defective shock absorbers? They can cause very strange behaviour under intense braking and cornering if knackered....not so easy to spot by non-diy mechanics, and probably more easily ignored as it's not a visible fault.

The first time i ever changed a pair of front shock absorbers i was pretty shocked at just what a remarkable effect it had on the braking ability of my car ( a Mk2 Vauxhall Cavalier ), it was like driving a new car.
I don't think this was a reflection on how good my new shockers were, more so just how bad the old ones must have been, but i'd just got used to them. I can;t even really se what thmechanics/dynamics are involved with this , but the braking distance of the car seemed to be reduced markedly and it just felt more stable under harder braking.

 

[Graham C]

Well I feel the same way as heavymental, not the patronizing petrolheads. As I am someone who doesn't have a big bore or 420hp at any revs, I think 2.5k per tyre is ludicrous. Evryone seems to ignore the science that a bald tyre [and I doubt if we were talking about literally bald] actually grips better in the dry, thats why they put them on racing cars. I am not going to do 70 in the wet around a tight corner - or in a straight line without plenty of open road. The regulations for tyres in the UK have been stiffened, just like all the other jobsworth regs, for commercial benefit, not the consumer.
For the benefit of those with a skimmed head who don't get it - the way to avoid an accident is not to buy expensive tyres, it's to not drive like a knob.