Running In New Tyres

There are some things you need to bear in mind when driving on brand new tyres. The tyre surface will feature a number of tiny vent holes from the moulding process. It will also be incredibly smooth.

To remove these holes and properly prepare the surface for day-to-day driving, we suggest tyres should be run in for the first 150 to 200 miles at medium speed on dry roads. All while avoiding sharp cornering and hard braking.

Then, a new tyre should be ready to offer you maximum grip and optimum performance. All new tyres (especially mud & snow tyres) should be run in for the first 150 to 200 miles at medium speed on dry roads, in order to abrade the tread surface. There are several reasons for doing this:

• Tyres are vulcanised in heating moulds, which will have been manufactured extremely precisely (1/100 mm) and all of their surfaces are correspondingly smooth.
• On the other hand, the moulds contain not only all of the details of the tread pattern with countless sipes, but also all of the markings and a large number of vent holes. All of this retains the tyre when it is being removed from the mould.
• The tyre can then only be taken out of the heating mould easily and without deforming if it does not stick to the mould. Therefore, tyres are sprayed on the outside with a silicone-like release agent.
• It is usual to remove these from the tread by running in on dry roads and at the same time abrading the tread, taking care to avoid sharp cornering and extreme braking manoeuvres. Only after undergoing this type of running-in procedure does a new tyre attain its intended level of performance and its full gripping power.

This also explains why new mud and snow tyres must be fitted before the first snowfall, in order to abrade the surface of the tread.

If tyres have been changed to new wide tyres, cautious running in is doubly important as this also provides the added opportunity of acclimatising to the different handling on wide tyres.