Just like death and taxes, car trouble eventually comes to everybody (at least everybody with a car), so I recently found myself shopping for a new ride after my trusty Subaru blew its engine. I enjoyed walking through the lot of new vehicles with their impossibly spotless paint jobs and smudge-free windows. The shiny, jet-black tires all featured tiny hairs projecting from the treads and sidewalls, a sure sign that the tires were new. I eventually settled on a used vehicle with tires that had hairs on the sidewalls, but none on the treads, which told me the tires weren’t new, but had been reconditioned.
What are these hairs, and why do you find more of them on new tires? In this post, we’ll explain all you need to know about them.
What Are the Little Hairs On Tires?
Some people call those hairs whiskers, but those in the tire industry call them more mundane-sounding names like sprue nubs, gate marks or nippers. The most appropriate name is “vent spews,” because that name tells you what they actually are.
During the manufacturing process, the molten rubber that will harden into a tire has to be forced into a mold. To prevent air from getting trapped between the rubber and the mold and misshaping the tire, the mold contains tiny vent holes to allow it to escape. As pressure expands the molten rubber, it forces some of the rubber to spew through the vent holes, and the rubber hardens into tiny hairs, or vent spews.
Do All New Tires Have Rubber Hairs On Them?
Yes, tire hairs are a necessary byproduct of the manufacturing process. The number, thickness and configuration may vary depending on the type of tire, but all new tires have them.
Should You Remove Tire Hairs?
You can, but you don’t have to. Tire hairs don’t affect tire performance, and they will wear off on their own eventually. If you’re a stickler for appearance and find them bothersome, you can pull them off with your fingers or cut them off with a knife. The finger method is preferable, since you probably don’t want to go poking around a tire with a sharp object.
How Long (or How Many Miles) Do Tire Hairs Last?
Hairs on the treads of a tire will wear off quickly, usually after about 100 miles of driving. That’s why they are a pretty reliable sign that a tire is new. Hairs on the sidewall, however, can remain there for much longer, because that part of the tire never touches the road. But it depends on driving conditions. If you drive in wintry, snowy weather or on dirt roads, ice, salt and dirt abrasion can wear them off more quickly. Even in the worst conditions, though, it could still take10 or 20 thousand miles of road time for that to happen.
What Does It Mean If My Tire Hairs Wear Off?
When the hairs wear off a tire’s treads, it doesn’t mean anything significant, other than you can no longer consider that tire brand-new. When they wear off the sidewall, however, it means the tire has seen a considerable amount of service. By itself, that isn’t necessarily a sign that you need to replace the tire unless it’s accompanied by more reliable indicators, including:
- Visible cracks in the sidewall;
- exposed steel bands;
- shallow treads (you can check tread depth using a penny as a gauge);
- unevenly worn treads.
FAQ
How do dealers recondition old tires to make them look new?
One thing they don’t do is to use harmful chemicals that can damage rubber, such as disinfectants, except in exceptional circumstances.
Motorsport enthusiast and tire expert Danny Stanford-Ravet puts is this way: “I’d recommend against using disinfectants on tires outside specialized contexts.” If you’re simply doing a generic car clean, he says you’re better off using good old soap and water or a commercial tire cleaning products. He continues: “That said, there are circumstances where disinfectants are used for good reason! For example, in safari-style zoo parks, disinfectant puddles are used to help prevent the spread of diseases between different areas.”
When I asked David Rivera, the service agent at the Subaru dealership, how they got their tires looking so good, he answered: “We just use Tire Bright.”
About the Experts
- Danny Stanford-Ravet is a specialist in the art of tire engineering. He is the founder of Racing Owl Motorsport based in the UK.
- David Rivera is a service representative at Santa Cruz Subaru in Santa Cruz, CA.
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Article source here: Why Do Tires Have Those Little Hairs?
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