What Can Happen When You Drive on Worn Tyres in the Wet
Spare a thought for car tyre designers. They have an almost impossible task as they have to come up with a tyre that is soft enough to grip the road correctly but hard enough to last as long as possible. They also need to engineer these tyres to deal with a variety of different road conditions and, specifically, excessive rainfall. Still, tyres are only brand-new for a short time, so what can happen on a particularly wet day when they've worn down too much?
How Tyres Work
When you look at the outer casing of a brand-new tyre, you will see an intricate design that features flexible rubber blocks that are meant to make direct contact with the road surface. In between these blocks are deep grooves with channels running around the circumference and laterally in places. If you look even more closely, you will see very small, thin slots that have been cut into the tread blocks in strategic locations. These are known as "sipes" and are critical when driving in wet weather.
Additional Requirements
Don't forget that tyre designers also have to pay close attention to road noise. So, taking everything together, a tyre is a masterpiece of engineering, but it is only designed to last for a certain amount of time before it will need to be replaced.
Driving on Worn Tyres
When the tread blocks wear down past a certain point, those sipes will also start to lose their efficiency. The grooved channels will not be as defined as they were, so they are less efficient at channelling water away to the side.
The Dreaded Aquaplane
If you have these worn tyres fitted to your vehicle, you may encounter a potentially dangerous problem when driving in heavy rain. This is known as "aquaplaning" and means that the tyres are unable to push standing water out of the way as needed. Instead, the tyre will ride on top of the standing water for brief periods, and you may lose control. Everything may go quiet for a moment or two as the tyres are no longer hitting the road surface beneath, and this is a very clear sign that the vehicle is aquaplaning.
What You Should Do
If you ever find yourself in this position, don't be tempted to stand on the brakes but steer in the opposite direction to any skid. This sensation should not last too long, and you ought to be able to get back control of the vehicle quickly. Nevertheless, take the car to a tyre fitter as soon as possible as you may need to get a new set fitted to avoid such a problem in the future.
