Is it bad to hit your tires on the curb when parking?

Sometimes, curbs or parking barriers in parking lots can be hard to see and harder to account for when driving. Even hitting a curb when parallel parking can cause minor damage to your tires. Other damages that can be inflicted upon your car if you accidentally hit a curb include: Alignment Damage.

What does hitting a curb do to your car?

Hitting the curb can damage your car’s wheel alignment. Damage to your suspension can affect your steering wheel rod, shocks, and also cause the tires to blow out. Hitting curbs can also break or bend your car’s tire rods, which connect the wheels to the steering wheel.

Does mounting the KERB damage Tyres?

If you have to mount a kerb, apart from doing it slowly, you should have your wheels as much as possible towards right angles to the kerb. Climbing at a shallow angle (only marginally out of parallel) can cause ‘pinching’ of your tyre walls and easily damage them.

How do you know if your tire sidewall is damaged?

Symptom: bulge or bubble

1. A bulge or bubble on the sidewall of a tire generally indicates damaged cords caused by a severe impact.
2. Damaged cords are often accompanied by a visible break in the inner liner.
3. If cords have been damaged, air has infiltrated into the plies and can result in a bulge.

What causes sidewall bulge?

Hitting the edges of potholes, small collisions, hitting a curb and speed bumps can all cause the sidewall to bulge in your tires. The most common place to see a bubble in the tire is the sidewall. Tire bubbles can also form in areas where the rubber has worn very thin.

What happens if a wheelstop is knocked loose?

Wheelstops epoxied to the parking lot may be knocked loose, taking the parking surface with it. If the wheelstop is bolted or otherwise mechanically anchored even small, but repeated, impacts can damage paving around the anchor.

How high should a wheelstop be in a parking lot?

For the prevention of vehicle encroachment, standards state that bollards at least 3’-6” high may be centered at the heads of parking stalls in lieu of wheelstops. If you have wheelstops in a parking lot: DO: Limit wheelstop length to 6’ and height to 6.5”. Ensure an adequate walkway of at least 3’ between wheelstops.

What happens if you ignore sidewall damage on a tire?

Ignoring such damage increases the risk of tire failure at some point in the future, either delamination of the tread and plies or disintegration of the tire sidewall. An impact break is sometimes confused with a sidewall indentation, but they are not the same thing.

What does a bulge on the sidewall of a tire mean?

A pronounced bulge on the sidewall of the tire indicates destroyed cords inside the carcass. Damage of this kind is usually caused by driving over objects – like curbs or speed bumps – at excessive speed or the wrong angle. Overstressing the carcass causes individual cords to break.