There are small solid blocks moulded into the bottom of the main grooves of every tyre, spaced around the circumference. They stand exactly at the legal minimum depth, so when the tread surface has worn down level with them, the tyre has nothing left to give. To find them, look for a small triangle or the letters TWI moulded into the shoulder, then follow that mark inward into the nearest groove and the bar will be sitting there.
At one in the morning with a phone in one hand, that is a far better test than a depth gauge. Run a fingernail from the top of a tread block down into the groove and across the bar. If your nail drops in and climbs out again there is depth left. If it slides straight across at one level, there is not, and no amount of squinting at the tread will give you a different answer. Do it in several grooves and at both edges of the tyre, because tyres wear unevenly and the useful reading is always the worst one. A tyre that is level with the bars on the inner edge and healthy across the middle is not just worn, it is telling you something about the car that a gauge alone would never have made obvious.
Christmas Day, New Year, Easter Monday: the days when absolutely nothing is open are the days a tyre picks. It runs 365 days a year across Greater London, bank holidays included, at whatever hour the call comes in. The wheel comes off in Walworth, not on a ramp in Elephant and Castle. Nothing is towed out of Burgess Park or East Street; the work finishes there.
24-hour tyre callout in Walworth is part of our wider 24-hour emergency callout across London and the home counties cover. For 24-hour tyre callout in Walworth, call 07717 389637 or send us your details for a price.
Deliveries around East Street start early and the shift traffic on Walworth Road is moving well before daylight, so a good number of the checks people make on their own cars around here happen in the dark at the kerb. That is precisely when the wear bars earn their keep, because they need no light, no gauge and no judgement. Feel the groove with a fingernail, do it in a few places across the tread, and you will know where you stand before you set off rather than afterwards.
A driver checking the car before a five o'clock start found the bars by feel rather than by looking. It took under a minute per tyre in the dark and gave a straight answer on all four.
One tyre was well within the limit across most of its width and sitting flush with the bar at the inner shoulder. That is a car problem showing up as a tyre problem, and the tyre was the last thing to find out.
A late call in a bay near Burgess Park, with two tyres replaced overnight because they had reached the bars. The car was back in use at six with nobody's morning disrupted.
In the bottom of the main circumferential grooves, as small raised blocks that break the groove up. Look on the shoulder for a triangle or the letters TWI, which mark the line to follow inward. They are on every tyre sold in this country and there are several of them around the circumference.
It is at the limit, which means there is no margin left at all and any further wear puts you over it. The bars are set at 1.6mm, and the requirement applies across the central three quarters of the tread and all the way round. Treat level as finished.
It is, and it answers a different question. A gauge gives you a number, which is useful for planning ahead and watching a tyre over months. The bars give you a straight pass or fail in the dark without any equipment, and at two in the morning that is the answer that matters.
Yes, as a matter of course, and we will tell you what we find whether or not it suits us. If three are fine we will say so. Fitting a tyre you did not need does nobody any good, least of all the people who rely on us being straight about it.
★★★★★ 4.9 from 151 verified Google reviews.
Read all 151 reviews on Google →Prefer a callback? Send your details for a 24-hour tyre callout price in Walworth.