Parking half on a kerb every day does something slow and specific to a tyre. The weight of the car presses one section of sidewall against a hard square edge for hours at a time, and it does it in the same place, over and over, because you park in the same spot. The rubber does not tear, it fatigues: a shallow groove forms where the edge has sat, and after a year or two the cords in that band have been flexed far more than the ones either side of them.
It is a common finding here because the streets around the town centre and up the hill are narrow enough that half on the pavement is often the only way to park. So a damage assessment on a car like that looks along the sidewall for a continuous line rather than for a single impact mark, and presses along it for softness. Often the answer is that the tyre has taken cosmetic marking and is fine. Occasionally there is a defined groove with give in it, and that tyre is finished regardless of how much tread is left.
Kerbs and potholes do most of the damage in TW9, and they rarely do it while you are looking. You find it later: a scuff that has gone through to the cords, a split along the shoulder, a lump in the sidewall that was not there last week. You do not drive it anywhere first, and nothing gets towed off George Street. Whether it is North Sheen in rush hour or Lower Mortlake Road at midnight, we answer. On George Street, day or night, Kew included, arrival across TW9 runs 30 to 60 minutes.
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Half on the pavement is how a lot of cars around Richmond Hill and the town centre have to park, and the tyres record it. What matters is whether the marking is on the surface or whether the cords underneath have given up. That is a judgement made by hand as much as by eye, where the car is parked, and most of the time it ends with the tyre staying on.
A car parked half up a kerb near Richmond town centre had a clear line running along one sidewall. The rubber had fatigued exactly where the edge sat.
A driver in Kew was braced for bad news over a scuffed sidewall. The marks were surface deep and the structure underneath had not moved at all.
A groove on a car near Mortlake had give in it when pressed. That is the cords letting go, and no amount of tread depth compensates for it.
Mounting one is not, particularly. Resting the sidewall against a square edge for hours a day in the same spot is, because the rubber fatigues where it is pressed.
A continuous line or shallow groove running along the sidewall rather than a single mark, and any softness when you press along it.
No. Nothing in the sidewall can be repaired, so it is a question of whether the structure is sound rather than whether it can be mended.
Usually only the side that meets the kerb, which is why it is worth looking at the tyres you never think about.
Very often, and you will be told so plainly. Surface marking on a sidewall is not a reason to buy a tyre.
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