Every tyre carries two markings after the size: a number for the maximum weight it can support and a letter for the speed it is rated to. The load index is the one people quietly replace downward, usually because a cheaper tyre in the right size was available and nobody thought to check what came after the millimetres. A car specified with a 98 rating and fitted with 91s has lost a real amount of carrying capacity at each corner, and the shortfall is invisible for as long as the car has one person in it.
It stops being invisible on the day the car goes out fully loaded. A tyre asked to carry more than it was built for runs hotter, deflects further and works its casing harder than the design ever allowed, and the failure that follows arrives with no puncture and no impact to explain it. Large SUVs and 4x4s are the ones to watch, because they are heavy before anybody climbs in and heavier again with a family aboard and a boot filled to the parcel shelf. The correct index sits on the placard in the door shut and is moulded into the sidewall of whatever came off the car. It is not an optional part of the size.
Tell us four things on the phone and the van finds you first time. Where you are stopped and which direction you were travelling; the make and model; the size off the sidewall of any tyre on the car; and whether you are somewhere exposed. Stopped on Harrow Road in the dark counts, and we will say so on the call. Whether it is the Acton Lane area in rush hour or Harrow Road at midnight, we answer. On Acton Lane, day or night, Craven Park included, arrival across NW10 runs 30 to 60 minutes. NW10 takes in Stonebridge and Willesden Junction, and we work the lot.
Burst tyre replacement in Harlesden is part of our wider 24-hour emergency callout across London and the home counties cover. For burst tyre replacement in Harlesden, call 07717 389637 or ask us for a quote.
Traffic here is heavy in every sense, with the roads around Park Royal carrying loaded vehicles from dawn onwards and the surfaces worn accordingly. Cars living in that environment take a harder life than their mileage suggests, and an underrated tyre on a heavy 4x4 has less margin left over for potholes and kerbs than the numbers on paper imply. If a set was bought on price and the size looked right, it is worth reading what comes after the size on the sidewall before the next long journey with everybody in the car.
A 4x4 had two tyres fitted elsewhere in exactly the right size but with a lower load index than the placard asks for. Perfectly happy on the school run and well outside its limits with the whole family and the luggage on board.
A driver near Craven Park read the entire code off the old tyre before ringing us, including the load and speed markings rather than just the three numbers. That is the whole check, and it takes about a minute at the kerb.
A heavily loaded car failed a rear tyre on a long run with nothing in the tread and no sign of an impact anywhere on it. That tyre had been carrying more than its rating allowed for the entire journey.
In two places. It is stamped on the sidewall immediately after the size, as a number followed by a letter, and the figures the car was designed around are printed on the placard in the driver's door shut. Where those two disagree, the placard is the one to trust.
Not to safety, though a much stiffer tyre than the car needs makes the ride noticeably harder and can feel unsettled over poor surfaces. Matching what the manufacturer specified, or going one step above it at most, is the sensible range to work within.
Because the rating is about weight, and most cars spend most of their lives nowhere near their maximum. The tyre copes perfectly well with a driver and a bag. Put four people and a loaded boot in the same car for a few hours at speed and you are asking it for something it was never built to give.
Always. We read the placard and the sidewall of whatever comes off, and if the tyre currently on the car sits below what the manufacturer specified, you hear about it before anything is ordered. Fitting like for like is not much use when the like was wrong to begin with.
★★★★★ 4.9 from 151 verified Google reviews.
Read all 151 reviews on Google →Prefer a callback? Send your details for a burst tyre replacement price in Harlesden.