Tire Replacement - BMW SERIE 3 CONVERTIBLE 2003 Owner's Manual

Tire condition
128
ceed carefully to the nearest BMW cen-
ter or professional tire center, or have
the vehicle towed in to have it, its
wheels or its tires inspected.
Tire damage up to and including sud-
den and complete air loss can endan-
ger the lives of both the vehicle occu-
pants and other road users.<

Tire replacement

To maintain good handling and vehicle
response, use only tires of a single
tread configuration from a single manu-
facturer.
DOT quality grades
Tread wear
Traction AA A B C
Temperature A B C
All passenger car tires must con-
form to Federal Safety Require-
ments in addition to these
Tread wear
The tread wear grade is a comparative
rating based on the wear rate of the tire
when tested under controlled condi-
tions on a specified government test
course.
For example, a tire graded 150 would
wear one and one-half – 1
1
well on the government course as a tire
graded 100. The relative performance
of tires depends upon the actual condi-
tions of their use, however, and may
depart significantly from the norm due
to variations in driving habits, service
practices and differences in road char-
acteristics and climate.
Traction
The traction grades, from highest to
lowest, are AA, A, B and C.
Those grades represent the tire's ability
to stop on wet pavement as measured
under controlled conditions on speci-
fied government test surfaces of
asphalt and concrete. A tire marked C
may have poor traction performance.
The traction grade assigned to
this tire is based on straight-
ahead braking traction tests, and does
grades.<
not include acceleration, cornering,
hydroplaning, or peak traction charac-
teristics.<
Temperature
The temperature grades are A – the
highest – B and C, representing the
tire's resistance to the generation of
heat and its ability to dissipate heat
/ – times as
2 when tested under controlled condi-
tions on a specified indoor laboratory
test wheel.
Sustained high temperature can cause
the material of the tire to degenerate
and reduce tire life, and excessive tem-
perature can lead to sudden tire failure.
The grade C corresponds to a level of
performance which all passenger car
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