Wear Bars

Today was "Take Your Sister-In-Law To Work Day" at Glen's shop.  Okay, that's not quite true -- but it's close.

Lew contacted Glen yesterday about getting one of our vehicles serviced today.  So I was down at Glen's shop by 9:00 a.m., with the following list from Lew:

• Oil change
• Air Filter
• Front left tire is leaking

It was that last item that caused the trouble.

Before today, I had never heard of "wear bars."  But brother-in-law Glen was kind enough to explain the concept to me.  He showed me our tires in comparison to brand new tires.

Per Wikipedia:

Wear bars . . . are raised features located at the bottom of the tread grooves that indicate the tire has reached its wear limit. When the tread lugs are worn to the point that the wear bars connect across the lugs, the tires are fully worn and should be taken out of service.

You have probably guessed (correctly) that our tread lugs were worn to the point that the wear bars connected across the lugs.
 
After conferring with Lew, I told Glen to go ahead and have his shop put on four new tires for us.  And, yes, I would continue to wait.

The vendor that delivered the tires brought the wrong ones the first time.  Fortunately I had my Kindle with me.

Glen finally kicked me out around 1:15 p.m. -- when my vehicle was ready.

The new tires are beautiful.  I haven't checked out the wear bars yet!  :)