Two different things share the word "tyre" here, and workshops get them mixed up. One is free, the other is not.
Free: recording tread on a vehicle
Every vehicle record has a Tyre tread panel. Use Log new reading and enter the depth in millimetres for each of the four road wheels, plus the spare if you measured it. You can also record a wear pattern: even, inner edge, outer edge, centre, feathered or cupping, and a note for the brand, the size or anything you saw.
The panel then shows the latest reading per position, colour coded. Recording a reading is part of the free vehicle record and always will be.
What the numbers mean
- 1.5 mm is the legal minimum in the principal grooves of a tyre fitted to a road wheel, under the Light Vehicle Standards Rules, rule 52. The rule says "at least 1.5 mm", so a tyre measuring exactly 1.5 mm still complies and only below that fails.
- Below 4 mm is wearing and worth mentioning to the customer.
- Below 3 mm is worth putting on the next visit's list.
The spare is treated separately. A worn spare stowed in the boot is not fitted to a road wheel, so it cannot make the vehicle unroadworthy and it never counts towards the at-risk verdict. It is reported on its own so you can still tell the customer about it.
Paid: the workshop-wide list
Vehicles, then Tyre Compliance, lists every vehicle in your book whose worst road wheel is at or under the limit, and tells you how much of your book has ever been measured at all.
That page is the Tyre Tread & Wheel Alignment app, 9 dollars a month from the App Marketplace. Without it, the page shows what the app does rather than the list.
Why coverage matters more than the count
If you have never measured anything, "no vehicle is at risk" is true and worthless. The page refuses to show a clean bill of health over an empty book: with no readings it prompts you to start measuring instead of showing three reassuring zeros. Coverage is stated over your active vehicles, so archived cars do not flatter the number.
If you stop paying for it
Readings you have already recorded stay readable, and you can keep recording new readings on the free vehicle panel. The roll-up page is what goes away. See which workshop apps are paid.
Related
Did this answer your question?
- All Automotive Workshop help articles
- OneBookPlus for mechanics and workshops
- Still stuck? Email us and tell us which article you were reading.