A lot of young drivers struggle with the specifics of car maintenance. This lack of knowledge can lead to easy-to-avoid problems rearing their head, leading to high costs and expensive repairs. This is especially true for wheel and tyre maintenance. However, due to this easy, well-known trick, one part of tyre maintenance is easy to check, and it only costs you 20p!

A tyre with insufficient tread depth is not only dangerous but can also lead to fines as high as £2,500 per tyre. It can even result in enough points on your license to result in a driving ban. So it can be considered a very important part of car maintenance.

To check tyre tread depth, you can use specifically made tread depth checking tools, which will make sure they are correct and safe to drive. However, you can also just use a 20 pence piece, which is safe to assume that everyone has at least one of.

Simply put the 20p coin in the middle grooves of the tyre. If the band along the outside of the coin is not visible, then the tyre tread depth is at acceptable levels. However, if you can see the band of the coin, the tyre tread depth is at an unacceptable level and will need replacing.

This makes checking tyre tread depth extremely easy, especially for younger drivers, as they might not have the full toolset needed to fully check their car, but they will have 20p!