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Category: Car Tires

  • Toyo Tire Reviews

    You will never know how good or how bad a set of car tires perform on your vehicle until you put them on and drive for a few hundred miles. However, you can always read these Toyo tire reviews if you are interested in trying Toyo Tire for your car. These reviews are written by motorist who have been using Toyo Tire for years. You can compare the ratings with other popular tire brands such as Bridgestone, Goodyear, Michelin, Continental, Pirelli, Sumitomo, Yokohama, Hankook, Cooper, Kumho, Maxxis, Nokian or others.

    The History of Toyo Tire

    Toyo Tire & Rubber Company, Ltd is headquartered in Osaka, Japan. The company was started in 1945 and then expanded to the United States as Toyo Tire Corporation in 1966. Toyo Tire Company now has offices and manufacturing plants in Japan, United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Russia, China, Malaysia, Australia as well as countries in the central south America.

    With more than 70 years in making tires and automotive parts, Toyo Tires can be seen on different types of vehicles such as passenger cars, pickup trucks, SUVs, crossover, racing cars, luxury cars and even Formula Drift cars. According to Amazon customer reviews, many Toyo Tires have been rated 5 stars.

    Passenger and Performance Car Toyo Tire Reviews

    For passenger and performance cars, Toyo Tire families offers Extensa, Versado, Proxes, Celsius and Observe. Extensa and Versado are made for normal sedan and performance cars while Proxes are mostly made for high performance passenger cars, trucks, or racing cars such as the Audi R8, Nissan GTR, Ferrari 458 Italia and others. Among these tires, Toyo Tires Extensa A/S, Toyo Tires Extensa HP, Toyo Tires Versado Noir, Toyo Tires Observe GSI-5, Toyo Tires Proxes 4 Plus and Toyo Tires Versado Eco tires often receive high ratings from consumers.

    Toyo Tires Extensa A/S Toyo Tire Reviews
    Toyo Tires Extensa A/S

    Some of the tires carry a 65,000 miles warranty on T rated sizes such as the Toyo Tires Extensa A/S. For those who prefer all-season luxury touring tire with quiet yet fuel efficient ride, you can go for the Toyo Tires Versado Noir. Consumers gave good ratings to the Versado Noir for its treadlife, winter traction, dry handling, as well as fuel efficiency. Try the Toyo Tires Proxes 4 Plus if you are looking for ultra high performance all-weather tire. Motorists gave a very high rating for the Proxes 4 Plus thanks to its exceptional dry and wet grip and quiet ride. Toyo Tires also backs the Proxes 4 Plus with a limited 50,000 miles warranty on V and W rated tires.

    Light Trucks and SUV Toyo Tire Reviews

    For light trucks and SUV, Toyo Tires offers Toyo Open Country, Proxes, and Versado models. Open Country models are the most popular because light trucks and SUV owners love their performance so much. Take the Toyo Tires Open Country A/T II as an example. Consumers love its tread, big shoulder appearance, and its tenacious grip offroad. On the other hand, it also comes with a 65,000 mile limited warranty on P Metric sizes, and a 50,000 mil warranty on LT sizes. Other than that, Toyo Tires Open Country H/T, and Toyo Tires Open Country M/T, Toyo Tires Proxes STII, and Toyo Tires Versado CUV are a few models that received high ratings from consumers.

    Toyo Open Country A/T
    Toyo Tires Open Country A/T II

    According to all Toyo tire reviews online, motorist prefer to use Toyo tires because they are affordable and good in terms of performance. If you would like to know how long lasting Toyo tire is, check out this article “Drive to Thailand”. The motorist put on a set of Toyo NanoEnergy3 195/55 R15 and drive a few thousand miles just to test the tires.

  • How to Winterize Your Car

    While winter is around the corner, it is vital for everyone car owner to know how to winterize your car. Sometimes, it is tough to drive in winter time because of the road conditions, weather, and unexpected things that will happen during cold months. It is essential to know the basic things you need to check and prepare the best for your car before entering winter. Car parts such as tires, gasoline, brake pads, and all the fluid in your engine system play an important role during the winter. If you have no idea of what to do to your car for cold day, check out the 10 most vital things to do to winterize your car in a proper way.

    10 Tips to Winterize Your Car Correctly

    These are the 10 most important things you need to do in order to winterize your car correctly without spending extra money.

    1. Engine coolant

    It is necessary to have the right mixture of 60% coolant and 40% water in your radiator before the weather gets too cold especially if you live where temperatures get below freezing, for e.g., Alaska. The water in your radiator may turn into ice if the ratio is not right. 80% water and 20% coolant is definitely a bad idea. Your car engine will not function properly with ice in the radiator. Double check your owner’s manual or check with your mechanics for the perfect coolant mixture.

    2. Engine oil for the winter

    According to DMV, it is recommended to use thinner and less viscous engine oil during the winter. For example, if you use 10W-30 for your car in the summer, you can consider switching over to 5W-30 before entering cold months. It is highly recommended to refer to your car owner’s manual or seek for further advice from your mechanic. See also: Car engine won’t start.

    3. Measure tire tread and consider snow tires

    If your car tires are bald, replace a set of new one. To measure the tire tread, use a penny to go through the tire tread. It is time to replace a new one if you can see the Lincoln’s head. On the other hand, you can consider buying snow tires with studs if you live off the beaten path. Snow tires are built to deal with snow, ice and sleet. It can improve your car’s traction.

    4. Run a serious checking on belts and hoses

    Send your car to a trusted workshop and have your mechanic to check all the belts and hoses under your car’s hood. Replace those hoses if you see a crack on them or if you see any leaking. Hoses are cheap but if they break while you are driving, tow car will be the only way to get home.

    5. Check your battery, terminals and cables

    Weak battery is often the number one reason a car won’t start. The capacity of a battery is reduced by the cold weather. Run a complete checking on your battery, terminals, cables, fluid for any cracks and breaks. Test your car battery with a car battery tester. Replace a new car battery if it is not in healthy condition. See also: how to test a car battery.
    car battery

    6. Brake pads

    It is cool to see a car accelerates from 0 to 60 mph in a few seconds but it is also important to be able to stop a car from 60 to 0 mph. Check your brake pads and see if they need to be replaced. See also: how long do brake pads last.
    brake pads

    7. Replace your windshield wipers and washer fluid

    It is tough to drive in the rain during winter time especially if you are on the road late at night. Visibility levels are definitely low and it is recommended to replace your wipers with silicon wipers if they are in bad conditions. Silicon wipers are stronger and they often last longer. Also, you are suggested to use washer fluid with an antifreeze solution.

    8. Keep a set of emergency kit in your car

    Anything can happen during winter because the weather is cold and the sky is always dark. The best way to combat with winter is to keep a set of emergency kit inside your car such as flashlights, hydraulic jack, wrench, spare tire, emergency warning triangle, extra bottles of engine oil, brake fluid, coolant, blankets, boots, bread or food as well as tools to change out a flat.

    9. Always pump your fuel tank full

    In our car maintenance guide, we often mentioned that low fuel level will lead to many problems. Fuel pump failure is just one to be mentioned. Cold weather can cause condensation to form on the walls of a near-empty gas tank, and soon water will drip down into the gas. As water is heavier than gasoline, it might travel into fuel lines and then all the way to your car engine. This will not burn the engine but it will burn your wallet.

    10. Use antifreeze

    Consider to put a right amount of antifreeze in your radiator. A 50:50 ratio is the ideal amount. Antifreeze can keep fluids from freezing at temperatures as low as -34 degrees Fahrenheit (-36.67 degrees Celsius). Pre-mixed Antifreeze is cheap and they are available almost everywhere including gas stations and some grocery stores.

    That’s the top 10 things on how to winterize your car. Please leave a message with the comment features if you think something important is missed out.