How to remove tar and gravel from your tyres

There seems to be more and more new road surfaces about which means more tar and gravel within your tyres. New road surfaces will often have soft tar which can quickly get stuck in your car tyres. Over time you’ll see these roads gather gravel and other pieces of debris, this builds up in your car tyres and needs to be assessed quickly. The build up on your tyres can affect stopping distance, so it is important to monitor the surface of your tyres regularly.

Follow our step-by-step guide below to removing tar and gravel from your tyres:

First of all, here’s the equipment you’ll need:

• Linseed oil

• Stiff scrubbing brush

• Plastic knife

• Mild detergent

Method:

• First of all, you’ll need to remove any tar from your tyres. It is advised that you use a plastic tool if possible as metal objects such as screwdrivers can lead to punctures in your tyre.
  
  

• To remove stubborn tar, use a scrubbing brush and mild detergent. Try not to use cleaning chemicals as they can be known to damage the rubber of your tyre.
  
  

• Third of all, pour your linseed oil onto the tyre and leave it to soak in, this should take around half an hour. Use your plastic knife to get the remaining tar off once the linseed oil has soaked in- WD40 can also be used as a replacement for linseed oil.
  
  

• If it hasn’t completely gone after one cycle than repeat the first 3 steps until it has gone. It can take several attempts for it to all completely go but once gone it benefits your car massively.
  
  

• As the tar is removed, the other debris will be removed as well

At Lindleys Autocentres we provide a variety of tyre services and we supply the best quality tyres available. We also provide a free mobile tyre fitting service, we provide this service 7 days a week and can come out to you within 90 minutes. We don’t charge for coming out to you, you’ll only have to pay for the service.