Your Michelin Tire Has A Tiny (And Useful) Feature You've Probably Never Noticed

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Among the many symbols and features on your tire, one of the markings you're probably most familiar with is the tread wear indicators. Tread wear indicators, or simply wear bars, are horizontal rubber strips in the grooves of your tire. They serve as built-in visual cues to indicate when it's time to replace your tires. Manufacturers recommend inspecting your tread wear bars at least once a month to ensure you're not running on dangerously slippery tires.

The thing about wear bars, though, is that they're not very obvious at first sight. Sure, they may be placed in several locations across the circumference of the tire. But you'll still have to do a little bit of digging to find them. Lucky for you, some brands intentionally added markers to make the search a little less tedious. If you have a Michelin tire, you'll be surprised that this marker is actually a familiar icon embossed on the tire.

Maybe you've noticed the tiny Michelin Man symbols embossed on your tires before. Or maybe you haven't. Either way, you probably think they're just there for aesthetic and branding purposes. However, the truth is that the Michelin Man symbol actually serves an essential purpose: it points you to the location of the tire's wear bars. This way, you won't have to spend forever looking over your entire tire just to find where the tread wear indicators are. Simply search for one of the several Michelin Man icons on the sidewall and check the tread directly across from it. You should immediately spot the raised rubber between the treads.

If, on the off chance, that even the Michelin Man icon on your Michelin tire is hard to find, there are still two other ways to check your tire tread. You can do the penny test — insert a US penny between the tread blocks upside down and see whether or not the top of Lincoln's head is visible. If it's still hidden by the height of the tread, you're good to go. If you can clearly see it, drop by the service center for a replacement.

There are also some affordable tread depth gauges available on Amazon, such as the Milton S-448 Tire Tread Depth Gauge and the GODESON 88702 Smart Color Coded Tire Tread Depth Gauge, which will accurately indicate the remaining tread depth of your tires. Just like the penny, insert the needle of the gauge between the tread blocks (with the base sitting on top of the tread) and read the measurement.