# Why do/did people kick the tires of a car? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 18, 2015, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-did-people-kick-the-tires-of-a-car/731618 "2015-09-18T01:06:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-did-people-kick-the-tires-of-a-car/731618/1 "2015-09-18T01:06:21Z")
It’s a cliche that somebody thinking about buying a car would kick the tires. I’ve never done it because I have no idea how it’s supposed to work. What results were you looking for when you kicked the tires? Does tire kicking still work? Or was this just a myth and people never really kicked tires? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-did-people-kick-the-tires-of-a-car/731618/2 "2015-09-18T01:18:39Z")
[Previous thread 1](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=14854) > [@Kicking Tires When Buying Cars](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kicking-tires-when-buying-cars/10012/4): > > If you’re old enough, it does make sense. > During the war, rubber was rationed and most tires you could get were worthless retreads. > Good tires were a key part of a used car deal, and at times you would buy a wreck to get the tires. > There were few protections against worthless tires. > If you kick a few tires, it’s easy to spot the retreads. No-one actually does it any more, but at one time it was the smart thing to do. > [@Kicking Tires When Buying Cars](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kicking-tires-when-buying-cars/10012/7): > > One explanation that I have heard was that it was to rock the wheels to check for a bad tie rod or bearings. > > I can testify that you can hear/feel a really bad wheel bearing or rod bearing by kicking the tires hard enough, but it’s absolutely not a reliable or repeatable thing to do. And if it gets bad enough to hear by kicking the tires, then the suspension is probably “24-carat fucked” on that wheel. > > I can also testify that once I discovered a brake caliper that had not been installed properly after a brake job. I was kicking the tires of a friend’s car as a joke, and noticed a strange rattle. Turned out he hadn’t installed the anti-chatter spacers properly (not any real danger on this car, since they typically rusted and fell off, but it sure amazed her that I could detect it it with my innate car wisdom…). [Previous thread 2](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=29886) > [@Why "kick the tires" of a car you are buying?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-kick-the-tires-of-a-car-you-are-buying/24675/9): > > According to my dear old dad, who used to work in a garage, and who is still pretty handy with a wrench, tire-kicking was the time-honored way to check out the condition of a car’s suspension, specifically the king pins and king pin bushings. In the good ol’ days, king pin bushings would wear at a fairly reliable and predictable rate. Eventually, the king pins would rattle around in the bushings, indicating that the car had a significant number of miles on it, and that it was time to have the front suspension redone. In order to have a kick reveal the rattle, though, the front end has to be jacked up. A good kick will tell you, roughly, if the miles on the odometer are reasonably representative of the miles indicated by the king pin bushing wear. > > You can get the same idea by grabbing the top of the tire and giving it a good shake, but then you get your hands dirty. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-did-people-kick-the-tires-of-a-car/731618/3 "2015-09-18T01:20:17Z")
nm; ninja’d. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-did-people-kick-the-tires-of-a-car/731618/4 "2015-09-18T01:24:19Z")
> [@Balthisar](#): > > nm; ninja’d. [Ninja post!](http://static1.squarespace.com/static/52c5be94e4b0332a70752da8/t/54e79473e4b0165bdcee24fe/1424462964394/Ninja+Post+-+logo.png) ---
**Author:** ![GreasyJack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/df705f/32.png) [@GreasyJack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreasyJack)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-did-people-kick-the-tires-of-a-car/731618/5 "2015-09-18T01:29:15Z")
Although the modern sense of “tire kicking” implies that you’re basically automotive window shopping; that is looking at a car listed for sale without any intention of actually buying that particular car. So tire kicking in that sense is something you do when you don’t really care about the condition of a particular car but want to pretend you do. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-did-people-kick-the-tires-of-a-car/731618/6 "2015-09-18T01:29:30Z")
Because your dad did it. Earlier generations checked the teeth of the horse they just bought. ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-did-people-kick-the-tires-of-a-car/731618/7 "2015-09-18T01:39:10Z")
> [@samclem](#): > > Because your dad did it. > > Earlier generations checked the teeth of the horse they just bought. Nitpick: I think you’ll find they checked the teeth _before_ they bought the horse. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-did-people-kick-the-tires-of-a-car/731618/8 "2015-09-18T06:15:49Z")
> [@samclem](#): > > Because your dad did it. > > Earlier generations checked the teeth of the horse they just bought. Coincidentally the subject came up during a conversation with my father a few days ago. I told him that nowadays we’d check a car’s wifi connection. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-did-people-kick-the-tires-of-a-car/731618/9 "2015-09-18T06:47:26Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > [Previous thread 1](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=14854) > > [Previous thread 2](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=29886) Well, that’s it. Just lock all of the forums and put an announcement at the top of each of them telling people to just search the board for their questions. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-did-people-kick-the-tires-of-a-car/731618/10 "2015-09-18T07:30:35Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > Well, that’s it. Just lock all of the forums and put an announcement at the top of each of them telling people to just search the board for their questions. Or, we could be appreciative of members who go to the trouble of linking us to other people’s responses and making us aware of information we did not previously know about. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-did-people-kick-the-tires-of-a-car/731618/11 "2015-09-18T11:18:50Z")
Do people why die still “kick buckets”? ---
**Author:** ![davida03801](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5e925/32.png) [@davida03801](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davida03801)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-did-people-kick-the-tires-of-a-car/731618/12 "2015-09-18T12:09:37Z")
Well, you can judge the quality of rubber of the tires this way. A good thump is a quality tire, while a weak dud sound is bad rubber. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-did-people-kick-the-tires-of-a-car/731618/13 "2015-09-18T12:19:10Z")
I’m so old that I can spot a fake cave painting. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-did-people-kick-the-tires-of-a-car/731618/14 "2015-09-18T12:44:01Z")
It’s a metaphor. I doubt anyone, at any point, actually physically kicked the tires of a car in order to determine their quality (or the quality of a car itself). Any other explanation is just a retconn. Even the ones listed above don’t talk about actually kicking a tire in a used/new car lot. It’s like “the whole nine yards” in that there isn’t any correspondence to a particular real-world reality. ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-did-people-kick-the-tires-of-a-car/731618/15 "2015-09-18T13:52:01Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > Do people why die still “kick buckets”? Say what now? ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-did-people-kick-the-tires-of-a-car/731618/16 "2015-09-18T14:25:24Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > Well, that’s it. Just lock all of the forums and put an announcement at the top of each of them telling people to just search the board for their questions. **Moderator Note** We actually do ask people to do that. From the General Questions Rules and FAQs: > [@](#): > > 1. Before opening a new thread, search the archives! There are thousands of threads in GQ (searchable here), and over 3,000 questions (with answers) in the archives of Cecil’s columns and Staff Reports (searchable here). Many threads in GQ never need to have been opened, and the OP could have received a complete answer more quickly by spending a little time in the archives. While we don’t want to discourage people from asking questions, it’s certainly good practice to link to previous discussions if you are aware of them. Please refrain from junior-moderating. This goes double for when you are contradicting what is actually considered good practice in GQ. Colibri General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-did-people-kick-the-tires-of-a-car/731618/17 "2015-09-18T14:28:35Z")
> [@UDS](#): > > Nitpick: I think you’ll find they checked the teeth _before_ they bought the horse. Not if it was a gift horse! ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-did-people-kick-the-tires-of-a-car/731618/18 "2015-09-18T14:32:29Z")
It’s genetic. When my grandson was 1 (it was within a week of his first birthday, his parents took him the Montreal Christmas craft fare that included a car raffle. He had just begun to walk and he toddled over to the raffle car and…kicked the tire! We decided at that point that is in the genes (as good an explanation as any other). ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-did-people-kick-the-tires-of-a-car/731618/19 "2015-09-18T14:36:14Z")
> [@davida03801](#): > > Well, you can judge the quality of rubber of the tires this way. A good thump is a quality tire, while a weak dud sound is bad rubber. On a road trip a year or two back, we stopped at a truck stop to fill our tank and to drain our bladders. Waiting for the gang to finish, I walked through the shopping aisles and saw an interesting device that looked like a baby baseball bat. The label said it was a Tire Thumper, and IfU (Instructions for Use) said you use your ear and the sound and feel of the rebound to tell if your tires were properly inflated. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-did-people-kick-the-tires-of-a-car/731618/20 "2015-09-18T14:43:37Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Or, we could be appreciative of members who go to the trouble of linking us to other people’s responses and making us aware of information we did not previously know about. As the OP, I’d like to thank Johnny L.A. for his work. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-did-people-kick-the-tires-of-a-car/731618.md?page=2)