Top car mechanic Scotty Kilmer has urged all used car owners to swap out a vital car component at the first sign of wear to avoid being caught out. 

The leading mechanic urged second-hand owners to keep an eye on their tyre tread depth at all times with bald rubber likely to cause serious issues. 

Tyres with less tread will be fine in the dry but a sprinkle of rain could cause havoc for road users. 

Similar to motor racing, bald tyres with less tread cannot handle slippery road surfaces and road users are at risk of aquaplaning. 

Losing control of a vehicle not only risks serious car damage but motorists could put themselves and others in potential danger. 

Speaking on his YouTube channel, Scotty said: “Today I'm going to talk about car tyres and rain. 

“Now if you’ve ever noticed, drag cars have big wide tyres with all rubber, no tread, on the ground. All that rubber lets them accelerate fast. 

“But a tyre with no tread and all rubber, when it rains, it’s useless and will slip like mad.

“Now your car's tread may be running real thin. It will run fine when it's dry but when it's running it will slip all over the place.

“So every once in a while, look at your car’s tread, make sure there is still a lot of tread depth like this one.”

Soctty’s viewers quickly took to the comments section to also urge motorists to take action as soon as they noticed their tyres starting to wear. 

@Nick41622 said: “When you see that your tyres are down to the wire, it's time to replace them.”

Many also revealed how motorists could check whether their tyres had enough tread by using a simple coin. 

@normalhuman9260 added: “To check your tire tread. Use the quarter method. Place a quarter in the deep groove on the tire, with the head upside down. If the higher threads are able to touch the top of head on coin, you are ok.” (sic)

Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis has previously stressed that placing a 20p in between the tyre grooves could be enough to diagnose an issue. 

BookMyGarage, the leading comparison site for car service and repair work, claimed motorists should check their tyres every two weeks.

They added: “Though 1.6mm is the legal minimum for tyre tread depth in the UK, we would strongly advise you to replace your tyres once they reach a tread depth of 3mm.”