If you live in an area with constant roadworks, I’m sure you already know how much of a pain it is trying to get tar off of car tires.
Both asphalt and tar have incredibly sticky properties. As soon as either land on your tire, especially if they’re hot and sticky, your tires will begin to pick up unwanted gravel and road debris.
As your tires begin to collect debris, the tire tread will begin to get blocked up. Failure to remove the asphalt, tar, and debris from your tires may affect the cars handling and also increase stopping distances.
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out why this is not good for you or your car. The tires are the only thing connecting your car to the road, without them, you’re screwed.
Follow this step by step guide and get back on the road in no time!
Equipment & Products You’ll Need
Normally, to Remove Tar, Bugs & Tree Sap From Your Car all you need is a good bug & tar remover.
In this case, you’re going to need a bit more. The tar on your tires is deeply embedded and will be incredibly hard to remove.
Below is a complete list of what you’ll need to remove tar from your car tires:
- Plastic Knife or Trim Tools
- Stiff Scrub Brush
- Degreaser
- Water
If you’re brave, you can use a proper knife or screwdriver. For me, it’s not worth the risk.
You want a tool that’s sharp enough to remove the tar, but blunt enough to preserve the tire.
Removing Tar From Your Tires
Overall the process of removing tar from tires is simple & straightforward. What you’re not prepared for is how angry and bored you’re about to become.
Follow the steps below and pray that the tar gives you an easy time:
- Use A Plastic Knife Or Trim Tools To Remove The Tar – If the tar is still sticky when you return home, you’re in luck. Use your plastic knife and hack away at it before it manages to fully dry onto the tire.
Sometimes, even after drying, you’ll find it easier to hack the tar away from the tire without using any water or product. Always try to remove the tar first before softening it up with product.
When doing this, take care, with enough force, even a plastic tool can cause damage to your tire. - Apply Degreaser To The Tarred Areas & Scrub – After attempting to remove the tar without using any product, you can now apply some degreaser.
Once you’ve applied the degreaser, let it dwell for a little while before scrubbing it as hard as you can with a stiff scrub brush.
With enough time and effort put into scrubbing you may be able to remove all of the tar from your tires.
If you’ve saturated the area, been scrubbing for a long time and it’s still not improving, move on-to step 3. - Apply More Degreaser To The Area & Use Your Plastic Tool – After applying more degreaser to the area, let it dwell for up to 10 minutes, allowing the product to work its magic.
(By this point you’ll probably need 10 minutes stress relief anyway).
On your return, use your plastic tool to hack away at the area, hoping to remove as much tar as you can.
You may find that as the tar begins to disappear alternating between your tool and scrub brush will provide the best results. - When you’re satisfied, rinse away any remaining product – Once you’re satisfied with how your tire looks wash away any product residue that’s left.
In an ideal world, the tires will be completely free of tar before you move on.
If after all of that effort, a decent amount of tar is still on your tire, you will have to ask yourself whether it’s work risking it or replacing it.
The cost of a new tire set you back $50-$200, whereas the cost of a Bodyshop repair or a new car will cost much, much more.