When should you check your tyre pressures?

When you have just travelled at high speed

When should you che… — When the tyres are cold

The answer options

After any long journey
When the tyres are hot
When the tyres are coldCorrect
When you have just travelled at high speed

Why the other options are wrong

“After any long journey” is a distractor. It does not meet the standard the question is testing, which when the tyres are cold does. Picking it in the real test costs a mark you cannot get back, and with a pass mark of 43 out of 50 you only have seven to spare.
“When the tyres are hot” is a distractor. It does not meet the standard the question is testing, which when the tyres are cold does. Picking it in the real test costs a mark you cannot get back, and with a pass mark of 43 out of 50 you only have seven to spare.
“When you have just travelled at high speed” is a distractor. It does not meet the standard the question is testing, which when the tyres are cold does. Picking it in the real test costs a mark you cannot get back, and with a pass mark of 43 out of 50 you only have seven to spare.

Why that is the answer

You should check your tyre pressures when the tyres are cold because driving heats them up. Friction and heat cause the air inside to expand, giving a falsely high pressure reading. If you adjust the pressures while the tyres are hot, they will end up under-inflated when they cool down. DVSA guidance and the Highway Code recommend checking your tyre pressures at least once a month and before long journeys, always when cold.

What safety and your vehicle covers

· Legal minimum tread depth of 1.6mm across the central three-quarters
· Dashboard warning lamp colours and which mean stop immediately
· Braking, steering and suspension faults and how they feel
· Fuel economy, emissions and eco-safe driving technique

Mistakes learners repeat on this topic

· Quoting 1.6mm as an all-weather safe depth rather than the legal minimum
· Checking tyre pressures when the tyres are hot instead of cold
· Treating an amber warning lamp as something to ignore
· Forgetting that an over-inflated tyre wears in the centre, not the edges

Instructor tip: Learn the warning lamp colours as a traffic-light system: red stop, amber investigate, green or blue informational.

How this comes up in the real test

Questions from safety and your vehicle appear throughout the 50-question multiple-choice section, and the wording changes between versions. Learn the rule rather than the sentence: the DVSA can ask the same point from the opposite direction, and a memorised answer falls over the moment the phrasing moves.

The pass mark is 43 out of 50, so seven wrong answers is your entire margin. If a whole category is shaky, run the topic practice below until you are getting every question right for the right reason, then go back to full mocks under the clock.

Practise Safety and your Vehicle Sit a full mock test