Tire and windshield maintenance — Hawaii Permit Test
Tire and windshield maintenance on the Hawaii permit test — 5 rules, each with the reason behind it and a question on it while it is fresh.
The rules
Check your tires at least once a month.
A slow leak can leave a tire soft for weeks, and a soft tire can blow out on the freeway.
Check them at least once a month.
The vehicle manufacturer's recommended tire pressure and tire size are found on the door jamb.
A driver who guesses at the pressure may run the tires too soft, which wears them and hurts handling.
Check the door jamb for the vehicle manufacturer’s recommended pressure and tire size.
Replace tires that have less than 1/16 inch of tread.
A tire worn smooth cannot push water away and slides on a wet road.
Replace tires that have less than 1/16 inch of tire tread.
To check tread with a Lincoln penny, place it upside down in the tread; if the top of Lincoln's head is visible, the tire needs to be replaced.
A driver with no easy way to check tread keeps driving on tires that are already too worn.
If the top of Lincoln’s head is visible, the tire needs to be replaced.
The windshield should be free of cracks and breaks that interfere with your vision, and the wipers should clean it evenly without streaks.
A crack across the driver's side of the glass can hide a person stepping into the road.
The windshield should be free of cracks and breaks that interfere with your vision.
On the test
How often should you check your tires?
At least once a month. A slow leak can leave a tire soft for weeks, and a soft tire can blow out on the freeway. State of Hawaii Driver’s Manual, p.20: “Check them at least once a month.”
How this works
Most practice tests hand you a bank of questions and leave the manual somewhere else. This one puts them together.
You read one law and the reason behind it, then answer a question on that law while it is still fresh. Get it right and you move on; get it wrong and you have found the gap while it is cheap to fix, not on the morning of the exam.
Learning one rule at a time, and proving it immediately, is what turns a manual you skimmed into something you actually know — and it makes studying feel like getting somewhere rather than like waiting to find out.
What it costs
- One payment, once — not a subscription. Nothing renews and there is nothing to cancel, for an exam you sit one time.
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- Paying opens the rest of the cards, unlimited full-length practice tests, and retests built from exactly the questions you got wrong.
- Every level up to Prepared — 3 tests passed in a row.
- Do the work, fail the real exam, and we refund you.
Where these come from
Every rule here is checked against State of Hawaii Driver’s Manual, published by the Hawaii Department of Transportation, and against the state code itself. Last checked 2026-10-05.
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/HI.pdf (State of Hawaii Driver’s Manual, 2023, Hawaii Department of Transportation, retrieved 2026-09-14; sha256 pinned in SOURCES.json)
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/HI.pages.txt (scripts/hi-text.py: PyMuPDF with the clip honored, sorted, hyphens rejoined; the fixture every citation here was cut from and verified against; sha256 pinned in SOURCES.json)
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/HI-exam.html (County of Maui, Division of Motor Vehicles & Licensing, Class 3 Instructional Permit, https://www.mauicounty.gov/1541/Class-3-Instructional-Permit, read 2026-10-05; states both exam figures; sha256 pinned under examSource)
- https://hidot.hawaii.gov/highways/library/motor-vehicle-safety-office/ (read 2026-10-05; links the manual)
- https://hidot.hawaii.gov/highways/files/2021/08/19-122-std-format.pdf (Hawaii Administrative Rules chapter 19-122, the DOT’s own copy, read 2026-10-05; §19-122-10(f)’s 80 percent agrees with the county’s figures)