Brakes tires and steering — Massachusetts Permit Test
Brakes tires and steering on the Massachusetts permit test — 5 rules, each with the reason behind it and a question on it while it is fresh.
The rules
Tires must have at least 2/32 inches of tread depth in the proper grooves, with no fabric breaks or exposed cords.
Below that depth the tread stops moving water out from under the tire. On a wet road it is the difference between gripping and floating.
Tires must have at least 2/32 inches of tread depth in the proper grooves and no fabric breaks or exposed cords.
A quick tread check is to slide a penny into a groove: if you can see the top of Lincoln's head, the tires are worn out.
It takes a coin and five seconds, which is why it is the check people actually do rather than the one they mean to.
If you can see the top of Lincoln's head, your tires are worn out.
If the vehicle pulls to one side when you brake, the brakes may need adjustment or repair.
Pulling means one wheel is braking harder than the other. In an emergency stop that is the wheel that spins you.
If you feel the vehicle pull to one side when you brake, your brakes may need adjustment or repair.
Your steering wheel should not feel loose, and there should be no delay between turning it and the tires responding.
Play in the wheel means the correction arrives late. The gap is small in a parking lot and large at speed.
Your steering wheel should not feel loose.
A high-pitched noise when you turn means the power steering should be inspected.
Power steering that fails without warning turns the wheel heavy in a corner, which is the worst moment for it.
If your vehicle makes a high-pitched noise when you turn, you should have your power steering inspected.
On the test
What minimum tread depth must a tire have?
2/32 inches. Below that depth the tread stops moving water out from under the tire. On a wet road it is the difference between gripping and floating. Massachusetts Driver's Manual, p.42: “Tires must have at least 2/32 inches of tread depth in the proper grooves and no fabric breaks or exposed cords.”
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
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All Massachusetts permit topics
Where these come from
Every rule here is checked against Massachusetts Driver's Manual, published by the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles, and against the state code itself. Last checked 2026-09-16.
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/MA.pdf (Massachusetts Driver's Manual, Revised April 2026, Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles, retrieved 2026-09-14 from mass.gov)
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/MA.pages.txt (pdftotext -layout over that PDF; sha256 pinned in SOURCES.json)
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/SOURCES.json (sha256, folio offset 8, folioMarker, nonLawPages, signGalleryPages and the extraction flag, each with its measured basis)