At my Yeti's recent MoT it got a wholly expected advisory regarding the tread depth on the tyres.  These are the original Dunlop SP01s.  I knew they were getting close to needing to changing and I was planning to put a set of Michelins on come the spring, given that I was planning to put my winter wheels on shortly.  Since it's been unusually warm recently, and I've had a number of other things on my plate, I haven't got round to that yet.

 

What I have noticed, though, is that the Dunlops suddenly seem to be performing vastly better than they ever have before.  I've never been terribly happy with them, finding them a little unpredictable and having suffered (as I think I mentioned in another thread a while back) some unexpected wheelspin when pulling away from rest.  In the last few weeks, though, they've been behaving much better: the tendency to lose grip without warning seems to have gone away and the wheelspin from rest problem also seems to have gone away, despite trying my best to provoke it (having noticed that it wasn't happening under normal driving conditions when it might have done previously).  And this is despite some seriously wet road conditions in the past couple of weeks: even driving through deep puddles the things have behaved vastly better than they used to - almost as well as the winter tyres do, in fact.

 

I know they have to be replaced soon, but it is nonetheless a little galling to have to do so when they are finally managing to perform the way I'd expect a modern tyre to do!

 

Is it possible that there was an undiscovered fault on the vehicle which was upsetting the handling, and which got fixed at the last service (when the MoT was done)?  They did replace the NSR coil spring this time but I'm fairly certain that can only have failed within the last 12 months at the very most ie since the previous service & MOT.  I've been dissatisfied with the OEM Dunlops since I first got the car from new whereas the winter tyres have performed well during the same period.

 

It's all a bit puzzling!

I've been happy with the performance of my Dunlops,but this morning got my local garage to swop my wheels over to winter tyres on steels.

On removal found quite a large split on the wall of the front drivers tyre which is unrepairable, the garage rang around and managed to get hold of another Dunlop SP01 but was informed this tyre is now out of production and has been superseded .

I've had dunlop SP01s on 2 previous Yetis and they were OK and quite hard wearing.

However, the Continental contact 3s on my new Yeti have noticeably crisper handling,dry and wet,especially standing water.

They appear equally hard wearing so far. ( all 225/50/17s.)

Had Bridgestone T001 on the Volvo and they seemed quite a descent tyre compared to the Dunlop's, Goodyear's and Conti's that have been the common factory fit to previous Skoda's.

 

Mind I've replaced them with still plenty of tread left to try out the new Cross Climate with winter round the corner, which appear after a week anyway equally impressive.

 

 

TP

These are the original Dunlop SP01s.  I knew they were getting close to needing to changing

 

What I have noticed, though, is that the Dunlops suddenly seem to be performing vastly better than they ever have before.

 

I found that with my XR2, unless it was wet it handled much better when the tyre was nearly worn out and always felt a bit squirmy with more rubber on the tyre.

I found that with my XR2, unless it was wet it handled much better when the tyre was nearly worn out and always felt a bit squirmy with more rubber on the tyre.

I guess a bit like F1 medium 'wets'.

I had them on a 2009 vehicle and they weren't all that new, as a design, then.......I guess in tyre terms, that's a long time.

Could it be possible that the wheel spin you experienced was due to the Haldex playing up and nothing to do with the tyres?

Original Dunlop SP01's on our Yeti. They have covered 28000miles. Now worn down to say 2mm on front and 3mm on rear so coming up for replacement. I have researched several other makes of tyre but am coming around to replacing with the Dunlops again. We do use another set of wheels and tyres in the winter - weather too warm still at present to change over to winters!