Just been out to give the Octavia its weekly check, and a nasty surprise awaited - a flat n/s rear, which after investigation turned out to be a rather large headed nail in the flat first groove 1/4 from the edge. These rears are Barum Bravuris 2 and have done around 37,600 miles with a decent amount of tread left.

However, the fronts are lower than I would like and bearing in mind the low temperatures, I think I am going to have four tyres fitted.

The fronts are Avon ZV7 and they only have 18,500 miles on them, is that normal, bearing in mind the wear is very ev en and the tyres are inflated to 2.1 BAR?

You can never answer if that is normal, as it depends on a lot of factors. The make of tyre, how and where you drive the car etc. As you probably already know, as the fronts are the drive wheels putting down the power and they are doing all the steering, they last far less time than the rears.   However, that is about the mileage I get out of most makes of tyre I have used and I replace them at 3mm. Did have a certain make of tyre that came with one of my cars that lasted far longer, but the trade off was poor grip. Replaced them at 4mm on the front and 6mm at the rear, they were that bad in the wet.

 

 

On mine continentals have  over 3 sets averaged 25k on the front of mine, a set of goodyear efficient grip performance worn out in 18k miles. They were cheaper but not as good value if you know what I mean. 

Edited 17 February, 20188 yr by seriesdriver
punctuation

Just to back up what Roaddetective stated, I got 6 years and approximately 60k out of the OE Dunlop SP01's, but I swap over to Cold  Weather tyres for nearly 6 months of the year (October to April/May). Still averages out at 30k though. 

 

I replaced the Dunlops for Goodyear Efficient Grip, which I much prefer; quieter, better ride quality. 

Cheers for the replies guys. I swapped the spare over yesterday - an almost new looking Goodyear NCT5 - and there were two nasty flat headed type nails in the other tyre, which is a bit suspicious to say the least. I will be looking at Contis, Goodyear or maybe Dunlop for the next set, and book it in for next Saturday through Blackcircles or Tyreshopper.

I got 45k km out of the original Continental Sport Contact2; 75k km from Michelin Primacy HP; 25k from Bridgestone RE050A and  currently on 25k km for another set of RE050A that are around 2/3rds worn, so I guess I'll get about 35k-40k km out of them.  In other words, who knows what mileage is normal?

 

I pulled 3 screws from the BILs tyres over the weekend.  I'm assuming there's some building works near where he lives.

 

 

Just a quick update.

Bought four new Dunlop SPSport BluResponse 195/65 H15, plus tracking from Tyreshopper. Had them done this morning at National Tyres locally for £248.16 all in.

Too early to tell how good the tyres are, but having had the tracking done, I think the car is pulling slightly to the right and it was OK before. I should add that the reason I had the tracking done, was that the front tyres were slightly more worn on the inside rims than the outside, and the steering wheel was slightly right hand down on the straights. The place had laser tracking and they set it to zero on both sides. I can't do anything about it today, so it looks as though we will have to monitor it during the week, which is less than perfect because my missus will be driving it, and she has about as much mechanical knowledge/empathy as a hedgehog.

Edited 24 February, 20188 yr by andyoctavia

Pulling to the left can be about a not good matched pair of tyres fitted.

If you google Tyre Stripes you might find the 'Alignment Expert / Forum that explains. 

tyre runout stripes  or pulling to the left

 

 

http://oponeo.co.uk/tyre-article/tyre-stripes 

 

 

Have you checked the tyre pressures as the fitter set them, or did you tell them what you wanted?

Then reset the TPMS.

Edited 24 February, 20188 yr by AwaoffSki

On 2/24/2018 at 22:59, andyoctavia said:

Just a quick update.

Bought four new Dunlop SPSport BluResponse 195/65 H15, plus tracking from Tyreshopper. Had them done this morning at National Tyres locally for £248.16 all in.

Too early to tell how good the tyres are, but having had the tracking done, I think the car is pulling slightly to the right and it was OK before. I should add that the reason I had the tracking done, was that the front tyres were slightly more worn on the inside rims than the outside, and the steering wheel was slightly right hand down on the straights. The place had laser tracking and they set it to zero on both sides. I can't do anything about it today, so it looks as though we will have to monitor it during the week, which is less than perfect because my missus will be driving it, and she has about as much mechanical knowledge/empathy as a hedgehog.

Slightly right against how much road camber?

3 hours ago, brad1.8T said:

Slightly right against how much road camber?

Just seen that you are from Oz. As you know, we drive on the left, and the camber on most roads goes from right to left, and the car seemed to be fighting against drifting with the camber. The missus used the car yesterday, and said she didn't notice anything wrong - the answer I expected to be honest. I will have to wait until next weekend to test it out on a longer run.

I wish I hadn't asked for the tracking to be done now.

15 hours ago, andyoctavia said:

Just seen that you are from Oz. As you know, we drive on the left, and the camber on most roads goes from right to left, and the car seemed to be fighting against drifting with the camber. The missus used the car yesterday, and said she didn't notice anything wrong - the answer I expected to be honest. I will have to wait until next weekend to test it out on a longer run.

I wish I hadn't asked for the tracking to be done now.

Generally, I try and set up to compensate for the average road camber.  It means that on some roads it drifts a bit left & others a bit right.  I think that after an alignment & new tyres we are often over sensitive to these things.

 

If I can get 25-50m of straight driving with my hands off the wheel I'm happy.