The Life of Tyre

[Awkward_Josh]

Hi All,

 

I'm needing 2 new tyres (and one of the other 2 juggling about) and have never had to replace tyres before (only been driving 2 years and just as my first car needing them doing, I was rear ended and the car was written off). So what I want to know: is there any merit in buying the Michelins that claim 5000 extra miles (for £15 extra a tyre) or is it simply better value to get some equally decent (Goodyear EGPs) tyres and just end up replacing them a bit sooner?

 

I have no idea how long a tyre is even meant to last in all honesty!

 

Any thoughts/comments appreciated,

 

Cheers in advance,

 

Josh

[KenONeill]

@Awkward_Josh - How long is a piece of string?

 

Seriously, driving style and type of road used will have a significant effect. I spend most of my time on single carriageway and drive assertively (but within speed limits) and 5_000 miles extra would represent increasing my front tyre life by a third (15_000 to 20_000). I know someone who spends most of their time on dual cabbageways (sic) and they get more like 30_000 miles from front tyres.

[LGM]

I guess it's all down to personal preference, me personally even though they only last about 13-15k love the uniroyals so I'll go with them again when they need changing. As soon as I bought my mk2 vRS I purchased new tyres as the ones on the car were budget and replaced them with uniroyals, after wearing down the uniroyals I thought they didn't last long so decided on something else, after doing lots of googling and reading reviews I settled for Michelin pilot sport 3's (right now they're £90 a tyre), theyre currently down to 4mm so I've thrown them on the back and purchased 2 more uniroyals for the front (£68 a tyre).

 

Without me blabbing on too much, even though the pilot sport 3's cost more, I didn't have as much fun in my car due to wheel spinning and stuff. The uniroyals are a softer compound so won't last as long but it puts a smile on my face every time I press that pedal so I couldn't care about price.  

Aslong as I know that car can stop me when I need it to then I'm happy.

 

whatever you do, DO NOT buy part worn/second hand tyres as you have no idea where they've been.

 

 

oh and off topic a little, get yourself some dashcams to save your rear just in case

Edited 23 May, 2018 by LGM

[Awkward_Josh]

21 minutes ago, KenONeill said:

@Awkward_Josh - How long is a piece of string?

 

Thought that might be the case! 

 

But honestly, that has been quite helpful, thanks for that. Will Mainly be doing motorway/dual carriage way driving....

 

Probably worth me sticking the cheaper premiums on and seeing how long they take me 

 

cheers again,

 

Josh

[Awkward_Josh]

1 minute ago, LGM said:

I guess it's all down to personal preference, me personally even though they only last about 13-15k love the uniroyals so I'll go with them again when they need changing. As soon as I bought my mk2 vRS I purchased new tyres as the ones on the car were budget and replaced them with uniroyals, after wearing down the uniroyals I thought they didn't last long so decided on something else, after doing lots of googling and reading reviews I settled for Michelin pilot sport 3's (right now they're £90 a tyre), theyre currently down to 4mm so I've thrown them on the back and purchased 2 more uniroyals for the front (£68 a tyre).

 

Without me blabbing on too much even though the pilot sport 3's cost more, I didn't have as much fun in my car due to wheel spinning and stuff. The uniroyals are a softer compound so won't last as long but it puts a smile on my face every time I press that pedal so I couldn't care about price. 

 

whatever you do, DO NOT buy part worn/second hand tyres as you have no idea where they've been.

 

Unfortunately  my first car had horrible (IMO) Pirelli Cinturato P7s on... but they had so much tread on them that I couldn't justify replacing them 

 

And my latest car has 3 different budget tyres on... with the only matching pair being both on the same side 

 

Think I'm going to try my luck with the Goodyears and see how far they take me. I'm pretty sure anything would be better than what I currently have!

[LGM]

5 minutes ago, Awkward_Josh said:

Think I'm going to try my luck with the Goodyears and see how far they take me. I'm pretty sure anything would be better than what I currently have!

 

If you're a Scrooge like me get some quotes from garages first to see how much they charge for that tyre then pop onto oponeo, black circles and a few others and see how much they are delivered. I've always used oponeo and they are free delivered and tracked via DPD. My local tyre place only charge me £10 per tyre for balancing and new valve.

Edited 23 May, 2018 by LGM

[KenONeill]

There's budget and then there's budget too. A 205/55R16V Barum Bravaris 3 or Toyo Proxes CF2 runs about £50 fitted and have as much grip as I can actually use.

 

OTOH a mate of mine had a Vauxhall Senator 3.0 with one "Woosung Dark Horse" on the LHR corner. This was rapidly nicknamed the "Dark Spin" because it was almost impossible to not wheelspin when turning left at junctions!

[gregoir]

I had many sets of 225/45/17 Barum Bravuris when I was doing regular 50 mile daily commutes plus long holiday trips.

 Good value and good tyres. SWMBO has got them on her little runaround now. Now that I have got cheaper  205/55/16 and do much lower mileages the Michelin Energy + seem much closer in price.

[Awkward_Josh]

Thanks for all the replies guys,

 

I think I'm just going to keep an eye out for a deal on a set of decent tyres and see how I get on with them.

 

as I said before, anything is going to be better than whats currently on there!

 

Cheers again,

 

Josh

[SurreyJohn]

As other have said, life will depend on your driving style, and the quality of road surfaces you travel over

 

Couple of things to consider : 

If the tyres haven't worn evenly across width (worn more one side) then get a wheel alignment done, otherwise replacements will wear much faster.

Seriously consider all season tyres in UK, much better when temp below +7c (much of the winter months)

 

Always a good idea to request swap front-back when tyres are about 10k -14k miles old, will even out the wear (easiest to request it done when its having a service)

 

 

 

 

[creamvRS]

My Uniroyal rainsport 3s just last about 9k miles -Same tyres lasted @Ant-Vrs had them lasting about 5k

[langers2k]

As others have said, it very much depends on your driving style and roads, I'd also agree with using "all seasons" if you don't intend to use every ounce of grip.

 

I'm using Mitchelin Crossclimates on my Octavia TDi, there is plenty of grip for my purposes plus the cold/damp/snow performance has been spot on.

 

They last incredibly well too, I had four fitted at ~63k, picked up an un-repairable puncture at ~102k forcing me to replace one pair. I've just replaced the other two at ~137k so they survived ~74k and were still legal when they came off. They were rotated a few times early in their use but had been on the front end for the last ~35k.

[hwr1983]

1 hour ago, langers2k said:

e front end for the last ~35k.

I've never had a tyre last 35k - and I drive mainly Motorway miles and I'm not exactly Damon Hill...  Average is about 17.5k miles I've had.

 

I'd never advocate getting really expensive tyres.  The best ones I had, were Avon's and Uniroyals.  Got factory Conti's on at the moment and I don't like them as theyre far too loud!

[langers2k]

18 minutes ago, hwr1983 said:

I've never had a tyre last 35k - and I drive mainly Motorway miles and I'm not exactly Damon Hill...  Average is about 17.5k miles I've had.

 

They lasted 74k in total, the last 35k was on the front end as I didn't get round to rotating them so they would have probably done more... My commute is mostly single and dual carriageway roads

[BriskodaJeff]

On 05/06/2018 at 13:00, hwr1983 said:

I've never had a tyre last 35k - and I drive mainly Motorway miles and I'm not exactly Damon Hill...  Average is about 17.5k miles I've had.

 

I'd never advocate getting really expensive tyres.  The best ones I had, were Avon's and Uniroyals.  Got factory Conti's on at the moment and I don't like them as theyre far too loud!

I got 35k from the P7s on my old Superb before I sold it. By that time the fronts were at 2.1mm and the backs still at 3.5mm. Pretty much all motorway miles. 

 

I wish the P7s on the new car would wear out by 17.5k - I'd be on new rubber by July if that were the case. 

[AGFalco]

Michelin Energy Saver + are being discontinued. 

To be replaced by the Primacy 4.

Michelin also now do the Pilot Sport 4.

Goodyear Efficient Grip always come out well.

 

Known tyres to last from 14 days and 2 k miles, to 14 years and 82 k miles.

A piece of string is twice half its length.

 

Thanks AG Falco

[Defenderben]

If the car has been rear ended and written-off, you won't be needing any new tyres.

 

Tyre life/ wear in general is down to how you drive. Any tyre these days should give around 15-20k miles (unless you drive aggressively).

[AGFalco]

Tyre wear is getting worst these days.

Cars accelerate, brake and corner harder than they used to.

There is only one thing that produces that grip - the tyres.

 

This is a bit simple but the harder the tyre the longer they last but the less grip they can produce.

The more grip they produce the faster the wear.

 

When the noise ratings came in there was a push by the tyre manufactures to make their tyres quieter.

Some tyres would not pass the ratings and these were stopped being made.

The easy way to make a tyre quieter is to made it softer.

 

If you want to make your tyres last longer then keep everything smooth and keep your tyre pressures up.

 

Had a MB with rear tyres lasting 9 k miles and this was a premium brand with the MO marking.

 

Thanks AG Falco

[ScoutCJB]

On 30/05/2018 at 15:45, creamvRS said:

My Uniroyal rainsport 3s just last about 9k miles -Same tyres lasted @Ant-Vrs had them lasting about 5k

 

Christ .... The Yoko Prada Spec 2 I fitted to our old Zafira VXR lasted nearly double that!  I've got Rainsports going on mine this week and hope I get better than that

[Awkward_Josh]

If anyone is interested, I ended up going for the Hankook Venus Prime 3's fitted and balanced for £60 a corner... Absolute leaps and bounds above the old set (2 GT Radials on the right hand side and 2 different ditch finders on the left) so can't tell if they are actually a really good value tyre or whether my old tyres were just truly terrible  but I'm pleased nonetheless, 

 

Cheers for all the help, 

 

Josh 

[creamvRS]

23 hours ago, ScoutCJB said:

 

Christ .... The Yoko Prada Spec 2 I fitted to our old Zafira VXR lasted nearly double that!  I've got Rainsports going on mine this week and hope I get better than that

 

@Ant-Vrs Was a 330bhp monster with those upfront and went to the ring with them.

 

I had spirited driving with my 9k miles

[ScoutCJB]

On 6/24/2018 at 12:19, Awkward_Josh said:

If anyone is interested, I ended up going for the Hankook Venus Prime 3's fitted and balanced for £60 a corner... Absolute leaps and bounds above the old set (2 GT Radials on the right hand side and 2 different ditch finders on the left) so can't tell if they are actually a really good value tyre or whether my old tyres were just truly terrible  but I'm pleased nonetheless, 

 

Cheers for all the help, 

 

Josh 

 

They should be fine - We run the Ventus Prime 2 on my Wifes Cooper S as they are one of only a few tyres available in the run flats for that tyre size.

Did you replace all 4 in the end?  Running different tyres on different corners is a no no for me. 

 

 

[Awkward_Josh]

59 minutes ago, ScoutCJB said:

 

They should be fine - We run the Ventus Prime 2 on my Wifes Cooper S as they are one of only a few tyres available in the run flats for that tyre size.

Did you replace all 4 in the end?  Running different tyres on different corners is a no no for me. 

 

 

Really pleased with them currently, lets see how many miles i get out of them haha.

 

Yep, replaced all four at the same time, the GT Radials still had about 6mm on them, but I wanted to start how i mean to go on so got those replaced too.

 

Had the tracking checked at the garage who did my tyres and miraculously they said that it didn't need doing!

[ScoutCJB]

Good news then if it didn't need doing .... indication it's not been climbing kerbs 

 

i had a Champiro GT radial on a car years ago, I ran them for 3 months and swapped them out as I didn't like them.  Got more for them used on eBay than they cost me new fitted