I’ve had my L&K 190 now for about 4 weeks, pleased with the car overall, but I can’t help noticing that the road noise seems to be a little higher than I’d expect for a car this size.

 

I totally appreciate that it doesn’t have the soundproofing that an A6, E Class or 5 series has, but all the same, I would like to try and improve it.

 

It has the standard fit Pirelli Cinturato P7 tyres all round, 6mm tread front, 5mm rear - in fact the rear tyres are the original tyres, having covered 56,000 miles!

 

I’ve read on here that these tyres can be particularly noisy, so my question is, is it really worth replacing them and selling on a certain auction site for approx £120 (it seems) and replacing them with something like the Goodyear Eagle F1 AS3?    Would I really notice that much difference, in terms of feel as well as road noise, or would I be better to wear them out first?   They do seem a little fidgety too on anything but the best road surfaces.

The short answer is yes. The P7s are awful. I have a 190 L&K same as you. I replaced mine with the Goodyear Eagle Asymmetric 3s. It makes a huge difference in terms of road noise. Others have gone for PS4 or all-season. I'm not aware of anyone who regretted the swap. 

Sorry but can't comment on your P7 tyres, but I do remember a few years ago buying a car with Pirelli P6000 tyres. They took forever to wear down, but I replaced them all when there was around 6mm of tread. Why, they were bloomin deadly in the wet, so I thought better the extra expense and get new tyres, than end up in a tree. I was conducting a lot of skid car training at the time and those skills certainly came in useful with the Pirellis on the car. My advice, if you are not happy with the grip performance, you state fidgety, you really want to be able to steer in an emergency situation with some confidence. The Goodyear Eagle F1 AS3 tyres are an excellent choice.

It isn’t so much lack of grip but perhaps more the hard compound compared to a more supple tyre like the Goodyear.  Not sure.

 

Either way it sounds like it could be a worthwhile exercise, although I guess I’m looking at approx £300 to upgrade them.

 

Any other experiences?

I had Goodyear Eagle Asymmetric 2s on my Brera. They're good tyres and when my P7s wear out, I'll replace them with the Goodyears. But, honestly, the P7s are not as bad as people make out, unless you're driving on the edge all the time. They way I drive, the P7s are fine.

19 minutes ago, freelunch said:

I had Goodyear Eagle Asymmetric 2s on my Brera. They're good tyres and when my P7s wear out, I'll replace them with the Goodyears. But, honestly, the P7s are not as bad as people make out, unless you're driving on the edge all the time. They way I drive, the P7s are fine.

 

Yep, I had Goodyear AS3's on a 5 series a couple of years ago.  Good tyres.  

 

I don't drive the Superb on the edge at all, as I have two other cars for that!    I think I’ll wear out the P7's first...

They are ok but I was starting to lose confidence in mine with about 4 ish on the front and 5 on the back after just over 21k. They were scrabbling for grip so had to go. Up to this point though not bad at all imo.

 

p.s. Those depth figures may not be exactly right. Did post them somewhere when I swapped.

5 minutes ago, Nick_H said:

They are ok but I was starting to lose confidence in mine with about 4 ish on the front and 5 on the back after just over 21k. They were scrabbling for grip so had to go. Up to this point though not bad at all imo.

 

p.s. Those depth figures may not be exactly right. Did post them somewhere when I swapped.

 

Thanks.  Mine have 6mm on the front and 5 on the back (previous owner must have treated it with serious respect - 5mm remaining after 56k miles!!).   I think I need to tolerate them for a year or so yet...

I drove P7s on my ex-Superb Estate Mk2 (TDI 140) from its very first km. They were in 225/45/17 size. I just... hated them. 

For the first 15000 km, they were quite fine either on dry or wet roads. Grip was efficient in both conditions, but once 15000 km (~9320 miles) have been reached, the grip really quickly got worse especially on wet roads. At 30000 km (~18640 miles) they were really slippy though still 4mm left on the front axle. I finally changed them at 42000km (~26100 miles) though still 3mm left. Note: I mainly drive on urban highways.

I also really disliked them because of too soft sidewalls, which gave me the impression that I had a "chewing-gum" like steering and poor feedbacks for "road reading"... I was not very sure where I put my front wheels on winding roads with quite fast pace (No worry, this was not a "GTI" pace anyway )

I was much more satisfied with Michelin PS4 with harder sidewalls, which really positively transformed the steering behavior: much more precise and wayyyyyy better for road feedbacks.

Currently I have 4 P7s on my Superb Estate Mk3 (TDI 190 4x4). They are in 235/40/19.

Probably due to the smaller sidewalls height, Both steering precision and road feebacks are a little better. I can't complain about the grip at the moment, since they only have 13800 km (~8600 miles), because I also use winter tyres (ContiWinterContact TS850P in 215/55/17).

However, I'm really looking forward to changing them for 4 Michelin PS4 once again. 

 

Don't know if this post may help you. At least, this is my own experience.

 

I test drove a superb on 19" P7s (235x40 19) and noted...

 

1. Way more road noise than I would like and expect (quite insane really in a car of this class)

2. Jittery nervous handling, particularly when steering on a surface with high-frequency undulations.

3. Unnecessarily harsh ride over sharper bumps 

 

The car I ordered has 18" (235x45x18) Continental Sport Contact 5 wheels/tyres swapped over from a floor model.

 

Problems 1, 2 and 3 solved.

 

IMO it's like a bunch of 14 years olds specified the wheel and tyre combination for these things

Edited 25 March, 20197 yr by digifish
more info

9 hours ago, daveb99 said:

I’ve had my L&K 190 now for about 4 weeks, pleased with the car overall, but I can’t help noticing that the road noise seems to be a little higher than I’d expect for a car this size.

 

I totally appreciate that it doesn’t have the soundproofing that an A6, E Class or 5 series has, but all the same, I would like to try and improve it.

 

It has the standard fit Pirelli Cinturato P7 tyres all round, 6mm tread front, 5mm rear - in fact the rear tyres are the original tyres, having covered 56,000 miles!

 

I’ve read on here that these tyres can be particularly noisy, so my question is, is it really worth replacing them and selling on a certain auction site for approx £120 (it seems) and replacing them with something like the Goodyear Eagle F1 AS3?    Would I really notice that much difference, in terms of feel as well as road noise, or would I be better to wear them out first?   They do seem a little fidgety too on anything but the best road surfaces.

The sound deadening in the rear is severely lacking so why not improve sound insulation under the rear seat, cargo area carpet, wheel tubs and rear quarters ?

 

Get the alignment checked and have the camber as upright as possible (-0.75°) and a conservative toe setting .

 

I'd also swap the wheels side-to-side on the same axle as there might be some feathering there.

 

I agree though, Pirelli are not great beyond 50% and I'd be working hard to wear them out quickly.

I replaced all 4 with 6mm of tread still on them.  That's how bad they are.  They drone, they're poor in the wet and have a tendency to squirm under harder cornering; from a reinforced sidewall with a high load rating, that's alarming.  

 

I've had tyres that weren't as good as others but still had strengths in certain areas.  In all my years of driving and car ownership the P7's are the first tyres I've categorically thought are awful in near enough every regard.  

2 hours ago, penguin17 said:

... tendency to squirm under harder cornering; from a reinforced sidewall with a high load rating, that's alarming.  .

 

FWIW I did notice the P7's reminded me of a set of Pirelli PZero (ultra stiff sidewall) kind of vibe, I once had on a car for 2 days and rejected. Also hated. 

 

Around town, a little bit of sidewall flex/compliance helps turn in, and grip while doing so. Low profile and stiff sidewalls are a poor combination for handling on the street. On the track at 10/10 probably OK.  

Edited 26 March, 20197 yr by digifish

Not for the first time I've read about people complaining about excessive noise on the 18 or 19" rims, and yes, the P7's are a noisy tyre. I have 17"s that happen to have two brands of very low noise tyres, and the car is whisper quiet, road noise is almost non existent. 

 

So go for it, ditch those tyres, you will be delighted with the results.  Fulda Sport Control 2 or Sava Intensa 2 are both 68db and are as good as any big brand tyre I have ever used.

P7 not a totally bad tyre but not worth the cash charged. Then they are not as bad as the Bridgestone's on my Superb. Hated them in the wet. So changed the fronts for PS4S. You get what you pay for ,,, faultless. Go see this guy on u tube he will tell you straight

 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEvB1bmKjPWZ3V1wSdBnXPQ

My 2018 Skoda Superb L&K (25,000 miles) just failed its MOT because of the front (Pirelli P7) tyres. Both of them had split around the entire circumference of the inside edge, exposing the wire.

When the mechanic called his tyre supplier and told him he had a double front tyre MOT failure on a Superb, the guy immediately responded with, "Pirelli P7's split around inner edge, right".

So, it appears it's a known issue.

1 hour ago, JG671 said:

My 2018 Skoda Superb L&K (25,000 miles) just failed its MOT because of the front (Pirelli P7) tyres. Both of them had split around the entire circumference of the inside edge, exposing the wire.

When the mechanic called his tyre supplier and told him he had a double front tyre MOT failure on a Superb, the guy immediately responded with, "Pirelli P7's split around inner edge, right".

So, it appears it's a known issue.

I completely doubt every single part of what your mechanic has said to you... 

 

They dont phone a tyre supplier and tell them the make and model, it means nothing to them, they tell them tyre size, rating and what brand theyre after, a tyre supplier is never gonna get enough information from customers about a specific make and model of tyre on a specific make and model of car to come to that conclusion.

 

If your tyres are completely worn to cords on the inside edges then there will be 3 things that can cause it, lots of half size speed bumps, lower arm bushes failing or the main one, tracking is out, wheels are toeing out and scrubbing the inside face. 

And low tyre pressure.

 

Pirelli presently make almost 3500 different types of passenger car tyres.

They have many which are made and marked for a particular car manufacture.

This doesn't stop them being fitted to different car makes.

The tyre supplier should be asking the questions.

A lot of garages will order on line though so the question is not asked.

 

 

Thanks, AG Falco

 

 

my factory Pirelli P7 Cinturato lasted 50,000 kms, with no signs of cracking whatsoever.   they weren't the best tyre u could get, but they weren't bad either.

i still had another 3mm or so in them before they would've worn out, but there was a good tyre deal on - i went with a wider tyre size because it was significantly cheaper.

I was there when he made the call. I'd already told him I didn't want P7's  and asked him to recommend a better tyre. That's why he told the distributor the Make & Model and the fact it was an MOT failure and that I'd asked for a recommendation.

As I said, the distributor immediately knew the failure mode without being told. As for the other fault modes, all discounted. The car has only done 25k, the MOT confirmed all the mechanical joints are fine, there are no speed bumps near where I live, the tyre pressures are religiously maintained (I have my own compressor in the garage) and the tracking has been checked and verified as spot on.

It appears that Skoda Superb's and P&'s simply do not get on, at least on the front wheels. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the tyres on the rear wheels

@JG671 

If this has been found at the MOT @ 25,000 miles when was it that you properly checked the tyres when checking the pressures and the tyres were not like this?

 

We are near the end of the winter so did the car not get serviced or inspected pre winter, or is it the last MOT that the tyres might have had a close inspection?

 

The car sailed through it's last MOT with no Defects and no Advisories.

Typically the car is on the ground with the wheels facing straight ahead when you check the pressures.

Even with the wheels turned the defect is extremely difficult to see. There is no scrubbing of the tread, in fact there is still a fair amount of tread on the tyres.

It's only when the car was lifted on the ramp that you could see a black line around the entire circumference on the inside edges. Closer inspection revealed it is actual a deep split and you can see broken ends where the wiring has broken within the split.

Is no servicing done by you or anyone between MOTs or before them?

The last MOT was 12 months ago and the last Full Service was 6 months ago.

It appears the tyres just reach a point where they structurally fail.

6 hours ago, JG671 said:

I was there when he made the call. I'd already told him I didn't want P7's  and asked him to recommend a better tyre. That's why he told the distributor the Make & Model and the fact it was an MOT failure and that I'd asked for a recommendation.

As I said, the distributor immediately knew the failure mode without being told. As for the other fault modes, all discounted. The car has only done 25k, the MOT confirmed all the mechanical joints are fine, there are no speed bumps near where I live, the tyre pressures are religiously maintained (I have my own compressor in the garage) and the tracking has been checked and verified as spot on.

It appears that Skoda Superb's and P&'s simply do not get on, at least on the front wheels. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the tyres on the rear wheels

You are the only person that’s complained of this issue, not a single other person.

 

an MOT does not check a suspension bush in that way, it checks the bare minimum ie. noisy and is it falling apart. It could still have a lot of movement and be wearing out.

 

I still doubt your mechanic heard any of this down the phone and if they’ve been doing it long enough they ain’t gonna ask the supplier for recommendations they’ll have they’re go to budget, mid and premium tyres to offer customers.

 

How and when was the tracking checked exactly? Seems odd you’ve said it’s been checked if you haven’t had any issues, why did you get it checked?

 

something doesn’t add up with this claim at all.