Tyres on car I am handing back

[tigermad]

I am handing back my car next month to VW finance and my 2 front tyres will need changing soon. I want to go the part worn method since it's pointless spending the money on 2 brand new ones. Does it matter if I have a cheap brand on and does the actual load and speed rating have to match the 2 rears? Thanks

Edited 16 August, 2019 by tigermad

[Rustynuts]

Load & speed rating must be correct. Brand I should think is irrelevant unless there's anything written in the contract.

[shyVRS245]

If the rear tyres have more thread than the fronts you could swap them yourself if you have a trolley jack or pay a local garage about £12 to do it for you. Assuming all 4 tyres have more than the 1.6mm minimum legal thread depth.

[tigermad]

1 minute ago, shyVRS245 said:

If the rear tyres have more thread than the fronts you could swap them yourself if you have a trolley jack or pay a local garage about £12 to do it for you. Assuming all 4 tyres have more than the 1.6mm minimum legal thread depth.

The fronts has about 4mm left around 3 weeks ago so in another month think it will be too close to illegal to risk it 

[shyVRS245]

1 minute ago, tigermad said:

The fronts has about 4mm left around 3 weeks ago so in another month think it will be too close to illegal to risk it 

I think you are panicking unless you do mega miles each month as my tyres lose 2mm every 10,000 miles on the front and 1mm on the back.

[tigermad]

1 minute ago, shyVRS245 said:

I think you are panicking unless you do mega miles each month as my tyres lose 2mm every 10,000 miles on the front and 1mm on the back.

About 300 per week. Will get a gauge and take a look in a few weeks. 

Edited 16 August, 2019 by tigermad

[shyVRS245]

2 minutes ago, tigermad said:

About 300 per week. Will get a gauge and take a look in a few weeks. 

Most garages will do a free tyre depth check for you with their accurate digital equipment if you want to save yourself a few quid.

[SurreyJohn]

@tigermad You still have time to do a front-back swap, unlikely to wear more than 0.1mm in couple of thousand miles on the back.

 

There are lot of cars that don’t go back on due date, and get few weeks extension as replacement car not yet delivered, do you have an exact return date.

 

The BVRLA guide says replacement tyres must be same class as the originals (so cannot put a C rated tyre on if original was B), to meet the class there are 3 parameters,  fuel efficiency, safety, noise.  Also must meet legal min (1.6mm tread), and have no damage to sidewall or tread.  So be very careful if you think you can put cheaper tyres on just because they are same size.

 

If tyres fail, expect to be billed at list price + fitting, which may be nearer £200 for a tyre that you could get done for say £130

 

I have assumed when you mean end of a lease or a PCP return, but if I misunderstand and you are selling as a Part Exchange, can have 4 different tyres as it would have been priced based on condition following visual inspection.

Edited 16 August, 2019 by SurreyJohn

[skidpan]

5 minutes ago, SurreyJohn said:

The BVRLA guide says replacement tyres must be same class as the originals (so cannot put a C rated tyre on if original was B), to meet the class there are 3 parameters,  fuel efficiency, safety, noise.  Also must meet legal min (1.6mm tread), and have no damage to sidewall or tread.  So be very careful if you think you can put cheaper tyres on just because they are same size.

 

With regards to replacing tyres the only requirements I have ever experienced have been that the load rating and speed rating match or exceed the OEM spec as does the size unless agreed with your insurers etc. The 3 categories that manufacturers have to show on a sticker are pretty meaningless since they carry out the tests themselves. Some far eastern ditchfinders have good ratings yet can be lethal.

 

I cannot see any issue providing they are a decent well known brand and I don't just mean the likes of Goodyear, Pirelli etc. I replaced a set of 4 Conti's with 4 Kumho's and despite being little more than 1/2 the price they were better than the Conti's in every way especially noise.

 

Quick bit of simple maths. Your existing tyres have used 4mm (8mm down to 4mm) in 10,000 miles at the very minimum (the fronts on our 1.4 TSi 150 have gone form 8mm to 5mm in 13,000 miles). That is 2,500 miles per mm. You have 2.4mm down to the legal minimum and at 2,500 per mm that is 6,000 miles. Doing 300 miles a week that is 20 weeks. Even if you drive like a total animal its still going to be 10 weeks. That would take you to the end of October.

 

So don't panic.

[SurreyJohn]

BVRLA guide, tyres are section 17, the class part is in blue box, don’t know if it is newish rule

 

https://issuu.com/bfwsn67/docs/cars_fw_t_fleet_alliance?e=2001091/40087681

 

My own guess, is that if all 4 tyres are same type, might not be checked against originals, but if 2 are different then inviting problems and further checking.

Edited 16 August, 2019 by SurreyJohn

[skidpan]

13 minutes ago, SurreyJohn said:

BVRLA guide, tyres are section 17, the class part is in blue box, don’t know if it is newish rule

 

New one on me. But since manufacturers tend to fit more than one make of tyre on any model (depends whet they get the best deal on at any time) how on earth do you find out what the minimum original tyre "class" was without having a list of all the OEM tyres?

 

The Pirelli P7's on my cars are "C" "B" 71dB.

 

A tyre called the Rotulla S_Race RU01 is "C" "B" 69 dB is 1/2 the price of the Pirelli and betters the spec but would the leasing company accept an unknown ditchfinder?

 

But a tyre from a well respected company such as the Bridgestone Turanze ER300 (on the wifes current Skoda as OEM and was on her previous one) is about 20% more expensive than the Pirelli yet is only "E" "E" 73dB i.e. it fails on every category.

 

What a bizarre rule. when you can theoretically fit a ditchfinder but not a good quality tyre.

[Sagalout]

I agree that guide is bonkers. Looks like non-technical commercial staff trying to define a technical standard and getting caught in incorrect and incomplete detail.  

1. Do manufacturers recommend a tyre class? Not that I can find. So how do they find it justifiable to refer to it under the paragraph referencing manufacturers recommendations?

2. The guide makes no specific mention of the required load index value and I would think that much more important than the external noise generation index for example.

 

I would suggest that provided the tyres are of the same type/size (e.g summer, all-season etc); the wheels are as supplied at start of the lease/hire (size and style) and the tyres meet or better the load index and speed rating then you are within standards. I doubt any attempt to charge anyone for supplying better quality tyres at the end of a lease/hire would withstand legal scrutiny. (unreasonable terms etc)

[penguin17]

3 hours ago, tigermad said:

The fronts has about 4mm left around 3 weeks ago so in another month think it will be too close to illegal to risk it 

I doubt it.  If you've had the car 2 years (?) and still have 4mm on the fronts then I doubt you'll get them down much past 3mm, if at all,  in a few weeks. 

Edited 16 August, 2019 by penguin17

[Greezy56]

Don't worry , When I had my lease through VW they wouldn't change the tires till under 2mm. So the same goes for pick up , as long as you have 2mm or even 1.9 you will be fine.

[silver1011]

I do 620 miles a week. There is no way you're going to scrub 2.4mm off them over the next 7 weeks doing 300 miles a week unless you're driving it like you've stolen it.

 

As long as the tyres are legal (1.6mm) you don't need to do anything.

[tigermad]

Thanks for the replies. Going to have the threads checked again and tyres swapped from front to back if necessary. Seems like I will not have to worry after all 🙂 

[maffyou]

The other nonsense in that link is that there’s not necessarily any rhyme or reason as to which tyres your car comes with - same model and spec can come with lots of different tyres, potentially. 

[tigermad]

Had the tyres swapped.  Garage said he wouldn’t have bothered doing it. What’s surprising the tyres that Skoda said were 4.2 3 weeks ago, this garage says 2.2. He said the dealers don’t measure them right. He also said my tyres will be fine for the 2 months I might have to wait for new car. 

[maffyou]

26 minutes ago, tigermad said:

He said the dealers don’t measure them right.

I can well believe that but I’ve never known them measure in a customer’s favour before 

[shyVRS245]

Marshalls Skoda in Leicester have copied Audi dealers and send you an e-mail/video to your phone with the technician wearing a head camera showing your tyre thread depths to you as they check them which is cool.

[tigermad]

1 minute ago, shyVRS245 said:

Marshalls Skoda in Leicester have copied Audi dealers and send you an e-mail/video to your phone with the technician wearing a head camera showing your tyre thread depths to you as they check them which is cool.

 

I had a video for the health check from my dealer too. So not sure how it can be wrong.  Oh well. 

[Rustynuts]

7 hours ago, tigermad said:

Had the tyres swapped.  Garage said he wouldn’t have bothered doing it. What’s surprising the tyres that Skoda said were 4.2 3 weeks ago, this garage says 2.2. He said the dealers don’t measure them right. He also said my tyres will be fine for the 2 months I might have to wait for new car. 

 

Sounds like someone is measuring the total tread depth (4.2mm) and someone is measuring the remaining available tread depth (2.2mm). That's the only logical answer I think, give or take a little for user error or measurement discrepancy.

 

However, you don't really need to have someone measure your tyres, just take a look at the measuring blocks between the treads.

[Zenbasses]

The 20p test is a pretty reliable way of telling if your tyres or legal or not.

 

Slip the 20p into the groove and if you can see the silver boarder on the face of the 20p it's time to change