[shame] nods [/shame]

Well - update - It turns out Kumho are EXACTLY the same tyre as Marshall! :confused: so, I've taken a total u-turn and am about to order a set of Toyo Proxes from mytyres and hopefully they'll be on the car by midweek. In the mean time I'm going to grovel to my lift sharee to drive this week until I get it sorted.

I know what you mean about no brakes though. Danger is danger, and if I got caught, I wouldn't feel too upset. I think the term, " getting my just desserts" would apply. - ATS chappie said he'd never heard of a tyre doing what mine has done so perhaps it's worth them looking at it before it comes off the wheel. Doubt I'll get any

I even looked with a torch and had a good fiddle.

Rob.

Rob strikes again! :p

No - no suspension geometry checked, BUT - techie (ross) are you looking at this? If so, can you PM me with ability to do a bit of alignment/geometry check on my car on Thursday 11th Dec? - I can change my route to the midlands somewhat to come thru' Northampton - early afternoon methinks.

( tyre was scrubbing more on the outside, so the strip coming off the INSIDE too me totally unaware! )

If Techie cant sort you & you can fit Cheltenham into your route Powerstation are IMO the dogs at sorting geometry although in fairness they are the only people I use & my respect for them started several years ago when they sorted my Scoob.

I would avoid tyre depots as I have found they are only good at setting cars to standard settings & once you change wheels & lower the car this sometimes needs interpretation by someone who knows.

Thanks for the tip, Stuart. If Ross can't fit me in, then as I'll be "kind of" passing Cheltenham on the 11th (it's not that far off the M5 north of Bristol is it...) I'll give them a shout.

:cheers:

Ahem - I've just been scanning the engine bay thread, and it seems "something" happened? I'm not getting involved but it seems Ross may have thrown a wobbly? I'm embarrassed to ask really, but there'd be little point in me asking him to look at my car if there's been a falling out... :(

Yours embarrassedly from Devon...

Jason,

I "think" it was down to more than 75% of his posts having references to his employers and the products/services they offer. This appears to have got up several peoples' noses.

You tried Protyre yet?

ahem, no.

I've ordered a pair of Proxes through mytyres instead - where I choose to get them fitted is undecided yet. Protyre could be awkward because it would involve me driving on the dodgy tyre at motorway speed - something I DO NOT want to do (depsite my earlier risk taking) I'm "hoping" to borrow a wheel bolt extension tonight, change my two front wheels to the steels, and take the alloys somewhere to be changed. Protyre will be considered even though they're the other side of town.

Jason, blackcircles do a price match policy so may be able to have the tyres delivered to a local garage for you and fit for a reasonable cost.

Well - All i can say is FOOOOOOOOOOOOOK!!!! :shocked:

Mate came round today with a big fat wrench and a wheel bolt extension, so we ripped off the front alloys and stuck a couple of my steels on. Looks quite funny I must admit - Kind of mean looking at the back, and a pussy-cat at the front.

Anyway, once I took off the front left (the dodgy one) I got my first glimpse of the inside of it. Jesus H Christ! I didn't realise it was so bad. I took it inside the house and got a few snaps of it. There's six of the very fuzzy shots (sorry) in this folder. I've also hosted a shot here - just showing how BAD the damage was and looking back, the risk I took slowly driving it into town and back last night was hell of a mistake! :nono: Oh well, I deserved for it to blow out!

:cheers:

I hope you're all as :eek: as I was! - shocking result from one little stone hit!

Sorry Jason but I cant believe a stone could cause that.

It looks more like a remould thats failing. The tyre appears to be falling apart. If you have the same tyres on the back CHANGE THEM, no tyre should fail like that. I have seen tyres down to the wire with canvas showing & they still remained reosnably in tact. These tyres are deathtraps, I would be intrigued to hear the manufacturers excuses.

Its a lesson to us all to check the inside of our tyres more often for damage.

Hmmmm :think: I do have the same on the back... I'll deffo keep an eye on them. I suspect the fronts have failed due to more abuse though...

Oh, and Kumho are the same brand as these apparently, so I've been scared sh**less of using either of them now. There's no way I can afford to change the rears now, with what's coming but as they're rears and take less stress, I think I'll just keep my eye on them and leave them as is. Long term though this little thing has put me off big time...

Live 'n' learn!

Goodness - its a good job it didnt happen at high speed!

You'll be pleased with the Toyos Jason. Nice and grippy for the money and they even look good!

There's an important lesson here for you, Jason. You were very lucky not to have had a major incident/accident. :nono:

toyo's are good, but also have a look at the uniroyals rallye 540's they are very grippy in the wet and nice and quiet at speed.

[hangs head in shame at Denis' rollocking]

I'm only young - I need to learn from these small feck-ups and change my attitude for the future. I also would never learn if I didn't admit to my feck-ups and got lessons from all you "mature" (diplomatic term?) car owners

:cheers:

Tomorra I'll take a couple of piccies of my 50/50 steel/alloy mix - looks quite funny and I imagine it handles a bit weirdly too.

Just watch the speed bumps Jason! :eek:

I bet the front is pretty low with that combination!

Not thought about it being a bit lower... Well, whatever, I'm going to be taking it a lot easier with having 20mm narrower tyres on the front now.

Industry advice is to put the new tyres on the back, 'cos if one blows, you WILL spin, and are therefore scr3wed. If a front blows, you should be able to stop (eventually!) without swapping lanes....

As to the Kumho's, I have run several sets of these on my old MGF, and they were fine. Just as grippy as the Goodyears that came as OEM, just didn't last as long. Are the Marshalls re-moulds, 'cos the Kumhos aren't. They are Japanese, and a well established brand.

Oh, and EVERY Dunlop tyre I have had has fallen apart BEFORE it wore out, despite some of these being 'Z' rated (i.e. speeds OVER 150mph...). They have come apart in similarly spectacular fashion to yours, with the tread lifting away from the carcass in several places, sometimes with 3mm of tread left. Oh, and I am very carefull with potholes, kerbs, speed humps, etc....

I'd rather find a decent, cheap tyre & replace them more often than spend a fortune on fancy names & run them 'till bald due to lack of funds to replace them. AutoExpress have done several tyre tests recently, and some of the cheaper tyres have done surprisingly well (like beating the likes of Michelin, pirelli, Toyo, etc....)

Not thought about it being a bit lower... Well, whatever, I'm going to be taking it a lot easier with having 20mm narrower tyres on the front now.

I'd hope that the 17's fitted have the same rolling diameter as the 15's that came with the car. The place that supplied them should have made sure, otherwise your speedo will be way out, and the geometry could be suspect....

Well - I took some side on piccies of the car in it's current state, and to me, (perhaps it was a visual illusion) but the front wheels actually looked smaller than the back. They seemed smaller, and there was a bigger gap between the top of the tyre and the peak of the arch. :confused:

Whilst the wheels are off the car I might get a measure tape out and actually see the difference...

Jason, put the tyre sizes into the calculator here and get a definitive answer on the difference in circumference plus resulting effect on speedo readout. It's safer than using a tape measure which might go 'missing' where you would least want it to.

What size tyre do you have on the 17 inch alloys..... Let me know and I will work it out.........

205/40 R17 on the new alloys, 185/60 R14 on the steels.

My mental arithmetic process seems to tell me I've gained 3" diameter on the wheel (75mm ish) but lost only 40mm diameter from the lower profile of the tyre (2 sides x 20mm) - This could be rubbish, but hey, what the hell.

My mental arithmetic process

How about getting one of the original wheels and one of the new wheels and putting them next to each other?

Rob.