Car MY18 1.4 SEL with P7 235/45R18 tyres, 12,000 miles

 

I hate the OE P7 tyres on my car. Wayyyy too noisy, constant white noise, harsh, loud over any minor bump. On the other hand, rolling resistance must be low as I can easily get mid 50+ mpg average on long motorway runs at the limit, must be because they are so hard.

 

I've even contemplated selling my car its so loud, but financially that's daft. It was supposed to be a keeper.

 

Depressingly at 12,000 miles they measure at 6mm front, 6.5mm rear. I seem to recall measuring them at 7.5mm when new. So will last for years yet.

 

I'm a fan of all season tyres, in particular the Vredestein Quatrac 5 has been my go to choice for all our other cars. Non directional too.

 

Now I see Camskill have Quatrac 5 in my size for under £109 including delivery AND Vredestein are doing a promotion until July 31. £25/£50 off for 2/4 tyres, taking them down to around £96 ea delivered. Then need to budget £10 ea for fitting locally.

 

Tempted to order 2 or 4. But would I end up storing them for a few years before fitting and what to do with the P7 tyres? I'm not a seller type person.....decisions, decisions..,

 

Had similar problems with my mk2 Octavia where the OE Dunlop Sportmaxx developed a really bad serrated tread noise from a misaligned rear over a similar distance.

Bit the bullet and replaced them very early with re-alignment and the subsequent serenity was bliss, hated the unnecessary expense though.

 

To get that little wear over 12k miles suggest they are a little 'hard' and you will have to endure the noise for years to come if you retain them.

I'd go for the promotion price, change the lot and see if you can sell the P7's, but not to a Briskoda member of course  

Damn sight cheaper than changing the car.

If I did buy them, whats the maximum I could store new tyres in my garage before fitting them? Thoughts please....

I agree with Gerrycan.

I think the question you should ask yourself is how safe your existing tyres are now, or going to be when the the weather gets cooler, seeing as how they are so hard.

Be a shame for them to fail their first true test in an emergency braking situation in adverse conditions and regret not fitting the new tyres in the shed.

 

By the way I now notice all I did was paraphrase your post so I think you already know the right thing to do.

 

Quite a few years back there was a Briskoda Octavia owner who complained about his OEM Dunlop being noisy and giving very poor ride and handling. As a road warrior he doing some amazing annual mileage and was determined to wear them out. I think he gave up at 96k miles. Obviously his tyres were defective, yours might be too.

We’ve got the original 235/40/19 P7’s on the 280 and yes, they’re noisy on poor road surfaces but pretty quiet on good and silent on great (like the M40 Toll). But then I can forgive the noise TBH because they grip like billyo in the wet and dry and with 29,874 miles on them, they still have 5.5mm all round (I swapped front to rear about 8k ago) I guess they’ll still be on for a while yet. 

Dunno what I’ll get at time of change, but frankly I’d rather have great physical performance - so grip and long life - with some noise than vice-versa. 

I run Vredestein Quatrac 5's as my winter tyres down south here.

Why not buy the Vredestein ready for the winter.

But still use / fit the Pirelli's during the summer. 

 

Also rotate your summer Pirelli's every time you have them refitted to wear them out as a set.

They can get noisy from a sawtooth pattern appearing on the inside of the rear tyres.

I rotate them diagonally to cut the noise down that this causes.

 

Thanks AG Falco

I honestly don't get why the UK hasn't fully adopted all seasons or winter tyres. Am I right in thinking they're not even an option from new in the UK?

 

For me all seasons are a bare minimum requirement and wouldn't drive on anything else.

from new you can spec all seasons for a superb as an option iirc

1 hour ago, fraz8888 said:

from new you can spec all seasons for a superb as an option iirc

Not in the UK, you can't. That used to be an option available but only on the base SE with 17" wheels. It disappeared off the options list 3 or 4 years ago along with the rough road package.

10 hours ago, xman said:

If I did buy them, whats the maximum I could store new tyres in my garage before fitting them? Thoughts please....

A local (australian) national tyre distributor suggests 5 years is the point where extra vigilance is required for things like cracking from a ageing tyre

Which raises the interesting issue of my now 7 year old space saver spare which has only done about 500 km (I've had a lot of punctures).

 

I guess your decision will also be influenced by how many miles you are likely to do a year now you are out of lockdown?

I'm just thankful that I don't live in climate where I have to deal with all the faff of storing and fitting  summer and winter tyres.

 

Just for your amusement my state of South Australia has just gone into an initial 7 day total lockdown because we now have 5 cases of Delta variant in our approx 2 million population and low (11.2%) fully vaccinated cover. I get my 2nd Astra Zeneca tomorrow.

Could be worse mate, you could be in NSW and then have 1 positive case in your country town and that town goes into a 7 day lockdown 

10 hours ago, Gerrycan said:

 

I guess your decision will also be influenced by how many miles you are likely to do a year now you are out of lockdown?

I'm just thankful that I don't live in climate where I have to deal with all the faff of storing and fitting  summer and winter tyres.

 

 

I am not going down the route of changing tyres twice a year. FAFF is putting it mildy. I don't have a second set of wheels and will not entertain that option. I am very fussy about how my tyres are changed having observed over the years cars bring damaged when jacking incorrectly, air tools used incorrectly/inappropriately  damaging wheel bolts/keys, overtightening, crossthreading, fitters gouging alloys when removing stuck on balance weights etc etc. Fitting and removing the same tyre on a rim many times is surely not good for the tyre and possibly the rim.

 

I always remove/refit wheels myself, clean and prepare them carefully and take them to somewhere I can observe them changing and balancing the tyre. Can only take one sometimes two wheels in one trip to the tyre fitter so 2 or 4 trips. Some larger places will now not fit tyres that they don't supply. Lots of hassle, but I use the opportunity to examine/clean the brakes/suspension while the wheel is off.

 

Decision to go ahead or not will be next Monday or Tuesday.

 

Thanks for the comments so far.

I had similar problem on my Arona, came with Pirelli P7

but it also had stupid 215/45 R18 tyres (Kamiq gets these too)

 

Discovered in first winter they were dreadful in colder weather (below about +10c when wet) so wanted to go for all season tyres (but 2 years ago had to pay nearer £150 per tyre for Quatrac 5 in that obscure size, and only alternative then was Maxxis AP2)

 

In end bought a set of Borbet Y 16 inch alloy wheels with Goodyear Ultragrip 9+ winter tyres (the 9+ was brand new then).  Was cheaper than the £600 Quatrac 5s.    To be honest the 9+ are brilliant, hit a patch of frost and it grips like it is dry summer day (and when it snowed, just pulled past people on every hill)

 

So now done about 27k miles (of which about 18k is on the P7s) and all 4 still have 5.2 to 5.7mm tread so looks like they will last 45k+ miles

 

The downside of summer/winter is an hour to swap them early Nov and April, the upside is superb grip and knowledge that unless I get a puncture I now have tyres (already paid for) that will be ok to about 70k miles or another 5 years

 

 

nice wheels also! i am going the same route, borbet alloys and winters.  bought the wheels, just waiting to grab the tyres and get them all fitted up for winter where we expect to be driving a bit more than previous years.

 

trying to choose between

 

bridgestone weather control a005's

blizzak's

goodyear ultragrips 

 

On 22/07/2021 at 21:41, fraz8888 said:

nice wheels also! i am going the same route, borbet alloys and winters.  bought the wheels, just waiting to grab the tyres and get them all fitted up for winter where we expect to be driving a bit more than previous years.

 

trying to choose between

 

bridgestone weather control a005's

blizzak's

goodyear ultragrips 

 

Bridgestone weather control A005 is an all season tyre, not a winter tyre

 

Probably  worth adding following to your shortlist:

Continental TS860 or new TS870

Hankook i*cept Evo3

Michelin Alpin 6

 

The good thing with Borbet is they have a wheel finder on their website where you can select what fits with no adaptors and original bolts

 

Edited 24 July, 20214 yr by SurreyJohn
Forgot TS870

1 hour ago, SurreyJohn said:

Bridgestone weather control A005 is an all season tyre, not a winter tyre

 

Probably  worth adding following to your shortlist:

Continental TS860 or new TS870

Hankook i*cept Evo3

Michelin Alpin 6

 

The good thing with Borbet is they have a wheel finder on their website where you can select what fits with no adaptors and original bolts

 

Thanks, yes aware about the all season category of that tyre. Have been reading / watching the tyre reviews site which suggested a decent all season tyre might be a way to go. But an outsider in think and non point getting all season with a separate set of wheels for winter and summer now. So winter tyres it is.

 

Borbet site is great, loads of choice and as you say v helpful on config, matching bore sizes, many other manufacturers say spigot rings needed etc. Plus TUV approved and so on.

 

Borbet wheels ordered and only a 2 week lead time, compared to other brands such as sparco which were saying October or no dates at all.

Edited 24 July, 20214 yr by fraz8888

Dilemma solved!! I checked last night (Sunday) with a view to ordering 4 x Vredestein Quatrac 5 tyres, only to find that the price had increased by £31 to £140 ea inc delivery. Even with the £50 discount promotion for 4 tyres, I'm no longer interested.

Guess I'll have to put up with the P7 drone for a while yet.

 

I suppose the moral of this story is, if you see a really good price for something you know you want, don't procrastinate but act quickly. I've seen this volatility in tyre pricing before.

15 hours ago, xman said:

Guess I'll have to put up with the P7 drone for a while yet.

 

Try swapping the tyres / wheels from side to side.

 

 

15 hours ago, xman said:

I've seen this volatility in tyre pricing before.

 

Try clearing your web history and your cookies then check the price again as delti.com do use them.

 

Thanks, AG Falco