Tired of Tyres !!

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atom3624

atom3624

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Cold, wet, windy St Helens, U.K.
Before I start, I need to explain, I have a 2.2-litre DIESEL Honda Civic - fairly fast, but hardly a cutting edge high performance supercar!!

I bought it new during September 2007 and it now has approx 15k miles on it.

The front tyres were replaced for the first time at 9.5k miles - I would guess this is at least 3-5k less than average, but they are 225/40 92Y 18 tyres. The originals were Michelin Pilots.
I replaced these with the only decent ones available at the garage performing a routine service, Bridgestone RE050A's - sam dimension of course.

Now at 15k miles, the rears are showing at least 4-5mm (legal minimum in UK is 1.6mm over at least 75% of the full width, over the centre section - just looked it up!!)
One of the rears started loosing air - not the valve - and was increasing slightly, from 3psi / week to 4-5 psi. This could be a variety of things, but I did notice a couple of sharp stones lodged in it. Definitely NOT a good idea to dislodge anything, so I didn't.

I re-checked the fronts which now had 2-3mm approx - so decided to 'bite the bullet' and go for a complete set of 4 - EXPENSIVE!!

I started hammering Google for best dry grip, wet grip, lateral grip, braking, road noise, etc.
Best 2 were Pirelli P Zero Rossos (nice tyre) and the new Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 2. The latter had 'lower rolling resistance and good wet grip'. Almost a contradiction you would have thought, but I went for them.

I don't like Continental - history now and probably a damned good tyre, but 20 years ago they were crap - very bad wet grip, etc. - bloody dangerous so I never consider these - despite being standard fitment on Mercs - perhaps we need to steer clear of Mercs in the wet!!!!:lol::w00t::w00t::lol:

A colleague at work mentioned to check the tracking which I included.
Prices were all over the place. A good ballpark was £110-120 each delivered, or £130 fitted and balanced.

Finalising where to go, I re-checked one site - Blackcircles I think - and I had to go to the lower options to locate the Goodyears, which instead of £130 each, fitted and balanced, were now £244 !!!! :w00t::w00t:
I'm no millionaire, nor am I that stupid, so NO WAY JOSE!!

Finally got 4 fitted and balanced at £127.50 each + £30.00 for tracking.

National Tyres stated this was 4 degrees out and 'we recommend to check the tracking every 3 months' which must be a racket.
That the tracking was out should hopefully resolve some of the front tyre issues, but 9.5k first time on the Michelin Pilots, then 6k on the Bridgestones .... so much for diesel economy!!!

I don't race on the road - can't really and it's not THAT fast, but I don't slow that much for corners - the only fun left these days!!

Yes, the new 'F1's' are really good, despite the hype.

NO, I don't do track days!

Al.
 
Yep they are not cheap..

I used to run my classic mini on 175/50/13's front tires would be shot at about 3000 miles and I insisted on good brands..
I wouldn't touch yokohama's as my mate was changing his every 1400 miles...

in the end we both went to a wheel specialist and had a look at the range of tires available ..the tread wear number on the tires were all over the place..

yok's were down around the 150-200 mark and we found pirelli's were at 300

so next time round i got pirelli p5000 drago's

although you get grip from the softer tires they really do wear quick.
..ok so we were driving fast and hard and running stage 3 race engines but took a while and i eventually started getting 5000 miles from my front tires:w00t:

you do get what you pay for and a bit of research goes a long way.
also back off the go pedal a little bit...the fuel savings can pay for the tires....lol



I also had a bmw 320 (e30) and could only squeeze about 10000 from all 4 ....I blame my lead right foot....(its now a lead left thumb..)
 
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In a former life .....
When I was working as 'expatriate' in Africa, I was on quite a reasonable salary, still single, etc., and ended up getting a 4.0 XKR, new!!

Without either trying to rag it, or go slowly, I got 14k out of the REARS, and near enough 20k out of the fronts!!

These were high speed rated, low profile, wide tyres, on a much heavier, much more powerful and torquey car!!

Still cannot believe the front wear on the Honda.
I'll see how it goes with the Goodyears!

I actually use the cruise control IN town as well as on the Motorway, and am constantly looking at the consumption, so no excessive ragging, anywhere.

Al.
 
I feel for you - no really I do, I've just paid £35 EACH for 2 tyres for my fiesta and £55 EACH for 4 tyres on the disco....... Whats the world coming to?
 
Joking aside, I did have the option of 'cheaper' tyres - Kuhna, whatever ... from around £65-70.
Sorry, but if I'm able, I'm going for the better quality ones, but I'll spend a week hunting down details, then prices.
I considered Micheldever, etc., but really don't have the space to 'temporarily store' 4 relatively huge tyres, and there wouldn't really be any saving all in.
Let's see how these go then ...
Al.
 
Bridgestone RE050A's were the stock tyre on my 150bhp Astra diesel and I got less than 14k miles out of the fronts. Replaced with the same like a muppet & had the same results so went for some budget Enduro Runway 916's for £50 each. It was winter time when I had them put on and the full face 'V' tread pattern was excellent in snow & wet, in fact I would say they were some of the best tyres I ever had for handling these conditions.

I also had good experiences in the past with Kuhmo tyres for around the £75-80 mark.
 
i run toyo proxes on the front end of the golf and there lasting quite well but then i only done 3000 odd miles mot to mot so its no suprise plus i drive like a grandad now which helps
 
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