**Unofficial Tyre Thread**

I guess wrongly I assumed that, to a point, wider tyre = larger contact patch = more traction.

Considering the other VAG group offerings have these tyres, seemed to make sense. Stupidity could be showing through though.

I imagine going from Conti Sport Contact 2's to the Eagle F1 AS2's should make a fair difference in traction.
 
Clarkey said:
Let's be honest though, it's not like a CS2 is a poor tyre, I can't see there being much of an improvement.
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Neither can I see putting 215's on instead of 205's making much difference either. Infact I'd wager simply moving to a different tyre brand might make more difference.
 
I can't recall anyone here dying a fiery (ice cold?) death on the roads the last time we had rather large smatterings of snow because they weren't on winter tyres. So why do people still go on about needing winter tyres in this country?
 
Cannot disagree more about your rating of the SC2's.
I had these factory fitted on my Octy vRS.
I replaced the first two at 31k miles (so had SC5's put on the rear and the existing rear SC2's moved to the front).
The remaining two SC2's have now reach 43k miles (31k on the back, 12k on the front) and are now ready for replacement.
In those 43k miles the SC2's have never let me down nor felt like they were going to. I've thrown the car through corners in all weather conditions and I do that because I know that the SC2's will grip and not let go.

The SC5's are so far proving to be excellent too - hence why I'll replace the remaining SC2's with them.
But the SC2's have just been amazing. Quiet, lasting forever and never once attempted to let go when they shouldn't have.
 
I have a question - I'm needing to buy some winter tires, (in Canada, so I definitely will use them!). The usual thing here is to keep them on a set of steel rims as it's easier to swap and maintain them, and it looks bad ass.

The car is a 2004 mazda 6 wagon (sorry, estate!) with 215/50R17 tires on currently but I'm probably going to put them on 16" rims. The tire will probably be the "Continental ContiWinterContact TS 830 P" in size 205/60R16. Does that sound sensible? Moving to that size has a pretty big effect on the cost and narrower tires should be better in snow?

The other thing I'm not sure about are the rims - there are some 16x6.5" wheels but they come with two bolt patterns, 5-100mm or 5-114.3mm - I have no idea which is correct?
 
Those tyres on 16s will be excellent. No idea about the wheel sizes, sorry.. Check the offset of your car.
Alternatively, contact your Mazda dealer?
 
rodenal said:
Think you may have misunderstood whatever you read, 175s on a rim meant for 215 would just not work ( I'd be amazed if this is the case). It probably can come with a different wheel which has a 175 section
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Yeah it just says i can either have 175/??/?? ( questions marks as cant remember the rest without looking) or the 215
 
jakejacob0 said:
Yeah it just says i can either have 175/??/?? ( questions marks as cant remember the rest without looking) or the 215
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It doesnt say that - you need to read it more carefully because that doesn't make sense. Those two different tyre widths will be dependant on the size of the wheel fitted. Does your Corsa currently have 17 inch wheels? If so, you can't fit 175 section tyres to those wheels (I doubt anyone even makes such tyres).
 
mrk said:
I can't recall anyone here dying a fiery (ice cold?) death on the roads the last time we had rather large smatterings of snow because they weren't on winter tyres. So why do people still go on about needing winter tyres in this country?
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If they were exclusively effective in winter and only winter then I'd agree but if my experience is anything to go by then modern winter tyres work exceptionally well with wet weather (which can happen year round and at any time) and are fine to use year round without any huge performance hit or increase in wear in summer.

Of course if you're on huge wheels and don't want the potentially large additional cost of swapping or having a second set on steelies then that's up to you - but for the majority with smaller wheel/tyre requirements a winter can be run year round without any issues... in my opinion of course! :)

[TW]Fox;25102884 said:
Yea, I'm probably going to go with the Goodyear.
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Mine have the Ultragrip 8's fitted. Certainly seem good on my Focus - 195/60/R15
 
We fitted 4x Hankook Ice Bear's to the wife's Yaris 3 winters ago, it goes through all snow & ice without any problems.

Hers was the only car able to get out of the drive way and street when it was icy last year. Gradient is too steep for non winters when it's sheet ice.

She'll be driving me to work if it gets touchy again this winter. Swapping from the CS5's to the winters around the start of November
 
Seem to be struggling to find Goodyears for what seems like a decent price.

205/40/17 Eagle F1 AS2's are only £92.50 each at Camskill, but the cheapest I can find them anywhere fitted is close to £30 a tyre more.

I can get 4 fitted for £503.96, including balancing/new valves/old tyre disposal etc...

That doesn't feel like a poor price for 4 tyres, but I'm not convinced its the best value I can get... what are other people paying?

It seems to be a bit of an odd size, with plenty of places not stocking them at all.

Edit - Clearly being an idiot. Just found 4 fitted for £434, That feels pretty good for what appears to be the best road tyre I can put on there.
 
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Frustrating.

It now appears finding 4 f1 as2's in stock where I can get them fitted is impossible. 3 separate places have told me stock won't be available until early next year.

Looking around, my next best options are either conti sport contact 5's, Pirelli p zero's or the Yokahama Advan v105's.

The advans are not available in my size, I'm struggling to find the conti's for under 550 fitted which leaves me with the pirelli's.

I've been offered 4 fitted for 396, which seems good. Last time I had pirelli's however was p6000's.... No comment needed there. I presume these are significantly better ?

What should I go for OCUK ? 205 40 17's...
 
Of the garages I've asked, the cheapest wanted £20 per wheel for fitting, balancing and valves. That seemed expensive for - £80 - For 20 minutes work. Many don't want to do it full stop.

Appreciate its because their profit was in the tyres, but happy to be told different.
 
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