**Unofficial Tyre Thread**

Armageus said:
So if you only need 2 tyres, e.g. because you haven't been rotating them front to rear to even out wear, you'd chuck out say 2 perfectly good Michelins and buy 4 Goodyears?
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I’m talking about mixing tyre types.
Those worn winters on the back were effectively summers. They had worn down to 3mm or so.

Goodyears on the front and Michelins on the rear is fine if they’re both summer compounds obviously.
 
Hey guys, looking at getting new rears on the F80.

Currently running MPS4S on a 275 35 19. Should I stick or twist to MPSS on a slightly wider tyre as some on the interwebs have?
 
Armageus said:
In theory this is the case, in practice unless you are driving everywhere like a loon you are unlikely to notice the difference or experience issues. Especially as all four tyres are decent performers in the first place whether summer or all season.


I'd agree it's generally not a good idea (much like putting new tyres on the rear is best practice) but millions of people run mismatched tyres (including cars with all 4 tyres different brands), mismatching of Load indexes, runflat and non-runflat, and there aren't millions of crashes every year.

I must be in the minority here, as I personally wouldn't want to throw away 2 perfectly good tyres just to change type or even brand of tyre.
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Having done just this I can confirm it's a bit sketchy but I can live with it.

FWD Astra with 4 F1AS5 means it understeers and never, ever, ever oversteers no matter how hard or jerky you try and lift off.

Same car with CC2 on the front and F1AS5 on the rear will have much less understeer in damp or greasy conditions and if you are fairly committed and lift the back end steps out.

On fresh snow we had a few weeks back the grip was pretty awesome for traction and braking, I could almost drive normally on snow. All good until you push it slightly or lift off as per the tyre review video.

In milder conditions the CC2 are much more squirmy and generally a noisy tyre so possibly going forward I'll just stick to the Eagle F1 as they are pretty good in the wet and amazing in the dry.

I only fitted them as I do deliveries twice a week and didn't want to get stuck anywhere but most of that can be avoided by using common sense. It doesn't matter if I can climb a hill if everyone else is stuck and I can walk to work in 6 minutes :o
 
Quick question. I've hit a pot hole and it's popped a tyre. My car is a Audi S5 and looking online people are saying I need to change all 4 tyres due to it being four wheel drive. Is that correct? The tyres I have are Michelin Pilot Sport 4s so it's going to cost me £1000 if all 4 need doing!
 
sanaxe1 said:
Quick question. I've hit a pot hole and it's popped a tyre. My car is a Audi S5 and looking online people are saying I need to change all 4 tyres due to it being four wheel drive. Is that correct? The tyres I have are Michelin Pilot Sport 4s so it's going to cost me £1000 if all 4 need doing!
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In an ideal world yes all four should be changed. Not the power of an S5 but our Tiguan had a rear left puncture which has been changed out and we haven’t crashed and died.
 
ChrisD. said:
In an ideal world yes all four should be changed. Not the power of an S5 but our Tiguan had a rear left puncture which has been changed out and we haven’t crashed and died.
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It breaks the transmission eventually as you have different wheel speeds.
 
Depends how much wear there is and the sophistication of the drive train, etc.

Also if it isn't too bad you can get away with rotating the tyres for best match (i.e. some will have worn more than others and/or front balance of wear) and replacing less of them.

If they are all like 40-50% worn though meh not an ideal situation.

EDIT: Googling the S5 there is an up to tolerance where below that level of variance you don't need to replace all 4 - don't take my word for it but looks like with the Michelin Pilot Sport 4 as long as your existing tyres have around 5.2mm upwards you probably don't "need" to change them all.
 
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To be honest not as much as I should - though I've rarely run a vehicle long enough beyond the point it would start to be a good idea before it has been sold or replaced. (Or I end up buying a whole new set of tyres by that point :s).
 
I ended up giving the all seasons tyres a miss and just getting two summer tyres. Went for same ones as the ones on the rear axle. Will keep an eye on them and rotate if need be and when I need new ones again in the future I can go all season on all 4 then. For now will just avoid snow which is vary rare anyways.
 
Need some tyre advice. Never had to buy any before. We do lowish mileage 3-5k per year. When we do use the car it's mainly trips to Scotland, lots of motorway and windy country roads etc. Rest is work site visits and hospital visits etc. Most journeys are 30 minute plus and more 40mph+ more than 20mph urban pottering. Most journeys involve the M25 in some part. I was wondering whether to go all weather and be done with it or stick with summer tyres. We're probably more likely to do the longer trips outside of winter, but having aquaplaned in an old car I really don't want to end up with tyres that are no good in the winter if we head to the rellies over the Christmas holidays.

Tyres are size 195-55 15 if that makes a difference

I read one report that said all weather tyres tend to wear out above 30C which put me off a bit and that summer tyres shouldn't be used below 7C. It all seems a bit drastic as I'm sure most people I know don't swap tyres twice a year. Is it bad advice?
 
Rroff said:
Depends how much wear there is and the sophistication of the drive train, etc.

Also if it isn't too bad you can get away with rotating the tyres for best match (i.e. some will have worn more than others and/or front balance of wear) and replacing less of them.

If they are all like 40-50% worn though meh not an ideal situation.

EDIT: Googling the S5 there is an up to tolerance where below that level of variance you don't need to replace all 4 - don't take my word for it but looks like with the Michelin Pilot Sport 4 as long as your existing tyres have around 5.2mm upwards you probably don't "need" to change them all.
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Measured them today and the 2 back tyres are 5.2mm exactly and the front one is 5.1mm so I'm going to risk it and just change the one tyre. :eek:
 
sanaxe1 said:
Measured them today and the 2 back tyres are 5.2mm exactly and the front one is 5.1mm so I'm going to risk it and just change the one tyre. :eek:
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I suspect there’s a much bigger difference between my front and rears. I’ll change them at some point later in the year. Probably to Michelin Pilot Sports, although Eagle F1s have done me well in the past.
 
ik9000 said:
Need some tyre advice. Never had to buy any before. We do lowish mileage 3-5k per year. When we do use the car it's mainly trips to Scotland, lots of motorway and windy country roads etc. Rest is work site visits and hospital visits etc. Most journeys are 30 minute plus and more 40mph+ more than 20mph urban pottering. Most journeys involve the M25 in some part. I was wondering whether to go all weather and be done with it or stick with summer tyres. We're probably more likely to do the longer trips outside of winter, but having aquaplaned in an old car I really don't want to end up with tyres that are no good in the winter if we head to the rellies over the Christmas holidays.

Tyres are size 195-55 15 if that makes a difference

I read one report that said all weather tyres tend to wear out above 30C which put me off a bit and that summer tyres shouldn't be used below 7C. It all seems a bit drastic as I'm sure most people I know don't swap tyres twice a year. Is it bad advice?
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I've got Crossclimate 2 on my car. Done around 4000 miles so far, few things I've found are, compared to a set of Primacy 4 :

  • Summer tyres are still absolutely fine in most circumstances, as you say most people still run summer tyres all year in the U.K and it's probably the best option.
  • I've found that below 5C is where I start to feel a difference between summer and all seasons, not to say there is a difference, just they only start to "feel different" once they start getting down below 5C.
  • They feel/are squirmier, softer and less confident inspiring above 15C, roughly.
  • They have basically no on centre feel or whatever it's called. With no continuous centre tread, they're very wishy washy when sat on the motorway or turning in compared to a summer tyre, they grip equally well compared to the summer tyres though.
  • On the other hand, tramlining is much reduced compared to summer tyres.
  • They are excellent in sub zero temperatures, and on those cold icy days. You know that feeling on summer tyres on cold days where the steering feels light and you can feel the lateral grip being absent, the all seasons haven't felt that yet.
  • They were excellent in the recent snow, braking, grip, stability was much improved over summer tyres. If where I lived had many more snow days than we do all seasons would be a default pick for me.
  • They are great in wet weather, but more than likely they are great as they are new and have 6+mm tread depth, not felt any improvement over the Primacy 4 in terms of actual aquaplaning resistance, although they do feel different, they seem to cut through standing water better.
  • I'm still not convinced I'll pick them again, they do really give less confidence/feedback at higher temperatures, and they do seem to wear faster at higher temperatures. I still need to see how many miles I get from them.
  • My thoughts are based on a bog standard car (125hp Fiesta) with bog standard driving on A and B roads, 20mph > NSL and dual carriageway and motorway. The snow driving has been on 20mph local roads and on dual carriageways.
  • They work better than summer tyres in mud, they aren't off road tyres, but they surprised me in getting me in and off some mud.
Just my 2p on the topic.
 
VaderDSL said:
I'm still not convinced I'll pick them again, they do really give less confidence/feedback at higher temperatures, and they do seem to wear faster at higher temperatures. I still need to see how many miles I get from them.
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One of the reasons I went with the Falken Wildpeak AT3WA in the end, albeit different vehicle, though I could only get the CC SUV not the CC2s for my vehicle. They still retain a good firmness in warmer temperatures and tread pattern keep some degree of centre feel. (Bit too heavy duty for a passenger car though).

On balance I don't think the CC2s are a good compromise tyre for the south, though I'd probably err towards them in the north of the country. In future I think I will lean towards something with a tread pattern like the Pirelli Scorpion Zero or Continental CrossContact ATR.

sanaxe1 said:
Measured them today and the 2 back tyres are 5.2mm exactly and the front one is 5.1mm so I'm going to risk it and just change the one tyre. :eek:
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5.2mm is a conservative estimate on my part - it would be best to get advice from someone who actually understands the tolerance specs and tyres involved.
 
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VaderDSL said:
I've got Crossclimate 2 on my car. Done around 4000 miles so far, few things I've found are, compared to a set of Primacy 4 :

  • Summer tyres are still absolutely fine in most circumstances, as you say most people still run summer tyres all year in the U.K and it's probably the best option.
  • I've found that below 5C is where I start to feel a difference between summer and all seasons, not to say there is a difference, just they only start to "feel different" once they start getting down below 5C.
  • They feel/are squirmier, softer and less confident inspiring above 15C, roughly.
  • They have basically no on centre feel or whatever it's called. With no continuous centre tread, they're very wishy washy when sat on the motorway or turning in compared to a summer tyre, they grip equally well compared to the summer tyres though.
  • On the other hand, tramlining is much reduced compared to summer tyres.
  • They are excellent in sub zero temperatures, and on those cold icy days. You know that feeling on summer tyres on cold days where the steering feels light and you can feel the lateral grip being absent, the all seasons haven't felt that yet.
  • They were excellent in the recent snow, braking, grip, stability was much improved over summer tyres. If where I lived had many more snow days than we do all seasons would be a default pick for me.
  • They are great in wet weather, but more than likely they are great as they are new and have 6+mm tread depth, not felt any improvement over the Primacy 4 in terms of actual aquaplaning resistance, although they do feel different, they seem to cut through standing water better.
  • I'm still not convinced I'll pick them again, they do really give less confidence/feedback at higher temperatures, and they do seem to wear faster at higher temperatures. I still need to see how many miles I get from them.
  • My thoughts are based on a bog standard car (125hp Fiesta) with bog standard driving on A and B roads, 20mph > NSL and dual carriageway and motorway. The snow driving has been on 20mph local roads and on dual carriageways.
  • They work better than summer tyres in mud, they aren't off road tyres, but they surprised me in getting me in and off some mud.
Just my 2p on the topic.
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Having done a similar amount of mileage with the CC2s on a 640d (313hp) and I agree with your experience and opinions. The past month we've not got higher than 10C in the Highlands and I don't think I'd like them above that temperature. I really agree with the point I've put in bold above, I feel like I'm constantly correcting the steering - that could be the car where it's natural wheel size is 20" (the CC2s are 18"). Overtaking on an A road was a bit hairy for the first time when returning to my lane, they don't like the sudden direction change. I've also noticed that after a 30 mile drive at an almost constant 60mph the tyres smell of warm rubber, more than any other tyres I've used.

I can't wait to go back to the 20" summer performance tyres. I don't think think these are a true all season as I wouldn't want to run them during the summer on my particular car and driving style.
 
ik9000 said:
Need some tyre advice. Never had to buy any before. We do lowish mileage 3-5k per year. When we do use the car it's mainly trips to Scotland, lots of motorway and windy country roads etc. Rest is work site visits and hospital visits etc. Most journeys are 30 minute plus and more 40mph+ more than 20mph urban pottering. Most journeys involve the M25 in some part. I was wondering whether to go all weather and be done with it or stick with summer tyres. We're probably more likely to do the longer trips outside of winter, but having aquaplaned in an old car I really don't want to end up with tyres that are no good in the winter if we head to the rellies over the Christmas holidays.

Tyres are size 195-55 15 if that makes a difference

I read one report that said all weather tyres tend to wear out above 30C which put me off a bit and that summer tyres shouldn't be used below 7C. It all seems a bit drastic as I'm sure most people I know don't swap tyres twice a year. Is it bad advice?
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You can get enhanced wet performance summer tyres - I do recommend them but they can come with some compromises - my Bridgestone Turanza t005s are a bit noisy and in very dry summer conditions can be a bit vague. But I've put them through some of the wettest, greasiest conditions on the roads anyone is likely to encounter and they've never let me down by even a millimetre.

I've never encountered any kind of drastic change at around 7C - usually it is a fairly gradual difference but then as temperatures get towards 0 you want to be driving sensibly anyhow - probably the more budget tyres will become less reassuring quicker below 7C.

I've used several different sets of mid to higher tier summer tyres in all conditions, all types of surface down to I think -7C is the lowest and up to light levels of snow and ice without any real concerns - they do start to feel a bit different below approx. 7C but don't immediately start to drastically perform different. Proper snow and ice would be another matter.
 
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