Part worn

[castros_bro]

I run part worns on most things like my long distance ZX estate but only get them from one place which is next to a big scrappy.  All day long there are unwanted motors arriving, many under their own steam, they have so many wheels/tyres to choose from they can usually match tyres from stock.  Tyres do make a profound difference to how a vehicle handles which is more noticeable on a bike, a Ural on off Chinese "off-road" PVC road tyres makes you want to give up biking forever where as semi slick Pirellis on a Honda90 mean you can almost scrape the legshields on corners.

[mercrocker]

Used to run partworns when my stuff was kind of current but now I just get spanked for budget radials - the sizes dont allow much in the way of buying power.    Wifeys 190E goes on midrange Tiddlywink - I would love Contis just because they look right but what the hell its a 1.8....I always put Van tyres on the Van.    Am I wasting money?   Dunno...

I value low road noise and good ride comfort over lacky-band "handling" benefits.   Leaky rims and geriatric rubber is the biggest tyre-induced arse ache on old motors.   Before I even got my Cowley on the road I had all the rims blasted, powdered and rubbered up down at Vintage Tyres in Beaulieu before it even turned a wheel.   Loadsamoney maybe but there is enough impediment to forward progress without flat tyres....

[CortinaDave]

I always just buy budgets as I'm a tightwad, but it's really hit and miss. The ZT had continentals all round when bought but I've had to replace the front 2.

 

Bought "land sail" tyres from farmers as the Contis were about £180 each thanks to being a bastard size.

 

The landsails are lethal. LandFILL more like. The car has no grip whatsoever in the wet now. Made me appreciate how good the contis are.

 

Landsail tyres are unquestionably the worst I've experienced since I had stomils on a Sierra years ago.

 

Normally I use a local garage who fit Barums as budgets and I've always been really happy with those .

[fordperv]

i dont see a problem with part worns as long as they are from a responsible place, mrs fordpervs mum had 2 partworns on the back of her corsa as i advised her that hers were running low on tread, the day she had them fitted she came to me and asked if i wouldnt mind having a look at them just to make sure they were ok, i obviously obliged and im glad i did they were dangerous one had an egg on the inside edge with cracks on the sidewalls the other had sidewall damage and cracks, safe to say i went to the tyre place where the chap in broken english tried to tell me they were safe and legal  i told him either change them or refund he showed me other tyres he had of the same size and they were just as bad so a refund was the only way, the worst thing is this is a place the local taxis use so imagine the safety.

 

i popped down to a reputable place i know and he went apeshit that someone would fit tyres as dangerous as these and sorted some quality safe tyres 

 

on my saph ive got a mix of falkens on the front and maxxis on the back all bought new i would have had the maxxis all round but the tyre place couldn't get the 2 for the front as the size is oddball now

[Negative Creep]

I always get part worns - since I never keep a car for long it's pointless getting them noew. Volvo needed a pair of 225/40/17s on the front, so I had the choice of over £200 for a decent pair brand new, or £58 for a pair of Dunlops. Bit of a no brainer

[Bobthebeard]

Always fit new tyres to the Honda when it needs them, but always budget branded stuff. Every wheel has a different brand. Does that explain why the car will wheel spin when setting off from junctions etc using even the slightest amount of excess throttle?

Seems to break traction very easily, always has. Are Honda Accords noted for this or is it just down to me being cheap when buying tyres?

[dollywobbler]

Cheap tyres I reckon Bob. Budget tyres are very often cheap for a reason. Not that big name is always worth the extra asking price. The gist I get from this thread is that good part worns of a good brand are far better than brand new budget rubber.

[wuvvum]

The Carina E has Dunlop SP Sport tyres on the front, and that's surprisingly quick to break traction on a damp road.  Mind you they are only 175s, which seems a bit narrow for a car that size.  It'll soon be getting a pair of part worn 185/65 snow tyres on the front though, just in case we do get a load of OMGSNOKAOS this winter.  I'm not sure whether to be tight and fit the one "proper" snow tyre that I have and the Federal "M+S" tyre that I nicked off the Rover, or whether to splash out on a second proper snow tyre - they're not particularly cheap though, even part worn (at least not ones with enough tread to be worth bothering with).

[Micrashed]

All my cars wear part worn tyres.

 

Some were new when first bought but they are all part worn now.

[Bobthebeard]

The Carina E has Dunlop SP Sport tyres on the front, and that's surprisingly quick to break traction on a damp road.  Mind you they are only 175s, which seems a bit narrow for a car that size.  It'll soon be getting a pair of part worn 185/65 snow tyres on the front though, just in case we do get a load of OMGSNOKAOS this winter.  I'm not sure whether to be tight and fit the one "proper" snow tyre that I have and the Federal "M+S" tyre that I nicked off the Rover, or whether to splash out on a second proper snow tyre - they're not particularly cheap though, even part worn (at least not ones with enough tread to be worth bothering with).

Speaking of OMGSNOKAOS, the BBC weather suggests it won't be happening any time soon.

The Daily Tabloids are warning that we are in for the worst winter since the world was created! Who shall we believe?

[wuvvum]

Well, the tabloids were saying we were going to have major blizzards across the land in November.  There's only two days of November left and I haven't seen a single snowflake so far, so it'd better get a move on...

[dollywobbler]

Further proof that the tabloids will print any old horseshit in order to sell copies. 

 

When you say Snow Tyres Wuv, do you mean Mud&Snow or actual winter tyres with a snowflake on them? Proper winter tyres use a different, softer compound. The Disco is wearing M&S tyres, so I'll be interested to see what that's like. IF it snows.

[wuvvum]

When you say Snow Tyres Wuv, do you mean Mud&Snow or actual winter tyres with a snowflake on them?

 

One of them (a Dunlop SP M3 Winter) has the snowflake-in-a-mountain symbol on it.  The Federal I nicked off the Rover just says "M+S" on the side.  It has more sipes in the tread than a normal tyre, but not as many as the Dunlop.  Would probably still be better in the snow than the standard tyres that are on there at the minute though.

[Hendry]

This is a cracking thread, as I'm actually needing a new tyre and my car wears an oddball size too, 195/50/16 88v extra load.

 

Not sure why the fuck exactly a 1.2 Clio needs extra load ones but they were factory fit so guess I'd better stick with the right ones, tyres are really expensive, £60 for new Barum/Evergreen from the local Renner dealer, £70+ from Shit Fit etc, a new Michelin Energy set me back £182 from Shit fit (old tyre like a racing slick) and a new ContiSport Contact 2 was £107 from the wheel refurb place who refurbed my Alloy who get their tyres direct from Micheldever, only I'm proper skint with Christmas and bills etc and can't really afford a new decent tyre and have been stung with dodgy part worns in the past.

[Cavcraft]

Fuck that, just get 'standard' load ones. They probably on fitted those tyres it came with because that's all they had to hand at the time.

[Des]

This is no ordinary tyre, this is a M+S tyre.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[cort16]

Just check what they fit. I got a couple of rear tyres fitted to my Jag and on the phone the guy was "oh aye I've got a cracking pair of Continentals etc etc". I went down and pissed off while he fitted them, came back, handed over my £80 and it drove like a bag of shit.  Got back home and they'd fitted a set of rock had wangdings or fan-wys or something.

Daft me for not double checking like. He probably says that to everyone that phones up. It was enough to get it through the MOT but it's completetely undrivable in any approaching 20% humidity. I'll need to change them before I sell it or the buyer won't get very far.

[skattrd]

I have gone through loads of different types of tyres and have found budget tyres are a no go on anything. They generally ruin the handling of the car. The worst I had was a set of Avons on my Scirocco - the handling was atrocious in the dry and dangerous in the wet after fitting those.

 

I'd rather have decent brand part-worn than new budget tyres any day.

If I'm doing a lot of miles in the car for work then the car gets name brand new tyres, Bridgestone, Dunlop, Michelin etc.

If the car is a bit sporty then it gets decent sporty tyres, Toyo proxes, Goodyear Eagle, Yoko Parada etc. 

If the car is a bit of a shed or not staying long then it gets name brand part worns - or a set of cheap alloys off ebay with whatever tyres are on them.

 

That said though, this winter I'm experimenting with the boring. I've got 2x new remoulds and 2x new budget all season (M+S) tyres for it. I've never tried either before, so thought I'd give them a bash. The remoulds were £36 each and the all season budgets (allegedly made by Vredestein) were £50 each from mytyres in 205/55/16

[drum]

I was sold on the benefit of winter tyres and the fact they stop you in half the distance etc. Apparently the performance difference starts at about +5 degrees so it's not just snow they work better in. Something to do with the compound blah, blah.

 

I got a pair of Goodyear winter tyres part worn online for £70 with about 7mm for the wife's alfa.

[PhilA]

The vehicles I buy come with whatever tyres are on the rims at the time. Some have been good (Hankook Ventus 195/45/R15 on my cinq- regardless of what people say of them being terrible, the car had so much tyre for its' weight I think it'd fall over before slipping.)

 

Here.. different story. Tyres are sold not so much with how grippy they are, but how many millions of miles you can get out of them.

 

My truck came from the factory with a set of American Generals, which were hard as a rock and offered modest traction in the dry (hoof it and they would shred into black powder onto the street) and absolutely none in the wet (slight uphill start would get that WrRrRrR-THUNK-VVVVRRRRRWOOOOOOOOOOO noise as one span up, the diff locked, then span them both up, still with a distinct lack of forwards progress).

Bit the bullet and shod it with $950 of BF Goodrich rubber. Transformed the vehicle. Can now perform comedic Howling Tyres On American Vehicle with ease. Done 25,000 miles on them and they're just beginning to look used. the book said to expect 60,000 miles of use before replacement. 

 

I'd hate to put part-worns on it. Tyres last too many years here and go all hard and nasty and nobody thinks to check the date codes.

 

That being said, I'm not looking forward to the 235/50/R20's on the Dodge when they're due.. don't think those will be available anything but new.

 

195/50/R15 for the Renault, in Michelin flavour roll in at about $600 for the four. "Low profile" pfeh. 

 

--Phil

[Morgan84]

I am not a believer in cheap budget tyres; you get what you pay for. Increased noise levels, decreased traction and reduced lifespan sometimes; I don't turn my nose up at folks who buy decent condition quality part worns, so what if it's used - as soon as the new tyre is driven along the road it's used ! Given the choice, would be part-worn quality over the ditch-finders any day.

 

Anyone who wants to potentially compromise safety for a few extra pounds should consider if motoring is really for them; only got one neck !

[r.welfare]

If I could find a decent local supplier of part-worns I would be tempted. But, like others, I tend to wait until Costco has an offer on Michelins. The set on the Avensis worked out at 60 quid a hoop.

 

The other good thing about Costco is you can buy four now, but actually get them fitted as and when you need them, rather than having to have a full set of four fitted there and then if only (say) two of your current tyres are worn.

[purplebargeken]

New one's on the Hyundai as I do a lot of mileage and I need it to be fine and dandy in the wheel depratment. The rest get part-worns. Ebay was fab re: new tyres for the Hyundai. I got them from a huge tyre place in germany and they were nearly £40 per tyre cheaper than the UK and that was including delivery which was a 2 day jobbie.

 

Have never had snow tyres and I'm old enough to have driven in real snow me lad, not this pussy whipped crap that has been fluffing around for the last couple of years.

[RichardMoss]

The worst tyres I've ever had on a car were some budget Chinese things on a Rover 825 diesel which were fitted by the previous ovwner (Dong Ying "Durun" tyres). They were so grip-free that I could spin the front wheels in the dry whilst driving along in second gear!  In the wet they were absolutely terrifying The second worst were some Czech budget ones on an Allegro back in 1984.

 

On the other hand, I have never had a problem with a part worn and if I have a choice between a £30 part worn and a £30 budget tyre I will always go for the part worn. If possible, though, I would prefer new tyres from an "intermediate" brand name. Micelins and Pirellis tend to be silly prices but Goodyear and Fulda (for example) are more affordable. 

 

Out here in the UAE, new tyres are a reasonable price and I just bought two new Cooper Cobra GTs for my Jeep without breaking the bank.

 

A final thought:  When I buy a second hand car, it comes with 5 part worns fitted anyway! I always check out the tyres carefully and repalce any that look a bit dodgy