Tyre quality

[Bren]

I have replaced two tyres on the vectra in the last few weeks due to failure of the sidewall. The tyres were low profile budget items.

Today I have found another one flat - a landsail, just over three years old. I know when I take it off it will be side wall at fault. My other half has been told about potholes and traffic calming measures but I also know poor quality comes into it. Maybe as well as noise and wet weather performance deformation should be tested?

I read somewhere that there was less rubber actually being used in rubber products - one of the coolant hoses leaked on my SD1, when I took it off the thing broke into pieces nothing like you would expect a rubber based item to. Crap quality.

Maybe budget tyres are a waste of money?

[bunglebus]

I think so. Having had sphincter-tightening moments due to Chinese ditchfinders, I only buy good name stuff now - but even they can suffer from cracked sidewalls depending on where they're made. 

I'd rather buy part worn premium than new budget (not that I do, I swallow the cost of a new set of Goodyears and protect myself and my car)

[The_Equalizer]

Having had a tyre let go at 70mph coming onto the M25 I don't muck about anymore. I have Dunlop, Michelin and Continental on the Jag, Land Rover and Merc respectively.

To my mind tyres are a bit of an indicator to how a car is looked after generally. It's unlikely that someone has forked out on decent brand tyres to cut corners elsewhere.

[Liggle]

Even premium ones can be faulty. This is a Pirelli Scorpion Verde after 24k/2 years, had our monies worth luckily. Shame as there was plenty of tread left. 

[Dyslexic Viking]

My thought is that you do not save money on rubber products as they can ruin your life if they fail.

[Bren]

2 minutes ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

My thought is that you do not save money on rubber products as they can ruin your life if they fail.

I concur. I was told not to skimp on tyres or contraception.

[inconsistant]

All sidewhalls R shit.

[Zelandeth]

Tyres are the single most important safety item on a car. 

With that in mind, I just don't see it being worth trying to save a few quid.

That said, they do seem to perish a lot quicker than used to be the case - probably because of efforts to make the rubber less "sticky" to reduce rolling resistance and changes to manufacture processes to make them less environmentally harmful.  Neither are necessarily bad things, but do have knock on effects.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

1 hour ago, Bren said:

....I read somewhere that there was less rubber actually being used in rubber products - one of the coolant hoses leaked on my SD1, when I took it off the thing broke into pieces nothing like you would expect a rubber based item to. Crap quality....

In the race to the bottom line, and to encourage constant sales, rubber formulations have been tampered with over the years, but arguably got a lot worse once manufacturing went to China.

By stuffing more fillers such as clay into the mix, you can save on latex. A win for savings on raw materials, and a win for greater profits. Trouble is, that makes your finished product more rigid, and thus more likely to crack. Not really what the end user wants in any product designed to be flexible.

[Spurious]

I don't anymore. I've been to too many RTCs and too many of my car's come without any safety aids. 

Good rubber is keeping me stuck to the road and stopping me skidding/locking up under harsh braking, hopefully. 

I will put mid-range tyres on like Kumho, Barum, Avon etc as I think the gap in performance between top end tyres is probably too small in the long run. I try and avoid Chinese sounding names as it'll just be more plastic than rubber however. 

[Mrcento]

Early 2000's Nankangs on a Cinq/Seicento were simply the most terrifying thing you could do.

They were the hardest tyres known to man. More like plastic. The dry felt like the wet, the wet felt like ice. They'd lock up under little provocation and just slide. Ditchfinders wasn't a harsh term.

They were so hard, they didn't wear. Boys were running them 12k miles and they'd still have 7+mm on them.

[sutty2006]

Mrs sutty has an 18 plate Astra still with the original rear Michelin tyres on. They’re perished quite badly. 40k they’ve done. Perished. MICHELINS!!!!!!!!! 
 

 

I love landsails. Cheap and never blew out on the motorway ever…… 

 

you get what you’re given. 

[Barry Cade]

In my experience, "premium" rubber is no better nowadays, for cracking and perishing. In fact some expensive tyres are worse than budgets.. Continental in particular. 

Someone's definitely meddling with the rubberyness of rubber...

[iainrcz]

My car currently has Hankook on. Fitted them about 2 years ago,  they've been great. Dry or wet. I did actually think I'd spoiled it as it would break traction so easily on the Michelin Primacys, but no, it still will. You just have to actually want it to. Rather than it just deciding "you've pressed that accelerator every so slightly harder than I'd like, I'm going to make you look a twat coming off this roundabout"

[MikeR]

Biggest issue I find with sidewalls is the sun , my wife always parks her car in the same spot , and the sun always cooks the same 2 tyres ....  Which age at an alarming rate ! 

[Soundwave]

46 minutes ago, sutty2006 said:

Mrs sutty has an 18 plate Astra still with the original rear Michelin tyres on. They’re perished quite badly. 40k they’ve done. Perished. MICHELINS!!!!!!!!! 
 

 

I've got a 2017 Skoda Fabia on its original Michelins, and they're perishing too - car has 23k on it! They've gone along the edge of the tread, and they're at the point where I'm not overly happy driving the car on them. So it's off for a set of Kumhos the week after next - I've had good results on previous cars with them, in terms of both longevity and grip.

EDIT - Just been out to check, they're Bridgestones, not Michelins. Doh! The point remains though, not what you'd expect from a known tyre brand.

[sierraman]

Budgets are fine, obviously they won’t handle as well as a pair of Michelin’s but they’ll be good enough. Price I’m afraid does come into it, a pair of Michelin’s for mine are £250, a lot to find when a pair of Landsails will cost £100 and do fine for what it is.

I’ve got to say though the Vectra is going to handle like a boat full of sailors whatever tyres you fit. No amount of Michelin Cross climates will get round that. 

[loserone]

I've just stuck a set of part worn continentals on the CR-V.  

 

I do wonder about the idea of buying new premium tyres and selling them on when they're down to 4mm.

[tommotech]

I put a set of Hankook’s on my Audi daily, they’ve worn well and had 3mm on them but unfortunately one of the rears blew out yesterday. It’s the first time I’ve had a tyre fail, particularly in this fashion. I heard a pop from the rear end and a slight shimmy, the ESP corrected things nicely. 
I check tyres and pressures on a regular basis and was hoping to get another couple of thousand miles out of these, not sure if I’d go Hankook again if I’m honest. 
 

[Flat4]

I've found the same with my Michelin Cross Climates. They are coming up for 5 years old and been on about 3 different cars I've owned, so they are due changing but the sidewalls are starting to go already and you can feel the grip getting lower and lower. I scrapped a pair of 4 year old Energy Savers because even in the garage, they were so badly cracked I wouldn't want them on anyone's car.

I used to absolutely love Pirellis when the Cinturatos first came out but when they got down to 5mm the grip dropped off dramatically and they wore out fast. Granted, I'm not the most gentle of drivers but I think I had them on less than a year. I haven't used them again since, unless they've come on a newly purchased car. I've kept one as a spare.

I've stuck Bridgestone Weather Controls (their answer to Michelin's Cross Climate) on the Forester which is a brand I haven't tried before and so far I'm loving them. Slightly noisy and not quite as good road feedback, but sure footed in the wet and grippy as fuck no matter what the weather. Will be interesting to see if they wear any better than Michelins.

[Mrcento]

The BF Goodrich 4x4 tyres these days are notorious for cracking. some folk are only seeing 18 months from them before the rubber starts to perish.

[sierraman]

So, maybe those Linglongs for £50 a piece weren’t all that bad then...

[wuvvum]

I've never had any problems with Landsails - apart from slightly higher noise levels they don't seem to do anything noticeably worse than the big name brands.

I put a pair of Nankangs on the front of the Carina a couple of years ago - I needed a pair in a hurry for the test and those were the only sensibly priced option (they're a slightly obscure size).  They're not brilliant in the wet - they actually have less traction on a damp road than the almost-bald Dunlop SP Sports they replaced - but they will do for now, it's not a car I tend to drive quickly anyway, and the one time I did have a bit of a hoon (on the road from Ipswich to Shotley) they gripped OK in the corners.

Normally I go for premium brand part worns if I can.  I know a lot of people get funny about part worns, but every time you buy a secondhand car you're getting a full set of part worn tyres with it, and unless you're going to go out and buy a full set of shiny new Michelins every time you acquire a new car (which would bankrupt me within six months) you're going to be running on part worn tyres anyway, so why worry about replacing like with like?  At least if you're buying a bare tyre you can inspect it inside and out for signs of obvious damage - that's not something you can do very easily with the tyres already on the car - if one of my cars has a bulge in an inner sidewall it's going to be pot luck whether or not I spot it before the tyre goes bang.

[somewhatfoolish]

7 hours ago, MikeR said:

Biggest issue I find with sidewalls is the sun , my wife always parks her car in the same spot , and the sun always cooks the same 2 tyres ....  Which age at an alarming rate ! 

A 1950s correspondent to 'The Motor' advises; rotate your tyres regularly to even out wear.

 

[twosmoke300]

“ I know it will be the sidewall “

Radio silence when you take it off and it’s a nail in the tread ? 
 

 

[bunglebus]

9 hours ago, Barry Cade said:

In my experience, "premium" rubber is no better nowadays, for cracking and perishing. In fact some expensive tyres are worse than budgets.. Continental in particular. 

It was Continental I was thinking of referring to inner sidewall cracks, think it was Polish made ones that seemed to suffer it worst?

[bunglebus]

6 hours ago, wuvvum said:

I put a pair of Nankangs on the front of the Carina a couple of years ago...They're not brilliant in the wet - they actually have less traction on a damp road than the almost-bald Dunlop SP Sports they replaced

This is what bothers me about budget stuff. "Not brilliant in the wet", the conditions when you really need to know you're going to need to be able to stop and steer in an emergency. 

Not having a pop at you about your tyre choice, just an observation about budget vs big name tyres in general 

[sierraman]

56 minutes ago, twosmoke300 said:

“ I know it will be the sidewall “

Radio silence when you take it off and it’s a nail in the tread ? 
 

 

It must be my neighbours trying to murder me! 

[cobblers]

8 hours ago, Mrcento said:

The BF Goodrich 4x4 tyres these days are notorious for cracking. some folk are only seeing 18 months from them before the rubber starts to perish.

 

Admittedly they're 11 years old though.

[lisbon_road]

I think part of the problem is that whilst there might be some Chinese tyres which are ok, which ones are they?  I also buy branded tyres, but have also dumped a Continental at 3 years old due to cracks and have seen Michelins cracking too.

Another vote for Kumho.  An old friend who worked at a tyre centre always said that they are as good as any other brand.