turbo124.com

been over 10years since i've had to buy a set of tyres for a car (yes, i change cars that often!)

need to replace the worn out 17" radials on the falcodore.... whats hot nowadays? remember, i was a fan of the yokohama a-509's, but i think they stopped making them about 10 years ago!

I've got 185/50/15 goodyear eagle F1 on the Fiat at the moment, had them a couple of months and quite like them, $150 a corner. I had Dunlop Direzza on it before which I really liked as well, at the time they cost me $130 a corner. I recently shod the wifes commodore with 205/65/15 Dunlop SP Sport 300E, I had 2 sets on the commodore wagon we had as well, I think they're a pretty good tyre for a family hack. I drove her V6 auto, VS sedan to work yesterday because I'd done the head gasket in mine, they are such a boring car.

Sorry - I'd have to disagree with Superbrava on this one.

My Falcodore has had 300E's (they went "square" like all Dunlops do) and were so bad thay they had to go well before they wore out. If you want to try the Goodyear Eagle NCT5's that I have on at the moment that are 1/2 worn you can have them for free. They are positively dangerous. As soon as the road is wet its like driving on an ice rink.

I've had enough with playing around with tyres. Its false economy to buy tyres because of price and then have to bin them when they are 1/2 worn. Its something I have been preaching for years - why didn't I listen to my own advice? So I'm going back to what I know and putting a set of Pirelli P7s or Michelin Pilot Precedas's on it - and it will be soon...

Hansel's, they're so hot right now.

Nexen http://www.tyrepitstop.com.au/nexen-per ... -tyres.asp

or Kumho KH17 but yes Michelins are proving hard to beat just $$$$$

I really can't argue, I rarely drove the wagon and I rarely drive the current sedan. When the dunlops were 1/2 worn management did complain about the backend slipping around in the wet, I told her to be a bit lighter with the right foot and it'll be fine.

For such a premium performance sedan I'd be looking for something asymmetric. I have not tried out BS RE001 but I'd give them a go.

Agent's - Korean tyres? Ewwwwwww....

i have had bridgestones as original fitment on a few cars in the last few years, each time by 15 to 18000 km if they were barely ok by then they needed replacing ! .Changed brands usually to michelin was like getting a new car again .they last and do it better for their life. Got a price last week for 14 inch bf goodrich for my triumph stag for reasonable price good looking tread pattern and the man said good in the wet.If the vehicle does very few km michies go hard and very skatey in my experience.

Dingo I have Agent's Kumhos on Sparkles ATM. They're quite good in the dry and very good on the dirt and in the wet. Sparkles isn't as 'lively' on the wet roads anymore

Perhaps the Korean tyre manufactorers have picked up their game, I'm told that the Kumho semi slicks are the pick of the semi slicks ATM too ... But from my enquiries they are also more expensive than full slicks ...though to be fair most of the semi slicks were

I'll still leave 'em for someone else, Youngy.

I just can't get past the fact that we put our lives in the hands of 4 pieces of rubber - with contact surface area no larger than a saucer each. At the end of the day if you spent (say) $350each on a set of tyres and only got 15,000km out of them (obviously you would hope to get them cheaper than that - and get more mileage - but this is just a worst case example) they would only have cost you $0.09 per km - even though you spent $0.14 per km on the 98 octane you put in the tank!!! Every time I try to get clever saving some money on tyres I get either: a) annoyed with them going off in some way or another or b) the Sh1t scared out of me by them - BEFORE they reach the wear indicators.

I'll never forget the time that I got a flat tyre in Bert1 parked outside my (now) wife's house. Pirelli P6000's. Had driven from Sydney to Cambelltown in the torrential rain the night before - thought a few times on the way "well there's nothing wrong with these tyres - they stick great". Sure enough I went out in the morning to a flat (white shirt and late for a meeting, of course). When I took the wheel off the tyre was almost completely bald! I thought I must have buggered it last night driving it deflated - but nope - all 4 were exactly the same! THATS getting what you paid for - not (like my Falcodore now) considering throwing them away with a good 4-6mm ABOVE the treadwear indicators because I'm scared of hurting myself or someone else!

Then there are the 25 year old Michelin XWX's on the "Concours wheels" on Bert2. They are so hard now you cant dig your nail into the rubber - but they still work (and work very well, as proven on a "spirited" drive along the Putty Road a year or so ago....)

Interestingly the only non Pirelli or Michelin good experience I have had is with the Marangoni Vanto's I put on my wifes 156 (to replace the absolutely stunning P-Zero Neros that alas, only lasted 10,000km). I'd actually recommend them. They are no P-Zero - but at 1/3 the price you wouldn't expect them to be. And at this stage they are looking like making it to the TWI's.

Sorry for the rambling eMail - but I have always felt strongly about tyres (and oil - but lets not start that again!). The big issue that we are facing is the lack of any decent tyres in 13" - what are people doing for their Fiats?

I wont attach dingos quote> just answer it.
I believe tyres are your first Insurance policy.

Michelin and Pirelli are with out a doubt great tyres, however I have just put 4 Good tread Pirelli P4000's in the shed, they were on my 132 they are 10 years old now and have gone hard making wet weather driving almost impossible.
Bridgestone’s I have had in the past are dearer than other round black things, some Falkens are round black things and others are performance tyres like the RT615.

We have 195 50 15 Nexen on the Honda its not a heavy car but with these tyres on it has been steering and handling well for the past 40,000K I have just rotated them and expect another 30,000K yet.

As far as being Korean check the side walls of your Pirelli and Michelin, they can come from Ireland Belgium and many other places around the world including China.
One of my clients is a Truck and earthmoving tyre retread factory. They use Indonesian rubber over European based on European failure rates. They also like the cases from China because they stay round some of these are branded Michelin.

I have 4 tyre fitting clients the owners personal cars run on Michelin, Nexen, Falken RT615. And the 4x4 are a mixture of BFG and Cooper, for my purposes I like the BFG gave em a run yesterday arvo up to the top of the Hill after getting sick of 1290 engine dismantle. I hate head studs, much perfere Head Bolts.

K’s per $ usually work out roughly the same for cheap to dear tyres of similar purpose, unless of course you by high grip low wear tyres on purpose.

I have been disappointed with Mechlin’s grip that why we have Nexen I drove the Service managers Honda fitted with Michelins and then drove a corolla with Nexen in the wet and decided against Michelin. The $ saving did not enter the equation just the life insurance thinking.

Edit: for the 13" wheels As Youngy has stated Kumoh KH17, are the tyres I run on the 124 for Classic Rallys and are the tyres used when I came 2nd to a WRX in the tie breaker Motorkhana and the same wheels and tyres Youngy used to get 3rd in the Nationals Motorkhana. I have now replaced the tyres on the 128 with Kumoh KH17 they work well in the wet and dry. I have also fitted a set of KH17 to the 132 on 14" Lancia HPE alloy rims.

Agree largely - but irrespective of the country of origin I think that Quality Control has a lot to do with it.

If worst came to worst I would prefer to purchase Korean made tyres from a respected European manufacturer than the latest super specials (that are just a rip off of a 1970/80's tyre design from one of the majors - have a look around and you will see what I mean) from some NangKangBang company you never heard of last year and will be equally gone next year!

A visit to one of these countries is pretty revealing. For starters their copyright laws are non-existent. And those that have them are completely unpoliced. Many of these countries have no consumer protection legislation whatsoever (hence warranties are un-enforceable and there is no requirement for truth in advertising). Did you see the news piece on the Chinese made airconditoner units being sold here that don't meet Australian electrical safety standards and whos advertising claims were proven to be completely without merit?

Its a bit like choosing beween a BMW and a Hyundai. Brave is the man who purchases off the spec sheet. Both have ABS, EBD, Traction control, stability control, 32 airbags etc etc etc. So a Hyundai is as good as a BMW then? Its even 1/5 the price! AND the Hyundai won a completely independent test run by an unbiased Car magazine! How the HELL do they manage to sell any BMWs? Thats not to say there is no place for Hyundai's in the world - I just choose not to have one in my driveway...

If anyone read this far and is still interested I found a Continental 175/65/13 that looks like a fair option for our 13" rims.

What annoys me about buying tyres is that you have to go through this process, asking other people their opinions and experiences, because most tyre shops just want to flog you a tyre. "Yeh mate it's good in the wet. Yeh mate it's a good sports tyre, yeh mate it'll last 60,000Kms." When it comes down to it, you have to part with a considerable wad of cash for what is potentially a life and death decision.

Spot on.

You do a stack of research, make what you believe is an informed decision, then shop around to find the MASSIVE difference in price for exactly the same tyre, front up at the chosen shop and some grubby "expert" spends the next 20 minutes trying to convince you to buy something else thats "just as good at 1/2 the price".

There must be GOOD margin in tyres - notice how you can't get a price over the net? Everyone want to "price match" too. The whole process is just harder than it needs to be.

A good tyre shop is a help though. For anyone in Sydney "Marks and Wallings" at West Ryde are pretty good. Not usually the cheapest - but usually not far off. Apart from the time that one of their fitters insisted that CAMS wouldn't allow stick on weights and wanted to hammer those aweful things into my magnesium Cromodoras (I held fast) I have been very happy with them.

Note to all...
1/ You get what you pay for.
2/ Talk to people who know the product properly ie the manufacturers or very trustworthy tyre dealers -of which there arnt too many.
3/ Steer clear of inexperienced or cheap tyre dealers.
4/ Us tyre manufacturers sell more than one type of tyre you know! Dont make the mistake of judging a brand by one experience on one type of tyre (eg basic OE touring tyre is NOT the same as a sports tyre)
5/ understand the compromises.. you cant have everything in one tyre. grip v noise, grip vs fuel economy, response vs comfort. Tyre life v wet grip etc etc.

I have been with Bridgestone for 14 yrs as an engineer and sales support person. The well known manufacturers make very good patterns and average ones. The bad experiences people have are when they have a tyre not suited to their driving or needs (or worse a car not suited to their wants! bought a base model but drives it like an HSV or STI! Base model tyres arnt on HSV or STi you know.).

Bridgestone for example make everything from OE on Ferrari, BMW, HSV, down to Nissan tiida and fiat punto.
OE tyres are made and fine tuned to suit the car makers engineers requirements. Eg, a nissan tiida engineer is not too worried about cornering response and lateral G !

So look first at what tyre type is on what car. OE tyres are usually a damn good match to the vehicle design parameters. Eg a dunlop SP sport 300E on a camry aint no sports tyre! but it does a great job on keeping a very quiet car quiet, and fuel effeicient on aussie country roads etc. This is what the camry is designed around... touring on australian roads, and shopping trips.

When shopping - If you dont get asked all the right Qs about what you need, then shop elsewhere.

If you want a general sports tyre you should look at RE001 "Adrenalin" it comes in many sizes, is very progressive and has a pretty high dry grip limit, can handle the odd track day, and is reasonable to drive on every day. But if you have a stiff suspension and low profile, then you may need to look at a quality touring tyre that will absorb more (eg ER300).

My own cars are all on Bridgestone of course because I can usually get a "super" deal. OK I pay nothin most of the time, because I find half worn out ones that I know are high performance (ie right time, right place). I have old RE71's and S02's that have done a few track days - getting a bit old now, but still pretty high grip. RE040 are on my spider - (OE on Liberty and Lexus IS200 - expensive and very good grip). My everyday cars have touring tyres ER300, TZ100 because when I drive around the city and country long trips, I need something a bit forgiving and not too twitchy. But when I push them (pretty often they still have a high enough grip level to make it around a corner safely or with a bit of power oversteer!

Coincidentally, I just ordered a set of RE001's for my Liberty 3.0R-B this morning, to be fitted this weekend.

The car had a set of these on it when I bought it 2nd-hand 6 months ago, and I've been very happy with them. Considering it looked like I needed to replace them 10,000kms ago when I bought the car, and they don't look much different now, I suspect the wear must be quite reasonable. And the grip in all conditions is brilliant, giving a very good progressive feeling of when you are on the edge of grip, without a sudden letting go.

I've also been impressed with the feel on the road. Quiet and smooth, which I didn't expect from low profile high performance tyres. The only advice I'd give, is to keep the pressure on them up higher than standard. I've been pumping them to 38 psi recently, and much prefer the feel than when they were at the usual 32 psi. And strangely I didn't think the car rode any harder.

Thanks Sideburnie for the input. Nice to get some quality tyre information from someone who knows what they are talking about.

I guess the big issue is that due to the dazzling array of sizes and tyre brands/patterns etc, when it boils down to it sometimes we get the tyres we don't want - due to lack of choice (and thats ignoring those that we get wrong because we are poorly advised - take your point on that one).

Soooo - you knew this was leading somewhere - can you help us with 13" tyres? If you can do a performance tyre in 185/60/13 I'll take a set.

Cheers

I don't know if this helps or not David, but I bought a set of Falken tyres for my 124 AC when I had it years ago, and was very happy with them. I used 205/50's on mine, but a quick check on their website and they list a 185/60/13. No idea if they rate as good tyres or not these days.

http://www.falken.com.au/tyres/passenger-ZE912.html

Bridgestone RE001's. had them ,and a very good VFM tyre. Highly recommend them.
Conti Sport Contact 2 and 3 and so on. Well overpriced.

I've seen some really good deals on PZero Nero lately, but perhaps overkill for what you need.

Best value for money tyre I've had, Firestone Firehawk Wide Oval.
Really cheap at m at BobJane.. perhaps on runout.

Very important you check date codes on tyres, as if they're quite old, they may have "gone off".

can you remind me of the codes, i know there is a year of manufacturer, but is there also a use by date?? or is it something like 5yrs from manufacture that tyres go "off"... i used to know all this stuff... argh!

We really aren't getting the hang of this, are we?

The date stamp is in a circle printed on the sidewall. I'm not sure how they are printed from 1/1/2010 but prior to that they were 3 digit. e.g. 128 stands for 12th month of 2008, However it could also stand for the 12th month of 1998 but it should be quite obvious which decade the tyre is from.

When buying a new tyre the date stamp should be new or a few month old, not years old.

Date Code is 4 digits.
2 of the digits represent the year (ie 10 represents 2010)

and the other 2 digits the week of that calender year. (ie, 26 is the 26th week)

I guess not all of us have unlimited budgets to be able to go out and buy hand carved semi slicks.
Even fewer of us have that requirement.
My comments are from Personal experience. I have driven each and every tyre I have commented on extensively, and the value judgements are based on what I had to pay for them. and for what I had in return, for each application.

Further...
Would I buy Adrenalins again... Yes. especially at the price I paid
Would I have Conti Sport contacts again? Not when they would cost me double the Adrenalins and gave ME less feel, and less dry and wet grip.
Would I buy Wideovals again? Absolutely. I only replaced them with the adrenalins on that car as the price difference was minimal at the time
Would I have TZ100's again? Nope, not for my liking or driving style. Same applies for the ER300's.
Would I have the Re040(a)'s again? Nope, not when the adrenalins (which admittedly are noiser) can be had at nearly half the price. Admittedly, they are a great tyre, but not worth that much extra coin in my opinion. Stiffer sidewall also gives them a harsher feel.
Re55s -yes, as a track tyre, brilliant..
(seems from the above comments someone else too has access to the bridgestone inventory


I know I learnt from my experiences.. I'm only trying to help someone else who is in a situation where they are about to shell out over $1K without being able to really "try before they buy".

Thanks for the suggestions..

Unfortunately i didn't have enough time to shop around more as one of my tyres started to peel off !!!!!

Went to beaurepairs (I know I know) and they only had the same ole Dunlop 3000A (in stock) that came with the XR6 standard.... Can't help but feel i got ripped a new one at $245 a corner ... anywhoo date stamp is 3109, so guess they aren't that old.

Good to see I have some bridgestone fans out there. Firestone Wide Oval is a great tyre made by Bridgestone and sold thru Bob Jane. It is like a lower cost G3.

Re 13 inch tyres - we are not bringing in any 60 series. Bummer because a 205/6-0R13 is quite nice on a widened 13 inch 124 wheel. 185/65R13 is still current in TZ100. we have also other patterns in 175/70R13 185/70R13 165/75R13.

Re date codes.... yes you are looking for 4 numbers about and inch above the rim flange. The new standard from 2000 is to have 4 numbers after manufacturing codes for plant, size and cosntruction.

eg LH9P JBK1204
LH= Bridgestone adelaide factory
9P =205/65R15 for example
JBK = manufacturers code for spec and construction etc.
12= week 12
04 = year 2004

prior to 2000, 3 numbers at the end eg 477 = week 47 of 1997 or 1987. in the 1990s there was a 2mm triangle after the last digit to distinguish 90s decade from 80s.

Re aging and fatigue and safety... Tyres do not really have a use by date. And unless overheated (heavily raced on) they do not "go off" but they do age harden - the amount depending on exposure to sun & ozone and other dehydrating chemicals.

Here is my standard "professional" long winded response

Manufacturers set a 5 or 6 yr warranty on NEW tyres. Beyond 5 years we are no longer willing to guarantee a tyres durability. It is likely that the durability of a tyre has begun to be compromised depending upon its use and maintenance.

In terms of service life for tyres, it is a subject of debate here and in many countries. In the last few years, USA has been trying to get some law drafted about removing aged tyres from vehicles through inspection/registration, due to the problems of safety mainly on passenger cars with aged tyres. They have stalled somewhat, with some tyre and car company’s suggesting age limits of 6 years, others arguing that tyre durability is not based on age alone, and that many vehicles are safe on older tyres if maintained well. There would be a huge number of vehicles that would be running tyres older than 6 years.

I am stating this background to make you aware that tyre durability with respect to age is not definitive, and depends on factors outside the control of tyre manufacturers. So no one is able to state a recommendation other than the warranty period.

The tyre professional is able to conduct a thorough visual inspection of the tyre as well as investigating its history and the intended usage conditions of that tyre. If the tyre shows signs of over deflection, or if storage, loading or maintenance of inflation pressure conditions is unknown replacement of the tyre should be recommended.

The inspection of a case carried out by the BANDAG (truck tyre) Retread plants prior to capping a tyre is an example of this type of inspection and is deemed more important than the age of the case. And because Bandag are able to carefully assess the condition of the case, they don’t need to set an age limit.

Having said this, I can relate to you my experience.

1/ that we see tyre age/fatigue related failures typically on heavy 4WD tyres over 8-10 years old where storage is often in the sun (on the back tailgate).
2/ tyre fatigue related failures are not common on their own.
Usually there are other damages that have weakened the tyre that have had more influence than the age (eg punctures and cuts).
3/ Spare tyres can be a problem if not used for many years.
Chemical attach from oil, petrol, diesel etc can occur over time especially if the position of the tyre is near leaks or spills.