Eco tyres

[Mike_Brace]

I would sooner have a part worn premium brand than some of the budget tyres on the market. I am amazed that some of these ever sell. For the past five years I have been running on part worns, often ones that have been changed as someone has had a complete set fitted. This has been done out of necessity due thee financial impact of my illness. They are checked very regularly throughout their remaining life and the only one I had problems was a Michelin which presumably because of age began to misshape but this was immediately obvious.

In the past from choice I always have tried to buy premium brands but even with these I have suffered with finding faulty ones which have failed before end of life. The most important thing I feel is to ensure that whatever tyre you fit that it does have good roadholding in the wet as well as dry (many cheap ones don't) and that the condition and pressures are regularly checked.

[grin factor]

A lot of opinions about part worn tyres, a topic which has been discussed on many forums, even bike forums. I've used them before with no problems at all, as does a friend of mine who runs a 330 BMW never buys new. Using a decent place and checking the tyres makes sense in many respects.
It all boils down to how you feel about this subject. Some people don't like buying used cars, or ones over 3 yrs old and always buy new, well thats their choice & good luck to them. Thats the beauty of freedom of choice.

[rippedoffagain]

I'm afraid I'm going to have to do a sharp U-turn on my stance on this

Having realised that one of my 'new' part ones was not holding air, I decided to have it and its opposite number replaced with brand new decent tyres.

Today driving home, the car was pulling a bit to the left, and it felt like it was getting worse as the journey went on. Then it under steered horribly at a roundabout at low speed. I did the last mile very carefully, and every time I turned right it felt like it was under steering, even at very low speed. It felt like I had a total flatty so I checked. There is still air in there but I haven't checked the pressure yet.

To be honest, I'm sick as a pig now. I got rid of 4 tyres that still had loads of tread because the were rubbish on wet tarmac, bought used tyres of decent brand that were better but the car just feels horrible to drive, 2 brand new ones at the back they seemed to be in most urgent need of replacement, and now I'm not convinced the front is right.

To be honest though I'm also not convinced its entirely down to the tyres. I have a slight knock appearing randomly through the steering wheel, and a funny chattering noise at low speed. Its getting to the point where I'm not at all at ease driving it.

[arcturus]

I think that you need to get your tracking checked before you do any thing else! Perhaps look at your steering ball joints.

[rippedoffagain]

Originally Posted by arcturus

I think that you need to get your tracking checked before you do any thing else! Perhaps look at your steering ball joints.

Tracking has been done last weekend. I'm getting the car in for a pre-MOT as soon as I can. Possibly this weekend.

[rippedoffagain]

Got two brand new tyres on the front today, making a full set all round, and she is a joy to drive again. Perfect grip, no random wandering, no scary 'light steering wheel' moments, no obvious under steer, no excessive body roll, less throttle for same speed, quicker up through the gears, quieter, smoother....

I don't regret buying the second hand tyres. If I hadn't done that I would never have learned my lesson, but I'm glad they're gone now and I've got decent new ones on instead.

[gjd]

Originally Posted by rippedoffagain

I'm afraid I'm going to have to do a sharp U-turn on my stance on this

Best you don't do it on your part-worns...

[stephend]

Originally Posted by rippedoffagain

Got two brand new tyres on the front today, making a full set all round, and she is a joy to drive again. Perfect grip, no random wandering, no scary 'light steering wheel' moments, no obvious under steer, no excessive body roll, less throttle for same speed, quicker up through the gears, quieter, smoother....

Did you have the alignment reset as part of this?

What really brought home the effect of tracking to me was when I replaced a track rod end on my 740. I got it as close as I could by counting the number of threads, but then drove it straight to a tyre place to get the tracking set. On the way, it felt seriously, seriously weird. Once it was adjusted properly, it was fine.

People often say that they've changed tyres and it has transformed the feel of the car. Since if they're having the fronts changed, in all probability the tracking has been done as well, I'm really curious about how much it's the tyres and how much the tracking adjustment that has changed the feel.

Edit: I had some new Michelins put on the back of my V40 recently at ATS, and they reset the (front...) tracking. Now the steering wheel is off-centre, and the car wanders a bit about straight-ahead. It was perfect before: tsk! Why didn't I take it to the place that made a good job of the tracking last time? Because they forgot to balance the front tyres that they fitted. Fast-fits...!!

[rippedoffagain]

Originally Posted by stephend

Did you have the alignment reset as part of this?

What really brought home the effect of tracking to me was when I replaced a track rod end on my 740. I got it as close as I could by counting the number of threads, but then drove it straight to a tyre place to get the tracking set. On the way, it felt seriously, seriously weird. Once it was adjusted properly, it was fine.

I did get the tracking done, but I suspect that was £45 down the pan to be honest, as the before and after report shows little difference to my untrained eye.

I know what you mean about the effects of tracking though. My first car was a seriously weak 1.3 litre Ford Escort (one of the last ones built, so not the 'cool' Mk1s and Mk2s). It could do 'torque steer' (where the steering pulls to one side under 'extreme' acceleration until I got the tracking sorted

[S80T60James]

I have only had one accident (touch wood) whislt driving. I had it a week after fitting four brand new top of the range Continental tyres... New tyres did not save me. As it was in the dry I may well have faired better with less tread frankly!