I’ve become a bit disillusioned with my garage recently and have checked the tyre depths they’ve provided during my annual MOTs.
At my last service & MOT they advised I should have two new front tyres - the depths given were: 4.5.5. and 5.5.5.
Seems to me there’s lots of life left in those… They are Falken tyres fitting in June 2018 and had done around 12,000 to the latest MOT.
Falken tyres are (I think) budget tyres. In the past I’ve had Kumjo tyres which lasted between 30,000 and 13,000 miles!! The Falken tyres I’m now being recommended by the garage are £60 fitted.
I’ve looked up recommendations for tyres and have found Bridgestone Turanzo Eco for £68.47.
So I’m thinking I should go to a different garage - a tyre specialist - for all tyres and just get the servicing done by my usual garage and ask them to check the tracking at every service.
Any ideas/recommendations?
Just to add that driving here, the roads are full of pot holes. There are no long straight roads - apart from one - there is one dual carriageway (know as “The Motorway” which is less than half a mile long!!
I always replace my tyres with the manufacturers recommendation brand Lindy, the ones that came with the motor when it was new.
I consider the tyres to be the main safety feature of any vehicle. You wouldn’t buy cheap walking shoes would you…And you don’t go as fast as a car…Do You?..:shock:
I’ve had over 50,000 miles out of a decent tyre.
False economy to buy cheap…
Thanks OGF. I phoned my local garage and asked which tyre would they recommend and was told the Falken tyres were premium grade and very suitable for that age of car!!! :shock: When I mentioned there was only an £8 difference between those and the Bridgestone tyres, he suggested I might get a few more miles from the Bridgestone!
I’ve just received my new digital tyre gauge and there’s significant wear on the front tyres, but they’re still legal, so I’m going to hang on for another couple of months then check them again. Thanks for your help (again).
OGF is right in saying that it’s false economy to buy cheap tyres, hence the derogatory use of “ditchfinders” as a common name to describe them.
For the past good few years I’ve used Blackcircles to find tyres & they give a list of fitters nearby, all of which is included in the price.
My “regular” garage couldn’t usually compete on price for tyres, probably the result of scale and that’s why I buy elsewhere.
Talking of potholes though, everywhere seems the same nowadays, namely bally awful!
Which means no matter what tyres you buy, IMHO they don’t last as long as usual because of the poor state of our roads.
As far as your own tyres go, personally I’ve found Bridgestone Turanza’s suit the car I have now and TBH for under a tenner difference over Falkens that I personally have never found to be much good I wouldn’t hesitate.
ETA
Having read your reply to OGF I would add that the Turanzas will most likely be better in the wet and more quiet that Falkens too.
There’s a grading system for new tyres that will show you, if you can find exactly which tyres are being proposed of course.
If you have a look at a site like blackcircles you can input your car reg and list tyres available for your car with ratings for grip, noise etc. Falken and Kumho are Korean makers I think and well regarded these days.
I have to declare an interest here as I worked directly in the tyre industry for over 30 years - all in the technical side of the industry too. I worked for Goodyear and, latterly for Firestone (Bridgestone/Firestone) Technical Center Europe based in Rome, Italy.
The first thing all motorists should do is regularly (once/month-ish) monitor the tyre pressures with an accurate gauge. Do NOT trust those on the garage airlines, they used to be notoriously inaccurate. Buy your own, preferably digital, pressure gauge as Lindy has already done. I still use the older style of stick gauge but it was checked against a standard pressure gauge and I know it is no more than 1psi out at 35psi so I compensate for this when inflating my cars tyres. Properly inflated tyres help with reducing your fuel consumption as well as braking and steering.
Secondly, find the Tread Wear Indicators that are moulded into the grooves of the treads. Their positions are usually marked on the upper sidewall of the tyres (Michelin, usefully, moulds a little Michelin man to indicate where they are). Take a 2p coin and place it edge on, on top of the TWI. If you can see the ring of dots just inside the outer circumference of the coin then CHANGE THE TYRE ASAP because you have less than the 1.6mm tread depth the law allows. In any case, I change my tyres at 2.5mm remaining tread depth in order to preserve wet braking distances.
Thirdly, if you find that your front tyres are wearing unevenly, get the tracking and suspension checked asap.
Fourth, never, ever use back street tyre places that sell cheap part worn tyres. The tyres could be killers!!!
Fifth, use a reputable tyre company like Black Circles (used them myself), Kwikfit (good for tyres and batteries but not much else), Hi-Q (Goodyear/Dunlop’s trade outlet), Halfords, etc.
I have fitted all Falken tyres on one car as I am fed up paying out Continental prices and have not noticed any difference. Plus Falken are taking on the “Big Boys” in competition and quality. Otherwise, I use Michelin Primacy.
Tracking and Camber Angle, never let garages near the job unless it needs doing, just an add on bonus job for tyre fitters. Mine stay fine for years on factory settings and only play up if touched by garages.
Different tyres suit different cars though; on the Seat Mii Falkens and Avons saw me sliding all over the road when they were wet but Goodyear EfficientGrips are brilliant; the more powerful 130bhp Jazz ate through Pirellis but Goodyear EfficientGrip’s are great on that and last longer too.
On the new Citroen the Bridgestone Turanzas are grippy, long-lasting and quiet.
Lindy, I can’t understand why they’re advising you to change tyres with reasonable tread depth left, did they highlight other problems with the tyres?, is the wear even across the tyre?, is there any damage?, they do advise changing tyres if they are old, but as yours aren’t that shouldn’t be a problem, maybe they are trying to drum up a bit of business, not sure if you have a Kwik fit on the iow, but I’d be inclined to get a second opinion…
Apparently one of the tyres has a nail in it - not sure which one - other than that, no damage that I can see or has been mentioned. I agree though that to give me a warning on a tyre depth that was 4.5.5 is ridiculous - that’s the reason for my post and deciding to buy a type depth gauge and doubt the advice from the garage.
In November…or December…I managed to get a bolt in a rear tyre. At the MOT, this tyre had a depth of 5.6.5 - but the garage told me it would have to be replaced!! Fortunately I found a garage who repaired it to £20!
If it has a nail in it then, depending where it is, it might not be fixable, I’d take it back to the chap who repaired your last one and see what he says…
It’s in one of the front tyres which according to the garage need replacing. It’s giving no problems at all, so I’ll leave it for the moment and will most likely replace both the front tyres in the next few months. If it gives problems before then, it’s probably best to replace it sooner rather than later.
No one has mentioned so far that it’s not just the tread depth that matters but also how old tyres are. If they are older than six years, it’s recommendable to start looking for replacements no matter how deep the tread may still be. Over here, MOT may be denied if tyres are too old. That’s why it is important to make sure that a garage doesn’t try to sell you allegedly new tyres that are, in fact, already two or three years old. This is another reason why I buy tyres from specialists with a high turnover and have the checks done by another garage.
When I need to buy tyres, I wouldn’t walk into a shop unprepared either because some shops may want to sell you just those tyres for which they get a bonus. We also have independent and reliable test reports run by AA which give you a good overview of the prices and the pros and cons of any tyre available. As some of you do, I also go for brand tyres if the difference in price is not that high. I once also had Bridgestone Turanza Eco and was very satisfied with them. However, one thing needs to be considered and that is that both test reports and many dealers’ recommendations are almost invariably based on the assumption that any customer is a frequent driver. If you tell them that you regularly drive one mile a day or every two days, if at all, they are puzzled.
As for test reports, the summer tyres coming out on top are meant to meet the highest demands, say, of sales reps driving more than 40,000 km a year while the winter tyres are supposed to meet those of snow regions. That’s why I usually picked mid-range but solid tyres. As a retiree, my demands are even lower.
I did mention in one of my earlier posts about the age of lindyloos tyres, but hers are only three years old so will be ok, there is a date stamp on tyres, it will show the year and week of manufacture.ie the numbers might be 3718, that means it was made on the 37th week of 2018,
I was about to post how to determine the age of a car tyre but you beat me to it Primus. As a matter of fact, the serial number as a whole can be decoded by “those in the know” to reveal which company made the tyre, where in the world it was made, and which factory it was made in.
Dachs mentioned tyres over 6 years old causing an MoT failure in Germany. I think it’s 7 years here over here.
As for repairing punctures in Lindy’s case, I wouldn’t trust any tyre that has been repaired even by a tyre specialist and I certainly wouldn’t be driving at speeds in excess of 50mph if I had one until I could replace the tyre.
Replacing tyres is another murky field. I always change both tyres on the same axle at the same time so they wear at the same rate and I always buy premium brand (not Pirelli!!!) tyres -anything else is false economy IMHO.
I tend to agree Percy about not buying cheap tyres I always buy premium, mine has continentals on , if I keep it long enough to require tyres I might go for all seasons
