The Tyre Topic

[dontpannic]

Just to put a couple of thoughts down in this thread, if I may.

Car: E46 330D Touring, Staggered MV2's (225/40/18 F, 255/35/18 R)

Had PilotSport3's on all four corners of the car when I first got it. Rears wore down so had them replaced with Nexen N8000 (£160 the pair, fully fitted. Fairly good reviews for a midrange tyre). Car immediately felt dangerous to drive. Skittish, felt as though it was in a crosswind constantly and any kind of driving at speed was a scary experience. Replaced the fronts with Nexen N8000's (£120 the pair, fully fitted) as well and now it drives fantastically. These cars are very sensitive (on the 18's at least) to mismatched tyres on the front and the back.

First thoughts on the Nexen's are that they seem to grip pretty well, haven't triggered the traction control on quickly pulling away yet, and road noise is substantially lower than with the Michelins.

Will update further in the future with thoughts on these tyres.

[BmEagle]

From what I can see online nexen are the same as arrowspeed just different name. Pattern of n1000 is identical. 

 

Dont get get me wrong about my liking of arrowspeed in my earlier post. If I could get Pirelli or any other established branded tyre to last as long as the arrowspeed ones i would get them but doing 20k plus miles a year it would cost me a fortune in tyres having to swap two or three times a year. 

[rasa]

28 minutes ago, BmEagle said:

From what I can see online nexen are the same as arrowspeed just different name. Pattern of n1000 is identical. 

 

Dont get get me wrong about my liking of arrowspeed in my earlier post. If I could get Pirelli or any other established branded tyre to last as long as the arrowspeed ones i would get them but doing 20k plus miles a year it would cost me a fortune in tyres having to swap two or three times a year. 

i only get around 7-8k out of the rears ive had all sorts on,goodyear eagle f1 ,nangkang,im going to uniroyal rain sport 3 as ive got them on my st now,also going 225 all round as i have at the moment as i have 9j on the rears and 245 cause rubbing,the rs 3 are only £57 a corner for a quality tyre and with all the rain we get its a good choice,i had to put rs3 on my st as fwd with over 300 bhp,it was impossible to drive in the wet evn with gy eagle on the front.

[WhiMoi]

On 1/17/2015 at 22:04, WhiMoi said:

Recently had my rears changed from GT Radial Champiros (which were on the car when I bought it) to some P Zeros since in the 7500 miles over 12 months since they were fitted, the inside of both had worn right down and the car was tramlining constantly.

 

Going to get the alignment checked soon to make sure all is OK but the tyre fitter reckoned the wear was mostly down to the (lack of) quality of the tyre.

 

Now I've got:

 

Front 225/40/18 Pirelli P Zero Rosso - ~15000 miles in and plenty of life left yet.

Rear 255/35/18 Pirelli P Zero - £274 for the pair, fitted. Local tyre shop matched the TyreLeader price. Let's hope for a bit more than 7500 miles out of these ones!

 

The whole car feels much more connected and the traction control light isn't coming on at every opportunity. What I didn't expect was changing the rears to have much an effect on the tramlining issue, but it has also improved significantly which is nice. I guess the stories of these cars being quite fussy on the front/rear mixing of tyres are true.

So, 9.5k miles later, I've replaced all 4 tyres with Eagle F1 3s. The Pirellis on the rear had worn through pretty unevenly again but I didn't get the alignment checked until January this year and both rear wheels were way out so my fault for not getting that seen to earlier. The fronts were starting to feel a bit past it too even though they still had a few mm left so decided to swap out all 4.

 

The Goodyears are a massive improvement even though they're not a whole lot more expensive than the P Zeros are. They're quieter, the ride feels more compliant yet the handling is sharper and wet grip is much better. I was hoping I'd get a bit longer out the last set but the car feels much happier on these so it's not all bad I guess!

 

Now I'm running:

Front 225/40/18 Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 3

Rear 255/35/18 Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 3

We'll see how they go.

[capri_rob]

Just ordered a pair of Goodyear Asymetric 3's for the front of mine. £88 each plus tracking at £30 from cartyres.com

got Nexen 8000's on the rear which seem ok and have a lot of tread on them - with the same goodyears for the back at £135 each i will need fo stick with them for a while 

[MangoMan]

You should always put the better/new Tyres on the Rear Axle....

[R11CH]

2 hours ago, MangoMan said:

You should always put the better/new Tyres on the Rear Axle....

Little difficult on the sports as they have staggered size tyres. 225/40 front and 255/35 rear. But yes it is recommended to fit new tyres on the rear in most cases.

[MangoMan]

I thought that might be the case - but one never knows....  Apologies.

[TriggerFish]

My rear Dunlop Sport Maxx have reached the end of their life. Next up is a set of RainSport3s.

The Dunlops were OK - fairly good grip under both power and cornering. Lasted about 10k, I'd guess, with 5k of those being gentle trans-European autoroute miles. The rest was a mix of UK A-roads, mostly gently driven around corners but with aggressive acceleration.

Would I buy them again? The RainSport3s suggest not! I only got the Dunlops as they were supposed to be very quiet - I didn't notice a big difference though - I just hope the RS3s aren't a lot louder!

The Vredistein Sessentas are still going strong on the front. Way too much tramlining, but decent enough grip in cornering.

[Ruesta]

56 minutes ago, TriggerFish said:

My rear Dunlop Sport Maxx have reached the end of their life. Next up is a set of RainSport3s.

The Dunlops were OK - fairly good grip under both power and cornering. Lasted about 10k, I'd guess, with 5k of those being gentle trans-European autoroute miles. The rest was a mix of UK A-roads, mostly gently driven around corners but with aggressive acceleration.

Would I buy them again? The RainSport3s suggest not! I only got the Dunlops as they were supposed to be very quiet - I didn't notice a big difference though - I just hope the RS3s aren't a lot louder!

The Vredistein Sessentas are still going strong on the front. Way too much tramlining, but decent enough grip in cornering.

I've had both Dunlop Sports and Rainsport 3's but I fitted Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymetric's to my 19's this year and wouldn't buy another brand again. The F1's offer super grip both wet and dry and have to be the quietest tyres I have ever had by far. They're just superb, so chuffed with them.

Sizes on my 19s are 225/35/19 on the front and 255/30/19 on the rear

Edited August 2, 2016 by Ruesta

[330CDT]

I've also got Goodyear Eagle F1's all round now. Gen 1's on the front, new Gen 2's on the rear. No complaints from me! Even gunning it in the rain with TC off the wheels hardly squabble! 

[capri_rob]

I replaced 2 mismatched budget tyres on my Jag X type with a pair of Goodyear Asymetric 2's and the difference was incredible - much quieter and much more stable with better grip in all road conditions.

yes they arent cheap but considering the quality i believe they are very good value. Looking forward to getting mine fitted in saturday. 

[Silver Streek]

On 8/2/2016 at 15:10, TriggerFish said:

My rear Dunlop Sport Maxx have reached the end of their life. Next up is a set of RainSport3s.

The Dunlops were OK - fairly good grip under both power and cornering. Lasted about 10k, I'd guess, with 5k of those being gentle trans-European autoroute miles. The rest was a mix of UK A-roads, mostly gently driven around corners but with aggressive acceleration.

Would I buy them again? The RainSport3s suggest not! I only got the Dunlops as they were supposed to be very quiet - I didn't notice a big difference though - I just hope the RS3s aren't a lot louder!

The Vredistein Sessentas are still going strong on the front. Way too much tramlining, but decent enough grip in cornering.

I bought a set or rainsport 3's and have regretted it ever since. Before them I had a set of Bridgestone Potenza RE050A they were sooo much better. Much stiffer, dry grip was really good and wet grip was as good as the RS3's in the wet when the tread was a decent depth. I have to air up the tyres to about 36psi or more on the back to keep the handling reasonable as the tyres are so soft. Another annoying thing with them is they have no rim protection.

The RS3's are terrible if you corner hard, they creep as the tread depth is so deep. Does improve when they wear but still not as good as the bridgestones. Not great under harsh breaking either. The rears are quite warn now, maybe 4mm or less after lest than 10K and they are getting really noisy with noticably less grip. They have not lasted as well as the Bridgestones either.

Once the rears have gone I shall change all 4 back to Bridgestones probably. Anyone used the Potenza Adrenalin RE002 before???? Heard they are the new replacement for RE050A. 

Edited September 2, 2016 by Silver Streek

[MangoMan]

If you want an excellent tyre, this is what you need..... https://www.nokiantyres.com/summer-tyres/nokian-zline/ 

I know most of you will not of heard of them but I've been using them, (if I've needed to buy) for over 14 years and I can honestly say they are the best tyres I've ever used...!

And they won't break the bank either!

[TriggerFish]

1 hour ago, Silver Streek said:

Once the rears have gone I shall change all 4 back to Bridgestones probably. Anyone used the Potenza Adrenalin RE002 before???? Heard they are the new replacement for RE050A. 

I've not really got an opinion on the RS3s yet. I've not driven it that hard to tell.

It had RE050s on it when I got it, and they were amazing! I've got Potenza Adrenalin RE002 on my E30 though. Not really driven it that hard, so I can't say for sure, but they seem OK. Overwhelmed quite easily when accelerating, but that could just be the car with an LSD and fairly famous lack of rear grip.

[Silver Streek]

Took the plunge and ordered a set of the Adrenaline RE002's and im glad i did. Got rid of the crappy Rainsport 3's and the car feels so much better. Much more responsive, far less lean on corners. Grip is better and they are not even scrubbed in yet. Will report back on their wet weather performance when I hit some wet roads.

[TriggerFish]

Interested to know your thoughts. I've got a few more miles on my set on the e30, and while it'll slide easily in the wet, they feel very good the rest of the time.

[Silver Streek]

So went for a drive today in the rain to take the Mrs to pick up her car from the MOT station. They seem very good, had my 2 year old in the car so took it easy. But did a hard acceleration from standstill and out of a few jnctions, and the grip was impressive. Minimal wheelspin, much kess than the RS3's.

The need to bed in still but im optimistic they will be even better in the wet. Need to cover some more milage on my own in the car to compare them to the RE050A's i used to run. Annoyed that Bridgestone no longer make them for 16" wheels.

[Silver Streek]

So now I've driven 500 miles or so on the RE002's I'm liking them very much. grip is good in wet and dry. They were very good in the torrential rain we had last week, driving on rain soaked M25 they felt very sure footed. Grip is even better now they have bedded in, in both dry and wet. Just hope they last longer than the Rainsport 3's they replaced. One tyre I will never buy again. They have a higher wear score then the RE050a's I used to run, so should last well.

One other positive aspect is that while the grip is very much like the RE050A they do not tram line like them. This is good!

So in short I do recommend them for the E46.

[TriggerFish]

I found my RE050s had a tread wear rating of 140 (I think) but lasted over 10,000miles on the fronts. I was very impressed with those tyres!

[Silver Streek]

The ER002's have a tread wear rating of 220, I've seen a rating of 180 for RE050A's, no idea if that's correct. 

Anyhow I got over 30K out of my RE050A's so I'm hoping for at least the same with these if not a bit more. Considering the grip, Bridgestones do wear well. Makes it worth the extra cost of buying premium over ditch finder. as the saying goes buy cheap buy twice

[Artis]

Anyone drives with 235/45 R18 tyres?

Will they fit to my touring ( if theres difference ), with stock M-suspension? 

Thanks!

[incredirog]

On 04/11/2017 at 15:05, Artis said:

Anyone drives with 235/45 R18 tyres?

Will they fit to my touring ( if theres difference ), with stock M-suspension? 

Thanks!

There’s a wheel/tyre calculator site called “will they fit” which gives a visual representation of the wheel and tyre combination worth a google, takes seconds to put in the details of before and after. 

[incredirog]

Nokian Zline on staggered MV1’s in the correct sizes. Very good tyres, grippy in dry and wet. Handled the recent snow very well despite being a summer tyre. Wife wrote a brand new front off by taking a chunk out on a kerb. Too new to judge wear rate, no rim protection, sidewall writing is understated so they look good with tyre dressing. Hold pressure well and my rims are pretty crusty. Replaced a heavily worn matching set of Bridgestones. Would recommend to anyone in the market for a mid range set of four. 

[MangoMan]

32 minutes ago, incredirog said:

Nokian Zline on staggered MV1’s in the correct sizes. Very good tyres, grippy in dry and wet. Handled the recent snow very well despite being a summer tyre. Wife wrote a brand new front off by taking a chunk out on a kerb. Too new to judge wear rate, no rim protection, sidewall writing is understated so they look good with tyre dressing. Hold pressure well and my rims are pretty crusty. Replaced a heavily worn matching set of Bridgestones. Would recommend to anyone in the market for a mid range set of four. 

I second this recommendation - most probably one of the best tyres out there - irrespective of price! I've been using Nokian on and off for near on 17 years - definitely tyre of choice!

Another really good tyre is Nexen - very underrated... Especially the N8000 and n'Blue HD-Plus!