Tyre Buying Adventures

[01CDsedan]

Noticed yesterday that a crook wheel alignment had caused the inner edge of my front right tyre (OEM Dunlop SP Sport 200E with 62,000km on them) to scrub out to bald and crack badly in many places. Oops - that's gotta come off the car, so on went the spare.

Because I'd been planning to change tyres and because I still need a spare, I did the ringaround on the replacements I wanted (Michelin Pilot Preceda). Bad news - looks like they're about to be phased out, or a new shipment won't be for a while, depending on who you ask. I had been planning to buy only one, put it on the alloy, have that as a spare and run with three alloys and one steel for a while until the other three wore out. Then I'd buy another three and go back to four alloys, Bob's your uncle.

So now I'm in the interesting situation where I will buy a set of four Precedas (only 9 available!), put one on the alloy that will be the spare, stockpile three in my house, run with three alloys and a steel for a while until the Dunlops finally wear out, get the three other tyres mounted on the alloys and then go back to having four alloys! Argh!

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[astra_city]

sounds complicated
but i have just been studying..so my brain is a bit dead :P

[Anonymous]

I dont understand, if your planning to buy 4 tires, put one on the spare and the other 3 in the garage, why not just put them all on in the first place?

[01CDsedan]

Because the three that didn't get stuffed by the alignment problem still have around 5000km of tread left on them, if not more. So I don't see any sense in wasting a set of tyres that still have life left in them before they become unsafe.

At the moment I have three tyres that are almost worn out, and the spare on the car that is still brand new. That's the way it's going to stay until the other three wear out, even if the 'three alloys and one steel' look is ugly...

[Anonymous]

Well its up to you.
Getting the 4 tires put on straight away will
a) improve safety
b) improve handling
c) improve ride comfort
d) improve fuel efficiency

Driving on 3 alloys + 1 steel rim is a mismatch in weight distribution amongst the wheels, and if put under certain circumstances, may become dangerous.

[01CDsedan]

In general I'd agree with you, but there doesn't seem to be a great deal of difference in weight between the 15" steel wheel and the 15" six spoke alloys on the 01 Astra CD. It's quite a thick, chunky wheel.

[rjastra]

Don't be such a tight-@rse.

Get four new tyres and whack them on.

[01CDsedan]

When you're trying to buy a house, getting the most use you can out of everything looks like a good idea

[Rhino]

If you aren't too worried about the look, you can get around it with just the tyre looking different rather than the whole wheel:

1. Mount the tyre from your spare on one of your alloys
2. Put one of your OK tyres on the spare rim.
3. By THREE new tyres for the remaining wheels.

You'll have one brand new tyre on your car that is higher profile than the rest (but harder to notice), three new normal profile, an OK spare wheel and two OK spare tyres to throw into the rotation later.

PS: I actually had to draw that so it'd make sense ops:

I don't think there is anything wrong with replacing two tyres at a time if you don't have the cash. Sure, handling will be effected but by how much depends on the way you drive and conditions you drive in. You wouldn't be the first to have done it.

PPS: If you drive around for the life of your tyres with one steel wheel, you're grounded!

[01CDsedan]

That's not a bad plan, except that I am planning to change the type of tyres I am using and so I will end up with three Michelins and one Dunlop on the car at the same time - and it's generally not recommended to have two different types of tyre on the same axle.

Don't worry about the steel one - 5000km of driving for me is about six weeks to two months' worth and then it's back to normal

Oh and ah...I had to draw it too to make sure I understood it