Choosing tyres

[TheBoy]

How do people go about choosing tyres for there cars? I specifically referring to those who are more discerning than those that just buy something black and round, to get through the MOT. Hence asking WIMers

 

My preferred tyre for my Omega is a Dunlop Sport Maxx TT, based on exceptional stability, good lateral grip with plenty of feedback and warning that you're on the edge, and excellent braking performance, wet or dry - the Omega is a big, heavy, 1.7T lump to stop.

 

As always, Betamax Man has struck again, and this tyre is now no longer available. So once again, looking for another tyre. Hence wanting to know how to choose.

 

 

I find tyre reviews unhelpful - what works on a Golf doesn't necessarily work on an Omega. Falken 452s and Falken 912s are clear examples of this, they are really not suited to the Omega.

 

I found some reviews for larger, heavier, exec saloons rating Continental SC5 highly, so I slapped 4 of them on one of the Omegas a few months ago, at the cost of £700 (Gulp). The tramline like a sod, they squirm all over the place under heavy braking, and generally do not allow confidence in the car. To prove it wasn't a chassis problem, have swapped them over to my other Omega, the faults all move with the tyre. And the wear rate is really not looking good on them either, bearing in mind they have only done a thousand miles of so.

 

 

The trouble with tyres now is that the high price really does exclude much in the way of experiementation, purely on cost grounds.

 

 

So how do WIMers choose their tyres?

[chrisgixer]

Interesting post.

Getting fingers burned on expensive poor handling tyres, has probably been the most expensive aspect my car ownership. Falkens obviously having an exceptionally poor stability problem on the omega, as echoed above, yet also being exceptionally quiet. While Falken excelled and failed in equal measure with they're tyres on the omega, both aspects must be high on a tyre manufacturers priority list, which makes me think noise and stability might be something of a trade off tyre makers have to balance, given Falken and Dunlops traits, linked with the Sumitomi in Japan. Or am I reading too much into those connections...?

 

Yet, Goodyear have managed a quiet AND a stable tyre in the Eagle F1. Then again, Dunlop are linked to Goodyear in Europe I believe(I forget who owns who? ), and while Dunlops seem very stable and planted, they are hardly known as a quiet tyre.

So with Dunlops in mind, as we are primarily looking for they're historic known stability it seems, will the new EU tyre labelling bugger up Dunlops exceptionally stable characteristics, if they have to be seen to sell a quiet, fuel efficient tyre that brakes well in the wet?

This might make the Dunlop Sportmax TT replacement, the RT, something of an expensive gamble as it was designed to meet the new EU labelling. Especially given economics these days, new models might give Manufacturers a chance to make a good tyre a cheaper tyre.

 

Also, new models appear more regularly these days it seems. Then the customer is forced to experiment on another model, as old faithful is discontinued, and the risk of burnt fingers increases again. This makes fitting the original approved factory fit tyre difficult too obviously. (Not that's we would in this case)

 

How on earth are customers to know what they are buying, prior to stumping up ? The car is in good repair, no faults, set up by Tony himself, fitted with new tyres, with correct size speed and load ratings, and on driving away the car can very easily behave worse than when it arived on poor set up and the buggered old boots it came in with.

 

There are no tests for tramlining I know of. No tyre maker or car mag is going to test tyres on an old model such as the omega, and tests are all on smaller front wheel drive cars that have different weight, set ups, and tyre demands than large heavy rear wheel drive cars like the omega, going by experiences at least. We can't even fathom the problem on a forum dedicated to this one single model.

 

Sports contact 3 where a reasonably stable, good performing tyre. What went wrong on the sc5? And how do we avoid the problem of a bad vehicle tire match again.

 

Confused at omegaowners.com

[Tony]

Tyres are a financial minefield and an aggressive forum topic because it's such an opinionated topic.....

 

Ignore the manufacturers promise and the labelling, it's all tested in controlled conditions and to my knowledge we don't drive in controlled conditions

 

Hand-me-down recommendations are a good foundation, then once interested in a make of tyre i would refer to a review site like> http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/ from there you can read the unbiased opinions and the make of car they were fitted to.

[liner33]

Youve summed up the problem there , on one car a brand of tyres may well be faultless but on another car they may be lousy thats why i tend to stick to a known tyre

 

As for dunlops ive only ever had bad experiences with them but thats not to say you will

[TheBoy]

Youve summed up the problem there , on one car a brand of tyres may well be faultless but on another car they may be lousy thats why i tend to stick to a known tyre

 

As for dunlops ive only ever had bad experiences with them but thats not to say you will

 

Problem arising, is with all this new eco tyre BS, and these silly new euro labelling, all the old decent tyres are going out of production.

 

 

But you are right, different tyres suite different cars.  Mrs TB's little old Rover (before I shoved it into a 4 car pile up ) worked really well on P6000. Nobody would ever of though a P6000 was a good tyre. We tried all sorts on it, none were much good, and always went back to the Pirelli (which was the factory fit at the time). Then Pirelli stopped the P6000, and we never did find a replacement that worked before I wrote it off.

 

I too, traditionally used to shy away from Dunlops, until I got my first Omega, which came with SP9000. Once worn, I tried all sorts, and went back to the SP9000. That became obselete, so put on the Sport Maxx TT, and immediately leaving WIM, knew it was a great tyre for the car (it was lashing it down that day). A couple of sets later - they are only good for 11k before being pretty spent (errr, possibly illegal - actually, no possibly about it) - and they are no longer available, despite WIM's (and other outlets) best attempts on my behalf to source some in my size. So the Sport Maxx RT is the obvious replacement. Jury still out on them, as only done 150 miles due to an unforeseen problem, rectified by WIM yesterday. But I very much doubt the RTs will be a match for the TTs, and initial impressions bear that out.

[Tony]

Is everything ok now?

[TheBoy]

Is everything ok now?

 

Sadly not   - but we are having to "go back to basics" with this one, and I didn't think we would immediately cure all the problems by putting the standard settings back on.

 

However, although it may be placebo effect, I reckon its definately more stable from the type of wandering that you don't feel a pull on.  But I am did have a violent pull down the Wendover bypass, which is the only place on the entore journey home that I was able to exceed do the speed limit. I had an episode of this from both the front and the back. The Wendover bypass is probably about 1 mile long. Under moderate to heavy braking, the front of the car is squirming about.

 

But now we have a geo setting that we know works for me (on my other Omega), both Omegas are pretty tight, chassis wise IMHO, so we can move on and try looking in other areas for why I can't get this pig to go where I point it. You gave me a couple of pointers, most interesting was the Merc experience with tramlining, so that will be high up my list of tasks (although I had already tried that, but with the geo as it was, we were probably fighting too many variables at the same time).

 

 

The other one, with the balance issue, I've barely driven it (only back to Great Misery to drop it off to her), but the balance issue seems 100% sorted .  As to the Sport Maxx RTs, when she got home from college yesterday, I asked her what she thought of the car, the reply was "what have you done to my car, I don't like it". So I can only assume that she would go along with my initial impressions above, RTs are not as stable/planted/confident as TTs

[Tony]

What happened with the other one between when the handling was ok and now?

[TheBoy]

What happened with the other one between when the handling was ok and now?

 

Are we talking about the one you did the geo on on Sat? Never really had it working right. Initially too soft/wallowy when cornering, but reasonable stable in a straight line, so lowered/firmed. The Omega Elites are known to be excessively soft.

 

The one you did the wheel balancing on, between it being "perfect" and now, its had Sport Maxx TTs replaced for Sport Maxx RTs (and a geo last week, though not much needed doing, other than a gentle tweak) - though its probably done less than 250 miles, so still knocking the release agent off (he says, hopefully!!).