yes I know it’s summer but need new tyres on the car and was wondering how winter tyres last if you use them all year round.

Does warm summer weather cause excessive wear?

Yes on my T4, have been on there 2 years now and very little wear.

Saying that you can’t even spin the front wheels as it’s pretty low powered, I’d imagine on my other car which is alot more powerful they’d get ripped up fairly quickly when it’s warm.

They’re “All Season” tyres. My Conti Winter Contacts used all year round have lasted significantly longer (factor of 2x or more) than the Pirelli P6000’s they replaced.

Stay on all year round no significant wear issues compared to previous tyres.

I left mine on last year, seemed fine.

I use tyres on my car.

I have all season snow rated tyres on all year.

On the vehicle I use at work I asked for winter tyres in the winter and was told they’ll only swap them when they wear out. In march they wore out so they fitted winter tyre which I still have on in june. So in conclusion our fleet dept have fitted normal tyres for the winter and winter tyres for the summer. DOH!

I still have the winter tyres on as it’s only a couple of weeks since we were still getting snow. I’m thinking of just leaving them on this year 🙂

Left mine on last year – just deciding whether to change over now…

Wintrac extremes (proper M&S jobs) on a Scooby legacy

Wear looks slower than Summer tyres, but handling not quite as good on tight corners.

Yes on my Berlingo that really only sees poor quality lanes. After the last two summers I just left them on. Still got the regular ones in the shed!

They will wear a lot faster in warm weather. However:

a) we haven’t had a fat lot of warm weather these last few summers and
b) many winter tyres are scilica compounds aka energy savers, these should last easily 50k miles. So whilst people may be happy getting 20k miles from them as per ‘normal’ tyre this still represents a lot of wear.

I’ve still got mine on due to disorganisation (snowproxes)… But since it last snowed about 2 weeks ago I’m not too bothered about that.

They work well even when warm (though noticably less good than my normal tyres, still more than adequate), aren’t wearing too fast, and don’t seem to hurt the fuel economy much. Also there’s mountainbike-specific advantages of getting in and out of muddy fields, marginal carparking etc (I towed a freeloader out of pitmedden with my old Focus 😉 )

Never noticed additional wear but they do tend to squeal a bit in warm weather and the car under steers more so i change them when it the weather warms up again. Mine are Michelin Alpins on a remapped Mondeo estate so a big heavy car with additional torque going through the front tyres.
I have spare sets of alloys for both the wife’s and my car so changing them over is nothing of a job. Only issue is the storage of 2 sets of wheels.
At the current wear rate I expect another 4 years out of the winter tyres which at nearly £250 a corner compared to £150 each for the summer tyres (Michelin PS3s) is fine by me.

Had mud+snow tyres on our old A6 all the time. Swap between summer-ish tyres and General Grabber ATs on the Discovery. Seeing the difference between the two, it’s no wonder the tyres it came with didn’t work in the snow 😯

But consider stopping distances in the wet on winter towers – much greater than on ‘standard’ tyres.

1. I’m under the impression that for a winter tyre to function properly it needs more tread left than the legal minimum – it would be a bit of a waste to scrub off the tread in the summer and leave yourself a less than ideal (though well above legal minimum) tyre for the next winter.

2. Whilst insurance companies seem to have sorted themselves out now with not penalising you for having winter tyres on in the winter is there any evidence that they might not try to wriggle out of paying up for a summertime accident with winter tyres on if they could be proved to perform less well in summer conditions than their summer tyre counterparts? Could be more of an issue with a performance car but I’m not sure if it actually a problem.

The last couple of cars I’ve had I have bought a cheap (but still OEM) set of wheels to put the winter tyres on and just switched them myself and stored at home. Tyre wear (and therefore overall expense) same as running a single set and no real faff. The couple of hundred quid for the extra wheels was quickly forgotten as done alongside the buying of the actual car.

Johndoh, did you mean to say that the other way round, shorter with winter tyres.

johndoh – Member – Quote
But consider stopping distances in the wet on winter towers – much greater than on ‘standard’ tyres.

Braking on Wet Roads from 62mph (100km/h) to Rest

At 20C there is a slight disadvantage. Given the mean temperature on even a summer day, it’s a problem I can easily live with

Not to mention that when the roads are wet, temperatures are likely to be lower. Wonder what their definition of wet is in this instance- it feels like much of a muchness to me on a regular wet road but throw in standing water and the winter tyres seem much better.

(using my scientific test rig of a hefty, reasonably powerful car, and a convenient fast roundabout on my commute that often puddles up, rather than stopping distances)

Johndoh, did you mean to say that the other way round, shorter with winter tyres.

No, winter tyres don’t perform as well in wet conditions in the summer as standard tyres can. Of course some winter tyres perform better than some standard tyres in the summer but the best standard tyres provide better wet weather stopping power in warmer weather.

I just don’t like the idea of aquaplaning on a motorway at 70mph after a summer downpour – it’s just my opinion mind you.

The last couple of cars I’ve had I have bought a cheap (but still OEM) set of wheels

How much did that cost?

I reckon my winters would be better in heavy rain in the summer than my summers, mind. More and bigger rain channels.

Winters will grip better on a wet road and stop faster than a cheap summer tyre, where the difference between a good summer tyre and a poor one can be many more metres of stopping time. GF’s Skoda is running winters all year now, as she’s only doing @6k and up here we can have cold roads (below 7C) every month of the year. There’ll be plenty trad left come this winter and probably the one after that too.
The advantages of having just winters tyres far outweigh the diadvantages of only having summers, especially when we’ve just had a 7 1/2 month winter.

How much did that cost?

1st car Clio 197 – I bought a second set of rims from a guy on ebay who had bought his clio 200 new, driven it a couple of hundred miles and then was in the process of pimping it up – I think I won them for £190 (he kept the tyres). They were effectively as new.

2nd was a nearly new Golf from a main agent which instead of haggling a discount from the sticker price I got a set of alloys & winter wheels (plus mats and other low rent stuff) thrown in for the asking price. In comparison to the discount I would have negotiated I reckon the wheels cost me about £200.

All Seasons, run Good Year Vector 4Seasons.

http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Article/2012-Auto-Bild-All-Season-Tyre-Test.htm

Ran winter tyres on the car for a couple of summers. They were fine mostly although I developed a lot of tyre roll(not sure the tech term for this). Basically lateral movement due to the weaker sidewall on the tyre. In hot temps and after driving a while you could feel the difference in the handling of the car. Presume the rubber is designed to run in colder temps and got too supple when hot. Had a blow out after a long drive on twisty roads, tyre basically split right around the edge of the tread and the sidewall. I was being a cheapskate and had run the same tyre for ~20k miles though.

edit- tyres were Michelin Alpin snow.

Johndoh, you must be getting confused. Winter tyres are covered in Sipes whose purpose it is to channel water away to provide more grip in the wet. This reduces the chances of aquaplaning not increasing it. As Scotroutes post shows little difference in braking distances in the wet at 20 degrees and it tends to colder than that when it rains as pointed out by Northwind.

At 20C there is a slight disadvantage. Given the mean temperature on even a summer day, it’s a problem I can easily live with

Do you have a similar figure for the comparison between winter/all season tyres and normal tyres showing stopping distances in the dry at 20C?

Johndoh, you must be getting confused. Winter tyres are covered in Sipes whose purpose it is to channel water away to provide more grip in the wet. This reduces the chances of aquaplaning not increasing it. As Scotroutes post shows little difference in braking distances in the wet at 20 degrees and it tends to colder than that when it rains as pointed out by Northwind.

However it is termed (perhaps I didn’t mean aquaplaning specifically) but winter tyres are not as good in the summer in wet (or, of course, dry conditions). And do you think that temperatures will be <7deg (above which, summer tyres start to display better grip characteristics than winter tyres) during a summer storm in the middle of July?

Aquaplaning is where the tyre cannot displace the water underneath so it is effectively riding on top of a layer of water. If you we’re to have that much water sit on a road then the compound the tyre is made of doesn’t count for squat if it can’t displace enough water through its channels to make contact with the road surface.

No figures, but Conti say this…

When should I fit winter tyres to my car?

It is recommended that you switch to winter tyres in the UK between October and April.

If you are reluctant to change tyres and have nowhere to store summer tyres when they are not in use, you are better off using winter tyres all year round.

Winter tyres are as quiet and comfortable as summer tyres and, thanks to sophisticated compound technology, do not wear any more quickly.

There is a slight trade off with stopping distances as a winter tyre does not stop as quickly in the dry as a summer tyre, however, on balance if it is not possible to switch tyres in the winter, experts say you are better off with winter tyres all year round. This is because the difference in stopping distances of summer tyres in winter is far greater than for winter tyres in the summer.

Fair enough, use them then – I’m not the Tyre Police. 🙂

One additional factor might be MPG… I reckon I’m around 4MPG worse off with my winter tyres…

Here’s what the image for stopping from 100km/h on a dry road looks like

And a wet road:

5m is quite a difference.

Haven’t got winter tyres yet, but considering them when ours need replacing as we plan to use the car to get Austria for ski holidays but leaving them on all year. We often head to the mountains for a summer holiday, which means driving in placed where it’s a lot hotter than the UK.

Would you guys make sure you re-fitted summer tyres if heading somewhere hotter?

5m is quite a difference.

If my math is right, that’s around 10%

I would switch them. For me handling of a true winter ( so with the Mountain snow flake on the sidewall ; I use Michellin X-ice) really detiorates above about 10C. Also convert+1, I want to keep the tread on my winters for winter.

Winters are also more noisy and less fuel efficient than the all seasons I use in the summer.

Re fuel economy, my Nokian WR G2s are fantastic on fuel, better than ‘normal’ tyres, and as good if not slightly better than the energy saving Nokian H summers I have.

I leave winters on all year on both vans – because my milage is split between both any extra wear in the summer doesn’t really add up to much. 20 degrees is newsworthy good weather in these parts – its June and the thermometer on the dash hasn’t gotten out of the teens yet on a drive. Especially so in the mornings and evenings when I’m actually driving. Until a couple of weeks back it was rare to see it manage above 7deg any time before noon.

I still have the winter tyres on as it’s only a couple of weeks since we were still getting snow. I’m thinking of just leaving them on this year

Me too.

I’ve swapped from winter to summer for the past two years but as it’s now June I can’t make my mind up as to whether it’s worth it. The difference in fuel consumption is negligible and I’m fairly sure the winters are quieter

My ‘company’ car also still has Michelin Alpins on from winter, which are now at their limit (4mm policy on Ambulance RRV) and there has been a very noticeable difference this week now that it’s a bit hotter. Very squirmy under load and a huge increase in ABS kicking in, particularly noticeable in dry conditions.

It’s not something that would be an important consideration for me under normal conditions in my own car, as I wouldn’t be driving anything like as quickly but there is a difference.