Drive it and replace tyres when the wear out
Me too, it's not like they're on anything important like a bicycle, eh?
i wouldn't care less, assuming the size is correct, and load ratings etc
a single crap tyre on the back is going to have very little effect on a FWD car's performance..
High powered rwd car that likes to spin the rear up.. then maybe..
Nexens are a go to brand for me for a not chinese plastic tyre
OP's question - replacing the crap one would be on the 'to-do' list for 'soon-ish'. If you like the 'good' one, make it match.
I'm lucky, I have four knackered tyres... easy (if pricey) decision.
…I’d put the most grip on whichever end your particlar car works best with the most grip on, and find that out by experimentation.
Which is grand if you like to "make progress" and are a great driver, let's just hope the experiment doesn't go wrong when you least expect it to.
The videos posted point out that the car in the test had esp on, it's not perfect it just makes things better and having the best grip tyres on the back is better again.
What would i do - Wife's v70 had Membat passion 'smiling on the road' (designed in italy made in india) tyres on it when we bought it and one trip in the wet was enough to make me drive straight to the tyre place and get crossclimates fitted.
my drive to work ibiza had unknown horrible tyres on it with plenty of tread but i went and got some yokohamas as they didnt have michelins. My Viano had various tyres on it when i bought it, including a brand new Accelera which was available from Camskill for £35 at the time. I got 4 new Michelins straight away and i ebayed the old tyres to a local taxi driver. I just got some smaller OE wheels for the Viano which had some horrible Chinese tyres on it and i didn't even bother asking the wheel refurb place to save the tyres they went in the bin and i got some new Crossclimates.
So i'd fit Crossclimates. If the budget was tight i'd probably stick a pair on the back until i could afford to do the fronts later.
I asked my petrolhead mate.
>>
Nexen are “okay” if it’s not a performance car, but especially if they are new.
Triangle are truly awful - I speak from experience as they were on front of Superb when I bought it. I’d tread depth gauge the Michelin and if new enough, buy an identical single. Alternatively, a pair of “matching” Nexen’s and ebay the Michelin - it will have a value.
My caveat on “not a performance car” or not one to “make progress”, they are most useful when something unexpected happens, which is independent to the car.
I would politely suggest standing water / heavy rainfall / muddy roads can occur all year round.
Drive it and replace tyres when the wear out
i just replaced the tyres on the back of my van because they were starting to perish rather than wear out. they are at least 8 years old, 40k miles and about 3/4 worn...
Drive it and replace tyres when the wear out
Same here.
So many car tyre experts on STW, but it's late March and you can probably survive the next few months at least without that single cheaper tyre catapulting you into a ditch.
Maybe revisit the question in September?
Some of these tyre posts are like some of the suspension posts that come up on here, clearly made by people who do more reading than driving/riding. 🤣
I drive most of the day in cars and vans with budget mismatched tyres and unless you are driving like a dick or too fast for the conditions you'll be fine with tyres that are round and have legal amounts of tread on them.
Some of the previous posters must be racing drivers or something.
there is one thing you cannot argue with and that is in the wet some tyres are significantly better at braking than others. I need to know that my wife's car in particular will stop as well as it possibly can if she has a drama. i don't want to be thinking if only i had spent a couple of hundred more if she had a prang. im no racing driver, in fact people comment that i drive like an old granny, and I'm happy with that. i also get the house alarm tested annually, and i fitted expensive locks on the front door. maybe I'm not normal, but it makes me feel better.
Unless its a sporty car being driven on the ragged edge:
are they black?
are they round?
Could not disagree more.
In fact, of the 2 cars I own, its the distinclty un=sporty one on which its probably even more critical. Becuase thats the car you will be in on a Tuesday evening rush hour, on a wet motorway, when you get the sea of red lights in front of you and all of a sudden that a few quid you saved by fitting 'triangle lassooo sportrider XL's pales into insignificance as you sail into the back to the car in front with your ABS going nuts.
When we purchased my partners car, I fitted 4 new matching Goodyear allseasons.
When I purchased my current 'fun' car I replaced all the unworn but ageing tyres with the correct matching LTS spec tyres.
When I purchased my current daily I purchased 4 matching premium tyres.
When I purchase my next car, which im currently looking for, unless it has 4 decent, matching (at bare minimum across axles but ideally all 4) tyres, I'll be pricing a full set of tyres into the cost.
unless you are driving like a dick or too fast for the conditions you’ll be fine with tyres that are round and have legal amounts of tread on them
It baffles me that on a forum generally populated by people with a level of 'technical' know how, this opinion exists.
"Why bother with that expensive bike, just ride around on something with two wheels and handlebars, anyone could manage an EWS stage on this if your not riding like a dick"
@cougar 's mate is right too.
Its nothing to do with you - I don't care how 'careful' you are as a driver. Its about protecting you from other people, and conditions outside of your control.
Becuase thats the car you will be in on a Tuesday evening rush hour, on a wet motorway, when you get the sea of red lights in front of you and all of a sudden driving too close for the prevailing conditions pales into insignificance as you sail into the back to the car in front with your ABS going nuts. FTFY 😉
Driven lots of cars with mis-matched tyres, quite often making progress. Never found tyres to be an overriding issue, when we replaced tyres getting a match wasn’t a key concern. More important to check pressures regularly imho.
when you get the sea of red lights in front of you and all of a sudden the car in the right hand lane sails into your braking space and immediately hits the brakes
driving too close for the prevailing conditionspales into insignificance as you sail into the back to the car in front with your ABS going nuts. FTFY
If we are fixing it for accuracy then I guess we should be considering reality.
Yeah, it’ll likely be fine on tarmac, wet or dry, get a little bit of gravel and/or standing water/ice and instead of having a nice smooth curve of grip behaviour, you have a step change. Even a bad camber can be enough when combined with other factors.
What I meant was that your car probably won't spin if it has ESP. You can still drive too fast and the car will not make the corner, but it won't actually spin. Judging by the accident I saw a few years back you'll just move towards the outside of the corner until you hit something. Bad, yes, but in that situation without ESP the car probably would have spun and rolled due to oversteer or drifted even further out due to understeer, depending on the car. And the tyres it had 🙂
So yes good tyres are very important, largely when braking, but my point was with reference to them being different to each other. I don't think you have to worry much about tyres being different, when you're driving a modern car, but you do need decent ones of course.
ESP can’t do a fat lot if the tyres don’t generate enough grip
I always take the view that the only thing connecting me to the floor are those tyres, so i don't mind spending a bit more on them.
Fingers crossed i won't need to test them, but if something happens i would rather have them than not.
I can’t imagine how you have to drive to have this problem.
Any emergency situation where you need to swerve. Any situation where you get yourself into a bit of trouble such as entering a puddle at speed that turns out to be a bit deeper than you expected. And many people do drive by feel, ie they'll just keep going around that corner faster and faster until they feel the car losing stability.
And as demonstrated by the posters with 8 year old tyres crusty tyres on the back and onto their 3rd front set, it helps even out wear by moving your part worn tyres to the front and using all the tread depth before they are killed by age.
ESP can’t do a fat lot if the tyres don’t generate enough grip
Amen to that and that's what I tried to explain earlier. ESP basically transfers friction from one axle to the other through braking the diametrically opposed wheel. But that's assuming that said wheel has any friction at all. In other words, lose friction on both axles either by losing lateral grip or even longitudinal adhesion (aka traction) and ESP will do absolutely nothing, hence the importance of tyres both in terms of inherent grip but also tread depth in the wet.
And then Michelin throw their tread depth curve-ball...
"The minimum tread depth is 1.6 mm. This means that it is imperative to change your tyres once this limit has been reached to avoid compromising your safety and breaking the law.
But it also means that it is premature to change your tyres before this threshold."
https://www.michelin.co.uk/auto/advice/tyre-basics/tyre-tread-depth
3mm is the oft-quoted minimum for good wet performance, especially under braking, but "The following tyre lines are designed to offer high level of longevity and performance that lasts: MICHELIN CrossClimate², MICHELIN Primacy 4+, MICHELIN Pilot Sport 4 , MICHELIN Alpin 6 and MICHELIN Pilot Alpin 5."
^ surprised by that actually. In fairness for me tread depth is also very critical in terms of aquaplaning resistance. I assume that 1.6mm vs 3mm means almost half the volume of water but I don't know what the delta is in terms of mph differential to saturate them between those tread depths.
Michelin is quite specific on tyre models ^^
I get the feeling that it isn't the case that every tyre can run down to 1.6mm and still perform
Golf GTi with mis-matched tyres here. Rarely driven 'on the limit' on the road and did about 80 laps of Castle Combe very nicely last year. Drive to the conditions, expect everyone to be out to kill you and you won't go far wrong.
ESP basically transfers friction from one axle to the other through braking the diametrically opposed wheel.
It does more than that, it will also take over steering.
It's there to prevent a spin or a slide from what I can tell.
It’s there to prevent a spin or a slide from what I can tell.
But in the same way abs is shit with shit tires. It can't work optimally with shit tires.
Of course.
Modern drivers would do well to spend time and training in vehicles without all the aids keeping them on the road.
I dunno, they just need time and training in concentrating and not being dicks.
So Removal of driver aids and spike in the steering wheel.
ESP doesn't typically steer, although it's a collision avoidance feature on some vehicles. It can only steer by applying individual brakes.
The minimum depth is due to the tread patterns. Those listed Michelin tyres are quite an open pattern, so will still clear water reasonably well below the usual 3mm recommendation, however there is still a limit on how well a wide tyre can handle aquaplaning.
It does more than that, it will also take over steering.
It’s there to prevent a spin or a slide from what I can tell.
ESP does not take over steering.
ESP essentially extends functionality of ABS/TC by monitoring the steering position/angle and the vehicle yaw rate to monitor if the vehicle is going in the direction the driver wants it to. If it's not, it'll apply brakes/reduce power/redirect power (only on more advanced drivetrains), to attempt to get the vehicle going in the desired direction.
However if you suddenly spin the steering wheel to the point all wheels are now sliding sideways, it's not going to stop you spinning the steering, and there is not much it can do. It will likely reduce power, but that's of limited help once you're travelling sideways.
ESP does not take over steering.
It does on my car, from experience.
It does more than that, it will also take over steering.
It’s there to prevent a spin or a slide from what I can tell.
It won't take over steering, but it does cut engine power and will apply an individual brake.
It does constantly monitor steering and it'll tell the driver through a variety of cues that it's correcting over/understeer (it doesn't want us thinking that we're better than we are 🙂 )
X-post x2...one of the cues might be a "nudge" of the steering wheel, but that's it
It does on my car, from experience.
It might give the impression it is due to how it's applying brakes/transferring power causing you to need to apply more force to the steering wheel, but it won't take over steering.
It very clearly yanked the wheel and countersteered when I was reckless with the throttle on a motorway slip road. It did what I would have had to do, but far quicker than I could have reacted. Good job, since I wasn't expecting it and I'm not sure I would have done the right thing.
Triangle tyres have terrible reviews
People actually read tyre reviews?! Jeez.
It does on my car, from experience.
I can’t imagine how you have to drive to have this problem.
People actually read tyre reviews?! Jeez.
How do you choose new tyres?
Er..I just buy new versions of what is already on there.
I can honestly say I've never noticed any difference in my car tyres, apart from road noise. Obviously I'm not a driving expert.
No question I was being a dick when that happened. It was however under hard acceleration on a corner in a RWD car. The problem wasn't a slide caused by mis-matched tyres. I can't imagine how you would have to drive to accidentally slide during a corner specifically because your tyres were mismatched, which was the original post.
I can honestly say I’ve never noticed any difference in my car tyres, apart from road noise. Obviously I’m not a driving expert.
It happens when you have to do an emergency stop. Good tyres stop you much quicker than bad ones, again from experience. And I have had cars that would easily wheelspin trying to pull out onto a roundabout on the OEM tyres, and the problem went away when I bought decent ones.
Er..I just buy new versions of what is already on there.
I can honestly say I’ve never noticed any difference in my car tyres, apart from road noise.
I wonder why that could be.
I wonder why that could be
Do tell, please
Well I'm glad we are now understanding that there are external factors that might lead to unintended or unplanned cornering taking place.
Ha! I just bought a car with exactly the same problem except instead of the Nexens on the front it's another pair of triangles. After 3k miles I can say they are right up there with Intensa Savas as the absolute worst shit I have ever driven with.
During the recent snow in Sheffield I was taking it super easy, approaching a roundabout at no more than walking pace, braked, and glided on uninterrupted straight into the path of an incoming pickup which, thankfully, I managed to accelerate away from. That's never happened to me on Maxxis, Michelin, Kumho, Nexen, Vredstein, Nokian or any other brands I've used all season or winter tyres on.
They're utter crap in the wet as well. Costco will be getting a visit.
