Continental Conti Sport Contact 5 Tyres

[JJBML]

My wife's car is a 2016 C Class C250D AMG Premium Plus brought new from Mercedes.
It has just had it's B1 service.

The rear tyres 245/40R18 97Y XL FR TL Continental Conti Sport Contact 5 have had to be changed due to less than 1.6mm tread remaining.

The car had done less than 10,000 miles on the tyres.

Lasts year the A1 service showed 4mm rear tread depth with 6404 miles. Front showed 6mm.

The tread on a new tyre is 6.8mm.

The tyre monitor seems to be functioning OK.

Has any other member had or know of a similar problems with this tyre/car?

Wonder if a tyre swap was done before delivery??????



regards

John

 

[andybond]

The Conti sports are amazingly soft. I went through a set in 2300miles

 

[JJBML]

The Conti sports are amazingly soft. I went through a set in 2300miles

Andy,

Thanks.

I just checked the mileage on my wife's car - 8102!!!!!

She only drives around the town and is no drag racer - too old. Very suprised how quick they have gone.

 

[markjay]

RWD car, soft tyre compound, possibly inflation pressures at the lower part of the permitted range, low-speed city driving - 8,000 miles tyre life is not unreasonable.

BTW this why rotating the tyres front-to-back at annual service time is a good idea.

 

[JJBML]

RWD car, soft tyre compound, possibly inflation pressures at the lower part of the permitted range, low-speed city driving - 8,000 miles tyre life is not unreasonable.

BTW this why rotating the tyres front-to-back at annual service time is a good idea.

Markjay,

Thanks.

The over reliance on the auto tyre pressure indicator is the one I suspect "possibly inflation pressures at the lower part of the permitted range".

I check my ML tyres manually every 2 weeks and get good mileage out of the tyres – 1998 was a low-tech era.


Regards


John

 

[zipdip]

Well I have used Conti's and P zeros and found both gave poor mileage,as you say your wife is not a drag racer,I would fit a tyre that is very hard wearing,it just depends on if you feel the need to fit a top brand,I have fitted Nexen all round they are wearing so well,my rears are 11.000 miles old and there is a lot of wear still left and they are a sub £100 tyre,they are fitted to the Porsche 4x4 as standard.

 

[Scooby_Doo]

Have had 18" & 19" Contisports on various cars and I don't remember getting more than 8-10,000 from any of them.

 

[JJBML]

Well I have used Conti's and P zeros and found both gave poor mileage,as you say your wife is not a drag racer,I would fit a tyre that is very hard wearing,it just depends on if you feel the need to fit a top brand,I have fitted Nexen all round they are wearing so well,my rears are 11.000 miles old and there is a lot of wear still left and they are a sub £100 tyre,they are fitted to the Porsche 4x4 as standard.

Zipdip,

Thanks.

Plan to replace the back two with same tyre. Fronts are wearing well. Next change will be a fullchnage out to a new make.

regards

John

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

Can't understand this thread. Mercedes have been using Conti Sports contact for ages as the Manufacturer's standard spec.

I've used them on powerful Mercedes and BMW's without an issue.

Conti Sports have had good reviews and won annual tyre awards from the magazines for ages.
Continental once again tops the EVO Magazine summer tyre test with the Sport Contact 5 for 2014 - Which Tyres?
Continental ContiSportContact 5 review
Welcome to the Blackcircles.com Help & Support Centre

Are they better than Pirellis? Who knows, both have their fans, it requires close analysis of personal detailed requirements and objective scoring against those criteria.

Whenever I hear of people getting through tyres quickly, my first thought is that they're leaving rubber on the road every time they brake. (look at brake lights on motorway driving and you'll see just how much some people do, or do not, brake in routine driving - and that's just a comment about braking, not "aggressive" braking). And that won't change much from brand to brand.

Apologies for the scepticism - but here's a simple question: why do you think the replacement is going to be any better? (Applies to Spouses as well as tyres)

.

 

[JJBML]

Can't understand this thread. Mercedes have been using Conti Sports contact for ages as the Manufacturer's standard spec.

I've used them on powerful Mercedes and BMW's without an issue.

Conti Sports have had good reviews and won annual tyre awards from the magazines for ages.
Continental once again tops the EVO Magazine summer tyre test with the Sport Contact 5 for 2014 - Which Tyres?
Continental ContiSportContact 5 review
Welcome to the Blackcircles.com Help & Support Centre

Are they better than Pirellis? Who knows, both have their fans, it requires close analysis of personal detailed requirements and objective scoring against those criteria.

Whenever I hear of people getting through tyres quickly, my first thought is that they're leaving rubber on the road every time they brake. (look at brake lights on motorway driving and you'll see just how much some people do, or do not, brake in routine driving - and that's just a comment about braking, not "aggressive" braking). And that won't change much from brand to brand.

Apologies for the scepticism - but here's a simple question: why do you think the replacement is going to be any better? (Applies to Spouses as well as tyres)

.

MikeInWimbledon,

I to have done the research and came up with the same results and hence the question posed.

The front tyres are 4mm & 5mm the back were showing the wear bars after 8104 miles.

I am focusing on the pressure monitor i.e. running the car for too long on the lower end of the pressure range and will be checking the pressure very very regularly to assess if this is the cause.

My wife is 63 and only uses the car as a shopping trolley and a very caution/nervous driver.

regards


John

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

MikeInWimbledon,
...... My wife is 63 and only uses the car as a shopping trolley and a very caution/nervous driver.

Same age as me then. As I said, my comment is that tyre usage isn't just about "aggressive" braking, it's about "braking."

Agreed that under inflated tyres could be a problem. A couple of checks will put that one to rest.

But it's worth also checking whether she brakes or coasts to junctions - that alone will cause more tyre wear. It's not mileage or speed that wears tyres out, it's braking and cornering.

I put new 17 inch Contisport 5's on my W221 last Summer, maybe 10,000 miles ago, and I've used only about 3mm, so that's pointing to maybe an 18-20,000 mile life.

Why is this all relevant? Because it's not obvious that another brand will be better. That I get 20,000 out of "my" tyres doesn't mean that you will.


.

 

[st13phil]

Can't understand this thread. Mercedes have been using Conti Sports contact for ages as the Manufacturer's standard spec.

I've used them on powerful Mercedes and BMW's without an issue.

I've run Conti 5P's on my W212 E63 and with a mixture of regular use and (ahem) "spirited" acceleration they lasted 13k miles on the rear, and I change my tyres when down to 3mm. My wife's SLK55 is on Conti 5P's and that did 14k on the first pair of rears and 13k on the second. Again they were changed with 3mm of tread left on them.

8,000 miles from a pair to less than 1.6mm on the rear of a C250D just sounds wrong. Are they MO-spec tyres? My experience is that Conti 5P's in generic spec wear faster than those in MO spec.

Are they better than Pirellis?

Based against the P-Zeros, my personal experience is an emphatic yes. This is based on the abysmal cold weather grip levels of the Pirelli's which the Conti's better by a country mile. In warmer conditions, there is precious little between them.

 

[markjay]

While I understand the OP's logic in wanting to replace the rear tyres with same make and model for now (and assuming they will wear again at a higher rate than the fronts), then replace all 4 tyre with a different brand, this is not the aproach I would take.

Given that the thread on the front tyres is already 4mm deep, and that tyres should really be replaced at 3mm (and not at the legal minimum of 1.6mm), I would just go ahead and replace all 4 tyres with new.

I would then make a point of rotating the tyres back-to-front every year during the annual service (note that the dealer might charge for it, because the wheels don't come off for a Service A). This will ensure equal wear throughout the tyre's service life.

 

[markjay]

On another note... the discrepancy in thread depth between the front and rear tyres is largely due to acceleration i.e. stop/start city traffic. And even at low speed, when the car accelerates the centre of gravity moves backwards placing a heavier load on the rear tyres. So it's the frequent driving-off from standstill that is responsible for most of the rear tyres' wear. In comparison, if the car was mostly cruising on the motorway, the tyres' service life would have increased.

 

[st13phil]

I would then make a point of rotating the tyres back-to-front every year during the annual service

This isn’t an option on many MB cars which have a staggered wheel setup. Good advice for those that can, though.




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[markjay]

This isn’t an option on many MB cars which have a staggered wheel setup. Good advice for those that can, though.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Good point.

 

[MicB]

I get circa 25k out of a set of Conti SP5s on my SL......same size 17" on each corner so I am able to rotate every 3500 miles which adds about 25% to the life of a set of tyres (my experience).
I do take the tyres down towards 1.6mm; certainly below 3.0mm.
Tyres are sensitive to the car's geometry set up and tyre pressure.....might be worth getting the car onto a Hunter machine or similar when putting on new tyres.
Something is wrong for your wife to get only the few miles to which you refer.
Incidentally, most summer tyres start with 8.0mm of tread (winters a little more) but I thought Conti SP5s started with 7.8mm not 6.8mm but I have not double checked.
I went to a very interesting evening of instruction at the Pirelli Performance Centre in Burton on Trent recently and they were unambiguous that one should fit MO tyres to Mercedes-Benz cars and similarly whatever the equivalent is for Porche, Lambo., Ferrari etc.........regardless of whether they be Pirelli tyres or not.
All the top manufacturers work closely with the tyre companies to design how the tyres are constructed to suit their particular cars.

Mic

 

[keith of kent]

I get IRO 25K miles from Conti Sports on an E350 212. I don't drive slowly but don't rag it around bends or do race starts. I read the road so that I don't brake at every corner etc
Tyre pressures are checked cold with a decent gauge every couple of weeks and when I noticed uneven wear I had the tracking checked on a Hunter machine

 

[John N]

A quick guestimate after looking through these threads and bringing my own experience into the equation suggests that Continental Conti Sport Contact 5 fitted on rims 18" and above shreds them in relatively small mileage!

Tin helmet and flack jacket on, digging trench in the garden!