Expensive Puncture

[Brian WH]

On Thursday morning I found the rear near side tyre completely FLAT.

As I was just about to go out with my wife and her car fortunately was parked behind mine in the drive, we left mine and went in her car. I drove her PINK Honda Jazz. Hide my shame.

Spent thursday pricing and negotiating new tyres, as both rear tyres were 3mm and the fronts were 3+mm and 4+. I decided to go for 4 new tyres. The previous discussions about my Continentals being replaced by something else in another thread led me to cost out 4 x Michelin Primacy HP 225/55/R16 95W.

First quote £135 each. ATS £122 special price for 4 - Better. My friend at Selectatyre was called and he matched ATS. Complete package tyre + new valve + balancing for £121 each. So my puncture cost me £484.

I was going to change them next month anyway before my holiday to France.

I had to fit the spacesaver to go to the garage which was 14 miles away. That was an experience in itself. MB give you white gloves and a ground sheet to assist your delicate hands and knees. The Spacesaver was 50 mph maximum and 60 psi. I drove like an old vicar at 50 mph and was overtaken by Lorries on the dual carriageway.

But it ended well within the hour I was back on the road. First impressions of the Michelin Primacy HPs were that they were excellent, with plenty of tread and very good road noise, grip was superb.:bannana: :bannana:

 

[wallingd]

A happy ending after all . If you were going to change anyway then in a way the puncture cost you nothing - it just got you new tyres sooner (which, who knows, could have been a godsend). I would have thought 3mm was fine for a bit longer - usually it's 2 when one starts to worry.

 

[Brian WH]

A happy ending after all . If you were going to change anyway then in a way the puncture cost you nothing - it just got you new tyres sooner (which, who knows, could have been a godsend). I would have thought 3mm was fine for a bit longer - usually it's 2 when one starts to worry.

Very true.

As i was going on a longish trip in June, I was going to change them earlier than normal. But on this car 2mm+ is the absolute minimum for grip.

 

[fuzzer]

coolski

new rubber rocks ... now show me your logo :bannana:

 

[Steve_Perry]

... But on this car 2mm+ is the absolute minimum for grip.

Car or driver Bri?

S.

 

[Brian WH]

coolski

new rubber rocks ... now show me your logo :bannana:

Don't know about logo unless you mean this one.

 

[Dieselman]

Brian
I also think you have been a little premature in changing your tyres. Tyres start at 8mm and are allowed to wear to 1.6mm. This gives 6.4mm of useable tread.
At 3mm you still have 21% of useable tread wear left and at 4mm you still have 37% of useable treadwear left.

I would have had the puncture repaired and the best tyres swapped to the rear.

You would probably have seen another 10,000miles or more out of your existing tyres.

I see you opted for Michelin Pilot primacy HP. I too have a set of these waiting for my old tyres to wear off having purchased them at Costco for £376 including fitting, normal price £448 but I had a voucher. These are for 215/55-16W, which are apparently more expensive due to being a less common size.
If you aren't a member it's worth seeing if you can become one just for the tyre deals.

 

[Brian WH]

Brian
I also think you have been a little premature in changing your tyres. Tyres start at 8mm and are allowed to wear to 1.6mm. This gives 6.4mm of useable tread.
At 3mm you still have 21% of useable tread wear left and at 4mm you still have 37% of useable treadwear left.

I would have had the puncture repaired and the best tyres swapped to the rear.

You would probably have seen another 10,000miles or more out of your existing tyres.

I see you opted for Michelin Pilot primacy HP. I too have a set of these waiting for my old tyres to wear off having purchased them at Costco for £376 including fitting, normal price £448 but I had a voucher. These are for 215/55-16W, which are apparently more expensive due to being a less common size.
If you aren't a member it's worth seeing if you can become one just for the tyre deals.

I think your figures are optimistic for life mate. I have been getting 20000 miles from my continentals. 21% would be 4200. As I said 2mm is the absolute minimum for me as the grip and roadholding in the rain gets decidedly dodgy at that wear limit. I am also going to do 2500 miles in France, so would be pushing my luck by the time I got back. Normally I would have repaired the puncture, but at 3mm was it really worth the risk???

By the way I am a member of Costco.

 

[andy_cyp]

On Thursday morning I found the rear near side tyre completely FLAT.

As I was just about to go out with my wife and her car fortunately was parked behind mine in the drive, we left mine and went in her car. I drove her PINK Honda Jazz. Hide my shame.

Spent thursday pricing and negotiating new tyres, as both rear tyres were 3mm and the fronts were 3+mm and 4+. I decided to go for 4 new tyres. The previous discussions about my Continentals being replaced by something else in another thread led me to cost out 4 x Michelin Primacy HP 225/55/R16 95W.

First quote £135 each. ATS £122 special price for 4 - Better. My friend at Selectatyre was called and he matched ATS. Complete package tyre + new valve + balancing for £121 each. So my puncture cost me £484.

I was going to change them next month anyway before my holiday to France.

I had to fit the spacesaver to go to the garage which was 14 miles away. That was an experience in itself. MB give you white gloves and a ground sheet to assist your delicate hands and knees. The Spacesaver was 50 mph maximum and 60 psi. I drove like an old vicar at 50 mph and was overtaken by Lorries on the dual carriageway.

But it ended well within the hour I was back on the road. First impressions of the Michelin Primacy HPs were that they were excellent, with plenty of tread and very good road noise, grip was superb.:bannana: :bannana:

Think thats bad .....................

Wife kerbed the front wheel a month or so ago so i decided ide had enough of thet scratch and decided to call the experts, after speaking to many of them i found out that amg uses a special finishing process on these wheels hence the chrome/mirror effect and was told that none of them could guarantee a 100% match.

So i took the plunge and gave it a company that said that they would give it a finish that the average person wouldnt notice................ well guess what..................yes you guessed it, it was a total mismatch, i argued with the guys after but since i was told that they couldnt get it spot on it was my fault, i took it a few other places and again was told that they also would only get a similiar result.

So i was left with 2 choices...try and live with it or buy another wheel and keep the mismatch as a spare since i only get tyre foam for a puncture...Ohh i forgot to mention that the guy did suggest that since i was unhappy with the finish hed do the back one free of charge so at least they would look the same on that side at least, or he do the remaining 3 for 30.00 each.I told him to forget it and i stormed off straight to my local dealer and ordered a new wheel.


End result=====£50.00 for the mismatch===£350.00 for new wheel===£40.00 for budget tyre to fit the mismatch. ===£440.00 for a scratch youde hardly notice. Sio i guess your £484 for four new tyres aint that bad at all.

Peace

 

[Brian WH]

End result=====£50.00 for the mismatch===£350.00 for new wheel===£40.00 for budget tyre to fit the mismatch. ===£440.00 for a scratch youde hardly notice. Sio i guess your £484 for four new tyres aint that bad at all.

Peace

We are a picky lot, us MB owners aren't we. We all do it as second best is not right to us. So as they say we pays our money and takes our choice.

Tough luck mate, hope the wife chipped in, excuse the pun.

 

[nickmann]

I think your figures are optimistic for life mate. I have been getting 20000 miles from my continentals. 21% would be 4200. As I said 2mm is the absolute minimum for me as the grip and roadholding in the rain gets decidedly dodgy at that wear limit. I am also going to do 2500 miles in France, so would be pushing my luck by the time I got back. Normally I would have repaired the puncture, but at 3mm was it really worth the risk???

By the way I am a member of Costco.

I agree with you Brian. Whilst it may be technically legal to run them down to 1.6mm, their performance drops right off after 3 or 4mm. Why have a car with a superb ride and then drive it on sub-standard tyres?

 

[C240Sport97]

me too.

I changed the rear tyres recently .. and the ride, handling and noise levels have been transformed. Like a new car.

The old tyres were worn in the middle down to about 2mm. Vey pleased I got rid of them as they were making the car ride and handle poorly with substantially higher road noise.

Well worth it.

I agree with you Brian. Whilst it may be technically legal to run them down to 1.6mm, their performance drops right off after 3 or 4mm. Why have a car with a superb ride and then drive it on sub-standard tyres?

 

[Satch]

Change of 1.6mm to 3mm limit?

This came out last year and is still being thrashed around.

RESEARCH INTO WET DRIVING CONDITIONS CALLS FOR TYRES TO BE CHANGED AT 3MM

Independent research undertaken by MIRA reveals that braking distance deteriorates in wet conditions when tyre tread depth drops below 3mm.

Although the legal tread depth limit is 1.6mm, a threshold set by motoring experts some 30 years ago, Roadsafe says there is now compelling evidence that motorists should check and change their tyres at 3mm. Road accidents where wet conditions are a contributory factor are on the increase.

It’s a well known fact that in wet conditions braking distances increase. Thirty three of all road accidents already occur during the summer months and with heavy downpours and flash floods becoming a permanent fixture of an English summer (in 2004 average summer rainfall increased to 314.9mm3), there is every possibility this figure could rise over successive years.”

The trend is already upwards according to Town and Country Assistance who state that road accidents where wet conditions are cited as a major cause have increased from 1 in 12 in 1998-99 to 1 in 4 in 2003-04.

“There has been a long-standing belief within the motoring industry that wet weather tyre performance deteriorates as the tread depth wears away. A comprehensive test of different vehicles and tread depths now scientifically proves and backs up these claims,” says MIRA’s project engineer, Simon Aldworth, who carried out the research into tyre tread performance at the organisation’s headquarters in Nuneaton.

MIRA’s research was carried out on four separate vehicles, a mid range family hatchback, an MPV, executive saloon and a high performance saloon car, measuring stopping distances at 50 mph in conditions that represented simulated moderately heavy rain (0.5mm to 1.5mm water depth). The research discovered that tyres with a 3mm tread had a 25% better performance than those at 1.6mm. In terms of stopping distance this represents an extra 25 feet in wet conditions. In one test, compared to an 8mm tread the stopping distance on a tyre tread depth of 1.6mm was 13 metres (42.25ft) – the equivalent to double the length of a typical living room.

We are not suggesting that 1.6 mm tyre tread depth is not safe, However with 300,000 road accidents taking place every year and a climate which is now much more susceptible to heavy rain, particularly in the summer months, there is need to take action now. If motorists replaced their tyres much sooner stopping distances would improve, accidents reduce and lives would be saved.

Major car manufacturers also recommend changing at 3mm, and they specify in their owner manuals that tyre performance and safety margins decrease once the tread depth reaches 3mm.

RoSPA is advising motorists of a four point tyre health check to help increase driver safety:

• Every two weeks check the pressure of your tyres when they are cold.
• Check the tread depth of your tyres. Although the minimum legal UK tread depth is 1.6mm, RoSPA recommends that tyres should be replaced when the tread depth reaches 3mm. As the depth decreases stopping distance in wet weather will increase. This is more notable on cars with larger wheels and wider tyres.
• Check tyres for damage. Look out for any cuts, cracks or bulges as these can lead to slow punctures and blowouts.
• Finally, don’t forget to check the pressure and tread depth of your spare tyre.

http://www.aamotoringtrust.com/files/reports/27062005_Get_a_grip.pdf

 

[prprandall51]

I think your figures are optimistic for life mate. I have been getting 20000 miles from my continentals.

Brian, you don't look like a nutter behind the wheel to me (that is meant in the best possible way). therefore, I am very surprised you only get 20,000 from your tyres. My 211 estate (avantgarde) came from the factory on Dunlop SPs and at the 20,000 (well, 19,000) mile mark the tyres are uniformly down to 4mm on all corners and across the entire tread area.

I agree that they will need changing at 2mm min but that should give me another 10,000 miles without problems. Those continentals appear to wear quickly.

I am perplexed as to why I had Dunlops - all the other 211s I see of similar age to mine seem to have been put onto continentals. I assumed it was because it was an Avantgarde but other AGs also have Continentals.

 

[prprandall51]

OK, following Satch's post, I'll change them at 3mm.

 

[jeremytaylor]

Satch's post confirms what I've long thought, and now we get monsoons instead of just rain (thanks to global warming ) it makes it even more important to change before the legal limit.

 

[barneybeardsall]

I heard from a tyre dealer that Conti's only come with 7mm of tread.. where as everyone else has 8mm....

I have Bridgestones on Mine and managed a nice 40K on a set of 4 with the tread depth being down to 2mm when changed...

 

[DieselE]

Brian, you don't look like a nutter behind the wheel to me (that is meant in the best possible way). therefore, I am very surprised you only get 20,000 from your tyres. My 211 estate (avantgarde) came from the factory on Dunlop SPs and at the 20,000 (well, 19,000) mile mark the tyres are uniformly down to 4mm on all corners and across the entire tread area.

I agree that they will need changing at 2mm min but that should give me another 10,000 miles without problems. Those continentals appear to wear quickly.

I am perplexed as to why I had Dunlops - all the other 211s I see of similar age to mine seem to have been put onto continentals. I assumed it was because it was an Avantgarde but other AGs also have Continentals.

Have you (or the dealer) swapped the tyres around. I ask because the rears on mine are definitely wearing faster than the front.

At 21k, I have 3mm across the centre of both rears with 4mm at the shoulders. The fronts are at 5+mm except for the extreme outside shoulders. The tyres are Continental Premium Contact 225/55 16 (i.e. standard Avantgarde wheels).

 

[DieselE]

Brian, you don't look like a nutter behind the wheel to me (that is meant in the best possible way). therefore, I am very surprised you only get 20,000 from your tyres. My 211 estate (avantgarde) came from the factory on Dunlop SPs and at the 20,000 (well, 19,000) mile mark the tyres are uniformly down to 4mm on all corners and across the entire tread area.

I agree that they will need changing at 2mm min but that should give me another 10,000 miles without problems. Those continentals appear to wear quickly.

I am perplexed as to why I had Dunlops - all the other 211s I see of similar age to mine seem to have been put onto continentals. I assumed it was because it was an Avantgarde but other AGs also have Continentals.

Just out of interest, I was at my local dealer's today and there was a 55 reg E270CDI Avantgarde Estate on Dunlop SPs. So you're not alone.

 

[Chris_J]

I'm looking forward to having tyres that last longer than 10,000 my last set of Bridgstones Potenza RE040 only lasted 10k.