More tread on New car tyres ???

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kikkthecat

MB Enthusiast
Joined
Oct 10, 2003
Messages
1,181
Location
West Yorkshire
Car
2011 Viano 2.2 CDi Ambiente
It was safety inspection time recently on the Viano and I got an advisory for rear tyre wear. They are now less than 3mm apparently. I've ordered a pair of the same, Goodyear Eagle NCT5's as the current ones have done just shy of 58000 miles. I could probably get another 3 or 4 thousand from them but safety comes first.
I've been told, and I dont know if it's true, that new cars have tyres with an extra 1mm of tread on them so that people think they have good mileage from them and buy the same again at replacement time.
Can anyone confirm or deny this as I didn't even think about measuring tread depth until 12000 miles. But I am due a service soon so I may just take a depth guage into the dealer with me.
If it is true, what kind of miles should I expect from new NCT5's
If it's not true then I obviously expect another 58000 miles.
 
Why does the vehicle recieve an advisory when the tyres are under 3mm depth.?
I understand the wear issue but 3mm seems a bit excessive when the limit is 1.6 and 2mm is generally considered a good change point.

The difference in wear from 3mm to 2mm is 25% additional wear given 7mm initial tread, which would take you to 72,000 miles.
 
I had a renault years ago that span out and smashed badly and was due to rear tyres gone hard, were about 4 years old and 70k and as the rears are never worked hard, they had really good tread just no grip:( .

Even more unfortunate was the poor sod in the sierra coming the other way luckily no one was hurt just my pride.

Wife had same happen to her on another car again tyres hard as nails.




Lynall
 
Why does the vehicle recieve an advisory when the tyres are under 3mm depth.?
I understand the wear issue but 3mm seems a bit excessive when the limit is 1.6 and 2mm is generally considered a good change point.

The difference in wear from 3mm to 2mm is 25% additional wear given 7mm initial tread, which would take you to 72,000 miles.


For wet weather use, below 3mm tread is now generally accepted as not safe. The risk of aquaplaning with less than 3mm is much higher, also with winter approaching it's not worth trying to get another 1mm out of a tyre, different in dry summer weather.

Russ
 
When I was out with the police person on Traffic, we found a nail in a rear tyre. I asked him how often they change their tyres, and he said the maintenance guys will go down to 3mm and no less funnily enough
 
When I was out with the police person on Traffic, we found a nail in a rear tyre. I asked him how often they change their tyres, and he said the maintenance guys will go down to 3mm and no less funnily enough

I took a works van to HiQ to have the tyres checked a couple of weeks ago, all four had 3mm tread and the leasing company told them to replace all four.

Russ
 
Once you get below 3mm of tread the wet weather performance drops off greatly. Many tyres now have 3mm wear indicator bars.

With winter tyres less than 4mm means they are ineffective in snow so that some countries classify a sub 4mm winter tyre as equal to a summer tyre.

http://www.3mmtyres.co.uk/
 
all four had 3mm tread and the leasing company told them to replace all four.
Couldn't have been Autolease then. I had endless arguments with them over replacing worn tyres. They absolutely refused to replace tyres unless they had less than 2mm of tread :mad:
 
MB take the same view

Service mgr told me the same earlier in the summer.They recommend change @ 3mm
 
Why does the vehicle recieve an advisory when the tyres are under 3mm depth.?
I understand the wear issue but 3mm seems a bit excessive when the limit is 1.6 and 2mm is generally considered a good change point.

The difference in wear from 3mm to 2mm is 25% additional wear given 7mm initial tread, which would take you to 72,000 miles.

I disagree. There are lots of campaigns for 3mm changes and it's when I do ours, religiously. Through experience I feel it good practise as under 3mm in the wet and you can really feel it.
 
While agreeing with 3mm campaign I do find it slightly ironic that among its supporters on that site are listed National Tyres, Kwickfit and Continental. Its an ill wind--------??? ;) In terms of tyre manufacturers increasing tread depth I'm not sure of that one since tyre handing characteristics would be markedly changed by too large an increase in tread depth. I reckon the major factor in tyre wear is in the composition of the tread mix and the void ratio ( i.e. what proportion of the tread pattern is "air" rather than rubber) rather than the tread depth per se. If you want tyres with increased tread depth then going to an all weather or winter tyre will yield a tread depth up 2mm deeper than normal say 10 rather than 8. The trade off is in decreased tread stability and the potential for greater tyre heating under warm conditions???
 
Our leasing company refuse to change tyres unless they're down to 2mm. Took the van in on Monday with 3mm on the back and was told to come back in a few thousand miles as they were still good enough.
 
I've been told, and I dont know if it's true, that new cars have tyres with an extra 1mm of tread on them so that people think they have good mileage from them and buy the same again at replacement time.
Can anyone confirm or deny this

I've never heard that before and the thing that makes me doubt it is that often tyres in tyre dealers have car manufacturer coloured bands on them anyway.
New tyres have 8-9mm tread depth - someone else said 7, but I think it's generally more than that.
 
Tyre tread depths

Tread depths do vary on new tyre....7-8mm.....
Tyre manufacturers dont fit tyres with more tread depth on new cars...this may well have been perceived due to the fact that you invariably get more wear out of the first set of tyres on a new car......basically the car should be running perfectly, so less strain on the wheel/tyre....more wear....
 
Amongst other things the stiopping distance between 1.6m and 3mm at sat 50mph in certain road conditions can be maybe 3-5yds....difference between touching the bumper to ending up on the back seat !
 
I disagree.

I didn't mean that there wasn't a drop off in performance, just who was giving an advisory for this figure.?

From what I read the drop in grip is proportional to the tread depth.

Maybe we'll start seeing advisories for treads less than 5mm..:rolleyes:
 
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I didn't mean that there wasn't a drop off in performance, just who was giving an advisory for this figure.?
My Viano is licenced by VOSA and one condition of the licence is a safety inspection every 10 weeks. This time around I was given an advisory notice that the rear tyres are showing wear indicators at 3mm. I am under no obligation to change the tyres until they reach the 1.6mm legal limit and the decision to put on new ones is mine.
My original question, because I genuinely don't know was, is it possible that the NCT5's put on at new will have deeper tread than those I buy this week ?
 
My original question, because I genuinely don't know was, is it possible that the NCT5's put on at new will have deeper tread than those I buy this week ?


I doubt it very much, most modern tyres have between 7 & 8mm tread depth in my experience.

If the original tyres had deeper tread, them surely MO tyres would also have deeper tread? I've bought MO Bridgestone Potenzas before and the tread at new was 8mm or less.

Russ
 
I'm fairly certain that Michelin Primacy HP start life at 8mm. No knowledge of the Goodyear NCT5 though.
 
Used to have a pug 406 after leaving uni, which I bought nearly new. Back tyres lasts till 55K, and were still at 3mm then. One however blew out so took that as my 'marker'!
 

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