Author Topic: All season tyres.  (Read 25440 times)

Audax

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Re: All season tyres.
« Reply #60 on: 04 September 2019, 08:39:34 AM »
Here's the link on Michelin and their stated performance with the crossclimates, they do seem to call them worn at 2mm, but once I'm below 2mm I'll be looking for replacements anyway.

https://www.michelin.co.uk/auto/home-auto/long-lasting-performances

Currently means getting them refitted sounds like a good option as they have around 30-35% of their life left, or another 10,000 miles which for me at the moment could be another 18 months to 2 years and that's around the time I planned to replace the 9-3 as I bought it with a plan of owning it for 5 years in total.

Audax

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Re: All season tyres.
« Reply #61 on: 04 September 2019, 07:04:13 PM »
Managed to sneak out of work for a couple of hours to get this done today, paid the expensive but good place to do it as I don't trust the local garages to get something like this right. £48 for to have tyre removed, rims cleaned up, new valve and balancing for 2 wheels, I don't really mind that as they did take an hour to get it right. Tyre fitter said that the rims just had mild corrosion, so hopefully sorted.
« Last Edit: 04 April 2020, 05:39:29 PM by Audax »

fka

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Re: All season tyres.
« Reply #62 on: 05 September 2019, 06:35:23 PM »
I'm not sure whether all 4 of mine have a slight rim leak since they were fitted. I'd previously had a fast leak on one of the rears which was resolved by cleaning the corrosion from the rim. I did ask the garage this time to clean the rims up but was told afterwards that they'd just used a rim sealant.. Wasn't my first choice of garage but was the only local BlackCircles fitter. As they're all losing about the same amount (about 2 psi a month currently) I'm just not sure if its the change in temps as we've gone from near 40 down to 17 degrees when I was in the Gower this last week?

Either way I'm a few 1000 miles into the CrossClimates and have nothing bad to say about them..

Audax

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Re: All season tyres.
« Reply #63 on: 04 April 2020, 05:44:56 PM »
The Michelin Crossclimates have started life with 7mm of tread and the car has done 91000 miles so I'm going to keep a record of the wear rate too.
92615 miles today, Crossclimates are at just over 6mm. Maybe I should be a bit easier on them...  ::)
98000 miles today, Fronts are 5.8mm rears are 6.4mm
101,500 today, so they've done just over 10k Front is 5.2, rear is 6.2mm

Looking like the fronts will do a bit over 20k which is not bad at all. Rears will get moved to front when new tyres are sourced.

Ooops, just went out and did the monthly checks, I hadn't been keeping a close eye on the tyres as my mileage has dropped dramatically since moving to an office where I now walk to work 15 months ago.

Anyway, today the fronts are around 2.5mm and the rears are around 3.5mm (a lot more tread left in the middle compared to the edges), car has a mileage of 118286 today. I'll look at replacing them in a few months (certainly before winter!). 

That will mean the fronts lasted 28,000 miles, I reckon I could push the rears a bit longer but I think it makes sense to replace all as a set in a few months time.


carrera

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Re: All season tyres.
« Reply #64 on: 04 April 2020, 06:06:47 PM »
If you insist on replacing all 4 at the same time then I would swap front to rear now. It looks like you are running a bit low on pressure at the rear too. Fronts wearing evenly ?
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Audax

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Re: All season tyres.
« Reply #65 on: 05 April 2020, 10:55:18 AM »
If you insist on replacing all 4 at the same time then I would swap front to rear now. It looks like you are running a bit low on pressure at the rear too. Fronts wearing evenly ?

Little point really, if a set lasts 28k then as I do not intend to have this car in another 28k there's not much point in trying to get maximal life out of them, the wear was pretty much level but is now uneven for the last part of the tyre life but I need to find the better digital tread depth gauge compared the one I was using which is hard to read, all tyres have been at 42psi for their life (except when I've taken the car for service and they have let air out!).

carrera

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Re: All season tyres.
« Reply #66 on: 05 April 2020, 12:03:04 PM »
Wow, 42psi, that's way beyond what I run at, do you think that is these tyres, or is that normal for you ?

I'm on analogue pressure and tread depth gauges, no batteries to fail and sometimes spurious degrees of accuracy :)
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Audax

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Re: All season tyres.
« Reply #67 on: 05 April 2020, 12:15:43 PM »
Wow, 42psi, that's way beyond what I run at, do you think that is these tyres, or is that normal for you ?

I'm on analogue pressure and tread depth gauges, no batteries to fail and sometimes spurious degrees of accuracy :)

That's only 1 PSI greater than the Saab recommended tyre pressure for the 9-3 for better fuel economy and is the suggested tyre pressure for a winter tyre with 4-5 people in the car.

Funnily enough all my pressure gauges are digital now and agree with each other, I binned the analogue gauges a while back as none of them agreed with each other! I just prefer to use the digital depth gauge as it's easier to read but it's gone missing!

carrera

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Re: All season tyres.
« Reply #68 on: 05 April 2020, 07:00:52 PM »
Ah, I was thinking 9-5, sorry about that. Still, that's a lot more pressure in the tyres for a lighter car, which doesn't seem instinctively right.

As well as checking tyre pressures after a service, I assume you release and re-torque the wheelbolts, in case someone got heavy with the whizzy gun  :) 
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Audax

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Re: All season tyres.
« Reply #69 on: 05 April 2020, 07:55:36 PM »
Ah, I was thinking 9-5, sorry about that. Still, that's a lot more pressure in the tyres for a lighter car, which doesn't seem instinctively right.

As well as checking tyre pressures after a service, I assume you release and re-torque the wheelbolts, in case someone got heavy with the whizzy gun  :)

Well, for 5 people in a 9-5 with a speed of 100+ they suggest similar and higher tyre pressures. It doesn't do any harm to run much higher pressures than seems "right" and gives a fair few benefits. I used to run my old 9-5 2.0t auto on 39psi all round (I think).

I don't worry about wheel bolts as the places I take to service don't use guns for wheels. I carry a decent breaker bar too in the boot which cause the cops to do a double take the time we had a tyre blow out on the A14 and they offered to "help" with changing a wheel. I think that the cop wasn't expecting me to be as prepared as I was, (17mm socket already on breaker bar, jack in place and well lubed) as we were heading on holiday so I'd also even done the pressure on the spare the day before!

sgould

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Re: All season tyres.
« Reply #70 on: 05 April 2020, 10:58:59 PM »
As an old git, I carry a breaker bar with a deep 17mm socket in the boot.  I've also replaced the jack with an electric scissors one.  :)
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David

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Re: All season tyres.
« Reply #71 on: 06 April 2020, 09:35:15 AM »
Likewise Will, I have an extendable wrench. Electric jack?
Swopped fronts to back yesterday, cleaning the wheel arches and a coat of Waxoyl to finish, which filled a few hours.
Avon tyres are a great compromise.

sgould

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Re: All season tyres.
« Reply #72 on: 06 April 2020, 09:24:18 PM »
I've had it for a few years now.  The source has long disappeared, but there are similar on eBay, etc.  They aren't the most substantial item, but I've used them in anger for changing winter summer wheels & vice versa a few times.  They should be fine for the car in an emergency.

Something like this...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_nkw=12v+electric+scissors+jack&LH_PrefLoc=1&_sop=15
« Last Edit: 06 April 2020, 09:30:14 PM by sgould »
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carrera

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Re: All season tyres.
« Reply #73 on: 08 April 2020, 08:29:15 AM »
I carry a torque wrench kit with 17, 19 and 21mm deep sockets and a short bar, in most of my cars. 1/2" wrench with 10-20mm sockets and a set of cranked ring spanners too, just in case. As far as I am concerned the factory jack is only for emergency use, so I have a small trolley jack which I may take on some journeys, not generally in a Saab though.

The torque wrench came in handy one day when a Merc ML I was following on a dual carriageway had distinctly visible rear wheel wobble. I managed to flag him down and we tightened up his rear wheels, the bolts were well wound out. He had just come from the tyre fitters. I have no idea how he could be driving and not feel the movement.  :o
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Audax

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Re: All season tyres.
« Reply #74 on: 01 May 2021, 01:37:04 PM »
The Michelin Crossclimates have started life with 7mm of tread and the car has done 91000 miles so I'm going to keep a record of the wear rate too.
92615 miles today, Crossclimates are at just over 6mm. Maybe I should be a bit easier on them...  ::)
98000 miles today, Fronts are 5.8mm rears are 6.4mm
101,500 today, so they've done just over 10k Front is 5.2, rear is 6.2mm
Anyway, today the fronts are around 2.5mm and the rears are around 3.5mm (a lot more tread left in the middle compared to the edges), car has a mileage of 118286 today. I'll look at replacing them in a few months (certainly before winter!). 

That will mean the fronts lasted 28,000 miles, I reckon I could push the rears a bit longer but I think it makes sense to replace all as a set in a few months time.

Ooops, got to just over 120k and had forgotten to replace them.... the fronts are just below 2mm and on the wear bars, the rears have worn unevenly. but the edges are at 2.5mm on one side.

I've messaged my tyre guy to see how much a new set will be, I had considered getting rid of the 9-3 and getting a Volvo V90 or some kind of Subaru this year.  However, due to a change of job I don't *need* a car right now so it looks like I'll be keeping the 9-3 for even longer which was not the plan when I got it 5 years ago!

I must say 30,000 miles out of a set of tyres in a front wheel drive Aero that isn't driven too sedately isn't bad though!