Some questions about tyre wear

[devarshi84]

How long should the tyres on a mitsubishi lancer sfxi last? I have 185-60 R14 OEM Alloys . Rubber is either JK or Ceat.

Am looking to replace the tyres but thought its better to wait for some time if the tyres are on their last legs.

[2L8uLoose]

How long a tyre lasts is directly proportionate to how you drive and keep the tyre.. I have known people to wear out their tyres in 4000 kms..
BUTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT
Thats driving like a total moron.

[devarshi84]

Its been around 3.5 years now and 45K. The tyre still have tread and can go for another 5-7K. Is that normal?

Our WagonR has done 75K and been thru rough and rocky but still running on the same tyres. Infact Its been used more roughly than the lancer.

hence the question on what the others think.

[vid6639]

JK or ceat? have you changed your tyres before once. The SFXi came with bridgestone potenza RE-88 or MRF ZVTS 185/60-14.

My set lasted me 52K Kms. They were still not worn out and had another 5-8K left. I changed them as they were 6yrs old and the rubber was starting to become hard. Also the ride on those tyres was horrible as well as the ground clearance. They are actually the incorrect size for the lancer cause you have speedo error.

If your planning on changing them consider 185/65-14 or 195/60-14. I have the 195/60-14. These are the perfect sizes on the OE alloys.

[iraghava]

Devarshi/Vid - Considering that most of the tyres sold in our market are quite hard compounds it's not surprising to hear of them lasting 50-65k without any problems especially if you're a sedate driver. However, it is important that you replace your car tyres every 5 years no matter what even if your car has only 5000kms. This is because after 5 years the rubber in the tyres begins to disintegrate & can cause problems like a high-speed blowout since its prone to failure. This was also one of the reasons due to which there were lots of crashes on the Mumbai-Pune expressway when it had newly opened up.

If you're not satisfied with the rubber your car has you can change it now or wait till they have worn out below the legal limit. And as Vid has suggested you can switch to 195/60 R14 since it's the perfect upsize.

[sn48001]

Originally Posted by devarshi84

Its been around 3.5 years now and 45K. The tyre still have tread and can go for another 5-7K. Is that normal?

Our WagonR has done 75K and been thru rough and rocky but still running on the same tyres. Infact Its been used more roughly than the lancer.

hence the question on what the others think.

yes it is normal and its time for you to have a change of tyres. You will know the difference in handling when you change the tyres to a new set of one.

[rks]

I agree with iraghava and sn48001. In fact my tyre shop guy insists that the tyres should be replaced after 3 years. I think that is a bit stiff, though. I would say 4 years if a lot of high speed driving is involved, and up to 6 years otherwise.

From personal experience, I can tell you that fast driving on tyres that are 5-6 years old with, say, 3 mm tread left, is not very safe. The car does not grip well in wet conditions - I could feel the aquaplaning and tyres made an awful lot of noise in cornering or braking, indicating poor grip. Plus at high speeds the car was weaving about a lot more than it does now with new tyres. It is only when I changed to new tubeless tyres after 6 years and 34000 kms on my old Bridgestone S322 tubed tyres -- one of which finally developed a flat spot, resuting in a bumpy ride -- that I realized my mistake. I should have changed much earlier, as some T-BHPians (Speedsatya, Shan2nu) advised.

[shuvc]

Tread-wear rating of tyres would also indicate whether it is likely to wear out quicker.

I think bridgestone S322's have a rating of 360, NCT5 has 240, Eagle F1 I'm told has 200. Hence under the same conditions F1's would wear out faster.

[esteem_lover]

The MRF Zigma used to last very long basically because of the hard nature of the tyre, which also gave us a very rough ride. but the ideal scenario is to change the tyre after it has done 45K Kms or 4 years, whichever is earlier.

[devarshi84]

Originally Posted by vid6639

JK or ceat? have you changed your tyres before once. The SFXi came with bridgestone potenza RE-88 or MRF ZVTS 185/60-14.

My set lasted me 52K Kms. They were still not worn out and had another 5-8K left. I changed them as they were 6yrs old and the rubber was starting to become hard. Also the ride on those tyres was horrible as well as the ground clearance. They are actually the incorrect size for the lancer cause you have speedo error.

If your planning on changing them consider 185/65-14 or 195/60-14. I have the 195/60-14. These are the perfect sizes on the OE alloys.

They are MRF ZVTS. I was concerned because the set on my WagonR is still doing the duty nicely while tyres on the lancer have been worn out.

Any specific reasons for this?

Also where do I get the best price for my old tyres?

[Shan2nu]

Yup, it makes sense to change tyres after 4-5 years.

I realised the importance when we used old GIIIs/G Grids during our track day outing. The diff in traction between those tyres and the GIIIs on my Vtec was massive.

Moreover, tyre wear depends on how they are being used. I was told by the tyre dealer) that the GIIIs would last for about 30-35k kms. 15k kms down the line, the tyres still look brand new. I'm pretty confident they'l go all the way to 50k kms.

Shan2nu

[passion4cars]

I have 2001 model Esteem, I drove for 80K on Apollo Amazer I didnt drive fast (RASH) or used SCREECHING stops and not any kinds of SHOW OFF.... just simple carefull driving , now I got tubeless Goodyear ( G3 ) Ride on G3 is definately smoother.

[RedOne]

Originally Posted by Shan2nu

I was told by the tyre dealer) that the GIIIs would last for about 30-35k kms. 15k kms down the line, the tyres still look brand new. I'm pretty confident they'l go all the way to 50k kms.

Shan2nu

I have 40+ K km's on my GIII (OHC) and they still have enough thread for another 15K minimum. They are not THAT hard compound either.

Gears,
Red-One.

[sn48001]

Originally Posted by shuvc

Tread-wear rating of tyres would also indicate whether it is likely to wear out quicker.

I think bridgestone S322's have a rating of 360, NCT5 has 240, Eagle F1 I'm told has 200. Hence under the same conditions F1's would wear out faster.

Tread wear rating ?? what is that ?

[shuvc]

Originally Posted by sn48001

Tread wear rating ?? what is that ?

"The tread-wear rating - a comparative rating for the useful life of the tire's tread. A tire with a tread-wear rating of 200, for example, could be expected to last twice as long as one with a rating of 100. Tread-wear grades typically range between 60 and 600 in 20-point increments. It is important to consider that this is a relative indicator, and the actual life of a tire's tread will be affected by quality of road surfaces, type of driving, correct tire inflation, proper wheel alignment and other variable factors. In other words, don't think that a tread-wear rating of 100 means a 30,000 mile tyre."

ref : Car Bibles : The Wheel and Tyre Bible