Team-BHP - Maruti Suzuki Swift : Tyre & wheel upgrade thread

Got the tyres of my Swift changed to Yoko A-drives couple of months back as the old workhorse Michelin XM1+ had lived their life for 50k+ kms. Changed the tyres at SLNP Pitstop Kundalahalli for ₹3900/tyre including everything.
Yokos are good in traction & grip, comparable to my old Michelins and immediately after getting new tyres I drove to Goa in the middle of Monsoons - just no complaints in this department. Only grudge is these are quite noisy at high speeds, again this is when I comapre these to Michelins which were super silent no matter what! But considering the ₹1100 price difference per tyre, Yokos are value for money!

Can anyone tell me how is GoodYear Duraplus tire? I want to change tires for my Swift Dzire Vxi, old model. It has 165/80R14 currently. Already done 40 K plus on stock JK Tornado tires without any issue in last 5 years. I want to upgrade it to 185/70R14 now. When i checked in shop, he showed me Brdgestone, GoodYear, Continental, Michelin tires. Goodyear & Continental looks good to me, looks like they have some extra rubber than others. Michelin i don't want as they are too soft & i travel on bad roads too often when i go to my native place where roads are really bad. I heard Michelin's are not good in such case.

Has anyone experienced Good Year Duraplus? I heard they are also good option. It really lasts long is what i heard. How is ride quality? Grip? Any noise issue?

What about Continental? Are they good enough to pay the extra money?

Please help me guys.

Quote:

Originally Posted by aniketi (Post 3550687)

No idea on this one Aniketi, but I own a Swift 2011, and from my latest experience of upgrading to 195/60R15, I suggest you to go for them.

I got the Yoko A drives in this size and paid additional 3k to the tire retailer for City's 15" rim with width of 5.5". Believe me, this has changed the dynamics a lot. I can only say that I miss my old palio a bit lesser now.

195 is the best suited for Swift/Dzire. It is the most optimum. It improved my confidence to push her at corners.

Moreover, it doesn't change the ride height, which remains identical to the 165 ones.

Yoko A drives were softer, ala Michelin XM2s, but I think Yokohama has launched another option, in similar price band, which boasts thicker side walls but a ride as good as the A drives. I would ask other members here to suggest on which tire.

Goodyear DuraPlus are being used by fellow member SS-Traveller since last almost an year and just this evening I got the Continental Comfort Contact 5 for my ride.

First impressions, the tires are very silent and somehow the car feels taller but that just may be due to the new tires. BTW these are made in India.

Both of our cars are Zxi variant and the tires are 185/70R14 size. I too toyed with the idea of upsizing to 15" but then the OE 14" alloys would have been wasted, so dropped the idea. If you are on steel wheels you could try going for the 15".

As for the Michelins yet another member parimal_g has these on his Punto and he has been on all sorts of road surfaces and no road surfaces, yet his tires have not seen a single puncture in over 30K+ kilometres as yet.

Quote:

Originally Posted by aniketi (Post 3550687)

Has anyone experienced Good Year Duraplus? I heard they are also good option. It really lasts long is what i heard. How is ride quality? Grip? Any noise issue?

What about Continental? Are they good enough to pay the extra money?

Please help me guys.

Quote:

Originally Posted by aniketi (Post 3550687)

What about Continental? Are they good enough to pay the extra money?

My Swift vdi is running on Continental ContiEcoContact 3 185/70 R14 for almost 2.5 years and done 46,000+ KM with these set of rubber. No issues till now. Still going fine :)

First puncture after 45,000 KM followed by another in the same tyre after 2 weeks.

Planning to change after 5-10K KM and I am very much sure that new set will be Continental again.

My previous post regarding this : Link

Need advice from fellow bhpians on old tyre replacement

I have a 6 yr old Suzuki Swift, 65K kms odo. for the first time i had a tyre puncture on my rear type from a long nail. On inspection I noticed that all the 4 tyres barely hold any treads anymore. I am attaching pics of these tyres and the comparison with my stepney.

i would like to know if this needs a change. and if it does, what is the suggestion. should i go for :
1. replace just the tyres on all the 4 wheels.
2. replace them with alloy wheels and newer tyres. (how much wud this cost me)

I dont plan to change my car anytime soon as it is running well. but am open to advice on the car as well. this is my first car. so not much experience.

Quote:

Originally Posted by girishvc (Post 3558484)

Oh Boy your tyres have well lets just say lived more than what you call a life of a tyre :).

Please get them changed at the earliest as its risky to drive with such threads on our soo well built up roads (pun intended).

There are many options to choose from w.r.t tyre sizes and brands but if you are on a budget then stick to the stock sizes. Alloys definitely adds more appeal to one's ride however you will end up spending more money along with the cost of the newer tyres. Appx cost of alloys starts from 10K for indian ones to lets say sky is the limit, you can choose good ones for say around 15-20 K.

Quote:

Originally Posted by girishvc (Post 3558484)

girishvc, you should get the all the tyres replaced immediately.

Second pic of your tyre just scared me :Shockked: don't drive with these set of tyres any more they have done their duty very well and now fresh rubber is needed for your Swift. In some cases tyres may do more than 65K but looking at the condition of tyres on your car its a BIG NO.

Do not use spare wheel as your regular tyre with 3 new tyres if you wish to replace the tyres with same brand and size as its now 6 year old and is only good as spare wheel.

You can consider 185/70/R14 as an upgrade and you will really feel the difference in terms of handling, comfort and braking. You may consider Yokohama, Michelin or Conti as per your need and budget.

Also check the month and year of manufacturing of tyres when you buy them, ideally tyres should not be older than 6 months when you buy them.

Alloy rims may cost you 15-20K depending upon design and make but they really add looks to swift. Here is mine with Plati Alloy Rims

Quote:

Originally Posted by girishvc (Post 3558484)

i would like to know if this needs a change. and if it does, what is the suggestion. should i go for :
1. replace just the tyres on all the 4 wheels.
2. replace them with alloy wheels and newer tyres. (how much wud this cost me)

I dont plan to change my car anytime soon as it is running well. but am open to advice on the car as well. this is my first car. so not much experience.

Change wheels only if you want to improve the look. I would suggest to upgrade to 15" if you are changing the wheels also.

Switch to 175 width tires in case you decide to keeping the same rims. This will improve the ride quality. My recommendation will be Michelin XM2, MRF ZLO or Yokohoma Earth 1. For 14" XM2 in Delhi were costing 4600 per tire, ZLO and Earth 1 were at 4000 (approximately). My alloys were around 22000 for a set of 4.

My alloys can be seen here:
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/tyre-a...ml#post3384876

Quote:

Originally Posted by girishvc (Post 3558835)

Thank you for the responses.

What does it mean when you day 185/70/R14

Do alloys add any value other than aesthetic? If I buy alloys shud I buy a spare alloy too?

185/70/R14

185 -
This is the width in mm of the tyre from sidewall to sidewall

70 -
This is the ratio of the height of the tyre sidewall, mentioned as a percentage of the width of the tyre. In this case, 70% of 185mm is 129.5mm

R -
Stands for Radial

14 -
This is the diameter in inches of the rim of the wheel that the tyre has been designed to fit on.

If you buy 5 alloy rims, first you need to spend more and its useful when you go for tyre rotation with spare wheel, incase you are going to keep the old spare tyre as take me home tyre then no need.

Quote:

Originally Posted by girishvc (Post 3559019)

Hi all I replaced with alloys + Michelin tyres 185/70/R14. Thanks a lot for your valuable advice. Looking forward for good experience. Will post pic tomorrow

Thats a good decision you have taken.

Do post the pics along with full details regarding alloys which you have gifted to your Swift this Diwali :)