**Unofficial Tyre Thread**

[cokecan]

my CTR came with these on. they were dreadful.

I changed them to RE050A and the difference is night and day.

the 50As held their own on track too.

I've got the RE050A's on my R32 and I'm not enjoying them much at the minute. They seem to just loose traction all too easily on wet or slightly greasy roads. The CSC3's I had on my Passat felt much grippier in the same conditions (Granted, different car). They feel fine in the dry however.

I think I'll be looking at CSC5's when its time to upgrade

 

[Gibbo]

I've got the RE050A's on my R32 and I'm not enjoying them much at the minute. They seem to just loose traction all too easily on wet or slightly greasy roads. The CSC3's I had on my Passat felt much grippier in the same conditions (Granted, different car). They feel fine in the dry however.

I think I'll be looking at CSC5's when its time to upgrade

Thats because the CSC3/CSC5/F1A2/MPSS are much better wet tyres than the RE050A. Out of them all RE050A has the stiffest sidewalls and is pretty good in the dry and its OK in the wet, certainly not scary.

 

[Clarkey]

I have some RE070 to go on the 36, looking forward to getting them on tbh. Loved the bridgestones I had on the colt. Meant to be quite a bit worse than the AD08 for wet grip though, but time will tell.

I think I made my opinion of F1AS2 heard before didn't I? They are jelly, no place on a sporty car, wouldn't think of using them on track. Conti are better but still not great IMO.
Pirelli Pzero actually beat the Conti/GY for the top position in at least one major review, and they have a much stiffer contruction supposedly. Don't know why these are not in favour here, I'd like to give them a go myself.

 

[rodenal]

If it helps any then the one a d o ly difference I've noticed between my sc3 and sc5's is that the 5 wears a bit better. Might be able to explore the differences on track but on road there is no difference I can find. From what people have said about the as2 it's probably the better choice

 

[Saint]

So had a nightmare experience yesterday with my tyre fitting.

Tell the guy I'm getting some eagle F1 x 2 to replace the fronts on my Octavia vRS. He's go away, supposedly finishes the job and I go and check the tyres fitted and read the tyre name - "Goodyear Efficient Grip". What?

Go back to him and say this isn't right, they are the wrong tyres. "Oh they're the right ones, Goodyear don't even stock the AS2's anymore, these are the replacements". Said to him are you having a laugh, show me the order.

Goes back to his computer and says "yep the as2's are now discontinued". Explained to him that it's one of the most popular and recommended tyre choices and for a 'tyre specialist' to say that, this was a joke. Funnily enough, he then tells me it looks like they had a 'system error' and 2 minutes later has correctly ordered the actual tyres I wanted.

A) just admit you ****** up
B) why feed me lies and not have knowledge about tyres
C) what annoyed me most was that he was going to let me drive off without checking

Then asks me "I assume you want these taken off again then?" - obviously..?

Puts them back on and nicely leaves my car in full lock so it's difficult to actually turn the ignition key.. Thanks for that.

Drive off and get 5 minutes down the road and guess what, a nice tyre pressure dashboard warning light pops up and it's notable the car doesn't feel right. Go to the petrol station and check the pressures... He's over inflated the 2 front tyres to 2.5 bar!! Should read 2.0. He even changed the back tyres and they were over at 2.3 - why he touched those iv no idea? Iv also noticed they have swapped over one of my valve caps to this shockingly **** short screw that goes half way up the valve, again why did he change this?

Rung him up when I discovered the pressures weren't right and he wasn't even apologetic, just somewhat suprised this has happened and says "you're not having a good day are you" - got angry at this point. After rage he then tells me about the suppliers mess up on their system and says "yes actually the eagle f1's, European tyre of the year aren't they". Couldn't be arsed to comment.

Apart from having to take time off work to go there yesterday, iv now got to waste my Saturday morning going back there with a lack of confidence it's going to be done right.

Sorry for the rant, but appauling service makes me rage.

 

[Dandle]

Why even go back? I would cancel and order them elsewhere.

 

[Amos91]

I had an annoying experience with a Blackcircles 'Premier garage' in Norwich in January.

When I first got in, it took about 5 minutes to explain I wanted the fronts replaced but then circulated to the back (Clio 182) so the more worn tyres were on the front. They literally couldn't get their head around this which made some alarm bells ring, as I would have thought this was common knowledge.

Then when taking the tire off he managed to scuff the edge of the rim... A mobile tyre fitter just a few weeks earlier repaired a puncture on that exact rim with no damage.

Whilst this was going on the guy in the office was on the phone to a customer, and he advised him that the Michelin Pilot Sport 3 was no longer made and proceeded to recommend some unknown brand instead. I thought this was quite ironic as they were fitting that exact tyre to my car right then.

Finally, they swapped the tyres back to front and asked me to sign off. I was watching them do all the work, and they failed to sort out the tyre pressures, so told them to sort it out, 33psi front and 30psi rear. Went round the corner to the petrol station, 34 all round...

I also basically wrote this on the blackcircles feedback, ticking that I want a response and heard nothing back. Doubt I'll bother using them again... Hate to think what a non-Premier garage is like!

/rant.

Why even go back? I would cancel and order them elsewhere.

This. I'd avoid them, thing is it doesn't take the sharpest tool to change a tyre.

 

[stoofa]

Ain't CSC5's more for the saloon? I got this impression after reading reviews on them.

I have been through about 10 CSC3 tyres, they are great but do wear quite quick. Average 10k miles, though brilliant grip in the dry/wet/snow.

Will continue to use this tyre for a long time.

I was using CSC2's on my car (came with them from the factory back in March 2011).
I replaced two of them a couple of weeks ago after the SC2's had covered 30k miles. They still had some meat on and if I'd wanted to wear them down to legal I'd have got another 4k I'd say.
The original rears (now fronts) have the same mileage and I'm estimating around 40k until they need replacing.

I don't "hoon" around in my car, but I also don't slouch (Octy vRS). It was exactly this kind of life and wear than made me fit the SC5's when I needed replacements.

 

[stoofa]

Good thread.

Hating my Bridgestone Potenza's (RE040) that came on the car when I bought it. Such a horrid tyre it's ridiculous, seems very skitterish on fast bends where the road surface isn't perfectly smooth - have them on my 325 as well (came with that too ) which is exactly the same.

They just don't inspire confidence when driving quickly.

I had REO40A's on my old Octy vRS about 4 years ago. I hated every moment of owning them (which wasn't that long as the wear on them was amazing - which hurt because they cost so much).
I never felt truly safe in my car with them on.

 

[Saint]

Can anyone help me identify the difference between the following:

http://www.blackcircles.com/catalog...ufacturer=goodyear&displayall=6&tyre=32108413

http://www.blackcircles.com/catalog...ufacturer=goodyear&displayall=6&tyre=27383450


They look identical except the cheaper tyre is rated C for fuel efficiency and E for the more expensive. Spec is exactly the same it seems, but the more expensive has a lot of reviews.

Any ideas?

 

[ChrisD.]

Interesting to read the RE040 comments, I find them pretty phenomenal in the dry and manageable in the wet. From memory they are very pressure dependant so try having play and dropping a few PSI etc.

 

[Kenai]

A) just admit you ****** up
B) why feed me lies and not have knowledge about tyres
C) what annoyed me most was that he was going to let me drive off without checking

It seems as if you're under the impression he incompetent and mistaken when in reality he was just trying to screw you out of your money and hoped you'd buy into his BS.

Puts them back on and nicely leaves my car in full lock so it's difficult to actually turn the ignition key.. Thanks for that.

Surely that's just standard ignition lock, wiggle the wheel and the key turns freely?

 

[Saint]

It seems as if you're under the impression he incompetent and mistaken when in reality he was just trying to screw you out of your money and hoped you'd buy into his BS.



Surely that's just standard ignition lock, wiggle the wheel and the key turns freely?

Just me being petulent really.. just added to the annoyance.

 

[killer_uk]

What do people think about the Michelin pilot sport 3s or am I best off going for the ContactSport 5s? These are to fit to my Fiesta ST.

I had my head set on the CS5s, but I've seen a few places mention the PS3 would be more suitable for a lighter hatchback?

 

[muon]

Which is better Premium 2 or Eco Contact 5?

 

[Philz0r]

i just bought 2 x ps3's 225/40/18 for £220 delivered, impressed so far

 

[ganesh]

What do people think about the Michelin pilot sport 3s or am I best off going for the ContactSport 5s? These are to fit to my Fiesta ST.

I had my head set on the CS5s, but I've seen a few places mention the PS3 would be more suitable for a lighter hatchback?

I believe that the PS3 is a replacement for the Pilot Exalto 2 and is not an evolution of the highly regarded PS2, the PSS is the new PS2. The CS5 is a higher performance tyre than the PS3 so I'd go with that.

 

[olv]

Does anyone know the difference between Eagle F1 AS2 moulds R1 and FO? There are two choices in my size on camskill and a £5 price difference.

Goodyear Tyres / Car / Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 2 - 235/40 R18 95Y XL (FO) FP TL - £127.40

Goodyear Tyres / Car / Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 2 - 235/40 R18 95Y XL (R1) FP TL - £132.50

Obviously I'll go with the cheaper as presumably they are identical.

 

[cokecan]

Thats because the CSC3/CSC5/F1A2/MPSS are much better wet tyres than the RE050A. Out of them all RE050A has the stiffest sidewalls and is pretty good in the dry and its OK in the wet, certainly not scary.

That's interesting to know about the sidewalls

They certainly aren't scary, far from it...I'd just prefer a little bit more grip in the wet

 

[bledd]

Which is better Premium 2 or Eco Contact 5?

Typically if you can get Eco Contact 5, you can also get Premium Contact 5

Little performance graph here made by Continental

http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Article/Continental-Premium-Contact-5-Launched.htm

-How accurate that is, I don't know.

What size are you looking for?