Acceptable tyre wear
 

Yes another tyre thread.


Having researched the tyre market to death just a year ago ( exactly ) in regards to dry/wet braking....... dry/wet handling... and all the other criteria included in the tyre tests of a number of motoring magazine annual tests I plumped for two Falken F510s on my front wheels.

These being the best cost to performance kind of ratio that I could suss out with encouraging test review results.

All well and good you may think ( as I did ) however having become mildly obsessed with the result of my research I have been measuring the wear of all the tyres on my car every couple of weeks throughout the last year and have been slightly disappointed ( alarmed) at the rate of wear of the new Falkens.

Passing the Mot today (no advisories for the second successive year.. Hoorray) the tester casually mentioned that the front two tyres were down to about 4mm and although well in depth best to keep an eye on them.

And herein lies my beef with the Falkens I have only done 7,000 miles on them, had a full 4 wheel alignment carried out when the new tyres were fitted and as explained above had already noted the excessive ( in my opinion) tyre wear before the tester even mentioned to keep an eye on them.

There is actually 4.5mm left on them but given that from what I have read that performance and grip etc etc lessens as the tyre tread heads towards the legal limit of 1.6mm I would be looking to renew tyres at about the 2.5mm mark.

To say that I'm a touch disappointed at the rate of tyre wear after only 7,000 miles would be the understatement of the year they've lost about 3mm doing the mileage mentioned. ( I'm no boy racer)

My back tyres a Comforser ( Chinese, to be changed for a better tyre as soon as tread demands ) and an Apollo (Indian made, same company as Vredistan) have both lost barely 1mm doing the same mileage.

The tester mentioned that the front two tyres would normally wear quicker than the back two however at this rate the two Falkens on the front would be on the legal limit in under 14,000 miles.

Surely this is an incredibly poor wearrate and whilst dry / wet handling and braking is my biggest consideration rather than wear I won't be fitting the same tyres again at that wear rate.

So is this sort of wear normalish in others experiences and at the risk of starting up another best oil/tyres/petrol/additive/duster type of thread.

Are there any recommendations for mid price range decent performing tyres that hopefully will at least give the mileage wear rate a decent run for its money.

I do stress that handling and braking is my main concern but would be interested to hear of any reasonable priced tyres that meet such criteria that don't wear out in no time as these seem to doing.

I have no professional experience but I would expect a better gripping tyre to wear out quicker then a tyre with less grip.

you say "that handling and braking is my main concern is your main concern" but also say "These being the best cost to performance kind of ratio that I could suss out with encouraging test review results."

When you make your consideration of tyre, are you buying the tyre for 99% of your driving or that 1% "emergency" when you need that bit extra?

macafee2

4.5mm is loads of tread. I'd go down to 2mm before I even thought of changing them. Sounds like you'll get another 2 years out of them on the front, or rotate them to the back where they'll last much longer. I had Falken's on my ZS - good mid-range tyres I thought.

For the best stopping and handling that I can really afford and won't be swapping for an everlasting tyre that performs worse in tyre tests.

Its just that given the suggested mileage wear rates in the same auto magazine trials that have been the source of the dry/wet weather braking/ handling ratings which suggest a life of approx 40.000 KMs.

14,000 miles (22,000 KMs) isn't even remotely close to that figure.

Thats not a bad idea, I'm not suggesting that I'm bothered running on 4.5mm, its the rate of wear that bothering me and the fact that I'll be running on 2mm in no time at that rate of reduction and it would be one year at 7,000 miles per year at the current rate on the front not two years.

I do tend to switch my tyres front to back. On small hatches (Rover 214/25) I find the rear's can deteriorate with age before they wear out tread wise. I bought a 25 a couple of years ago with a 2004 tyre on the back with 4mm of tread left - I did change that one!

Keeping this short.

I only ever fit Firestone tyres. Good grip wet or dry. 215/55/16.

Always get over 25,000 out of these tyres.

R75 Diesel.