I’m looking for technical help or recommendations on: Tyre Choice
OK, so I know tyre choice has been done to death and discussions can get a little boring/repetitive/heated, but I have a very specific question if you will indulge me.
I bought my car in March and as we leave the summer behind I am thinking about putting new rear tyres on the car as the current ones whilst still legal don’t exactly have loads of tread on them. So here’s the thing, the worn rear tyres are Bridgestone Potenza RE050A and the much less worn front tyres are Yokohama BlueEarth-A AE50. Both sets are Extra Load rated.
What should I do? Put a matching set of Yokos on the back so I have four tyres the same? Replace the rear tyres with another pair of Bridgestones? Or take the nuclear option and replace all four?
And do I need Extra Load tyres on a car this light?
Your Owners Manual should tell you the specification requirements of the tyres for your car, including load and speed ratings. I am not going to advise on tyres as it really depends what you want out of them. I have found that the Bridgestones fitted by Mazda are usually a reasonable compromise between grip, wear, economy and noise. Manufacturers do a great deal of testing on tyre choice for their cars. As you say there is already much discussion as to peoples choice and recommendations on tyres on here.
Mazda fitted 84 load rated tyres as standard on the MK3 up untill Bridgestone stopped making them when they fitted 88. They reintroduced them when the MK4 came out the reason being the slightly less material saves money which when you are buying thousands of tyres, saves a bit of money. The sidewall does not support the car by strength in compression, but rather by the amount of air you can put inside it to support the weight of a car, so extra load tyres will allow you to put more air in rather than be stiffer tyres at a set pressure. Short answer is, don’t worry about it.
How you drive and what you expect from the car is your answer to how many and which tyre you chose.
Thanks Nick, I would say driving wise that it is not a daily driver, not going on a track, but I want to enjoy driving it in a lively manner when its safe to do so officer…
I put Kumho PS71s on our Yeti and they have lasted about half as long as the Pirelli Cinturato P7 tyres that were on previously. Yes they were cheaper (but not half the price) and provide slightly better grip but I have been very disappointed with their life. It is nearly always a compromise between grip, noise, rolling resistance (economy), handling and wear. Horses for courses, so if you know what your priorities are you choose a tyre type to suit.
I would say that having all 4 tyres the same is a more important thing than the sort of tyres you go for.
I always go for well known branded tyres and have never had any issues with any on any cars I have had. Generally I use either Pirelli, Bridgestone or Continental and continue using whatever came on the car to start with (just about all the cars I have had were new/ex demo) - apart from my Mk1 MX5 that came with 4 different Chinese tyres, which were dangerous, so I replaced all 4 with Dunlops as the local garage had 4 in and they were ok. So far they have been fine, but the sort of driving I do in the car is not going to stretch any tyres, unlike my regular Golf Gti which gets driven more enthusiastically…
Thanks all, not particularly worried about tyre life as probably only going to do 3,000 miles each year; handling and ride is my priority.
Think the choice is between Yokos on the back to match the front or complete set of Kumhos which probably won’t cost much more. Would have gone down the Yoko route if anybody had recommended them…
A complete set of tyres of the same brand, size and age will make the car feel great. You don’t say how old the tyres on the front are just that they are not worn out but they might be getting on a bit anyway if the rears went on at the same time and have worn out.
As for which tyres, I’ll leave that to your wallet to decide
The Yokos on the front were put on by the previous owner last July which is why I didn’t really want to ditch them, just not sure what the car would be like with these all round
In that case I might be inclined to put the fronts on the back and get a sportier compound on the front and wear the rears out. Blue earth sounds like an eco tyre so it might give the rear a more frisky feeling.
Kumho KU39s on my NC had done about 10k when I sold it. Had hardly worn at all. Believe the PS71 is supposed to be slightly longer lasting. Suspect that at 3k per year they will crack and perish before they wear out.
when I changed my tyres on my NC I put Michelin Pilot Sport XL on all 4 wheels. The back ones are now more worn than the front.and have not lasted half the miles the original Bridgestone did. I shall revert to Bridgestone next time.
The Bridgestones on my daily driver (FWD) have now been replaced with Kumho.
Whilst they seemed to be wearing well, just had an advisory to change the fronts as the outer edges were getting worn, they were also perishing and cracks appearing.
They’d done 25k and at 6 years old very much ready to change and the grip had most certainly gone.
Had the car from new with them on and I’d always found them to be a harsh/noisy ride.
If the Kumhos have a harsh/noisy ride they may not be for me - want something grippy and ideally with a nice compliant ride. To put into context my daily drive is a Passat Sport and I moved from Contis to Avons and then to Dunlops (Maxx Sport 2) which are perfect for the car in terms of grip, quietness and ride. Just don’t know whether they would work on the 5…
When I bought my 2006 nc sport it had a horrible mix of 4 different budget tyres. Switched them all for Kumho on advice from here. Black circles tyres fitted locally. I then had the alignment done by Roddisons after fitting lowering springs. Paul and I discussed the set up, how much use and what sort of use. Agreed that at 3000 miles per year max, the tyres would degrade before wearing out so went with an alignment that sacrificed wear for grip. After 6 years, they will be ready to swap through age anyway.
Assuming the Yokohamas are half decent tyres, which I would think they are, then the best you can do short of replacing all four is probably to buy two more to maintain even grip front to rear to keep the default balance of the car.
I’d need a reason to consider anything different that will introduce a more or less unpredictable result. But I have been told I know next to nothing about tyres:) I only know that the only random mixture I have experienced on an MX-5 was truly dreadful, so it is possible to achieve a very bad result.
