I’d read 6 years is about it for tyres in terms of useful age.
The Bridgestones on mine are manufactured about 4 years old now (on a 3 year old car). About 3.5 mill on the back, a good 5mill on the front. 13.1K miles. Touch wood they’re still fine, but of course, that age isn’t the best.
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Has anyone asked what pressure is in these ditchfinders?
Already sort of answered Richard…she checks 'em…hopefully at 26PSI cold.
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In my case I was suggesting that the problem with the tyres on my NC were down to age not the make. All tyres will harden with age, there is a date code on the tyrewall. However I had Bridgestones on a new Impreza Prodrive STI within a month I had them replaced with Pirellis and my wife currently has them on a new Polo GTI which I find loses grip in the wet far too early.
Personal opinion I’m afraid.
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When I first got mine I put on a set of budget tyres. They were terrible. Verging on dangerous even. I don’t know how they even get away with selling these things.
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Only time i ever ha a full 360 spin was going round a small roundabout at low speed, in a slight drizzzle, completely lost it and thought " what the hell happened there" ? the evidence was on the road though, a rainbow trail of diesel fuel along the side of the road , and also splattered up the side of my car.
Tarmac when softened with diesel is a nightmare to remove from paintwork once it sets again and the solvent evaporates.
This was in a little Daewoo Matiz toy car.
back to MX5
Goodyear EfficientGrip Performance tyres fitted here, never let go yet especially with the dynamic stability thing selected on.
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Appreciate that Steeve. Car manufacturers do spend a lot of time evaluating tyres to put on their cars as standard fit. They take into consideration grip (dry and wet), market temperature range, wear, economy and *noise to get the best compromise. A friend of mine who used to work in Bentley’s chassis development department used to spend days at various proving grounds and in various climates evaluating tyres for use on their cars as OEM specification.
*[EDIT] - And of course cost! Which in Bentley’s case might be not so much of a consideration compared to Mazda!
My dislike of Bridgestones was entirely down to a high speed tank slapper while overtaking a car on a wet , but not soaking road. It’s not 'negativity ’ , nor prejudice , but borne solely out of the fact that a tyre with 60 % tread could not cope well with a wet road I am on my second set of PS 4s and they are far better .
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Appreciate that. Could have been oil on the road as others have mentioned. I agree that there will be tyres that grip in the wet much better than the Bridgestones. I once fitted Dunlop SP Sports to a car which gripped great in the wet but which wore out very rapidly in the dry.
I must admit that the Bridgestone’s grip drops off very rapidly in cold conditions (dry or wet). This is probably because one of the main markets for the MX5 is the States and California in particular, where the average ambient temperature year round is probably much higher than here in the UK.
You guys all misunderstand. The tyres I’m.running arnt not even Bridgestone… they are random cheap brand number 1. I have no idea…
Tyre pressure checked when cold… no.issues… after spinning spinning car I couldn’t see whether there was any spillage on the road…
Hi Amber. I worked with a guy who ran his own tyre business a few years ago… A good budget brand is Nexen… They are not the best but far from the worst. We sold loads of them and all the customers we had were happy with them and their quality.
Tyres are a bit of a minefield and opinions will differ… 
Hope this helps,
Rob
I had some cheap Chinese tyres on my MK2, it would spin up in 3rd gear just accelerating in a straight line if the tarmac was wet, unpredictable tyre. Ironically it was called “Accelera”
I have Avon ZV7 on the NC 2.0, they are good in all weathers. They were only £50 a year ago but now all the prices have gone up quite a bit.
Any respectable brand of new tyre is going to be better by the sound of it:-) You can check the wet/dry grip rating of them these days on-line. Think mine came fitted with Toyo Sports from memory which I have had on much more powerful cars with no problem, Michelin Pilot Sports are my other tyre of choice! Peter
Hi Amber. No, we did not misunderstand but I did lead the thread a bit off track (spun off!) and apologies for that. Not saying you did it, but be very careful about burying the throttle on a rear wheel drive car when going around a roundabout in the wet. There is a lot of instantaneous weight transfers going on from one side to the other (left to right to left again) which can unsettle any car. Go into a roundabout slowly until you are starting to exit then squeeze the throttle gently to accelerate out. I hope this does not sound patronising but I speak from experience of roundabout incidents in my youth.
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Spilt diesel on roundabouts is very common and probably contributed.
On anything but a bone dry road I use a balanced throttle in bends etc. until I have the car straight. A spin is an almost certain to have been caused by accelerating in the curve unless you have significantly less grip at the back than the front.
If you have dissimilar tyres front to rear, put the best grippers on the back.
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Why not look at the tyres and tell us exactly what make and size tyres you have on each corner of your car then there will be no misunderstanding.
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Did you initially replace just the rear with the PS4, and wait for the front BridgeStones to wear a bit more, or did you just replace all 4 in one go?
Hi Amber, glad you and your Five survived the incident intact.
I run Avons on mine. Standard tyre size and never had any problems.
They’re probably a mid price tyre and roughly £55 a corner fitted and balanced.
Hth
Also, what size tyres. I’m assuming a NA or NB. The NBs with 16" wheels are a bit overtyred, in my opinion. The 185-195 width on the 14/15" wheels is the sweet spot for the NA/NB series.
I’ve seen Amber’s car it has 16" sport wheels on it