I’m looking for technical help or recommendations on: Tyres for 17 inch wheels
Hi, I recently purchased an NC which turned out to have 2 different tyres in the back and another pair of tyres on the front.
I have two questions: The car seems to need some counter-steer to the right all the time. If I leave the steering wheel it just seems to turn a bit in that direction on its own. Could this be due to the tyres?
What would tyres would you recommend as a good first set of tyres that won’t break the bank but will be drivable in rain and (rare) sun in the UK? I’ve seen Kumho tyres being mentioned around in old posts, are those still the recommendation?
Any recommendations for a good tyre place in Bristol is also welcome
Have you checked the tyre pressures? This sounds more like an alignment issue than tyres, but checking your tyre pressures is free (or very cheap) and sensible.
I had a pair of Bridgestones on the back and a pair of Avons on the front of my ND for a while and when I first bought it, it had one Avon and one Bridgestone on the front. I matched the front tyres by replacing the one that was most worn then lived with it until I modified the car. My preference would always be four matching tyres but if you match across each axle, have good tyres on the car, and aren’t a racing driver (or pretending to be ) then you should be OK until you can get four that match.
Just my opinion of course and some may strongly advise that all tyres match, which is fine.
when I bought my NC in 2019 it drove horribly on the drive home , ( Sheffeild to Norwich). At the first fuel stop I found that I had 4 different brands of tyres, all of them were old ( 6 years+) and one had a slow puncture ! my fault for not having a proper check of the car at purchase time.
I nearly lost it on my first drive to work going round a corner that I knew very well.
I fitted 4 x Goodyear EfficientGrip Performance tyres ( based on good online reviews) which completely changed the twitchy way the car drove. I also had a 4 wheel alignment done a bit later.
The car has driven fine since then, i have had to change one of the tyres due to a puncture, however I fitted the same brand/type tyre and the car still drives great with no nasty surprises going round corners.
if the car wheel alignment is correct the next step would be to get a tyre gauge and make sure you have 28 psi in all tyres. get a proper tyre gauge cuz the machines you will usually find at the supermarkets will be utterly rubbish.
as for tyre recommendations I use Michelin ps5, Kumho ecsta-ps71 are good as well and a bit cheaper
I suspected as much in the beginning and let my local service know about it. They presumably did an alignment but the tyre pressures were still all over the place when I got the car back. I inflated the tyres back to 28 when I got it back. Would they need the tyre pressure to be correct for an alignment?
When I bought my car the first thing I did was to put all tyres up to the correct pressure. They were all at different pressures. That made a difference.
The second was to replace all four tyres (from x3 different budget brands). I chose Avon. This was a big improvement.
what were talking about is full alignment /camber/caster and toe - that is considerably more at a specialist that know what they are doing compared to the likes of Kwick Fit/ATS etc.
and yes they should first start with the tyres being at the right pressure.
However I wouldn’t do that until you have bought and fitted some proper tyres on the car though.
150-250 depending what they need to do (for example weight balance if you have adjustable height coilovers) And they will need to know what parameters to set the car to,
If your car is standard then ATS is perfectly fine, in my opinion. If it’s modified then it’s a different matter. ATS will normally check your alignment against the manufacturer’s spec for free and only charge if adjustments are required, but verify that with them first. I’ve used more than one branch of ATS and with different vehicles: my MX-5 when it was stock and a couple of BMWs. I had no problems. A couple of the guys at my local one are clearly enthusiasts and after chatting cars with them I’m more than happy to go there if I know exactly what I want. They’ve even offered to try to key in BBR’s custom alignment into their kit if I want that and not charge me if they can’t do it. Of course, your mileage may vary.
Your experience mirrors mine. I had 3 different makes on the car and most were budget ones. New tyres and full alignment will improve things noticeably. But also keep your 4 tyres at the same pressure… even when theres only 2-3 psi difference between them it shows. These cars are beautifully set up for handling, so you should notice when the psi isnt right - the car will twitch around a bit more.
In the end it turned out to be a combination of things - the tire pressures weren’t measured on a completely even surface (there was a slope- duh!) and new tires, which also made a difference.
I’d advise getting on a completely even surface and checking tire pressures first thing, even if it’s a bit out of your way!
) then you should be OK until you can get four that match.