I’m looking for technical help or recommendations on: __Tyres
Ok, so I looking to replace my tyres with a brand new set of Khumos but my old tyres keep nagging at me.
The rears are 2019 Davantis with 6mm of tread and look to be in mint condition. No cracking or uneven wear. Probably got less than 10k miles on them.
The front are 2013 Khumos with 6mm of tread and again look to be in mint condition. No cracking, no uneven wear. Guess they are the originals so about £48k miles on them. Does that seem realistic considering the tread is still 6mm or is it possible they were old stock when fitted?
The car seems to have been garaged all its life. What is nagging at me is that it looks like I will be disposing of 4 tyres that on the face of it look perfectly useable. I’m probably still going to replace them but does anyone think I’m mad?
I’ll get a mechanics view tomorrow but interesting to hear any views.
From what you’ve described you really are doing the right thing and getting rid. Front and rears both sound horrible. Tyres are pretty much the most important thing in terms of both safety and fun.
12 yr old fronts combined with a not particularly amazing brand on the back answers the question really.
You unfortunately have a mixture of issues here - mixed tyres between axles which isn’t optimal on a '5, combined with a mixture of ages into the mix. It’s fairly common to see issues like this, when people have just bought one and have to contend with the ‘why did you do that?!’ decisions made by previous owner(s) !
Best option would be the fit fresh tyres of the same age and model all round, and move on
As said, they’re the only thing between you and the road.
Totally agree and hopefully get them done on Friday but throwing away stuff that cosmetically looks great really niggles. Anyway, once I’ve spent the money it won’t be on my mind anymore. A new set of mid range boots will look great and feel safe.
I think if I decide to keep it long term which is probably going to be the case I’ll budget for a new set of 4 every so many years anyway. It’s not exactly expensive.
Neither of those tyre brands are originals, they fitted Potenzas from new on the NC.
Kumho are a good brand, I’ve always had them fitted. Get a set to match what you have on, should be PS71’s but check the date on the sidewalls.
I guess the ages of the tyres are getting on, and I’d replace them…but then I’ve listened to many a bloke down the pub, sorry, hero on the internet’s ‘advice’, and it turned out not to be the right decision.
Davanti are far from the worst budget tyres from a brief look at tyre tests, but like most of them they are well behind premium and good mid range tyres especially on wet handling and braking. The Kumhos are likely to be much better but they are quite old and you are unlikely to be able to match them.
Mixed tyres on MX-5’s are a bit of a lottery, Could be OK, but sometimes the results are surprisingly poor.
That aside, the worst thing from a safety perspective is to have more grip at the front than the rear. I had a Landrover that would give a frightening demonstration of this by locking the rear wheels under braking in the wet, or even slightly damp (i.e. no rear grip at all). When this happened the back would try to overtake the front immediately, even from a straight line.
If I were really short of brass I’d put some new Kumhos on the back now, and maybe run the fronts for a short period, but by far the safest solution would be to start again with a new set. I’ve never had Kumhos but many MX-5ers recommend them and although they are mid range they are generally in the pack in tyre tests with premium brands.
You want to have confidence in the car to enjoy it, not be tip-toeing around on tyres that you are unsure of.
After doing some digging I found some useful info on the Bridgestone site. Although tyres may look fine on the outside, cracks can develop within the structure of the tyre and affect the rubber attachment to the steel reinforcement. This sounds bad so I don’t resent ditching the old tyres now. The general advice is that they should be replaced regardless of condition once they reach 10 years old.
My Davantis are only 5.5 years old but I want a matching set of new so they are going in favour of the kumhos (spelt right this time ).
Perhaps check out this website and Youtube channel along with the knowlegeable input from the forum users. Mine shouldn’t be due for changing for a few years due to general wear and tear, but who knows when a pothole will come along and I’ll need a new set so I always try to keep up to date.
Had some good tyre advice from ND12 today which will come in handy - everyday is a school day.
Unlikely they were changed as they are Venture style wheels on a Venture. Unless they were damaged. I’ll get a professional opinion tomorrow but it seems a weird one to me.
Google’s AI summary thinks the Kumho PS71 was launched in 2017 (although I have no confidence in that being correct). Have you read the date code correctly? From memory the first two numbers are the week number, the last two are the year.
).
. Maybe they were replaced with old stock?