In need of some tyre advice!

Need a bit of advice here please folks! Basically I had been running on 2 front tyres for months that were pretty much gauranteed to be illegal had I got stopped, I just really didn't have the money or the time with work to get them changed. So I left my car with a friend one day to get them changed while I was at work, job done, dropped the car back off, gave him what I owed him and never even really thought to check them out as I thought they would've put on the same tyres I originally had.

So I was driving back from work the other night, it was raining moderately, and I was just driving normally, when I noticed I was losing grip quite considerably going round corners and roundabouts! Only now have I realised they've put on the nastiest cheap tyres money can buy...Wanli's :mad:
Thing is, I really can't afford to fork out again for decent tyres but I really don't want to be driving on these when winter starts to hit properly because if they have as p*ss poor grip as they do in rain, I don't even want to think about what they're going to be like in ice and snow.

So I was thinking, since my car is fwd and I've decent tyres still on the back with about half tread left, if I simply swapped them over until I get christmas by and have the money for another 2 new ones, would this maybe make things any better grip-wise for the bad weather??

To be honest, I'm shocked and appalled that tyres as nasty as those can be sold legally! Might explain though some of the driving round here :rolleyes:

12 element

I'm not sure about your question, just wondering how much you paid for the tyre and do they have the 'e' mark on them?

Atlantic Dawn

I was always of the opinion myself that you put your good tyres on the driving wheels which in most cars is the front, however there was extensive debate here on the subject a couple of months back and the tyre manufacturers recommend having the best tyres on the rear regardless of driving wheels. So in theory all tyres being legal putting the new tyres on the back should improve things.

12 element

12 element wrote: »

I'm not sure about your question, just wondering how much you paid for the tyre and do they have the 'e' mark on them?

50 quid a pop...I knew my friend knows one of the ones that works there so I just thought for that price he had managed to get me a decent discount and thought nothing of it, but no it was just because they're nasty ass things
And I don't even know what an 'e' mark is?? I'm not the most clued up person about these things!

Atlantic Dawn

Deleted User wrote: »

And I don't even know what an 'e' mark is?? I'm not the most clued up person about these things!

The 'e' mark for tyres is a safety standard that the tyres are approved for, if your tyres don't have this they will fail the NCT regardless of condition of the tyres.

See here...http://www.nct.ie/images/NCT_DL.jpg

Atlantic Dawn

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

I was always of the opinion myself that you put your good tyres on the driving wheels which in most cars is the front, however there was extensive debate here on the subject a couple of months back and the tyre manufacturers recommend having the best tyres on the rear regardless of driving wheels. So in theory all tyres being legal putting the new tyres on the back should improve things.

See that is what is confusing me, I've heard of this whole rotating your old tyres to the front and putting the new's on the back argument, but I'd assume that's talking about "good" new tyres, not the likes of these nasty things. Which makes me think if the best thing really is to put new on the back and old on the front, I might possibly make it even worse by putting inferior new tyres on the back

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

The 'e' mark for tyres is a safety standard that the tyres are approved for, if your tyres don't have this they will fail the NCT regardless of condition of the tyres.

See here...http://www.nct.ie/images/NCT_DL.jpg

Ah right I get you now, yes they do...although how they can be classified as "safe" is beyond me! Give it even the tiniest bit of welly around a slightly wet bend and they begin to lose it! I had much more grip on my more than likely illegal old ones :P

browneire

If someone tells me they had a blow out on a rear tyre, my first thought is 'well at least it wasn't the front'. In a standard/mid priced car it is your front wheels that are doing all the breaking, driving and turning (seeing more lateral loading). Going by that thinking, my two cents would suggest best tyres in front.

challengemaster

Put gripless tyres on the rear coming into winter and you won't be long before your arse tries to pass out the rest of ya....

mickdw

The tyre manufacturers figure an understeering car is easier to control for your average driver than an oversteering car thus they say to put the best tyres on the back.

challengemaster

challengemaster wrote: »

Put gripless tyres on the rear coming into winter and you won't be long before your arse tries to pass out the rest of ya....

True! But then the alternative of keeping the gripless tyres on the front I'm imagining it wouldn't take too long til I would be in someones rear end... either really doesn't appeal to me!

Seems I'm going to be screwed not matter what way I go about it! Can anybody recommend any decent tyres then that aren't too expensive? Or does anybody fancy buying 2 barely used tyres from me :P Nah I actually wouldn't even think about selling these to anyone for road use!!

_Conrad_

mickdw wrote: »

The tyre manufacturers figure an understeering car is easier to control for your average driver than an oversteering car thus they say to put the best tyres on the back.

I rather like oversteer. It's fun.

But anyway....
On the subject of tyres, OP you were robbed if you paid 50 each for wanlis. Do not go back to that place

Fishtits

Maybe you should just slow down?

There was a thread on here recently about a guy that got "Winter tyres" fitted to his van, he managed to inflate them to 40 odd psi and wondered why he had a blowout... ****wit.

Guys. I hate to state it but.

The only people that have problems with tyre grip are those that drive too fast.

Before you all shred me for my high & mighty attitude...

Been there & done that... Cruise home, do the rest on a closed road.

Esel

That's rough. Your 'friend' certainly didn't do you any favours, unless you told them to get the cheapest tyres possible.

I'd go back to the place that fitted them and complain that they are not fit for purpose.

If no joy with that, www.tyreland.ie sell only good, brand name used tyres. You should get a pair fitted and balanced for less than €90 (depending on size).

I agree with better tyres on the rear, btw.

cjt156

Fishtits wrote: »

Maybe you should just slow down?

The only people that have problems with tyre grip are those that drive too fast.

Sorry but that's bullsh!t. I've lost the back end due to cheap chinese tyres at speeds that are both legal and safe with decent tyres. Cr@p tyres have worse grip and can put you in danger at any speed. Unfortunately most people don't realise how bad their cheap tyres are until they're in that situation.

cjt156

As regards the OP; get rid and get decent tyres. I know you don't want to be out of pocket, but would you rather the cost of a prang?

Recommend Vredestein tyres; I have Sportrac3 on both my cars; excellent grip in the wet and handled last winter's snow and ice very well too.
Linky-dink
Besides, they've got a cool looking tread and you can powerslide out of roundabouts like a mutha...ahem...I mean, they're nice and safe...

Zubeneschamali

mickdw wrote: »

The tyre manufacturers figure an understeering car is easier to control for your average driver than an oversteering car thus they say to put the best tyres on the back.

We've also had Fifth Gear video posted here showing that a FWD car with bad tyres at the rear will oversteer at much lower speeds than the same car with the same bad tyres at the front will start to understeer.

If you follow me :pac:

BostonB

Fishtits wrote: »

....
Guys. I hate to state it but.

The only people that have problems with tyre grip are those that drive too fast.

Before you all shred me for my high & mighty attitude...

Been there & done that... Cruise home, do the rest on a closed road.

Sorry I call BS too. You obviously haven't been there done that. Because some of those cheap tyres have dire grip even in the dry. I know have a set on one of the cars, and even at low speed, the grip is terrible. Originally I though they were bad because they were new, but tbh they only got worse.

BostonB

If your planning on getting into oversteer on a FWD, you must be planning on driving very hard, in which case, you be crazy to put bad tyres anywhere. You'll end up in a ditch at best.

BostonB

+1 on the Vredestein. Had them in the past.

Zubeneschamali

BostonB wrote: »

If your planning on getting into oversteer on a FWD, you must be planning on driving very hard,

Nope, just a wet roundabout. Here, I'll dig out the video for you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5YsQ_a_ijA

BostonB

Oversteer on most FWD drive cars is a little unpredictable. Not something for wet roundabouts.

Zubeneschamali

BostonB wrote: »

Oversteer on most FWD drive cars is a little unpredictable. Not something for wet roundabouts.

The idea is to avoid both understeer and oversteer. The best way to do that when changing 2 tyres in a FWD car is to put the new ones at the back.

BostonB

Sorry I think I picked you up wrong.

I agree with you and others, that on a FWD oversteer is what you don't want. So put the best tyres on the back. Understeer is far more controllable. So Bad tyres on the front will slow you down. But at the end of the day, if you've bad tyres you should change them.

SpannerMonkey

Fishtits wrote: »

Maybe you should just slow down?

There was a thread on here recently about a guy that got "Winter tyres" fitted to his van, he managed to inflate them to 40 odd psi and wondered why he had a blowout... ****wit.

Guys. I hate to state it but.

The only people that have problems with tyre grip are those that drive too fast.

Before you all shred me for my high & mighty attitude...

Been there & done that... Cruise home, do the rest on a closed road.

No offence lad but that's a load of bull:mad: I had tyres on mine when I bought it that used to loose traction at 30 mph in the wet is that too fast eh no just crap Tyres they were Accelera and especially if you drive a RWD car it's much worse you wouldn't notice it as much in a FWD but in RWD it's bloody terrifying ??

over9000dvd

Deleted User wrote: »

50 quid a pop...I knew my friend knows one of the ones that works there so I just thought for that price he had managed to get me a decent discount and thought nothing of it, but no it was just because they're nasty ass things
And I don't even know what an 'e' mark is?? I'm not the most clued up person about these things!

i paid 65 each for 2 and 1 popped after i drove over a tin fúcking can, fast fit tyres lauhged at me when i asked for a refund, said he sells them eveeyday with no come back from customers.

reiger

they'd hardly tell ya that there the worst tyre going,at the end of the day you pay for what you get,but the tyre is the one thing that keeps the car on the road and i for one would never go for the very cheap version if you even go a few quid more you can get better
at the end of the day pencewise pound foolish and i learned that lesson the hard way it cost 2k to fix a car and that was down to crap tyres.

over9000dvd

reiger wrote: »

they'd hardly tell ya that there the worst tyre going,at the end of the day you pay for what you get,but the tyre is the one thing that keeps the car on the road and i for one would never go for the very cheap version if you even go a few quid more you can get better
at the end of the day pencewise pound foolish and i learned that lesson the hard way it cost 2k to fix a car and that was down to crap tyres.

im going for brigstones next they are only 72€ each

Mycroft H

continentals. never had a problem with them.

longhalloween

Look man, its better to get rid of those and buy some decent ones.

The last thing you need is to spin off the road and do some damage to yourself and others.

Tyres are only 50e or so from a decent garage so its not a huge stretch for 2, esp since theyll last a while too and youll get piece of mind.

2 stroke

A few years ago I had a similar problem. One of the secondhand tyre places swapped me a partworn pair of continentals for 3 day old cheap gripless tyres. Those cheap tyres cost me £1200 in damage, nobody hurt tG.

mcwhirter

cjt156 wrote: »

As regards the OP; get rid and get decent tyres. I know you don't want to be out of pocket, but would you rather the cost of a prang?

Recommend Vredestein tyres; I have Sportrac3 on both my cars; excellent grip in the wet and handled last winter's snow and ice very well too.
Linky-dink
Besides, they've got a cool looking tread and you can powerslide out of roundabouts like a mutha...ahem...I mean, they're nice and safe...

I have same tyres, great in wet, but I could not get hardly any grip on ice and snow though, maybe it was the car...

Fey!

On the e-mark thing, watch out for this on brandname tyres, too. We put a pair of Dunlops on the g/fs car, which caused some crazy vibration. Turned out that they were made in somewhere like Indonesia (I know, that's fairly normal), but they had no e-mark. They were terrible.

Eventually the tyre centre that supplied them replaced them (we reported it an hour after they were fitted, but it took 18 months of promises to get them sorted. We ended up getting our usual tyre guy to fit a pair of Bridgestones, and we dropped the Dunlops back to the place that supplied them and got a they paid for the replacements. However, the car was undriveable with the Dunlops on the front, and not much better on the back, which meant that we essentially had a car off the road for 18 months).

mcwhirter wrote: »

I have same tyres, great in wet, but I could not get hardly any grip on ice and snow though, maybe it was the car...

...maybe it was the ice and snow!!!

I was reading a car manual recently which was describing the ABS system, pointing out how it worked and why it was much better in the wet than "normal" brakes. The next paragraph stated that "normal" braked may be better and stop faster on ice and gravel as the locked wheel build up a little pile of ice or stones in front of them giving them resistance, where the ABS doesn't!!! It was a manual for a 1996 car.

Satts

Fishtits wrote: »

There was a thread on here recently about a guy that got "Winter tyres" fitted to his van, he managed to inflate them to 40 odd psi and wondered why he had a blowout... ****wit.

Read the thread about the blow out again.
He got the blow out on front, which were inflated to 2.5bar(36psi).
The back were inflated to 3.2bar(46psi), which may have been needed if he had a load in the van.
I would expect to be able to pump to this pressure and higher and not get a blow out.

mcwhirter

Fey! wrote: »

...maybe it was the ice and snow!!!

Other cars were fine though on same road, maybe the tyre pattern of the vredesteins are go good on snow/ice.