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Agree with you about importance of tires. A thing I learned from Mom of all people, was to never run on bad tires and ensure you always have good brakes. I let everyone I know, know this when asked about such things… The only things keeping the shiny side up and you from ramming into the back of a suddenly stopped Semi trailer are tires and brakes… Whenever family members/friends get together over at my house, I do a walk by inspection of their tires…. If anything is wrong, I let them know the importance of good tires… Just a quirk of mine I know…
A point I would like to add for others in this thread is based upon your comments about how new tires perform. Ensure when you are buying new tires, that you are truly buying “new” tires… Inspect the manufacturers date code on the side. It is given in four numbers. The first two are the week it was made, the last two are the year. I.E. if a code is 2512 then it was made on the 25th week of the year 2012. Tires can still look brand new and be 10 years old if they were lost in a warehouse for those 10 years and get rolled out to be sold. Particularly if you are buying tires at a bad side of the town type of tire discounter (a good indicator is that they do “open air”/outside tire changes) Also if you have to buy at a cheapie location, ensure they balance the tires!!! Years ago, I drove away after buying a set of tires for $150 (with installation included) and immediately noticed the funny feeling in the seat of my pants (no joke here)…I checked all four wheels and found that my weights were untouched…. They did not balance them!!!
JMHO
Great vid.
-Karl
[quote=”ToyotaKarl” post=71339]Agree with you about importance of tires. A thing I learned from Mom of all people, was to never run on bad tires and ensure you always have good brakes. I let everyone I know, know this when asked about such things… The only things keeping the shiny side up and you from ramming into the back of a suddenly stopped Semi trailer are tires and brakes… Whenever family members/friends get together over at my house, I do a walk by inspection of their tires…. If anything is wrong, I let them know the importance of good tires… Just a quirk of mine I know…
A point I would like to add for others in this thread is based upon your comments about how new tires perform. Ensure when you are buying new tires, that you are truly buying “new” tires… Inspect the manufacturers date code on the side. It is given in four numbers. The first two are the week it was made, the last two are the year. I.E. if a code is 2512 then it was made on the 25th week of the year 2012. Tires can still look brand new and be 10 years old if they were lost in a warehouse for those 10 years and get rolled out to be sold. Particularly if you are buying tires at a bad side of the town type of tire discounter (a good indicator is that they do “open air”/outside tire changes) Also if you have to buy at a cheapie location, ensure they balance the tires!!! Years ago, I drove away after buying a set of tires for $150 (with installation included) and immediately noticed the funny feeling in the seat of my pants (no joke here)…I checked all four wheels and found that my weights were untouched…. They did not balance them!!!
JMHO
Great vid.
-Karl[/quote]
Excellent points, thanks for your post. I actually show the date codes in this video. Hope it’s helpful to those that are looking for that information.
Hey Eric…Great Video. I think you shook a few people who usually buy cheap or used tires.
To me good tires come a very close second to good brakes. I installed cheapie brake pads on a car that I owned and they worked just fine until I really needed them for a high speed stop. I almost knocked a pickup truck into a moving train at a crossing. Now I only use the best brake components I can buy. (lesson learned)I installed 4 winter tires on a 95 caravan that I used to own. Being an older vehicle I was limited on what was available but they were a name brand tire. After a short time the Van started to vibrate on acceleration. I changed 2 front axles, transmission mount and a few other components until I finally rotated the tires front to rear. The vibration got worse so I switched tires side to side and the vibration almost went away. (Another lesson learned)
Now..I will not install anything but the brand you had installed on your Honda. For a few dollars more you can’t go wrong.
Eric, you mentioned that you didn’t like the MXV4 tires. Were those from the Primacy series or Energy series from Michelin? I really love the Primacy MXV4 tire and would buy that one again, but thought the Energy MXV4 was a horrible tire.
[quote=”college man” post=71361]Tires and brakes for me are the most important.
2nd the ac and radio must work. :)[/quote]Exactly!
[quote=”dude8370″ post=71380]Eric, you mentioned that you didn’t like the MXV4 tires. Were those from the Primacy series or Energy series from Michelin? I really love the Primacy MXV4 tire and would buy that one again, but thought the Energy MXV4 was a horrible tire.[/quote]
Those tires work great on other vehicles but they didn’t work out on my Odyssey. I guess that’s because it’s not really a passenger ‘car’. Also, the MXV4’s didn’t come in the correct size for my van. The defenders work much better on the Odyssey in my opinion.
[quote=”aaronac8″ post=71390]Eric,
Do you change to winter tires or use your tires year round?[/quote]The tires I used are all season. To be honest that’s all I need here in OH. We don’t see enough snow to warrant winter tires in my opinion.
Well Eric you must be telepatic or something, because two days ago I just bought 4 new winter tires for my BX; I made my eyes hurt (and got an headache!) looking at tire reviews all around the net.
I started out wanting to cheap out but then started rising my aim to at least average brand tyres, since I noticed that the cheap ones had good scores for the snow and the dry tests, but did very bad on the wet tests.
Instead, the average-to-good brands tyres seemed more constant with their results; and in the bunch of average brands I chose what came as a suggestion by a Citroen forum I use to follow.
A lot of other Citroen owners told that hydro-pneumatic Citroens are very picky when it comes to tires, and a lot of them suggested to put (as you did in the video) what came on the car.
But since the tires that came on the car were the good old Michelin MXL, which have not been produced for 20 years, and the tires I’ve found when I purchased are Michelin MXT (18 years old!!!), which too are no longer in production, I had to chose an alternative.And someone suggested me that the Yokohama are similar in their characteristics, so I chose 4 Yokohama W.Drive and let’s hope for the best! 😆
They have very good reviews and I’ve found them with a lot of discount; I’ve purchased them online and will be installed and balanced by a little shop in a small town near here.
I chose that shop because when I went to see how it was and meet the owner, it reminded me of Eric’s shop! :cheer:Small place, deals with historic cars (such as mine) and he’s a nice guy, inspired me trust (which is not a common thing I have to say! 😉 )
This week the tires shoud arrive and I’ll have a chance to feel the difference between some 18-ish tires and some new ones 😆
By the way, I periodically remove the tires from my cars and do remove the small rocks which are trapped in the thread.
I hate the noise they make sometime! :angry:
Then I clean the tires and scrape them with an abrasive sponge (like the green one to wash the dishes in the kitchen) and put some black-tire stuff with a softer sponge, and then let them rest for the night to let the black-stuff dry out.
I have to say that this way the tires look a lot better and stay black a lot more time!Will it prevent the cracks and dry rot also? I don’t know, but it sure makes the tires look like new again (no matter how gray they were before!) :cheer:
Ok, enough talking 😛 , I wish you all a good evening!
Live long and prosper (and stay dirty!)
10nico
Great information Eric,
There are too many places garages included selling part worn tyres, the average car owner seems unaware of the potential dangers of fitting part worn or budget tyres to their vehicles.
I will also agree that a good (reputable) brand of rotors and brake pads are of near equal importance.Working for a large name tire retailer, I would agree tires are the most important purchase. How much you spend on tires now may depend on how soon you’ll be spending money on tires again. Somethings I would like to point out is that the mid-priced tires seem to be a great investment. The company I work for has a Chinese brand, an American brand, and a high priced Japanese brand. The entry level Chinese brand are in the opinion of most absolute junk. The American brand are overall the best as they have good warranties, good traction, and seem to outlast their longevity rating, then the Japanese brand which has some decent tires with high mileage warranties seem to have issues ranging from ride quality to not lasting the warranty period. I personally bought the Japanese A/T and have found the traction to be nothing close to what the manufacturer states and that the American A/T is better rated and cheaper.
I just wanted to also share a couple of tips:
– NEVER try repairing a tire or using tire sealant in a tire with a road hazard or mileage warranty. Anytime we do a flat repair with either, we automatically void the warranty.
– Keep the maintenance up on the steering and suspension system (i.e. alignment, shocks/struts, etc.) This helps the tire have the longest life possible.[quote=”jakethesnake” post=71472]Working for a large name tire retailer, I would agree tires are the most important purchase. How much you spend on tires now may depend on how soon you’ll be spending money on tires again. Somethings I would like to point out is that the mid-priced tires seem to be a great investment. The company I work for has a Chinese brand, an American brand, and a high priced Japanese brand. The entry level Chinese brand are in the opinion of most absolute junk. The American brand are overall the best as they have good warranties, good traction, and seem to outlast their longevity rating, then the Japanese brand which has some decent tires with high mileage warranties seem to have issues ranging from ride quality to not lasting the warranty period. I personally bought the Japanese A/T and have found the traction to be nothing close to what the manufacturer states and that the American A/T is better rated and cheaper.
I just wanted to also share a couple of tips:
– NEVER try repairing a tire or using tire sealant in a tire with a road hazard or mileage warranty. Anytime we do a flat repair with either, we automatically void the warranty.
– Keep the maintenance up on the steering and suspension system (i.e. alignment, shocks/struts, etc.) This helps the tire have the longest life possible.[/quote]Thanks for the input and the info.
[quote=”EricTheCarGuy” post=71423]
The tires I used are all season. To be honest that’s all I need here in OH. We don’t see enough snow to warrant winter tires in my opinion.[/quote]
The winter tires are not only about the snow and ice. Tire hardness depends a lot on the temperature they’re working in. So the summer and all season tires made to work best in 10-30 Celsius, can get rock hard when temperature drops to or below 0 *C and actually cause You easily loosing traction even without snow. Winter tires are made of much softer material, so they stay flexible when the temperature drops, but it also means that they’re much softer when it’s warm, so they’d wear out almost instantly if driven in the summer.Honestly: I would trade up a set of brand new all season tires for a not so new two sets: summer + winter tires anytime. There’s no such thing as perfect universal thing, and that little bit of compromise made can be the decisive factor for You having a crash.
[quote=”KHOT” post=71591][quote=”EricTheCarGuy” post=71423]
The tires I used are all season. To be honest that’s all I need here in OH. We don’t see enough snow to warrant winter tires in my opinion.[/quote]
The winter tires are not only about the snow and ice. Tire hardness depends a lot on the temperature they’re working in. So the summer and all season tires made to work best in 10-30 Celsius, can get rock hard when temperature drops to or below 0 *C and actually cause You easily loosing traction even without snow. Winter tires are made of much softer material, so they stay flexible when the temperature drops, but it also means that they’re much softer when it’s warm, so they’d wear out almost instantly if driven in the summer.Honestly: I would trade up a set of brand new all season tires for a not so new two sets: summer + winter tires anytime. There’s no such thing as perfect universal thing, and that little bit of compromise made can be the decisive factor for You having a crash.[/quote]
You also need to take into account what I covered in the video about putting different tires other than stock on Honda vehicles. Trust me, there are wear issues due to the suspension design on some of their vehicles. I’m aware of the different compounds of winter tires. Heck, I’ve even installed studs in winter tires before. That was fun. Thing is, it’s not for every application. I think I made the best choice for my application and my climate. If I lived in a climate that experienced more snow similar to what I used to deal with when I lived in Buffalo, heck yes, I’d have a set of winter tires and summer tires. In fact I would go so far as to have a winter vehicle and a summer vehicle due to the salt on the roads and the rust that comes from that. In a way, in those climates it’s not just a good idea to have a different set of tires but better still, a vehicle you can write off in case it ends up in a ditch at some point. In fact, I knew a guy when I lived there that had a beautiful 66 Lincoln Continental, that he bought new, that he drove in the summer, and a full sized dump truck with a plow that he drove in the winter. Extreme but effective.
Thanks for your input.
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