winter tyres - don't run them soft!
Discussion
I set off from home the other day and realised the car was pulling to the side, so stopped after about quarter of a mile where it was safe to change the tyre. Opinion from the tyre garage is that the tyre is ruined ('bruised sidewalls'). I was staggered by this but then the sidewalls are extremely soft (you can fold them almost flat by hand, so I guess it takes nothing to destroy them.
Word of warning (and a £100 reminder it is worth checking the tyres before you jump in I guess)
Word of warning (and a £100 reminder it is worth checking the tyres before you jump in I guess)
Snowboy said:
I use a 78% nitrogen mix, it works very well.
But I do check the tyre pressures every other week.
(Well, the wife checks them actually.)
But I do check the tyre pressures every other week.
(Well, the wife checks them actually.)
Me too! Full nitrogen filling is a load of balls on a road car, moisture is the real enemy...Edited by Krikkit on Friday 6th December 10:05
DasChin said:
general view is run them a few more PSi higher than summers.
you should check your tyres weekly at least. doing it for every trip is a bit of a shag!
or put nitrogen in them like they do on the GTRs to stabilize pressure in all weathers and conditions
I just meant a visual check, you can see with winter tyres particularly if they are looking a bit saggy, pressure gauge every trip would be a bit crazy! Or get an Evora that tells you the tyre pressures in each tyre, much more sensible option, working on it!you should check your tyres weekly at least. doing it for every trip is a bit of a shag!
or put nitrogen in them like they do on the GTRs to stabilize pressure in all weathers and conditions
All tyres have soft sidewalls when they have almost no air in them. Sounds like a puncture or a tyre that was not seated properly on the rim and deflated. Tyres can also lose pressure if the alloy is cracked or the rims are a bit chewed. Given tyre construction these days, it is very difficult to tell whether a tyre is moderately under-inflated by just looking at it. Once it looks "saggy" it is usually seriously under-inflated. It's always worth checking your pressures once a week if you can - takes 1 minute to do. I also carry a footpump in the car - very handy bit of kit.
Lots of cars have tyre pressure monitoring systems these days. Unfortunatelt they have a habit of going wrong and giving false readings, often due to corrosion.
Lots of cars have tyre pressure monitoring systems these days. Unfortunatelt they have a habit of going wrong and giving false readings, often due to corrosion.
I have a summer tyre and a winter tyre both with no air. The summer tyre, if I push really hard in the middle, I can get it to deflect a couple of inches. The winter tyre, if I push quite lightly right on the sidewall, it scrumples down to the rim almost like a mountain bike tyre! There is a staggering difference in sidewall strength. Summer is a TOYO, winter a Continental.
zebedee said:
I have a summer tyre and a winter tyre both with no air. The summer tyre, if I push really hard in the middle, I can get it to deflect a couple of inches. The winter tyre, if I push quite lightly right on the sidewall, it scrumples down to the rim almost like a mountain bike tyre! There is a staggering difference in sidewall strength. Summer is a TOYO, winter a Continental.
Point taken, but I don't see that your "test" is relevant. If you left the summer tyre deflated on your vehicle and drove on it, the 500kgs + of pressure on that "strong" sidewall would still knacker it. Tyres need to be properly inflated or risk damage. End of.Bluebarge said:
Point taken, but I don't see that your "test" is relevant. If you left the summer tyre deflated on your vehicle and drove on it, the 500kgs + of pressure on that "strong" sidewall would still knacker it. Tyres need to be properly inflated or risk damage. End of.
Yes it would I accept that. But I suspect that a winter tyre (or it could be just that it is a continental) will become damaged at a higher pressure than the summer one because the tyre seems incapable of keeping any kind of form with no air in it.The car on the summer tyre, it looked kind of soft, but it still had shape to it, pressure gauge said 0 psi. The car on the winter tyre, the rim was clearly sitting on the bottom of the inner carcass with the tyre squashed flat, like a bike tyre goes when it has no air in it.
But yes, the tyre garage said that if you drive more than a couple of metres on a tyre with no air in it, that will be curtains for it. Kind of makes me wonder how puncture repair places do much trade unless sending people out with dangerous tyres because I reckon most people realise they have a puncture when driving rather than before they set off.
Ive run the slk on the same set of winters for the last 2 yrs inc. summer. Driven thru Euro summers and Swiss winters with them and back from Bern this summer at peak. Never checked them once, never had to. But then Ive never checked the oil or water once either. Not to mention the windscreen was cracked across the whole way for most of that time. The car worked perfectly. Cars...a lot tougher and capable of abuse than most think.
DJRC said:
Ive run the slk on the same set of winters for the last 2 yrs inc. summer. Driven thru Euro summers and Swiss winters with them and back from Bern this summer at peak. Never checked them once, never had to. But then Ive never checked the oil or water once either. Not to mention the windscreen was cracked across the whole way for most of that time. The car worked perfectly. Cars...a lot tougher and capable of abuse than most think.
But not capable of surviving abuse like having ran low pressures (a few metres on a flat tyre destroys it), low water (cooks your engine) or low oil (wears your engine out). Why did you 'never have to'? I bet after 2 years without adjustment they aren't at the correct pressure anymore.Neglect is irrelevant to the fortunate...
Why drive a sporty car on winters in the summer? Makes no sense. They are very squirmy (by design).
Bluebarge said:
All tyres have soft sidewalls when they have almost no air in them.
Thats not true, the tyre fitter had to throw some yoko AVS on the rim from a distance to try and get the side wall to move, you could not bend it by hand, took him an age to get them on, and i learnt some new swear words lolzebedee said:
DJRC said:
Ive run the slk on the same set of winters for the last 2 yrs inc. summer. Driven thru Euro summers and Swiss winters with them and back from Bern this summer at peak. Never checked them once, never had to. But then Ive never checked the oil or water once either. Not to mention the windscreen was cracked across the whole way for most of that time. The car worked perfectly. Cars...a lot tougher and capable of abuse than most think.
But not capable of surviving abuse like having ran low pressures (a few metres on a flat tyre destroys it), low water (cooks your engine) or low oil (wears your engine out). Why did you 'never have to'? I bet after 2 years without adjustment they aren't at the correct pressure anymore.Neglect is irrelevant to the fortunate...
Why drive a sporty car on winters in the summer? Makes no sense. They are very squirmy (by design).
I know it's your motor, your look out and none of my business, but I really don't understand why anyone wouldn't check that stuff.
Personally I like to keep an eye on things. It means I can catch small problems before they're given half a chance to become bloody great big expensive ones...
Dave Hedgehog said:
Bluebarge said:
All tyres have soft sidewalls when they have almost no air in them.
Thats not true, the tyre fitter had to throw some yoko AVS on the rim from a distance to try and get the side wall to move, you could not bend it by hand, took him an age to get them on, and i learnt some new swear words lolLike I said, staggering difference really.
zebedee said:
DJRC said:
Ive run the slk on the same set of winters for the last 2 yrs inc. summer. Driven thru Euro summers and Swiss winters with them and back from Bern this summer at peak. Never checked them once, never had to. But then Ive never checked the oil or water once either. Not to mention the windscreen was cracked across the whole way for most of that time. The car worked perfectly. Cars...a lot tougher and capable of abuse than most think.
But not capable of surviving abuse like having ran low pressures (a few metres on a flat tyre destroys it), low water (cooks your engine) or low oil (wears your engine out). Why did you 'never have to'? I bet after 2 years without adjustment they aren't at the correct pressure anymore.Neglect is irrelevant to the fortunate...
Why drive a sporty car on winters in the summer? Makes no sense. They are very squirmy (by design).
The water shouldn't be low, no reason for it to be.
The oil shouldnt be low, no reason for it to be.
Chances are if either of the above is low a sensor will tell you.
Never had to as the car never really felt like it had anything wrong with it.
Id leave the thing standing in the work carpark or at home for a month at a time sometimes in the winter in minus 10-20.
Who gives a f
k about correct pressure? Vaguely correct is good enough for 99% of cars, 99% of the time. Being anal about such things is almost always a complete waste of time and effort.Because its more effort than its worth changing them over. They aren't that squirmy at all, bit rolly maybe, but ho hum, it makes almost zero difference in normal driving for the absolute vast majority of the time. Go to work and back from home, average about 15mins driving, 60kph or less. Drive 20mins over a motorway. In one direction, rarely deviating from your line, keeping same speed of 100-110kph. You will feel absolutely f
k all difference whether you are driving on summers or winters. Strangely enough been there, done that in many cars over many yrs.You are in pissant UK, out here in real winter territory quite a few ppl don't bother swapping because we cant be f
ked. Besides, driving home in 30 something degree heat in the evening, the Alps stretched massively in front of you, top down, mooching at 110klicks...you really don't give a fk about the "sportyness" of your motor. You are enjoying the quality of life far too much.I really wouldn't rely on an oil light, by the time it comes on the damage is normally done.
And I would say 5 psi can make a lot of difference to how a car behaves and the enjoyment derived. But then if you are cutting swathes through beautiful alpine vistas with minimal steering input whilst I am sawing at the wheel on some lumpy greasy b-road then I do accept that we need different things from our cars!
Only takes about 20 mins to change all 4 tyres though.
And I would say 5 psi can make a lot of difference to how a car behaves and the enjoyment derived. But then if you are cutting swathes through beautiful alpine vistas with minimal steering input whilst I am sawing at the wheel on some lumpy greasy b-road then I do accept that we need different things from our cars!
Only takes about 20 mins to change all 4 tyres though.
DJRC said:
Who gives a fk about correct pressure? Vaguely correct is good enough for 99% of cars, 99% of the time. Being anal about such things is almost always a complete waste of time and effort.
Disagree with this bit, even a fairly small variation in tyre pressure will effect the performance of the tyre and therefore the car... and I'm not just talking about irrelevant stuff like lap times, but things like tyre durability, wear pattern, fuel economy, stopping distances etc. k about correct pressure? Vaguely correct is good enough for 99% of cars, 99% of the time. Being anal about such things is almost always a complete waste of time and effort.Pretty much agree with the rest though, regular checking is more of less redundant now that modern cars have low fluid level sensors, TPMSs etc...
zebedee said:
I really wouldn't rely on an oil light, by the time it comes on the damage is normally done.
If it's a oil 'pressure' switch/warning light then yes, you don't ever want to see it come on with the engine running. However, if it's just a 'check oil level' warning then unless the sump is suddenly empty, no damage will have been done.Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff