are tires not made uniformly?

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friendly_jacek

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When one reads a specific tire model reviews on tirerack they range from "the best tire I ever had" to the "the worst tire I ever had" and some in between. I understand that there are different sizes and cars and expectations, but some people talk about having tires worn out in under 20,000 or some other crazy stuff and some other people state "no wear at 20,000 miles." What is going on?

The reason I'm going through this reviews now, I'm not very pleased with the conti purecontacts I just got installed.
 
I think the real reason for that is that people are generally not all that intelligent or reliable reviewers. Just look around here. You have some people that believe putting M1 in their car will basically ruin the motor and other people that believe M1 is basically unicorn blood. Okay, I'm being a bit dramatic, but you get my meaning, I hope.

I take product reviews with a grain of salt these days. You really have to try hard to discern good information from them.

robert
 
While nothing made is ever perfect, I think it has more to do with differences from car to car, peoples' expectations, the environment they drive in, and how they drive.
 
I think the biggest difference is the cars on which they are installed.

"I put these on my 1993 vehicle with 500,000 miles and it never had an alignment, has sloppy ball joints and bad tie rods. These tires only last 20,000 miles, they are horrible"
 
Originally Posted By: Miller88
I think the biggest difference is the cars on which they are installed.

"I put these on my 1993 vehicle with 500,000 miles and it never had an alignment, has sloppy ball joints and bad tie rods. These tires only last 20,000 miles, they are horrible"


+1

You have to consider that most cars don't get their second set of tires until 50,000 miles or more. And many of those reviewers may be installing second, third, or fourth sets of tires.

Also consider that tires purchased online may end up not being installed by a tire shop or competent technician who would likely spot worn steering/suspension components.
 
Originally Posted By: Miller88
I think the biggest difference is the cars on which they are installed.

"I put these on my 1993 vehicle with 500,000 miles and it never had an alignment, has sloppy ball joints and bad tie rods. These tires only last 20,000 miles, they are horrible"

+1 haha

What is wrong with the purecontacts? I have 22k on mine with very little wear. Love that rim protector too!
 
Originally Posted By: Johnny248
What are you unhappy about with the Conti's? Those PureContacts are nice tires.


That's what I thought based on the CR and the reviews I read.
There is tire singing/humming noise at low speeds 20-40 mph and the car doesn't feel smooth anymore, especially at higher speeds. Some vibrations are felt in steering wheel (higher frequency than simple out of balance) and handling is not very precise. Now, I have only about 100 miles on them and some of that could be break-in, but I have a feeling noise and vibrations are going to get worse with age.

In got them on a huge discount from Discount Tires. Could it be a defective batch or improper storage? Mine are made in France and not the ones made in Mexico. I even checked if they were installed correctly, sides are labeled inside/outside.

90% of reviews say the tires are very quiet, but about 10% say noisy, so I think there must be some variation there.
 
were they road force balanced?

if not have them rebalanced.

you can balance a "square tire" but it wont feel right.
 
Originally Posted By: Rand
were they road force balanced?

if not have them rebalanced.

you can balance a "square tire" but it wont feel right.


Don't know if road force balancing was done and I don't know what a "square tire" is.

Speaking of reviews, I did find a few people mentioning vibrations and unable to balance, some even mentioned chunks of tread coming off. Weird.
 
I've had three sets of Conti tires and the first set, AS oem's, were getting slightly noisy at over 40k, but not too bad. The front set had a slight abberation cause I hit something. The touring Conti's I have now are still pretty quiet with over 20k on them.

Could it be they were heavily discounted because they were 2nds or something? Is that your suspicion?

Maybe there is some kind of marking you can check. All tires do have serial numbers and they are very serious about keeping track of tires, for safety recall purposes.
 
certainly individual reviews are all over the place: the same tires are the best and worst - depending on the person. but you can gather some information from their overall technical rating and from their own testing from the tire rack. I also bought a set of tires based on a top rating from that consumer magazine - and I thought they were the worst tires ever: I had to replace the Falkens at 28k miles. I have 28k miles on a set of Michelins and they are barely worn. but many people will say that Falkens are great and that MIchelins are trash.
 
Another thing to consider is.... Aftermarket wheels. If they have a hop to them, you can put any tire you want, balance it until it's withing .00001g. But it won't make a difference because it will still vibrate. And of course, the customer blames the tire.

Same can be said about wearing out fast. If your toe is out of whack you'll eat any and all tires like potato chips
 
Just enjoy your tyres as they are, and don't worry about it.

Outside of the obvious scope of variation between the operation of different vehicles as imposed by the owner/operator.

Some tyres perform better on different types of cars.

It can be largely dependant upon the tyre size and load rating.
Also the manufacturing plant and the country of origin.

When making a comparison all the above factors need to be taken into account.

In summary.
The only review that truly matters is yours and your alone.
Go and enjoy your car.
 
Try rotating the wheels, maybe one is off. If a tire or wheel was truly off it should change the symptoms.

Pretty sure brand new tires take a bit to break in. At least to get rid of mold release compound. But that wouldn't change noise. Oh and maybe play with tire pressure, maybe the tread just wants more (or less).

I hate reading reviews, yet there is not much else to go on. Very few things get only positive reviews!
 
Yes, no tire works perfectly on every single vehicle!

Is your suspension in good condition and alignment in spec?

Have them rebalanced! If you still don't like the tires, see if they'll replace them for you with either the same or another brand. You may have to pay the difference of a more costlier tire.

Discuss all of your options with the shop manager before doing anything!
 
Originally Posted By: HardbodyLoyalist
Originally Posted By: Miller88
I think the biggest difference is the cars on which they are installed.

"I put these on my 1993 vehicle with 500,000 miles and it never had an alignment, has sloppy ball joints and bad tie rods. These tires only last 20,000 miles, they are horrible"


+1

You have to consider that most cars don't get their second set of tires until 50,000 miles or more. And many of those reviewers may be installing second, third, or fourth sets of tires.

Also consider that tires purchased online may end up not being installed by a tire shop or competent technician who would likely spot worn steering/suspension components.


I did a review for the OE tire on my focus. It's an 80K rated tire - but with 30K they were done for. Made note in the review that my car came from the factory severely out of alignment so I could not comment on wear.
 
Did you check the tire pressure? Other than that, I would take the car back to the shop and see what they say.
 
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