Fast Treadwear

[The Critic]

Originally Posted By: FZ1
Hey,Critic. I just called Discount Tire and they said they could pro rate your OEM Turanza tires since they carry Bridgestone. It occurred to me that your car dealer may charge you for rotations, so check with Discount Tire re lifetime rotations for the most economical course. Hope this saves you some money. Good luck with it.


I called both the Discount Tire warehouse and the local store today and they told me that they can only make a claim if they can prove the tire to be defective in any way. If they wear evenly, he said it's unlikely that they will be able to make a claim. I wonder if your local America's Tire manager is being generous and offering credit just to keep you as a customer? I have a store like that near my school, I'll have to check with them. Thanks for the idea, I would not have otherwise thought about it.

Originally Posted By: PandaBear
My $ is on the tire your car came with start at 8/32 instead of 10/32 that the replacement sold in TireRack start at.

I checked again and the fronts are a very solid 8/32 all across. The rear tire is closer to 8.5/32 so they definitely do not start at 8/32.

 

[CapriRacer]

Originally Posted By: FZ1
O.K. Be sure you take the car in for each tire rotation to keep the warranty intact. Then you will be eligible for a pro rata credit on the next set of tires.


Sorry, but there is no mileage warranty on OE tires. OE tires have bare bones warranties, bcecause the vehicle manufacturers do not buy the additional coverage.

However, you will see the same tire advertized as having a mileage warrnty, but that is for marketing purposes and it is built into the the price when you purchase the tires.

 

[CapriRacer]

Originally Posted By: BearZDefect
Originally Posted By: XS650
...
Rounded shoulders reduce tramlining, the tendency to follow longitudinal features in the road.

Thanks for the explanation, XS650.

I know they have a good reason for doing it. But it does seem to be a relatively recent development, and tramlining is nothing new. Do you think rounded shoulders could also reduce rolling resistance?


There is a benefit to rolling resistance as well. Not only is there less tread, but less of the shoulder rubber is deflected. I'm going to guess this is the primary reason for this. Vehicle manufacturers are generally sensitive to RR!

 

[CapriRacer]

Critic,

A couple of thoughts:

I looked up MY data on the tire in question and found the shoulder grooves measure 0.4/32nds less than the center grooves on a new tire. The center grooves are spot on 10/32nds. Put another way, the shoulder grooves measure 9.6/32nds new.

What may be happening is that the center is wearing down faster because of the difference in original tread depths - and will become more even as time goes on.

And just to be clear: The paragraph above does not say that tires will wear evenly once the tread depths are the same. Tire wear is very complex and there is a lot more involved than just the depth of the tread.

 

[FZ1]

Understand. I called DT again and they told me that the difference in prorating an oem tire is that DT has to call the mfg. and the mfg determines a credit for the customer. Dt computes the credit on site for tires that DT originally sold to the customer. Still worth checking. The lifetime rotation and balance is $15 per tire at dt. The prescribed intervals are 6-8 k. Hope this helps,someone.

 

[oilmaven]

Check the survey ratings on the Bridgestone Turanza EL400-02's on Tire Rack...they don't get much worse than that. What is with Bridgestone tires? If I seem to be on a rant, I am...this huge tire company turns out some of the worst tires in the business (particularly their OE tires). My friends daughter was running a set of OE Turanza EL-400's on her Sienna minivan. They were TOTALLY BALD...don't know how she even steered the thing. She has 3 little kids. I ripped her husband a new one for allowing her to drive on them. These tires are just [censored].

 

[Hermann]

My '05 Accord had OEM Michelin's, that is about all I can say good about them.

 

[BearZDefect]

CapriRacer, thank you for the insights.

 

[The Critic]

Originally Posted By: FZ1
Understand. I called DT again and they told me that the difference in prorating an oem tire is that DT has to call the mfg. and the mfg determines a credit for the customer. Dt computes the credit on site for tires that DT originally sold to the customer. Still worth checking. The lifetime rotation and balance is $15 per tire at dt. The prescribed intervals are 6-8 k. Hope this helps,someone.

I'll have to look into this more. Thanks.

Originally Posted By: CapriRacer
Critic,

A couple of thoughts:

I looked up MY data on the tire in question and found the shoulder grooves measure 0.4/32nds less than the center grooves on a new tire. The center grooves are spot on 10/32nds. Put another way, the shoulder grooves measure 9.6/32nds new.

What may be happening is that the center is wearing down faster because of the difference in original tread depths - and will become more even as time goes on.

And just to be clear: The paragraph above does not say that tires will wear evenly once the tread depths are the same. Tire wear is very complex and there is a lot more involved than just the depth of the tread.


Thanks for the info, I appreciate it.