I've corded a few tires in my life. Knowing what I do now I consider a tire shot when it starts behaving like yours are.

Tires are relatively cheap, new cars are not. With the type of driving you do, you have two choices. Slow down & drive a bit more sensibly or buy tires.

 

I'm stretching my current set out right now. Not quite to the wear bars but I have definitely noticed some additional understeer at the limit a couple times. Accelerating hard-ish in the wet brings the wheels spinning as well. I'm taking it easy for the next couple months until I can get a new set of wheels and tires; don't want to spend $400+ on tires when I'm getting a different size on the new wheels.

 

Agreed

The Tire Rack's advice is that if rain and wet roads are a concern, you should consider replacing your tires when they reach approximately 4/32" of remaining tread depth. Since water can't be compressed, you need enough tread depth to allow the rain to escape through the tire's grooves. If the water can't escape fast enough, your vehicle's tires will be forced to hydroplane (float) on top of the water, losing traction and increasing stopping distances.

Alex

 

Good advice Alex.

Also the compounding of the tires changes over time. What was once a sticky tire turns into a hockey puck.

 

Safety is much more a function of the ability of the driver to drive withing the limitations of the driver and the equipment, rather than a function of the equipment itself.

That being said, I would sooner pay extra to delete airbags from a car than to pay extra to have them included. More people win the lottery each year than get saved by airbags.

 

i drive my tires until it goes flat/pops....that automatically puts me in a position where i need to purchase tires...i wont bother myself with, "should i or shouldnt i"....tires are good until theyre dead....

 

I don't want to derail the OP's thread but I have to disagree. I've been in the bodyshop business for over 25 years and get to see first hand what cars look like when cars have airbags and cars that don't.

Mark

 

I typically run tires till they're completely bald, and take appropriate caution in the wet. Yes, hydroplaning sucks. Depending on the tire tho, dry performance doesn't necessarily take a big leap - hell, you've got the most contact patch and the least amount of tread squirm. I'd think performance is more age and compound dependent. And if we're talking max perf. tires, we're not talking many miles / long term here. The reason I'll stretch a set of tires is because they seem to burn through so quick.

I'm storing a set right now that's just above the wearbars (and running baldies) to keep them legal for the first track weekend. If I had a money tree, I'd probably buy tires more often. As far as the debate, I completely agree -

 

Well, for these Nokians, the steering response is better, but traction is not as good as it was, nor is lateral grip. These tires were manufactured in January of 2007.

I've decided to keep them a while longer. When I get my new set - same Nokain Vs - I might put them on my holies so I can enjoy the lightened rims in the summer when it will matter more than winter. But I just love my steel rims... They should make light aluminum or magnesium wheels that look just like steel rims, with a clearcoat.

 

I once had a set of worn (but still minimally serviceable) tires on a Maxima. No problem, until I started hydroplaning on the Illinois Tollway at 75 or so one day. Three questions suddenly dawned on me:

1) What is my car worth?
2) What is my life worth?
3) What does a set of tires cost?

I called Tirerack.

 

Holy Cow!!! 2 years and 20k miles, I can't seem to make tires last 11 months and I rotoate them, and I switch out for track days.

 

Very good points here...

I know of two people who crashed their cars because of very worn tires. Both lucky to not have been injured.

Another reason to replace tires when they are worn is that you not only risk your own safety, which is fine by me it's your call. But you also risk the safety of others on the road with you. Which isn't so fine.

 

The mileage is rough, since I switched out tires for winters and didn't keep exact figures.

Right now, only my right front tire has worn into the hydroplaning indicator built into all Nokians. I bought a tire tread depth gauge so that I can asses depth across the tread instead of just the center where Nokian puts their depth marks, this gauge is also a bit more accurate. I'll monitor wear and try to predict when they will be within 1mm of the wearbars, then order new tires.

 

Ok. I ordered new tires. Currently, both rear are at about 2mm of depth, about .5mm from the wear bars. The fronts are both past the hydroplaning indicator, about 1mm from the wear bars.

Dry traction is pretty bad now. Steering response is becoming worse too. The rear is really prone to slide, fun but it also makes lots of tire sqeel noise - even in a moderate 30mph turn. Straight line road noise is also more pronounced.

 

Glad you're getting new tires finally.

FWIW, I've found that the relationship of wear and dry performance varies depending on the specific tire and wear patterns. My original Dunlop runflats were stickiest when they were basically down to the steel belts (almost became slicks). The tread profile was such that the more they wore, the larger my contact patch was. Sucked in standing water, but on damp to dry pavement, they rocked. I've had other tires that performed more like yours - started getting squirrelly as the tread got low.

What I DID learn on my runflats was that once the tires started going, they went from low tread to no tread to steel belts FAST (a week or two of normal driving) - I don't drive tires that close to the edge anymore, as I got "religion" when I inspected those tires and saw belts hanging out... yikes.

 

Glad you bought tires Cornhusker! That said the set of tires I'm running right now is between 3 and 4 32nths on the front and 2 and 3 23nths on the rear. The front tires started spinning under moderate acceleration at about 55 mph during a recent heavy rain . . . . I was expecting it . . . just not quite at that speed . . . and drove between 50 and 55 (the rain became a bit lighter) until the roads were dry. Then I returned to normal speeds. Since I'm aware of the tread depth and am willing to slow down, I don't feel too pressured to get new tires. I also have two other sets of tires and wheels so if I need to do a run up to Colorado and rain is forecast, I would switch tires and wheels.
So far all the tires I've had perform best in the dry during that last run in . . . somewhat better in the dry and way, way bad in the wet.
As for the folks who run their tires to the cord: My God Man! I hope you all are old guys and have lived a good life! And don't scratch my MINI when you check out . . . please head straight for the edge.

 

Ok, two of them came today, the other two should be here tomorrow. I checked the manufacture date and these were made in the 2nd week of 2007, the same age as the tires now on my car. I was a bit set back by this, but after calling them they assure me that the service life starts when they are put on the car and exposed to the sun and elements. They can sit in the warehouse for something like 4 years. He said that if tires expired in the warehouse, they would go out of business. It makes a lot of sense now that I think about it.

Anyway, the tires have the usual new tire smell, so there are still plenty of oils in them. I suppose age wont really be an issue because I'll burn through these in about 2 years like my current set.

So come monday, I should have them mounted on my hollies. I'm still up in the air about that actually. I love my steel rims, but I'm tempted by the lightness of the hollies. I kind of wish someone made aluminum rims that look like steels - with a clear coat.

 

Tirerack use to have a great video on stopping distance with different thread depths. Yo may want to try and watch it, how long you run your tires is a personal thing IMHO. In my 30 years of driving I have never owned a set longer then 2 years, i dont care about the Mileage. I view it as your life and whoever is in the car with you is riding on a patch of rubber about the size of your hand. When you look at the cost of your car, the insurance, and the mods most of us do, tire cost is pretty cheap, If you even save 1 Minor accident cause you replaced your worn rubber then the tires have paid for themselves in repairs and also in surcharges on your insurance.

 

+ 1 Very well said.

 

holding you to the road, turning your car, doing emergency stops, whatever you have to do. Tires are the first thing I'd say never compramise on, brakes the second.

I'm happy to get two years out of a set of tires. I buy sticky, sticky, sticky, and just accept the fact that they pay for their more extreme adhesion limits with faster wear.

Matt

 

I run my tires till they blow.

 

That sure would blow....

 

Panic Stopping:
How Much Tread Depth Do You Need?

Alex

 

nab you gotta cool it . some kid is gonna run out in front of you some day and you cant ever rewind . pls chill and go to the track .

 

Well, all 4 of my new tires are here, they are going on tomorrow before an alignment.


Here is a shot of the old ones:
These are at 2mm of depth. You can barely feel a bump from the inside wear bar to the tread.


Here is a new one. The depth gauge goes up to 8mm, but that photo didn't turn out. The difference between the two tires is drastic.




I'll be putting them on these, and the winter tires will go onto the steels.




Took an interesting shot while I had the camera out. I didn't mean to frame it like this. The screen on my camera doesn't show what you're looking at (it's an ancient digital camera) and the view finder has parallax out the ****.