We were almost 400 miles into our 600 mile roadtrip when we started to notice road/tire noise emanating from the front of the MINI. Weird.

The Dunlop RFs (16s) only have about 20k miles on them, but the noise is ridiculous! I rotate my tires every 3-4k miles and don't track. (Well, I did once last summer when Classic had their event at Nelsons Ledges.) But that was only once on the track for 10 or 15 minutes. When we got home I rotated the tires to the back and the noise followed.

Anyways, is this going to happen again? Are Goodyear RFs any better in the noise department than Dunlops?

C'mon you long in the tooth MINI owners, what's your experience been? Can I only expect 20k miles out of RFs?

.....Les

 

I don't know which Dunlops you have but mine have certainly become noisy. I probably have about 20,000 miles on them and can't wait till they're gone completely. They aren't the only noisy tires which get louder as they wear . . . after all, all tires are compromises and if given the choice between noise and grip, MINI chose grip for you. Oh, and MINI chose grip over wear for you too. Good choices in my opinion. Chosing harshness over leaking air, however, was a bad choice MINI made for me. I can't wait for my Goodyear F1 GS-D3s.

 

Well I'm extremely annoyed at the wear life = noise charateristics of these Dunlop 5000 DSST's. I can't be replacing tires every year at 20k miles!

Now to decide what to do.

a. Replace with GY RFs.
b. Replace with non-RFs, get a jack and a spare (where to carry).
c. Replace with non-RFs, get some slime and an inflator.

.....Les

 

What size GYs will these be?

...Les

 

205 55 16. They also come in 205 50 16 but I prefer a larger tire compared to stock, than a smaller tire. There are some speed bumps on my normal routes which require me to creep when I have my small winter times mounted.

I don't expect to get a lot of miles out of performance tires. I wouldn't expect a lot of predictable grip out of tires that will last a long time. It would be dangerous IMHO to have passenger tires on a car which begs to be driven.

My winter tires are not runflat. I carry a compressor, slime and a plug kit. I don't expect to have to fix a flat as most of the flats I've had over the years in other cars have not required roadside repairs. The compressor comes in handy when I switch tires seasonally as I don't have to go to a gas station to top them off.

 

I'd go with choice "C"

 

The Goodyear RF (RS-A type) are not desirable at all. The Dunlops actually perform better (especially as they wear).

Go with option "C"...