tyre choice for V70

[Tim Hobbs]

Hi guys - great group, I've been lurking for a while. I'm a new Volvo
driver with a 2003 2.4 V70. I'm up to almost 17,000 miles now, but
having done 5000 miles in the last 5 weeks my front tyres are shot.

Anyone have any opinions on the best fitment? My main criticism of
the V70 is that it has quite a lot of road noise on the Pirelli P6000
- can anyone recommend anything quieter? My main aim is comfort and
reasonable wear rate than ultimate handling or performance.

Thanks for any suggestions!


--

Tim Hobbs

'58 Series 2 88" aka "Stig"
'77 101FC Ambulance aka "Burrt"
'95 Discovery V8i aka "The Disco" (FOR SALE)
'03 Volvo V70

My Landies? http://www.seriesii.co.uk
Barcoding? http://www.bartec-systems.com
Tony Luckwill web archive at http://www.luckwill.com

 

[Guest]

Hi guys - great group, I've been lurking for a while. I'm a new Volvo
driver with a 2003 2.4 V70. I'm up to almost 17,000 miles now, but
having done 5000 miles in the last 5 weeks my front tyres are shot.

Anyone have any opinions on the best fitment? My main criticism of
the V70 is that it has quite a lot of road noise on the Pirelli P6000
- can anyone recommend anything quieter? My main aim is comfort and
reasonable wear rate than ultimate handling or performance.

Yes the P6000's are alittle noisy (I have them on my Focus, and S70) but
they're a hardish compound so wear well. You can't have good wear and
quietness. I had some Mich Premacy's previously on the Focus- they did
~3000miles less distance, and were very slightly quieter.

Tim..

 

[Stephen M. Henning]

I'm a new Volvo
driver with a 2003 2.4 V70. I'm up to almost 17,000 miles now, but
having done 5000 miles in the last 5 weeks my front tyres are shot.

You should rotate your tires every 5,000 miles. Since your front tires
are the primary tires for braking and cornering, it is important to have
your best tires in front. It also extends tire life.

I have an '01 V70 XC and the AWD does help with tire mileage. Also, the
V70 has Pirelli Scorpion S/T's which I think are fantastic all season
tires. They probably aren't availabe for your wheels. I believe they
only come in 215/65R16.

 

[Andy Cunningham]

You should rotate your tires every 5,000 miles. Since your front tires
are the primary tires for braking and cornering, it is important to have
your best tires in front. It also extends tire life.

This is not quite correct. Yes you should rotate your tyres but the
best tyres should always be on the rear. The reason for this is that
you don't want the rear end losing traction before the front as it is
invariably much harder to control oversteer than understeer.

HTH

Andy

 

[Stephen M. Henning]

This is not quite correct. Yes you should rotate your tyres but the
best tyres should always be on the rear. The reason for this is that
you don't want the rear end losing traction before the front as it is
invariably much harder to control oversteer than understeer.

That sounds noble in principle but is infact absurd in practice. First,
anti-lock braking systems eliminate this problem. Second, by rotating
the tires putting the most worn in the front, they wear evenly both
front and rear and there is no difference in stopping ability. This is
safe. If you don't rotate or just leave the most worn on the front,
then the front will become thread-bare before the rear gets the beads
worn off and it will be very unsafe. It is safest to keep the tires
matched in brand, tread, size, and wear.

 

[Andy Cunningham]

That sounds noble in principle but is infact absurd in practice. First,
anti-lock braking systems eliminate this problem.

Well I'd be very grateful if you could tell me how ABS prevents the
rear end sliding sideways. I'm not talking about the rear wheels
locking up under braking I'm talking about the back end stepping out
in a corner.

Second, by rotating the tires putting the most worn in the front, they wear evenly both
front and rear and there is no difference in stopping ability. This is
safe. If you don't rotate or just leave the most worn on the front,
then the front will become thread-bare before the rear gets the beads
worn off and it will be very unsafe. It is safest to keep the tires
matched in brand, tread, size, and wear.

I'm not sure you read my post properly. I did in fact say that it is
essential to rotate the tyres. By keeping an eye on things it is
possible to rotate the tyres so that the "best" are always on the
back.

HTH

Andy

 

[Andy Cunningham]

That sounds noble in principle but is infact absurd in practice.

Me again! I didn't ask you this last time, but what has nobility got
to do with it?

Anyway, to lend additional weight to my argument please read the
following from Michelins homepage:

http://www.michelin.co.uk/uk/auto/auto_cons_bib_pqr_neuf.jsp

Virtually every tyre manufacturer (well the 6 or so I decided to
check) gives identical advice.

So to the OP, fit your new tyres to the rear of your vehicle safe in
the knowledge that unlike Mr. Henning you will not be backing it into
the nearest ditch.

HTH

Andy

 

[Stephen M. Henning]

I'm not sure you read my post properly. I did in fact say that it is
essential to rotate the tyres. By keeping an eye on things it is
possible to rotate the tyres so that the "best" are always on the
back.

Actually this is impossible since the front tires wear MUCH faster than
the rear tires. You can never rotate the best tires to the back because
the rear tires will always be the best tires until you buy new tires to
replace the worn out front tires.

The only cars where front tires don't wear faster than rear tires are
dragsters and similar high powered cars that drive in a straight line
and accelerate rapidly.

Any time in an ordinary car, when you maintain a rotation schedule on
matched tires and rotate tires you are moving the most worn tires to the
back and the best tires to the front. It is impossible to do othewise
since front tires wear fastest.

 

[Rob Guenther]

There was a huge article in, I believe Motor Trend magazine about this whole
thing. Michelin tested a Nissan Altima with good tires at the rear and 1/2
worn up front, and 1/2 worn tires at the rear, and the good ones up front.
In the water test, the car with the bad tires up front started to plow
forward a little sooner then the test car with all good tires, but it was
very predictable and easy to manage. With the bad rear tires, out of nowhere
in a hard turn the rear end broke loose, resulting in a bad skid.

 

[Stephen M. Henning]

There was a huge article in, I believe Motor Trend magazine about this whole
thing. Michelin tested a Nissan Altima with good tires at the rear and 1/2
worn up front, and 1/2 worn tires at the rear, and the good ones up front.
In the water test, the car with the bad tires up front started to plow
forward a little sooner then the test car with all good tires, but it was
very predictable and easy to manage. With the bad rear tires, out of nowhere
in a hard turn the rear end broke loose, resulting in a bad skid.

The discussion was not about tires which were different. It was about
rotating matched tires. The purpose of rotating is to keep the tires
matched. However, the front tires wear fastest on everything except
drag racers. Hence, when rotating tires, one is always, yes always,
rotating the most worn tires to the rear. I don't know of a single tire
company that doesn't recommend rotating tires. Hence, this is a very
acceptable and highly recommended practice.

 

[Tim Hobbs]

The discussion was not about tires which were different. It was about

rotating matched tires. The purpose of rotating is to keep the tires
matched. However, the front tires wear fastest on everything except
drag racers. Hence, when rotating tires, one is always, yes always,
rotating the most worn tires to the rear. I don't know of a single tire
company that doesn't recommend rotating tires. Hence, this is a very
acceptable and highly recommended practice.

I'm afraid I don't agree with your statement that one is necessarily
rotating the most worn tyres to the rear. When I bought my new tyres
this weekend, I could have rotated them by putting the new ones on the
rear and moving the part worn ones from the rear to the front. It
would actually have made sense to do so - I too would prefer the best
/ least worn tyres at the rear.

When I got the Volvo I did have a play with it - putting it too fast
into corners and generally provoking it by lifting off mid-corner,
braking through bends etc. The DSTC is rather better than I expected
it to be. The laws of physics still apply though.

I've had a number of quite powerful rear drive cars (Nissan 200SX,
Jaguar XJR for two) and both wore the rear tyres much faster than the
fronts (about 10k and 8k miles per pair respectively). The V70 has
worn it's fronts almost to the wear indicators in 17K, but there is
about 1/3 tread left on rears. I don't rotate the tyres simply
because my mileage is so high that I tend to be at the tyre fitter
every 3-6 months.

My tyre fitter (who has fitted almost every tyre I've bought in the
last ten years) recommended Michelin Pilot Sports. Before looking at
the car he told me that the Pirelli P6000 would have uneven wear from
block to block. With the car on the ramps we looked at the rears and
sure enough there is a very pronounced (1mm or so) castellation effect
between each tread block. In actual fact the blocks are wearing on a
slope. The cause is that the Pirelli carcass allows the steel cross
bands to move slightly, giving a twist. If it gets much worse I'll be
junking the tyres before they are much more worn.

I'll just add that my tyre fitter is 'owned' by Michelin (and
definitely promotes Michelin) but he did tell me about the problem
with my tyres before he saw the car.

I'd say the Michelin's are perhaps a tad quieter. There's been no
serious rain yet so I can't comment on wet performance, but there are
three very substantial grooves which should make them work well.

Looks like being a good month for my tyre fitter - a set of four for
the Passat and two for the V70 this weekend. Turns out my wife needs
a pair on the front of her A-Class and I'll be back for V70 rears
pretty soon too!

Thanks for your comments guys.



--

Tim Hobbs

'58 Series 2 88" aka "Stig"
'77 101FC Ambulance aka "Burrt"
'95 Discovery V8i aka "The Disco" (FOR SALE)
'03 Volvo V70

My Landies? http://www.seriesii.co.uk
Barcoding? http://www.bartec-systems.com
Tony Luckwill web archive at http://www.luckwill.com