Excessive Tyre Wear on Fiesta?

Dec 25, 2005 59 Replies

Hi,



my Continental EcoContiContact EP 175-6514TR tyres on the front of a 3 year old diesel Ford Fiesta are at an average tread depth of 2mm - these were new one year ago and have done 15,000 English miles; is this acceptable?



btw, the wear is even, and no, I do not drive like Michael Schumacher... ;-)



Thanks in advance...


-- Susan


Are miles a different length outside of England?

We've only got your word for that. (c:

If, as you say the wear is even across the whole tread and the same on each front tyre then there's probably nothing wrong with your car or the tyres. Suspension geometry problems and under/over inflation usually manifest themselves in uneven wear.

There's obviously not a lot you can do about the tyres now they are worn. Try a different manufacturer next time. I wore out a set of cheap Firestones on the front of a 205 Diesel in less than 9000 miles once. I was 17 though...

Douglas

sounds normal, replace with Michelin and they will last a bit longer.

mrcheerful

Ah ha Douglas,

you've obviously never been to Sweden then; their miles are a damn sight longer than ours... forgotten how many km exactly, but it's a lot...

-- Susan

The message from Douglas Payne contains these words:

Well, there's nautical miles...

I thought that! There's some people who consider themselves careful sedate drivers who I won't get in a car with except in direst emergencies.

Why? There's nothing quite like the fear of death to keep the old ticker working.

Nope. Sounds like you should have changed them about 5,000 English miles back.

The message from "Tiscali" contains these words:

Several websites quote ten km.

Ah well, every day is a school day. I can reliably inform you that miles where I live in Scotland are pretty much equal to English miles.

Douglas

What, lasting for 10k only? You must be joking?

-- Susan

Don't know what he's been doing to them - but if there's only 2mm of tread on them, they're fooked.

I use 175/70R13 EcoContact EPs on my '83 Subaru Leone. Tread depth is 3.3 mm front and 5.8 mm rear after 32,000 Australian kilometres (about 20,000 miles).

These are the best road-holding tyres (especially wet) I've used on this car since buying it new.

John

I've got the same tyres in the same size on the wife's Cit ZX 1.4. They have covered 11,000 miles and are down to about 3-4mm. They grip very well, but don't seem to last well, but she's hard on the brakes and the corners, and the bulk of miles are covered on A roads and twisty country lanes.

Strangely a pair of Sime Monza HR7's (cheap) lasted much better and weren't down much on grip. I believe Sime are owned by Continental.

He? Ah I get it "A boy named Sue"

Yes it is time to replace them but IIRC there is another 0.4 of a mm to go.

15k miles is probably about average for a set of tyres, although I like mine to last about 25k or about 1 years motoring.

Woops... Soz, Susan!

No, there's another 0.4mm before they're illegal. Not the same. "Fooked" comes earlier than "illegal".

:-)

Until you clamp anchors on in the wet. You will then realise that they are already well past "Thank god for that" and into "S*it this is going to hurCRUNCH" territory.

I get about 15k in a diesel Focus to 3mm of tread left on Mitchelins.

The message from Chris Street contains these words:

Does anyone have a graph of tread-depth/wet stopping distance for any tyres at all? I know it'll be different for different tyres and all that but it'd be interesting to see at what point the curve takes a sudden turn for the worse.

I remember clearly the words of my wife last time I crashed the car - she was in the passenger seat and got as far as "You're gonna hi...."

then we hit him...

As soon as the water on the road totally fills the tread I would assume.

Logically, if the condition of the rubber is unchanged from full tread to part tread, then so long as the tread can remove the water fast enough, then there should be no difference.

I'd guess the more depth you have, the more water you can shift, *or* the deeper the water you can drive through. I'm not sure exactly of the maths and the mechanics behind the water shifting power of tyres.

Pete.

You mean like this one?

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OK so they do sell tyres but it's similar to others that I've seen - if you define "wear" as the amount of increase in braking distance from new to

1.6mm most reports put 3mm as the halfway point.

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