replaced my tires at 28K miles with Goodyear All-weather. Now 67K (I drive a LOT), marked decrease in handling on wet/snowy roads, though the tread still passes inspection. Live in upstate NY. Do I need to replace these, or should I get snow tires? But Snow tires don’t handle well on dry road, and most of the time the roads are dry even in winter. Don’t know what to buy. Any recommendations?
The mistake you’re making is a common one, assuming that because the tires pas inspection they should still have enough tread to relieve water as you drive along. Your tires after 39,000 miles simply can no linger do that effectively, causing hydroplaning.
Personally, since I commute over NH roads I like to start the winter with no less than perhaps 60% of my tread left, and when it gets low enough that the wear bars become obvious I change them. That’s well before they reach the state’s minimum limits, the tread bars. Since I drive high mileage and wear high performance tires, I get a new set every fall. I probably throw away a hundred bucks worth of usable rubber every year, I consider a hundred bucks for probably the most critical safety item on the vehicle to be really cheap.
Get some new all-season tires and you’ll be fine. Visit www.tirerack.cpm and www.1010tires.com for good consumer feedback (review) sections. That’ll give you a good guide to selecting something new.
Your fronts would maybe go in 30k …but the rears should be lasting a lot longer. That’s unless you’re Too Fast and Too Furious behind the wheel. Buy better tires. You should be getting double the rear tire mileage that you are out of the front. If 30k is all you get with rotating them …hmmm…you’ve got to be hammering this thing mercilessly. How often do you need front pads?
Agreed that when the tread starts getting down there it’s time to change tires. Hydroplaning will kill you in a heartbeat and it only takes one small puddle to do it.
I’ve had good luck with Kumho and Cooper tires and the Bridgestones on my Lincoln have been excellent.
Goodyear has never been a very good tire for me or my family members. We’ve had 4 or 5 sets of GYs and they’ve just never quite cut it for us, no matter the model of tire.
There is a three digit number on the sidewall of your tires that gives the estimated wear mileage for your tires. It is probably 440 or 600-something. If it’s 440, you are getting the usual wear for your tires. The higher the number, the more miles you can expect the tires to last. High performance tires usually have a softer tread compound to make them grip better while cornering, but they wear faster than other tires with a higher mileage estimate. I always go for the highest number I can get for longer wear, and don’t care about cornering because I don’t drive in such a manner that cornering at speed is important. The tires I just put on my wife’s car are Michelins with a very high wear rating number (I think it is 800). I hope this helps you be a more knowledgable purchaser of tires in the future. You can check out tire ratings at www.tirerack.com
You may want to do a little research for tires before you buy your next ones. Take a look at Consumer Reports Nov 09 for their tests on all season tires. You can review the performance qualities that you are most interested in. They will not take place of winter tires if you really need them, but you can get a better mix of handling on your next all seasons by making more informed choices.
Carefully chosen winter(not snow) tires do handle well in the winter.I highly recommend the Michelin X-Ice.
The issue with all-seasons is the winter capability drops off drastically below 5/32" tread depth. Legal tread depth is 2/32".
28k is not at all unusual for the crummy tires that usually come with new cars.
Have you been rotating these new tires? If you haven’t, the fronts are probably starting to wear (hence the worse weather handling), but the rears may still be okay.
There is an argument that can be made for not rotating tires (that the cost of getting rotations exceeds the savings accrued by your tires lasting longer), but rotating also keeps all of the tread wear about equal (and it’s a real no-brainer if you get free rotations). Unequal grip can greatly exacerbate weather handling problems too-- having the fronts at 30% and the rears at 70% can be much worse than even having 30% all around.