Rear Tyres - Citroen C5

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THELABMAN
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Rear Tyres - Citroen C5

Post by THELABMAN »

Hi Folks,

For the 2nd time now in a few weeks the back end of my C5 has broken away completely going through a roundabout at a modest speed when the roads have been a bit damp... not soaking wet and not even raining at the time.

I've been lucky both times the roads where quiet and hit nothing and nobody hit me but the car has gone a full 360 and the other night a bit more... 1st time I thought it may have been something on the road but I'm now starting to think it's the cheap tyres on the back.. some brand called Triangle, never heard of them but they have to go although they have almost 5mm of tread all the way over and around the tyre, third time I may not be so lucky...

I know Citroen fit Michellins as standard but I'm afraid I can't run to £70 a tyre right just now and besides have had Michellin before and never been totally impressed by them. I've seen Barum Bravuris 2 http://www.tyre-shopper.co.uk/ts/search ... 956515BA2H going for £46.35 each and as they are manufcured or at least owned by Continental I was wondering if they are any good, the other tyres I seen and have used on my Previous Xantia's with no problems are Tigar brand tyres.. Does anyone have any suggestions or comments

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Post by hobblerian »

Are they the same make tyre on all four wheels? If not perhaps just swapping fronts to rear would help as the less grippy tyres will just understeer.
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Post by myglaren »

Since fitting Kumho Solus to the rear and Yokohama A-Drives to the front I find my C5 sticks to the road far better than ever before.
It would fishtale a bit on wet/greasy roads and 'float' around roundabouts taken a little too enthusiastically but there is none of that now.
Kumho's were £125 fitted, Yoko's £160.

The Solus wasn't rally what I wanted but they were the only ones available to fit the car at the time. Similar with the Yoko's although there was more choice they were the best compromise.
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Post by reblack68 »

If you ever find yourself in Kirkcaldy go and see what Henry Gray has in stock. He prices his tyres by size, 195/65x15 for my Volvo was £15, and I got a virtually new Michelin Energy for that price. They don't do fitting, but even paying another £10 for fitting I had a premium tyre for £25.

A lot of people don't like the idea of used tyres but the way I see it is you buy used tyres every time you buy a used car anyway.
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Post by Citroenmad »

When we got oour first C5 Estate it had new Hero front tyres and some Cheng Changs or something or other on the rear. Well you can imagine how good they were just by their names!

Even at low speeds round damp roundabouts it would understeer like crazy and often the rear would loose grip and id be doing a 4 wheel drift or a tale out slide. Slightly worrying that it had virtually no grip at all.

My C5 hatch had a set of Michelin Energy Savers at the time, it gripped so much better in the same conditions. Id have to push it very hard to get understeer.

Since we were not planning on keeping that one we had it fitted with 4 new Federal tyres. Which were a huge improvement.

You dont have to pay a fortune for tyres to get a decent performing tyre.

Triangles dont even sound appealing, they could at least be called circles ...

A lot of mid range tyres are decent, Federal, Avon, Kumho, Kleber. But avoid the lower brands like Linglong, Nexen, Tigar, Runway etc. Poor quality rubber with a poor compund for wet grip.

I dont know what size tyre your SX wears, if its a 2.2 it will be the same as Steves estate (above) but if its a 2.0 it will be the same as our SX. Which wears Goodyear Excellence on the front and Duragrip on the rear. Both perform very well and cost around £120 a pair. Though they will be replaced with Michelins once the time comes.

I dont hang about, so i do make sure i research what tyres im getting so i have the best chance of getting a good tyres. Though at the moment im sticking with Michelins, which i do very much like now ive got used to their softer sidewalls. Though my C5 wears 16" wheels, £130 per Michelin!
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Post by myglaren »

I had Klebers on the front last year Chris. They were OK but no more than that.
Mine are 205/65-15. The car was when I bought it fitted with 195s, 205s seem a bit harder to get.
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Post by davo77 »

Hi everyone used to have 195/65/15h Goodyear nct5 on and with winter coming decided to get some all season nexen cp641 tyres allthough they are towards the budget end of the scale they are a lot more reasuring going round damp roads and hopefully better in the coming winter months and they were only £38 all in. They are a lot quiter and softer than the summer goodyears although they are geared towards high milage.
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Post by XantiaMan »

Hankooks, perform like a premium tyre at mid range price.
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Post by cachaciero »

When I purchased my C5 it had a right mix of tyres and drove ever so slightly to the left.

Fitted Goodrich G-Profilers to the front which I had used on my XM's before and rated highly, on the back was Federal on one side and Kumo Ecsta subsequently changed to an Admiral 712 which I believe is KUMO under a another name.

Didn't have any trouble with grip back or front car still drove slightly to the left the FEDERAL was noticably noisy.

Due to wear in the front ball joints bushes etc the front left wore very quickly on the shoulder and the rears always seem to wear quickly on the outer shoulders on the estates.

So 9K after fitting the G-Profilers on the front it was decision time for the rears, couldn't get G-Profilers in the required size so decided that given the wear on the front nearside I would go for four new tyres. It seemed to me that a tyre with a reinforced sidewall might alleviate shoulder wear to some degree at the expense of a slightly firmer ride.
After much searching / reading etc. Purchased Kumo Ecsta £90.00 each fitted.
The car feels much better it seems that even the tendency to drive to the left which I suspected was rear sub-frame bushes appears to have gone and the noise level from the rear is markedly reduced.
Life ? we shall see . Ultimate frip?? again will have to see once they are scrubbed in but for now on wet and dry they appear more than adequate although looking at the tread patter I doubt that they will be as good as the G-Profilers in the snow which for a summer tyre were truly excellent under those conditions.

The other tyre on my shortlist was Uniroyal Rainsport 2 which I could have got at a similar price to the KUMHO's but wasn't available in an XL version which I was keen to try.

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Post by rmunns »

Kleber tyres are made by Michelin and I reckon they are as good. About 65% of the cost of Michelin. I have Kleber Dynaxer XP2 on my Xantia, I think the new ones are XP3.
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Post by dnsey »

Keep an eye on eBay.
There's a seller called Allied Vehicles, who do taxi conversions, etc., and who have been selling brand new ex-vehicle Michelin Energys very cheaply. I've just bought a pair at £21 each - this year's date code, too!
I've no idea why they remove them from the vehicles during conversion - someone suggested that it's because cabs have to have barely-legal Chinese tyres by law :D
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Post by Monkeyfeet »

I need two new rears for the 2.2 and have been looking at Costco / Black Circle / RAC and the best price for the Michelins that I wanted was £135 (each, fitted etc). I'm interested in Michelins 'cos of their ride quality and I've never ever lost the back end despite some provocation sometimes. Do Klebers ride as well etc?
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Post by THELABMAN »

Hi Folks,

I neglected to say my current tyre size is 19/65/15 and not the 205/65/15 all the online tyre sites seem to list, unless that's the Exclusive/VTR size but mines is the more humble SX. The front tyres are Maxxis brand and although I don't know much about them they seem fine and the local small tyre fitting places seem to sell loads of them and are popular on taxis...

I realy don't fancy transferring these Triangles to the front as honestly they are that bad, last time I experienced anything like this was years ago on my very 1st Xantia which had two Wanli's on the front and it was like moving an ice cube on wet ice driving on them and that was in the dry, the wet it was even worse.. they lasted just over a week before ditching them.

I know I should be buying the best as after all the tyre footprint is what my life depends on but at the moment I can't run to the big brands at £70 plus a tyre and besides they aren't always the best going by reports on here... I realy liked the sound/looks of the Barum's but it appears nobody has any experience of them and the Tigar have been advised against despite my using them front and rear on the Xantia with no problems but the C5 is a different handling car I suppose...

I haven't seen anyone mention Toyo tyres, in the past I've seen them have fairly good mentions for a midrange tyre and was looking at these:

http://www.valuetyres.co.uk/product.php?id=38293

OR genuine Continentals:

http://www.tyre-shopper.co.uk/ts/search ... 56515CT05H

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Post by Citroenmad »

You should be able to find quality tyres for under £70 a pair in the smaller 195.65.15 size tyres.

Earlier C5 petrols and 2.0HDis use 195.65.15 tyres, unless they are an estate, all estates should have 205.65.15. When the C5 got 16" wheels (VTR and top spec Exclusive SEs) they had 215.55.15 W rated tyres. Which is what mine has, tyres are about twice the price of the earlier C5s with 195.15s.

davo77 wrote:Hi everyone used to have 195/65/15h Goodyear nct5 on and with winter coming decided to get some all season nexen cp641 tyres allthough they are towards the budget end of the scale they are a lot more reasuring going round damp roads and hopefully better in the coming winter months and they were only £38 all in. They are a lot quiter and softer than the summer goodyears although they are geared towards high milage.
Our Peugeot 1007 has Nexen CP641s (might be another model, as there not all season, but they are Nexens, im sure they are 641s though), grip is that poor that I try to avoid driving it in the rain. Even with normal driving in wet weather its pushing wide on roundabouts. Any sort of quick get away has the traction control going made and the wheels scrabbling. I really hate the nexens, ive been trying to justify replacing them, but as they still have around 5-6mm left and its probably going to be for sale soon, it doesnt seem worth it. Id certainly not want them on the rear ...

We do however have the same Nexens on the rear of the C5 Estate, which are very poor too. Ive had them on the front but to grip was very poor again, though not quite as bad as the narrower ones on the Pug - and obviously different cars grip differently. They are about worn out now on the C5, 20K miles on the rear. Ill be glad when they have gone.

The Kumho looking Admiral 712s mentioned are a bit better. They were fitted to the front of the C5 estate when we got it. They offer good steering feel and have a sporty looking tread design. However they are not that grippy in the wet and if driving slightly above normal they are left wanting more grip in the wet. Ive had the Kumho 712s (not available now, the Admirals took on the mold) and they seemed much better in the wet than the identically designed Admirals. Which comes down to rubber compound and its where you need to be careful when thinking because a budget brand uses a more quality design from a previous premium tyre range they wont perform the same, as its the rubber compound which really make a tyre, tread design is not as important. The Adirals have been replaced by Goodyear Excellence on that estate car now, its transformed.

Did anyone see Fake Britain recently? They did a test between a Continental Sport tyre and a tyre which looked to have an identical tread pattern, even the sidewall was similar. (the name of the budget tyre was not relieved). The premium Conti stopped about 3.5 car lengths shorter than the identical looking budget tyre in the wet from 70mph. Purely because the budget tyre did not posses the quality rubber compound of the Continental tyre. It does make you think. It makes me think how many accidents and injury's (or worse) could have been avoded with quality tyres. Though quality tyres don't have to be expensive, a bit of research is all that is needed.

I buy tyres on grip before anything else, wear is important especially as tyre size increases the price follows, but grip is the main thing i look for. My Last front tyres on my C5 were Toyo T1-Rs, I found them excellent, they got a lot of stick but the grip was fantastic, even in the wet they very rarely let go, very reassuring. They only lasted 11K miles but given their cheap price (only £175 for a pair in my 215.55.16 tyre size) and grip offered I very nearly bought another pair to replace them. However as i had got Michelins for the back a few months before, i thought id get a matching pair for the front. So it now has a set of Michelin Primacy HPs, which again are very good, a bit quieter and the ride is softer than the Toyos, but grip is very good, very reassuring in the wet and im thinking wear should be better too. The car does feel better to drive on its Michelins.

I like tyres to be reassuring in wet, its takes a lot to lose grip with these Michelins, similar to the Goodyears fitted to both other C5s. Thats how i like it, which is why i dont like the Nexens on our Peugeot, its alarming how much grip there isnt!

Even if you dont drive quickly, grip might be needed in an emergency, it does pay to have grippy tyres, but not expensive ones. Asking people on here who have similar cars is the best form of research, as tyres perform differently on different cars.

So please avoid the Nexens, i dont rate them at all. Another forum member has just replaced them with 5mm remaining as they also found them very poor.

I dont know how much your wanting to pay, but a quick search on blackcircles.com brings up fitted prices and from around £53 a tyre you can get some good quality rubber. Such as:

Falken Ziex ZE-912 - £55 fitted
Toyo CF-1 - £55 fitted
Uniroyal Rain expert £60 fitted - a new tyre out, Uniroyals are very good tyres and claim to be the rain expert!
Firestone TZ300 - £53 fitted - premium brand tyre for quite little money
COnti Premium COntact 2s - £59 fitted - excellent tyres.
Even Michelins come in under £70, at £67 a tyre.

I always reseach what tyres i want, tyre review site is a good place to start. Then, usually on blackcircles, I find a good price and get a local tyre fitter to match it. They usually do, if not better it. Also BC prices are fitted, so you could always book online.

Id go for either for Firestones or Uniroyals from the above.

Hope that helps! :lol:
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Post by myglaren »

Citroenmad wrote:




I dont know how much your wanting to pay, but a quick search on blackcircles.com brings up fitted prices and from around £53 a tyre you can get some good quality rubber. Such as:

Falken Ziex ZE-912 - £55 fitted
Toyo CF-1 - £55 fitted
Uniroyal Rain expert £60 fitted - a new tyre out, Uniroyals are very good tyres and claim to be the rain expert!
Firestone TZ300 - £53 fitted - premium brand tyre for quite little money
COnti Premium COntact 2s - £59 fitted - excellent tyres.
Even Michelins come in under £70, at £67 a tyre.

I always reseach what tyres i want, tyre review site is a good place to start. Then, usually on blackcircles, I find a good price and get a local tyre fitter to match it. They usually do, if not better it. Also BC prices are fitted, so you could always book online.

Id go for either for Firestones or Uniroyals from the above.

Hope that helps! :lol:
I too looked at online prices including Black Circles, mainly because my son had some fitted by them at our house and he declared himself pleased with them.

I spotted that they can be ordered online then fitted at a garage nominated by them in your area.

When I looked at the garages they were all Tyrespot.
As I'd had my Kumhos fitted by them (only three miles away and one of the few places around here that can balance Citroen wheels) I went to them and ordered a pair, mentioned Black Circles and the manager said they were the same company and gave me a discount on the Black Circles price :)
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