Superseded tyres!

[RobinMasters]

Yes its much safer to put an ageing "new" tyre that's been treated who-knows-how and sat around for years than a brand new tyre of a slightly different tread pattern on your car..... or perhaps NOT.

Your advice is bizarre. If it weren't, it would be illegal to mix tread patterns, all the tyre companies would say you couldn't, and your car would fail it's MOT.


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Quite. Mixing radials and cross-plies across an able might be a problem, but two newish tyres with similar tread aren't going to make a blind bit of difference. Having your wife sitting in the passenger seat probably makes more of a difference to the handling and safety of your car.

[Gibbo2286]

Anyone tried a magnet on that 'steel' spare wheel?

[Clogzz]

I’ve put a magnet against it to confirm my overwhelming suspicion that it was an alloy looking like a steel.
It had the original spare Michelin HX made in 2002.
It took me over two minutes to convince my tyre kicker to put it on a road wheel.
He said that it was illegal to use tyres older than 5 years.
That was 4 years ago and it’s still going well.
Michelin says that their tyres are good for 10 years.

Photos of my alloy spare that doesn’t rust, and the road wheels.

[KP]

Just look on ebay and get some

[Richard Stevens]

My point in saying 'Why do they do that?' in my original posting was that Citroen
specified and fitted the tyre type to the car.
I didn't have it from new, but obviously it had Primacy all round.
This is an assymmetrical tread tyre. The -3 and HP are not. The car type is still in
general and popular use, so why is the tyre specified for the car not available?
It's all very well saying 'Progress', but the C5 is hardly an old car.
Do you really believe all the hype about tyre patterns? I know I don't, but I don't
think you should mix tread patterns on an axle, and I dare say the insurers would
agree.

[Hell Razor5543]

It is more likely that Michelin upgraded the tyres, rather than Citroen changing them (unless Citroen found an issue with them that affected the car in a bad way). Michelin probably found a better way to make the tyre, or a change of design improved handling, or something like that. Once Michelin were satisfied the new tyres did what was required of them Michelin would cease production of the older tyres.

[Citroenmad]

I've never bothered putting the tyre from the spare wheel into service, seems false economy to me and I always like having an as new spare. Not to mention that a tyre can be out of date (recommended 6 years for tyres) and could prove dangerous or to give a shorter life before aging and cracking takes place. Tyre tread changed frequently to keep up with quality demands and improvements in technology.

Its always best to use two identical tyres on the driven wheels, they will then have the same rolling radius and give the same characteristics in extreme conditions.

I'm unimpressed with how quickly Michelin tyres age and for that reason I wouldn't be putting an old one into use.

[Citroenmad]

I'm unimpressed with how quickly Michelin tyres age and for that reason I wouldn't be putting an old one into use.

This is a Michelin Energy tyre I had:





This had a date of 2005, so getting on and well past the recommended 6 year use period. Fortunately I removed it two years ago.

[Northern_Mike]

My point in saying 'Why do they do that?' in my original posting was that Citroen
specified and fitted the tyre type to the car.
I didn't have it from new, but obviously it had Primacy all round.
This is an assymmetrical tread tyre. The -3 and HP are not. The car type is still in
general and popular use, so why is the tyre specified for the car not available?
It's all very well saying 'Progress', but the C5 is hardly an old car.
Do you really believe all the hype about tyre patterns? I know I don't, but I don't
think you should mix tread patterns on an axle, and I dare say the insurers would
agree.

The insurers don't care at all. As long as the tyres conform to the C&U regs, and are the right rating for the car, they don't care at all. Why not read some insurance websites and find the relevant information instead of saying things like "I dare say the insurers would"? It doesn't help others on the forum to post simple mis-information when the correct information is so readily available by typing about 4 words into Google!

From the British Tyre Manufacturer's association website :

It is illegal to mix tyre sizes and to mix tyre constructions e.g. radial, cross-ply etc, across an axle. (Note this
does not apply in the case of a “Temporary Use” Spare tyre where they are restricted to a maximum speed
of 50mph / 80 km/h). It is also illegal to fit radial tyres to the front axle and cross-plies to the rear.
It is inadvisable to mix tyres of different categories on a vehicle, e.g. Summer tyres, winter tyres, on/off road
tyres etc and never across an axle. It is also not recommended that tyres with significantly different states of
wear be mixed across an axle.

Why don't you believe "hype" about tyre patterns? It's obvious that advances over the years have led to way better handling and braking, as well as the ability to move water off the surface of the road, otherwise we'd all be driving around on tyres with the same tread patterns as 20 or 30 years ago. There's so much tyre-testing information on the internet, as well as much about the new EU labellings and testing procedures that it cannot be disputed that tread patterns have advanced and improved safety.

[Richard Stevens]

There's some funny ideas going about, methinks.
Best you tell everyone who's driving with a new spare in their boot
to go out and buy another one if it's more than 6 years old - I don't
think so, but it's a good marketing ploy.
And tyre companies change tyre designs to keep the market
buoyant and their stake in it as high profile as possible. If you
believe that every new tyre is better than the last you're the adman's
dream......
That they replace an assymmetrical tyre tread with one that's uniform
and traditional tells you something, surely.

[Northern_Mike]

There's some funny ideas going about, methinks.
Best you tell everyone who's driving with a new spare in their boot
to go out and buy another one if it's more than 6 years old - I don't
think so, but it's a good marketing ploy

a) You're wrong
b)I'm sure the new EU Tyre testing, rating and marking regulations, which prove that various designs and patterns are better than others, and have greatly improved safety were simply designed as a marketing ploy.

I have a set of 15 year old "Champion" brand tyres here. Do you want them? Yours for £20 each, very little wear.

UV light causes damage and perishing on tyres. Ones stored in the boot are unlikely to suffer from much of that at all. I've seen unused tyres 20 years old that have *looked* fine. Whether they were or not, who knows? The Champions came off my 3-wheeler Morgan replica, I know they've been on it since at least 2001. It's done about 10000 miles on those tyres, about 1400 of that in the last 6 months before I changed the tyres. They were hardly worn, but they were out of shape, unbalanceable, and the rubber had gone hard leading to a significant loss of grip and a bad driving experience, dangerous in the wet. Not cracked at all. Looked fine. That's on a car that weighs 480kg, not a modern car that weighs 3 or more times heavier.

The modern Kumhos that replaced them are so unbelievably better that you'd really think you were driving a completely different car. Grip, turn in, smoothness, so much better in the wet. Yet, they're still, according to your logic, no better than the ancient rubbish that were taken off. They're just another 145/80/13 tyre. How can this be? I must be imagining it then, surely?

[daviemck2006]

The Michelin tyre the exact same as the op's that I got moved from my spare wheel onto an alloy has had to be balanced twice. When on the balancer and spun by hand it seems to out of true compared to the new Nexen on the other side. I had no problems with it when running on the spare wheel. If I find myself in the same predicament in the future it will either stay in the boot or ran and used on the black wheel. If I can afford it after car is through the mot then I will spend another £74 on another Nexen and I shall offer you a matching Michelin in exchange for some diesel tokens and postage.

[qprdude]

Wow, thats a new one on me then. In 40+ years of driving, I never realised that changes in tyre construction was merely to keep the market bouyant!
Here was me thinking it was something to do with technological advances to cope with changing motoring conditions, speeds and vehicle weights etc.
Nothing to do with manufacturers massive research budgets being spent on more advanced composites and performance related advances? Well fancy that, I'll go to the foot of our stairs.

[Richard Stevens]

I've decided to fit my straight-from-the boot Pilot Primacy, partly on your advice,
on the rear of the car with a new Primacy 3.

Thanks for your responses, I didn't put my points too well I know, but it's
been lively! Playing devil's advocate really, I guess.

I have Kumho's on the other wheels, and have found them to be very good
for grip, wear and price.

Next you'll be telling me I have to put air in them!

Good motoring.

[Northern_Mike]

Next you'll be telling me I have to put air in them!

Good motoring.

Yes, don't let them con you into putting nitrogen into them!