part worn tyres

force_ten

just been watching an article about part worn tyres on tv and wondered would you buy part worn tyres?

the biggest issue seemed to be very old tyres, one which was sold as new but was actually a part worn that was 18 years old and it failed soon after fitting

now i always said when you buy a second hand car you are buying four part worns so we all do it all the time and dont give it much thought

can you tell how old a tyre is and have you ever given it any thought, I always thought part worns were ok but after seeing what is being sold i am not so sure

forgotmyname

Thats why a car with 4 matching tyres is a good sign. Less likely to be part worns sourced from a crashed vehicle.

Tyres have date codes on them so its easy to see how old they are.

Only ever bought one and that was when i was young, I worked a fair distance from home and needed one there and then. Drove home fine and back top work in terrible rain the next day.
On the way home that night i had a terrible vibration, Popped into a late opening tyre shop and they said its cracked between the treads and water has entered the cords and expanded.

Never touched one since, I wont touch remoulds either.

Stoke

I've used part worn tyres for a few years and never had an issue. I guess it depends where you go. The place I go has quite a good reputation and is also at the 'pricier' end of the part worn market. I would be nervous about buying a part worn tyre for a tenner with an unspecified mileage...

BeenThroughItAll

If I were selling a car and needed to put a tyre on it, I'd consider a part-worn but only if it was in good nick and unrepaired; primarily because I could put on something decent rather than a new ditchfinder.


I wouldn't put them on my own car that I'm keeping, but that's only because I can't see the point. I don't have the time to have two sets of half worn tyres fitted instead of having one new set half as often.


Yes, you can tell the age of a tyre, there's a date code (ww/yy) moulded into the sidewall. If it's more than 5 years old, then the manufacturers recommend replacement.

BeenThroughItAll

Stoke wrote: »

I've used part worn tyres for a few years and never had an issue. I guess it depends where you go. The place I go has quite a good reputation and is also at the 'pricier' end of the part worn market. I would be nervous about buying a part worn tyre for a tenner with an unspecified mileage...

Isn't mileage pretty obvious though? The more worn, the more miles...

cajef

force_ten wrote: »

can you tell how old a tyre is and have you ever given it any thought, I always thought part worns were ok but after seeing what is being sold i am not so sure

Since the year 2000 tyre markings show the week and year of manufacture, mine are marked DOT EU7V YMWR 2313 the last figures denote the 23rd week of 2013

AdrianC

I don't think a lot of part-worn buyers think about the ratio of usable tread gone-to-remaining versus the discount on the tyre.

For a tyre with half the tread gone - from 9mm-ish new, down to 5.5mm remaining - I'd want a lot more than half the price off for it to be worth buying. Not only do tyres often "go off" towards the end of their lives, but they become more susceptible to puncture. Add in question marks over their history (why DO people remove premium tyres with 6mm tread remaining?), and it usually adds up to a false economy in my mind.

Stoke

BeenThroughItAll wrote: »

Isn't mileage pretty obvious though? The more worn, the more miles...

I suppose, to be fair, where I go often has quite an accurate mileage figures rather than just "yeah i reckon that's done about 2000 miles". They have all the paperwork, and that was the problem with the watchdog episode. A lot of part worn places had little, or even no paperwork therefore couldn't trace the history the tyre.

Stoke

AdrianC wrote: »

I don't think a lot of part-worn buyers think about the ratio of usable tread gone-to-remaining versus the discount on the tyre.

For a tyre with half the tread gone - from 9mm-ish new, down to 5.5mm remaining - I'd want a lot more than half the price off for it to be worth buying. Not only do tyres often "go off" towards the end of their lives, but they become more susceptible to puncture. Add in question marks over their history (why DO people remove premium tyres with 6mm tread remaining?), and it usually adds up to a false economy in my mind.

Again, depends where you go. I go to the more expensive end of the part worn tyre market. They don't stock cheap !!!!!! remoulds like Nankang. They only stock stuff like Pirelli, Continental, Goodyear, Michelin. You pay a bit more, but it's still less than half price usually.

motorguy

AdrianC wrote: »

I don't think a lot of part-worn buyers think about the ratio of usable tread gone-to-remaining versus the discount on the tyre.

For a tyre with half the tread gone - from 9mm-ish new, down to 5.5mm remaining - I'd want a lot more than half the price off for it to be worth buying. Not only do tyres often "go off" towards the end of their lives, but they become more susceptible to puncture. Add in question marks over their history (why DO people remove premium tyres with 6mm tread remaining?), and it usually adds up to a false economy in my mind.

+1

A bloke on another forum bought tyres with 3.5mm tread, thinking he'd got a bargain until somebody pointed out it was at least 75% worn...

BeenThroughItAll

Stoke wrote: »

Again, depends where you go. I go to the more expensive end of the part worn tyre market. They don't stock cheap !!!!!! remoulds like Nankang. They only stock stuff like Pirelli, Continental, Goodyear, Michelin. You pay a bit more, but it's still less than half price usually.

I think that's a bit unfair on Nankang, their products are not to my knowledge remoulds, and they're very much at the mid-range market point.


I did about 40K miles on a couple of sets of Nankang tyres in my first Octavia vRS back in 2003-2005 including three or four trackdays and some cross-Europe high speed stuff, and certainly wouldn't put them in the 'cheap !!!!!!' camp. Sure, they're cheap(er) than Goodyears, but they were perfectly decent in all weathers, and I don't (or didn't then) drive like a saint.