Running your tires low on pressure puts added stress and flex on the side walls and you can damage the belts inside and develop a bubble in the side wall..
Have you ever tried a set of low rolling resistance eco friendly fuel saver type tyres? Do not know how cheap Petol is in South Africa? But If you walk around the new car showrooms of BMW & Mercedes it is surprising to note that their large car models (not the 4x4 off road models) come with Factory fitted tyres (for several years now) with their low rolling resistance attributes written on the tyre sidewalls - 10+ years ago every single tyre on a new car only ever had Sporting credentials emblazoned on its sidewall i.e. Dunlop D9090Z, various types of Pirelli P-Zero etc. Initially I thought BMW & Mercedes had lost their minds in the name of rabid environmentalism. However Eco Low Rolling Resistance tyres have a surprising hidden benefit - your car accelerates more swiftly and with greater ease so greater efficiency coincidentally makes your car go faster! Efficiency and Economy are two completely different things. Personally have found a fuel saving of a little over 10% when I used to keep records. A constant benefit that mounts up when you find yourself frequently hammering down motorways racking up the miles. Have yet to see any kind of eco tyre on new Porsches at the dealership - which is a relief! It is also surprising to note the factory fill engine oil stickers etc. Before the dealer sells the new car those oil stickers will have been removed - going back to those brands of factory fill oil have always been very beneficial.
interesting, didn't think about that. My experience with eco tyres is that they usually mediocre at best on road holding. Some tyres reach these great specifications of fuel saving but once the tyre wears a bit, the tyre loses that ability. Its like it was designed like that to be tested to pass but if tests would evaluate tyres for the whole tyre life, then we would see real innovation imo.
I am talking about this current generation of eco tyres - there have been great technological advances since you tried them - you are missing out. After all Mercedes & BMW are fitting eco tyres on their new car production lines - that is what made me stop and reconsider. Nobody who has tried out that car has realised it is on eco tyres - which is amusing as some of them were the burning cornering brigade/leaning over in the driving seat/P-Zero tyre snobs. When I used to note down fuel consumption I did not experience the drop in performance you describe - but bear in mind one of the new game changing tyre technologies that was patented by Bridgestone for their SO2 high performance tyre was a way of fusing different hardnesses of rubber together - Bridgestone then eventually licensed that patent for a royalty fee to other tyre makers. Concept being that the outer tread layer of rubber conceals progressively softer inner layers of tread rubber so as the rubber of the tyre hardens with age you simultaneously wear it away so the road holding grip of the tyre does not diminish with the passage of time thus stopping the rubber going hard with age - which is what would normally happen with a conventionally manufacturered tyre that used only the same one hardness of rubber throughout. That is also why Porsche owner's manuals have always stressed that you must throw away even totally unworn tyres once they have reached 7 years of age - the rubber has lost its ability to grip by going hard with age - have yet to see that advice in Mercedes & BMW owners manuals. But I quite understand your problem of having such bad roads that write off tyres that just laying hands on an economical tyre is more important than buying an efficient tyre - in fact I would go even further and buy re-moulds or part-worn tyres. Have you ever bought a second-hand part-worn tyre? If you have ever hired a car or bought a used car then you have actually been riding on second-hand tyres. Runflat tyres on hire cars are nearly always empty of all air pressure - hire company's reset the tyre pressure monitoring system so there is no warning - just peculiar handling characteristics and high fuel consumption. Check tyre pressures before you leave the hire lot with your own pressure gauge - you normally get a free hire car upgrade once you reach the third tyre and the hire rep can't take the coming humiliation of the fourth tyre also being flat - just tell the significant other to clear off / shut their pie hole while you are taking hire car tyre pressures - they may want to risk getting wrapped around a tree from flat hire car tyres - I do NOT want to run that risk. As for the people who boast they bought a 5 year old used car that still has matching factory tyres those deluded souls are on part worn used tyres because the manufacturing dates on the 4 tyres do not match / are wrong. End of rant - just had to let it out. Don't get me started on the filling of tyres with Nitrogen instead of Air issue.........
nice comment- thanks. I know Michelin also have a tyre that has molecules inside that change shape based on the temperature, almost how synthetic oil changes when heated. The eco tires i have used were Nexen NBlue , Yokohama (dont recall the model), and Continental Eco Contact. I am still weary of the eco ranges but you have perturbed me about this so i will be open minded. The Conti were so so, but their sports versions are better imo. Tried them on my wife's c-class. Second hand tyres - yes i have tried this. Its a scary thing, and have to be very careful here as we do not know if the old owner had driven the tyre with low tyre pressure where the side wall deteriorated. My old girlfriend had Bridgstone Potenza and it had a puncture and drove 60m and the whole side wall came off! She drove slowly and I have the pics. I had a tyre that keps going low. Nothing i could do to stop it losing air. I got fed up and one day drove to work knowign the tyre was low. It was a P5000 tyre. People were hooting and calling me about the smoke and thinking i didnt know the tyre was down but i didnt want to spend any time on this tyre as i knew i would be replacing it that day. I must have driven more than 5km. The tyre was flat when i got to work. The smell in my car was there for days. When i finally changed this Pirelli, i inspected the side wall, and you could not tell this tyre had been driven like that. The tyre dealer was asking me why i am changing this tyre. I could not believe the tyre just stayed intact, no visual deterioration ont eh side wall. When i got my new tyre it also kept going flat only for me to finally see the mating surface between tyre and rim had some dirt and needed to be sanded down. Insurance also have rules about the age of the tyre, here in RSA i think its 5 years. Many second hand tyre dealers sell "fresh" tyres that have lots of tread but are very old. You can feel the rubber gets too firm. My wife says i talk about tyres too much... thanks for the chat. [I had a pair of Nexen N'fera on my BMW for 2 days and i felt they were all over the place. Then i changed back to Michelin PS3 and it was only a little better (only tested in the dry). Then i spent the next 2 weeks reflecting on this. How much is psychology playing with tyre decisions... brands and hype. Now i see that tyre tests should be 6 months.
Good one! - Having read your comment there really is more than just the one traditional way to “Burn Rubber” so why stop with just the tread surface when (for lateral thinkers) there are sidewalls to burn rubber with as well! Anthropologists would draw a link between the national psyches of the different countries and how each countries brand of tyre is designed to withstand the different styles of use each country considers to be normal for a tyre - re your reply this means: - Continental Tyre Co. of Germany - A Society built on Teutonic stoicism, unyielding to most anything, almost boring in terms of nothing seems to have much if any effect, indestructible (yet Freudian) tendencies lurking / simmering just below the surface - perhaps summed up by this video “V for Varoufakis” ruclips.net/video/Afl9WFGJE0M/видео.html Bridgestone Tyre Co. of Japan - A highly ordered society, totally rigid in application of rules and regulations therefore a Japanese tyre would feel entirely justified in entirely throwing off its sidewall if the appropriate tyre inflation rules had not been rigidly adhered to - where applicable different equally strictly applied rules apply for Japanese run-flat type tyres - the infamous original “Endurance” Japanese gameshow ruclips.net/video/4mRklA6KRmo/видео.html (“endurance japanese game show clive james on television 1”) and a partiaurly sadistic style of Prank/Candid Camera TV Shows gives quite an insight Pirelli Tyre Co. of Italy - A society of highly creative absolute individuals and while there are rules - no real true Italian pays any attention to any rules - wearing your seatbelt in Italy would be like betting against yourself - so as anything can happen while cruising down the Autostrada without restraint at speeds of entirely you own choosing (limited only by your cars power and endurance) so it is only logical that there is no reason there has to be any air in an Italian tyre so an Italian tyre sidewall shows no fear when subjected to cruel and unusual pneumatic punishment of lacking air pressure - instead it seems to demand a rematch - although with the Pirelli Tyre calendar having gone off the boil as of late doubts are surfacing as to if today’s Pirelli tyres really have the endurance of previous generations of Italian tyres - Summed up by the Neapolitan Mafia - no wonder Italian tyres fear nothing - Those Pirelli Calendars aren’t why your wife attempts to ban all mention of tyres in the house - are they? On a serious note - consider that in London UK all the Buses and Coaches are on “Leased Tyres” and when the tread wears out they are re-grooved - the tread is cut deeper into the same rubber several times so no Bus or Coach has a brand-new tyre - they are all second-hand and being swapped around by the “Tyre Leasing” companies - then they are remoulded when there is finally not enough rubber left to cut deeper treads into - quite a risk re the number of people traveling on a Bus or Coach who are blindly relying on those second hand regrooved and remoulded tyres - but seeing the Bus and Coach passengers are already not wearing any seatbelts…. - regrooving also takes place extensively on truck tyres in UK. Bizarrely Bus and Coach companies in the UK nearly all have received Government permission to carry out the annual vehicle roadworthiness inspection (MOT Test in the UK) In-House! So there is zero independent control/scrutiny of the safety of Public Transport Buses and Coaches in the UK - a risky combination with those Leased Tyres - perversely there is far more independent scrutiny of private vehicles - no private motorist would be allowed to carry out their own MOT test to certify their vehicle was safe to be on the roads - considering the intergalactic milage Buses and Coaches clock up compared to any private car surely Buses and Coaches should be subject to more fully impartial independent scrutiny so there is no pressure/temptation to overlook a problem re keeping down the running costs of a Bus fleet doing its own MOT’s. What I am getting at is that large fleets of Heavy Vehicles (Bus, Coach & Truck) doing huge mileages (thus taking more risks by being constantly on the road - compared to a private car) take considerable risks (including risking large numbers of passengers) with regrooved used and remoulded tyres while the private motorist is told to take zero risks with their tyres despite by comparison tiny private mileages and no more than 3 passengers - are private motorists the cash cow for the tyre/rubber industry? Until the 1960’s Tyre Company ART Departments designed all the tread patterns - there was zero science behind any of the tread pattern designs - so yes all the Tyre advertising back then was based on total lies and just making people psychologically believe via the placebo effect that a tyre had Sporting credentials or unusually long-life span etc. The Placebo effect is known to be very powerful - there have been drug trials where the control group on only a Placebo embarrassingly outperformed the group on the real trial drug - must have been a “Maximum Strength Placebo”. The attitude to take with tyres and motoring is best summed up by this approach RUclips “I like trucking” ruclips.net/video/w9lmCpIzhFo/видео.html Featuring Rowan Atkinson the movie actor.
I have sports a/s on my car and I love them. I would recommend but I don't know how much a difference the A/S version and the none A/S are. I would Def buy again but I like to Experiment with tires. So I doubt I will buy another pair. They are really good imo though.
Looking at buying some Proxes Sports for my Subaru Legacy GT. Thanks for the detailed video!
did you get em? how u liking it??
This is a great informative video boss. Thank you
Running your tires low on pressure puts added stress and flex on the side walls and you can damage the belts inside and develop a bubble in the side wall..
good video
Have you ever tried a set of low rolling resistance eco friendly fuel saver type tyres?
Do not know how cheap Petol is in South Africa?
But If you walk around the new car showrooms of BMW & Mercedes it is surprising to note that their large car models (not the 4x4 off road models) come with Factory fitted tyres (for several years now) with their low rolling resistance attributes written on the tyre sidewalls - 10+ years ago every single tyre on a new car only ever had Sporting credentials emblazoned on its sidewall i.e. Dunlop D9090Z, various types of Pirelli P-Zero etc.
Initially I thought BMW & Mercedes had lost their minds in the name of rabid environmentalism.
However Eco Low Rolling Resistance tyres have a surprising hidden benefit - your car accelerates more swiftly and with greater ease so greater efficiency coincidentally makes your car go faster!
Efficiency and Economy are two completely different things.
Personally have found a fuel saving of a little over 10% when I used to keep records. A constant benefit that mounts up when you find yourself frequently hammering down motorways racking up the miles.
Have yet to see any kind of eco tyre on new Porsches at the dealership - which is a relief!
It is also surprising to note the factory fill engine oil stickers etc. Before the dealer sells the new car those oil stickers will have been removed - going back to those brands of factory fill oil have always been very beneficial.
interesting, didn't think about that. My experience with eco tyres is that they usually mediocre at best on road holding. Some tyres reach these great specifications of fuel saving but once the tyre wears a bit, the tyre loses that ability. Its like it was designed like that to be tested to pass but if tests would evaluate tyres for the whole tyre life, then we would see real innovation imo.
I am talking about this current generation of eco tyres - there have been great technological advances since you tried them - you are missing out.
After all Mercedes & BMW are fitting eco tyres on their new car production lines - that is what made me stop and reconsider. Nobody who has tried out that car has realised it is on eco tyres - which is amusing as some of them were the burning cornering brigade/leaning over in the driving seat/P-Zero tyre snobs.
When I used to note down fuel consumption I did not experience the drop in performance you describe - but bear in mind one of the new game changing tyre technologies that was patented by Bridgestone for their SO2 high performance tyre was a way of fusing different hardnesses of rubber together - Bridgestone then eventually licensed that patent for a royalty fee to other tyre makers.
Concept being that the outer tread layer of rubber conceals progressively softer inner layers of tread rubber so as the rubber of the tyre hardens with age you simultaneously wear it away so the road holding grip of the tyre does not diminish with the passage of time thus stopping the rubber going hard with age - which is what would normally happen with a conventionally manufacturered tyre that used only the same one hardness of rubber throughout.
That is also why Porsche owner's manuals have always stressed that you must throw away even totally unworn tyres once they have reached 7 years of age - the rubber has lost its ability to grip by going hard with age - have yet to see that advice in Mercedes & BMW owners manuals.
But I quite understand your problem of having such bad roads that write off tyres that just laying hands on an economical tyre is more important than buying an efficient tyre - in fact I would go even further and buy re-moulds or part-worn tyres.
Have you ever bought a second-hand part-worn tyre?
If you have ever hired a car or bought a used car then you have actually been riding on second-hand tyres.
Runflat tyres on hire cars are nearly always empty of all air pressure - hire company's reset the tyre pressure monitoring system so there is no warning - just peculiar handling characteristics and high fuel consumption. Check tyre pressures before you leave the hire lot with your own pressure gauge - you normally get a free hire car upgrade once you reach the third tyre and the hire rep can't take the coming humiliation of the fourth tyre also being flat - just tell the significant other to clear off / shut their pie hole while you are taking hire car tyre pressures - they may want to risk getting wrapped around a tree from flat hire car tyres - I do NOT want to run that risk.
As for the people who boast they bought a 5 year old used car that still has matching factory tyres those deluded souls are on part worn used tyres because the manufacturing dates on the 4 tyres do not match / are wrong.
End of rant - just had to let it out.
Don't get me started on the filling of tyres with Nitrogen instead of Air issue.........
nice comment- thanks. I know Michelin also have a tyre that has molecules inside that change shape based on the temperature, almost how synthetic oil changes when heated. The eco tires i have used were Nexen NBlue , Yokohama (dont recall the model), and Continental Eco Contact. I am still weary of the eco ranges but you have perturbed me about this so i will be open minded. The Conti were so so, but their sports versions are better imo. Tried them on my wife's c-class.
Second hand tyres - yes i have tried this. Its a scary thing, and have to be very careful here as we do not know if the old owner had driven the tyre with low tyre pressure where the side wall deteriorated. My old girlfriend had Bridgstone Potenza and it had a puncture and drove 60m and the whole side wall came off! She drove slowly and I have the pics.
I had a tyre that keps going low. Nothing i could do to stop it losing air. I got fed up and one day drove to work knowign the tyre was low. It was a P5000 tyre. People were hooting and calling me about the smoke and thinking i didnt know the tyre was down but i didnt want to spend any time on this tyre as i knew i would be replacing it that day. I must have driven more than 5km. The tyre was flat when i got to work. The smell in my car was there for days. When i finally changed this Pirelli, i inspected the side wall, and you could not tell this tyre had been driven like that. The tyre dealer was asking me why i am changing this tyre. I could not believe the tyre just stayed intact, no visual deterioration ont eh side wall. When i got my new tyre it also kept going flat only for me to finally see the mating surface between tyre and rim had some dirt and needed to be sanded down.
Insurance also have rules about the age of the tyre, here in RSA i think its 5 years. Many second hand tyre dealers sell "fresh" tyres that have lots of tread but are very old. You can feel the rubber gets too firm. My wife says i talk about tyres too much... thanks for the chat.
[I had a pair of Nexen N'fera on my BMW for 2 days and i felt they were all over the place. Then i changed back to Michelin PS3 and it was only a little better (only tested in the dry). Then i spent the next 2 weeks reflecting on this. How much is psychology playing with tyre decisions... brands and hype. Now i see that tyre tests should be 6 months.
Good one! - Having read your comment there really is more than just the one traditional way to “Burn Rubber” so why stop with just the tread surface when (for lateral thinkers) there are sidewalls to burn rubber with as well!
Anthropologists would draw a link between the national psyches of the different countries and how each countries brand of tyre is designed to withstand the different styles of use each country considers to be normal for a tyre - re your reply this means: -
Continental Tyre Co. of Germany - A Society built on Teutonic stoicism, unyielding to most anything, almost boring in terms of nothing seems to have much if any effect, indestructible (yet Freudian) tendencies lurking / simmering just below the surface - perhaps summed up by this video “V for Varoufakis” ruclips.net/video/Afl9WFGJE0M/видео.html
Bridgestone Tyre Co. of Japan - A highly ordered society, totally rigid in application of rules and regulations therefore a Japanese tyre would feel entirely justified in entirely throwing off its sidewall if the appropriate tyre inflation rules had not been rigidly adhered to - where applicable different equally strictly applied rules apply for Japanese run-flat type tyres - the infamous original “Endurance” Japanese gameshow ruclips.net/video/4mRklA6KRmo/видео.html (“endurance japanese game show clive james on television 1”) and a partiaurly sadistic style of Prank/Candid Camera TV Shows gives quite an insight
Pirelli Tyre Co. of Italy - A society of highly creative absolute individuals and while there are rules - no real true Italian pays any attention to any rules - wearing your seatbelt in Italy would be like betting against yourself - so as anything can happen while cruising down the Autostrada without restraint at speeds of entirely you own choosing (limited only by your cars power and endurance) so it is only logical that there is no reason there has to be any air in an Italian tyre so an Italian tyre sidewall shows no fear when subjected to cruel and unusual pneumatic punishment of lacking air pressure - instead it seems to demand a rematch - although with the Pirelli Tyre calendar having gone off the boil as of late doubts are surfacing as to if today’s Pirelli tyres really have the endurance of previous generations of Italian tyres - Summed up by the Neapolitan Mafia - no wonder Italian tyres fear nothing - Those Pirelli Calendars aren’t why your wife attempts to ban all mention of tyres in the house - are they?
On a serious note - consider that in London UK all the Buses and Coaches are on “Leased Tyres” and when the tread wears out they are re-grooved - the tread is cut deeper into the same rubber several times so no Bus or Coach has a brand-new tyre - they are all second-hand and being swapped around by the “Tyre Leasing” companies - then they are remoulded when there is finally not enough rubber left to cut deeper treads into - quite a risk re the number of people traveling on a Bus or Coach who are blindly relying on those second hand regrooved and remoulded tyres - but seeing the Bus and Coach passengers are already not wearing any seatbelts…. - regrooving also takes place extensively on truck tyres in UK.
Bizarrely Bus and Coach companies in the UK nearly all have received Government permission to carry out the annual vehicle roadworthiness inspection (MOT Test in the UK) In-House! So there is zero independent control/scrutiny of the safety of Public Transport Buses and Coaches in the UK - a risky combination with those Leased Tyres - perversely there is far more independent scrutiny of private vehicles - no private motorist would be allowed to carry out their own MOT test to certify their vehicle was safe to be on the roads - considering the intergalactic milage Buses and Coaches clock up compared to any private car surely Buses and Coaches should be subject to more fully impartial independent scrutiny so there is no pressure/temptation to overlook a problem re keeping down the running costs of a Bus fleet doing its own MOT’s.
What I am getting at is that large fleets of Heavy Vehicles (Bus, Coach & Truck) doing huge mileages (thus taking more risks by being constantly on the road - compared to a private car) take considerable risks (including risking large numbers of passengers) with regrooved used and remoulded tyres while the private motorist is told to take zero risks with their tyres despite by comparison tiny private mileages and no more than 3 passengers - are private motorists the cash cow for the tyre/rubber industry?
Until the 1960’s Tyre Company ART Departments designed all the tread patterns - there was zero science behind any of the tread pattern designs - so yes all the Tyre advertising back then was based on total lies and just making people psychologically believe via the placebo effect that a tyre had Sporting credentials or unusually long-life span etc.
The Placebo effect is known to be very powerful - there have been drug trials where the control group on only a Placebo embarrassingly outperformed the group on the real trial drug - must have been a “Maximum Strength Placebo”.
The attitude to take with tyres and motoring is best summed up by this approach RUclips “I like trucking” ruclips.net/video/w9lmCpIzhFo/видео.html Featuring Rowan Atkinson the movie actor.
Hey there! Do you recommend these tyres? I am looking for good ones, I have a Mazda 3 and I want to buy the whole set
I have sports a/s on my car and I love them. I would recommend but I don't know how much a difference the A/S version and the none A/S are. I would Def buy again but I like to Experiment with tires. So I doubt I will buy another pair. They are really good imo though.
Thanks bro. I just got eh whole set and the tyres are amaizing specially when the road is wet
@@SuperMonak hope you enjoy them! They've been good to me for the past 5k miles. They are good in rain too, I agree.