My better halfs Insignia Ecoflex is due its first service...just covered 40k in 14 months, and the fronts will need replacing soon. last winter was particularly bad as she lives at a high elevation, and on a steep road a quarter of a mile from the main road.On several days she could not get off the estate.
Assuming the lease company allow it, is there any reason whu she should not fit winter tyres onto the front driven wheels, with her Michelin Primacys remaining on the rear?
|
It would be much better to fit them all round - thus giving better grip on corners and when braking.
|
Agreed.
But not allowed by the lease company. Tyres have to be down to the bare minimum before they can be changed.
|
I have seen a vid on youtube with this combination. Very unstable under braking. The front tyres will stop, the back ones will be liable to step out of line.
In the video, under braking the car swapped ends rather alarmingly!
I will try and find it..
|
This isnt the one but gives a good idea why not to do it...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cBSWEhimdA
|
Thank you.
hopefully Kwik Fit, which she has to use, would have vetoed my stupid idea.
|
As mentioned previously I have put Kleber Quadraxers on the front of the missus' Beetle. Back still have normal Michelins.
My missus is a mimser, just potters around in her Beetle. But last year she did find the Scottish snow particularly bad and there are a few hills between home and work.
Fronts were due for replacement so spent the extra tenner or so and got the Quadraxers, which are all season tyres. my thinking is if these help her get to the top of a hill, or control it better going down a hill, then that is all I am looking for.
Looking at the clips on youtube, she is not wanting to do slaloms on the snow, she is not wanting to drive too fast for the conditions. So I think they will do her just fine.
As mentioned before, will report back whenever they have had to be put to use but you can guarantee this will be a mild winter!
|
I'm going to stick winters on the front of mine, and normals on the back. Sideways here we come then...whhhheeeee!*
Never had trouble when I ran like this the winter before last - understeer due to way old tyres(**) yes, but no trouble with my rear.
* I probably won't manage to get the new ABS ring fitted either, so still driving round with the fuse out. Must be some sort of suicidal maniac then. I expect I'll survive though....
** inherited them from a friend - it was only when I took them off and knew what I was looking for that I found they dated back to 1986 or something!
|
I drive a motability car and I have had tyres changed well above the legal limit by Kwik Fit.
|
>> Assuming the lease company allow it
We don't know the lease company but if this is a company vehicle managed via a lease company - then they won't go for winter tyres. For winter tyres you need to swap back to summer tyres when warmer to prevent wearing the winter ones out quickly.
I could be wrong but this isn't something I've come across. Had company cars (managed by a few lease companies) since 1996. They come up with a price for say 3 years based on mileage (so includes service, tyres, tax, etc) and so winter doesn't come into it.
Last edited by: rtj70 on Mon 19 Sep 11 at 23:09
|
|
I just noticed it is an ecoFlex... well you probably won't get low rolling resistance tyres for the replacements anyway. So that will help a bit anyway.
|
Why not go for 'all season' tyres rather than summer
eg. www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Tyre/Vredestein/Quatrac-3.htm
|
To be fair i wouldn't do this either, a case of imbalance a step too far imo, if it was my own car i'd have been rotating during it's life with a view to getting 4 of my own choice in a single go.
Will be interesting to hear if they fit anything decent like the OE fitments, i ended up hearing some interesting things over the years, one of which when i happened to be in a lease company's office one day and overheard a one sided telephone conversation.
It was obviously a fairly confrontational conversation with a tyre depot, the lease rep was stressing adamantly that they do not pay for premium tyres and only budget tyres were to be fitted.
I would have the new tyres fitted to the front though if the kwik fitter will oblige..;)
|
|
The last pair of tyres I had fitted were to all intents and purposes identical. One has M&S on the side-wall the other hasn't!
|
>> The last pair of tyres I had fitted were to all intents and purposes identical.
>> One has M&S on the side-wall the other hasn't!
>>
The marks and sparks label isn't on the inside of the naked one is it?.;)
|
>>The marks and sparks label isn't on the inside of the naked one is it?.;)
Nope.
I think it's just an abnormality of the 12" ditch-finders that was all I could find.
|
|
These tyres would be the one's for me Vredestein.
|
>> These tyres would be the one's for me Vredestein.
>>
Ha, batting for home team are we...;)
|
>> My better halfs Insignia Ecoflex is due its first service...just covered 40k in 14 months,
40,000 miles without an oil and filter change!!!!
|
|
And if the front tyres lasted 40k miles then they don't offer much grip do they.
|
Nothing unusual about driving 40k between oil changes. Her previous company leased Passat had its oil changes around the same distance. There is still quite a lot of tread on the fronts, so she may get around 45k out of them. Kwik Fit are only allowed to fit new tyres when the tread depth is just above the legal minimum, winter or no.
One of the few disadvantages of a company car I suppose.
She spoke to her fleet manager about fitting a full sert of winter tyres and the idea was vetoed. Sometimes common sense does not prevail and they accept that some days she simply cannot get to the main road from where she lives due to only a slight covering of snow. Penny wise, pound foolish.
|
>> Nothing unusual about driving 40k between oil changes. Her previous company leased Passat had its
>> oil changes around the same distance.
Well that's just torpedoed the accepted by many rule that leased/company motorway mileage cars will more likely have been serviced properly and without cost influence than seemingly unwanted low mileage (never got warm apparently) privately owned cars.
I know which i'd rather buy, only the most unaware private owner of a new car would go to such a mileage without a service, even if if it was a national chain quick fitting service it would at least have seen some fresh oil and a filter.
I love the bit about just above the legal minimum tread depth, when you look at tyres at 1.6mm on other peoples cars they might as well be down to the cords for all the use the tread is in the wet.
The DoT really should relook at minimum tread depths, the 1.6minimum was set when tyres were around 145/175 section on 10/15" rims, only the largest cars wore 185 width.
We now have very wide tyres on 17/20" rims, the cross section of which is huge compared to those older sizes.
I think 3mm should be the standard minimum, i always change at or before 3mm and don't particularly like getting that low.
|
>> Nothing unusual about driving 40k between oil changes.
Not for anyone who has the slightest mechanical sympathy for the longevity of an engine, but I guess that company car drivers for you! When I had a company car I felt uncomfortable about running 20,000 miles between services.
Last edited by: Victorbox on Wed 21 Sep 11 at 14:39
|
Not that I'd advocate it, but I've little doubt many cars will travel 40+ thou without an oil/filter change, especially if the oil is synthetic, and probably moreso if it has needed occasional topping up (4 litres of topping up is 'sort of like' changing the oil).
The overall longevity of the engine may be compromised but lubrication failure is rarely the cause of engine demise these days (certain engine/oil combos excepted).
Most engine failures seem to be HGF, belt failure, sudden failure of an inferior component (eg plastic parts that used to be metal).
How often do you see (or smell) the tell-tale of engines burning oil these days ?
/thread-drift.
Last edited by: Lygonos on Wed 21 Sep 11 at 15:06
|
>> The overall longevity of the engine may be compromised but lubrication failure is rarely the
>> cause of engine demise these days (certain engine/oil combos excepted).
>>
I wonder how many early failures of turbo's and the like have been caused though, sometimes i wonder ending the engines life prematurely when particles that caused the turbo's oilway blockage eventually ended up elsewhere in the engine.
As for the smell of worn engines, that's something i smell quite a lot these days around relatively modern truck engines, many of which drink oil at a rate of knots between their quite ridicuclous service intervals, still stink.
As do a lot of Turbo Diesel cars under power (of black excess fuel smoke though), the ones that manage to push out fantastic BHP but get in the lowest VED bands....pre DPF in most cases...which beggars another question, whats happening to the smoke and is the system to deal with it reliable....
We like thread drift..;)
|
gb
The reason it is only going in for its first service, now showing 41k miles, is because the oil change indicator warning has just illuminated on the dash. Obviously the car has had a very easy life, cruising mainly on motorways in 6th, and the lease company, Black Horse I think, want to keep costs to a minimum.
Personally, if it was mine (not that I would ever buy a new Insignia) it would get an oil change every 12k miles or at least once a year.
Presumably Vx know what they are doing with these extended service intervals...
|
I am surprised an extended service interval stretched that far. I had assumed it would have flagged for a service regardless by say 20,000 miles.
The last time I had a car with the option of variable service intervals (a VW Passat and that went back in 2003 I should add), the lease company at the time did not have it on variable service intervals. It was on the fixed 10k miles per annum servicing regime.
I'm not sure what the Passat I am getting in a few weeks will be setup with regards service intervals.
|
rtj70
Previously SWMBO had an '07 Passat Tdi which the lease company (Black Horse) sent to the auctions after 3 years and 115k miles.
She much preferred it to her current Insignia. The fit and finish was far superior and it seemed to have a lot more ooomph! The Insignia by comparison seems very highly geared, presumably to increase mpg, which I personally find wearisome around town. having said that, the Insignia is a fine long distance motorway cruiser, and more practical should the hatch ever be needed. The Passat averaged 38K miles between oil changes.
|
Impressed that the Passat managed 38k between oil changes. My car will be managed by Lex Autolease so possibly the same as Black Horse - Lloyds and Lex merged their lease businesses.
I had an Insignia SRi 160PS CDTi a few weeks back. It handled really well on winding roads and had plenty of go in it. It was not too highly geared but wasn't the ecoFlex version. The gearing on my Passat (with Bluemotion technologies) is likely to be a bit high in top gear. But I only test drove a 140PS manual and a 170PS DSG. I'm getting a 170PS manual. Something has to give for low emissions :-) My Mazda6 produces lots more CO2, has less power but does have more torque (370Nm).
I wish I could get winter tyres but don't think that would ever be possible on a company car. I might get them for my wife's car when it needs new tyres. She does so few miles I'd leave them on all the time though.
Last edited by: rtj70 on Thu 22 Sep 11 at 21:58
|
I'm getting my Michelin Alpins fitted next week.
It will be interesting to see if the 330 can get up the steep approach road to where I live...there are only a dozen houses so very little traffic. My neighbours own Rav 4, CRV, Ford ? (I forget the name) Landcruiser, Terios, Freelander & a Discovery. Not too much ground clearance on mine, but I won't be able to resist getting out and having a go after the first snowfall.
|
Kwik Fit are only
>> allowed to fit new tyres when the tread depth is just above the legal minimum,
>> winter or no.
>> One of the few disadvantages of a company car I suppose.
That's awful. I've had company cars for over 15 years and all the lease companies I have used have allowed changes at 2mm however for the past 5 years or so the tyres just have to be under 3mm.
Good luck.
|
2mm seems to be the magic cut-off point for new tyres with lease companies. The problem is if you have a puncture near that limit and they want to only change the one. I usually convince them to change it because it will be soon - and play the safety card.
If it were my car then 3mm would be the change over point.
|
Vauxhall Insignia - Mixing winter & normal tyres - Number_Cruncher
