It took 40 mins to swap to my older set of wheels and tyres.
These are Bridgestone Potenza S03 tyres on my second set of Aero alloy wheels. The tyres are 4 years old, and have spent the last year in the garage, so are hopefully ok.
They are much more work than the newer RE050A set, and since they are at the end of their life I am happy to push them tomorrow, and then swap back to thre RE050A for the drive home.
I arranged the tyres such that, for each side, the tyre with most tread went at the front where they will get by far the greatest wear.
The RE050A that came off had the following tread depth across the tyres. All from outside edge to inside edge, in mm.
Front Left – 5.5, 5.5, 6.0
Front Right – 6.5, 6.5, 5.5
Rear Left – 6.5, 7.8, 8.0
Rear Right – 8.0, 8.0, 8.0
The RE050A wear measurements show a few things:
1) The wear that Llandow 2008 did to the front left tyre, with the outer edge significantly lower than the other tyre measurements
2) That the inner edge of the front right tyre was worn – I guess this might contact more when the car is cornering hard to the right and rolling lots
3) The rear left also took some wear on the outside edge
4) The rear right has an easy life.
The front left had the most obvious signs of getting pushed, and even 8 months after the first Llandow the effects of roll are visible
Here follows some pics of the tyres that came off…
Front Left
Front Right
Real Left
Rear Right
As for the S03 tyres that are going on, the wear levels are:
Front Left – 3.5, 4.0, 4.0
Front Right – 3.5, 3.5, 4.0
Rear Left – 3.0, 3.0, 3.0
Rear Right – 3.5, 3.0, 3.0
As you can see, they still have good tread on them, but 3.0mm is about where I start to think about changing tyres, and since these are 4 years old they don’t have much left in terms of age.
A quick drive with some acceleration and braking tests indicated they were still grippy.
One interesting point is that RE050A are:
Treadwear 140, Traction A, Temperature A
And S03 are
Treadwear 240, Traction AA, Temerature A
I had never realised the S03 had a much higher treadwear, but were also rated for greater traction. Interesting.
Here are some pics of the S03 tyres that are going on. I am sure they will look a lot less dusty once they have been driven on for a bit.
Front Left
Front Right
Rear Left
Rear Right
I also had a quick look at my brakes. WMSS had mentioned a bit of crumbling around the edge of the front pads, but it is pretty minor – Front Left
Front right also looks ok
Rear brakes looked fine, here is the rear right
With the wheel change complete, my work is done. Just need to load up in the morning with other tyres, trolley jack and a few tools, then it’s off to sunny Llandow!
It had better not rain now I have changed to these tyres…