Everything about Tyres

[CitroJim]

They are mostly imported from Germany where they have to change tyres after about five miles. Loads of wear left on them and well within the use by date.

I wonder how Brexit has affected that particular enterprise?

Yes indeed. I got four part worns for my C5 for £104 (£26 per tyre including balancing and disposal).

That's a proper bargain James That's down in Daffodil territory!

[myglaren]

I wonder how Brexit has affected that particular enterprise?

I wonder too - technically they are worthless in Germany.

[mickthemaverick]

My tyre fitter is a fully trained Polish chap who came over here 17 years ago and started working at National Tyres. He hated their methods and moved to a local company after 18 months. 3 years later he left there and set up his own business which has developed very well since he started. He used to make monthly trips back to Poland in his LWB Transit to collect nearly new tyres to sell here. I have used them for 10+ years without a problem but I don't know how Brexit is affecting him. I will find out at some point!!

[CitroJim]

3 years later he left there and set up his own business which has developed very well since he started. He used to make monthly trips back to Poland in his LWB Transit to collect nearly new tyres to sell here. I have used them for 10+ years without a problem but I don't know how Brexit is affecting him. I will find out at some point!!

I love that True enterprise!

I hope it's not mucked him up too much because that's the kind of attitude I admire and fully embrace

[mickthemaverick]

3 years later he left there and set up his own business which has developed very well since he started. He used to make monthly trips back to Poland in his LWB Transit to collect nearly new tyres to sell here. I have used them for 10+ years without a problem but I don't know how Brexit is affecting him. I will find out at some point!!

I love that True enterprise!

I hope it's not mucked him up too much because that's the kind of attitude I admire and fully embrace

Me too which is why I patronise him unerringly since I first met him when he was working for the local firm. There is nothing he doesn't know about tyres and I always talk to him about any related issue. His name is Peter (Petar I think but who's looking?) and he runs A-Team Tyres in Hertford if you ever need assistance in this part of the world.

[Peter.N.]

Asda are doing cheap tyres down our way, one of their fitting stations is in Axminster which is our nearest town.

Peter

[NewcastleFalcon]

All new to me this TPMS palaver, but the tell-tale low pressure light came on telling me that the rear offside tyre had triggered the system. I suppose its function is simple....if your tyres are not at the correct specified pressure to within a tolerance, up pops the warning light and the little drawing telling you which is the offending tyre.

So to do it, each valve needs a sensor which needs to know which wheel it is on and it needs to be able to transmit temperature and pressure data via radio to a receiver inside the vehicle, and the follow on gubbins to interpret that and shove up the warnings to the driver.

Nothing catastrophic, no nail or gash in the tyre, but the tyre needs to be at 36 psi, and I realise now that my £5 foot pump with gauge from Argos is inadequate for the task. I will have to see whether the light resets itself after pumping the tyre up at one of those digital machines at a garage. If not there is a button in the car which after a few menu selections allows you to do a TPMS reset rather than having to unnecessarily get the Nissan dealer involved. The system doesn't activate until the car is travelling over 16mph so any reset requires driving the car over that speed to complete.

The official Nissan Tech Manual which Simon linked to on his blog, takes 51 pages to cover Wheels and Tyres on the Leaf https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... Ao-XyZWN4Y

When I got the car, the Nissan Garage fitted 2 new rear tyres, done about 14,000 miles since. With lots of cars having these Tyre Pressure Monitoring systems now I would hope the getting new tyres fitted isn't overcomplicated and subject to potential damage to the TPMS transmitters in the process. From reading the manual above, it would appear that registration of a TPMS transmitter to a wheel location, may be a bit of a Nissan tool thing, and not a button press function on the vehicle but I could be wrong.

Has me thinking should I just get new tyres when I need them, from the Nissan garage I bought the car from rather than just let my local indy take care of my tyre needs as usual. I'll go along and have a chat. TPMS is probably part and parcel of normal day-to-day tyre fitting now, although its new to me.

REgards Neil

[myglaren]

I was in one of the larger tyre places - one of the few that could balance Citroen wheels.
A customer brought a Mondeo in and they sent him to the dealer as they were unable to deal with the pressure sensors.
From what they said it seemed that it was far too easy to damage them when replacing the tyre so they just didn't want the hassle.

[4cvg]

A few beginning thoughts on tyres:

1. General industry advice is that wet grip is substantially diminished at around 5 years of age & the risk of structural failure is overly high at around 10 years (notably, by belt separation). The manufacturing date is a 4 digit number on the (usually outside) sidewall (week/year so 0121 is the first week of 2021).

2. The EU wet grip code is a simple braking test & should not be considered a reliable guide to lateral wet grip.

3. In my opinion, the most important parameters of tyre performance are lateral & braking wet grip & second most important are response to steering input & emergency behaviour. Note that these criteria are hard to satisfy if one is prioritising longevity, fuel economy or comfort.

4. The best publically available guide to tyre performance is the set of magazine tyre tests & the best guide to these is at the UK site Tyre Reviews.
https://www.tyrereviews.com/Article/

cheers! Peter

[NewcastleFalcon]

Kwik-Fit have done this little animation. My leaf is nearly 6 years old now but how long do the batteries in the TPMS sensors last? No problems as yet but and I expect the batteries are the originals. Maybe a good bit of preventative maintenance to replace the batteries when the tyres are next changed (if indeed you can replace the batteries )

Informative if dull presentation from Kwik-fit



Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

How much is a tyre pressure sensor (not that I need one at the moment.) Depends on the model but as of right now a Schrader Tyre Pressure Sensor for the Leaf is £43 at ECP and £33 at CarParts4less. (same part).

Plenty of easily findable video's on youtube on replacing them DIY should you wish to find a novel use for a scissor jack in breaking the tyre bead. It would appear that they tend to be non battery replaceable, but of course the ingenious on you tube find a way without a great deal of difficulty, so the whole unit doesn't necessarily have to be thrown away when the battery eventually fails.

The TPMS New ID Numbers do need to be coded/cloned to the TPMS System with their locations on the car, which sort of negates the DIY effort, unless you have an appropriate diagnostic tool/scanner so to do.

REgards Neil

[Hell Razor5543]

Might I suggest you steer well clear of both of these suppliers. ECP (full name Euro Car Parts) has the deserved nickname of Euro Crap Parts, and CarParts4Less is their Internet brand.

[NewcastleFalcon]

Might I suggest you steer well clear of both of these suppliers. ECP (full name Euro Car Parts) has the deserved nickname of Euro Crap Parts, and CarParts4Less is their Internet brand.

When I need to use them, I use them most of the time James . The local factors unless you are in the trade cant get anywhere near on price although I have hit lucky on some components and use the local factors occasionally after they have given me a price on the phone. Had a few incorrect oil filters shipped but in general everything has been fine. Deliver free too which makes a big difference and less hassle collecting as both outlets are over 30 miles away.

Speaking as I find, they have been ok, apart from the odd wrong filter being sent.

Regards Neil

[GiveMeABreak]

Those systems you talked about above are referred to as Direct TPMS. These have a sensor and transmitter and an associated TPMS ECU on the car.

These are gradually being replaced with 'indirect' TPMS, so there are no sensors to worry about. Instead the more advanced ABS / ECU system uses the ABS wheel speed sensors by analysing any change in the diameter of the wheels or in the physical behaviour of the tyres.

There is no indication of which tyre is under inflated on this system.

A deflation detection is detected if the pressure is diminished by 20% relative to the pressures registered on initialisation.

So for example:
If the pressures in the vehicle’s front tyres are programmed at 2.4 bar, the tyre deflation alert will apply at around 1.9 bar.
If the pressures in the vehicle’s rear tyres are programmed at 2.2 bar, the tyre deflation alert will apply at around 1.8 bar.

This system, which is the one used on my vehicle can only detect either 'Tyre pressures "OK"' or 'Deflation detected'.

It uses the data once you have checked your tyre pressures and reset the system on the dash, then it's good to go again. Although it doesn't tell you which tyre is deflated, there is a lot less to go wrong:

• No expensive sensors to buy, code or replace.
• Eliminates the historical issues of galvanic corrosion

On the system I had on my C5 X7. I did have some issues where it took the dealer 4 attempts in one morning to get them all talking to the ECU - as each time I drove off the forecourt, a different one would come up with a warning!

[NewcastleFalcon]

Thanks Marc adds to the knowledge.

Regards Neil