Anyone running all season non-runflat tires? My 07 MCS came with 17" all season runflats, and I am thinking of replacing them. I live in Arkansas where we don't get a lot of snow, but it can be snowy or icy for a few days at a time, and it gets near or below freezing. My thought is to put some all seasons on the factory crown spoke wheels and buy some after market wheels with some performance tires in the spring. Or for limited amount of snow we get, just putting performance tires on a forgoing the all season.

 

i'm in the same boat and have seen similar posts. give it a good search. personally, i prefer the spare set idea. it is a drag switching over but i feel well worth it since all season = compromise. My last dealer was willing to store my off season wheels/tires...don't think i'm gonna be as lucky with the mini. btw, driving in even a little snow with high performance summer tires can be suicidal!

 

Yeah. I think I am leaning towards the two sets. Gives me an excuse to buy some nice wheels in the spring. Looked at some reviews of Goodyear Eagle F1 all season and Bridgestone RE960 on Tire Rack. Some people rave about them. Some people say they suck. None were reviewing them on a Mini. I will do some searching here.

Much love for the BRG.

 

For your situation All Season tires make the most sense.
if you want the stock size of 205/45-17 then at tirerack.com (talk to Alex)
you will find-
In Ultra high performance All Season
Goodyear Eagle F1 All Season $122 each 420 treadwear Y speed rated
Avon Tech M550 A/S $99 360 treadwear W speed rated
In High performance All Season
Kumho Ecsta AST $68 each 400 treadwear H speed rated

Of these the Ecsta AST is the value tire and least performance oriented, a good match for general street use. The Goodyear Eagle F1 AS is the better handling tire but has a firm ride and costs more. The M550 A/S is middle ground. H rated tires are fine for street use but not meant for handling higher heat generated by driving on the track.

If you have stock suspension and don't mind a tire size that is slightly taller than stock then you can look at 215/45-17 which will fit the stock rims and more tires to choose from (including some that were mentioned)
see
http://www.tirerack.com/a.jsp?a=EZ3&url=/tires/Compare1.jsp&sortValue=1&resultsNumberSelected=Y&d isplayResults=10&compare=true&compareList=&RunFlat =All&goWhere=%252Ftires%252FCompare1.jsp&sortCode= &width=215%2F&ratio=45&diameter=17&performance=UHP AS&performance=HPAS&startIndex=10

For no snow use you can use the better performing but faster wearing Max Performance or UHP summer tires which include the Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3 and others. They don't do as well when temperatures are very low and certainly are not good for any snow.
http://www.tirerack.com/a.jsp?a=EZ3&url=/tires/tests/testDisplay.jsp?ttid=80

 

I've run the RE960's (215/45R17) on my MCS and liked them a lot. I don't do any snow driving, and have recently gone back to a dedicated summer only tire (RE01R). The 960's handle well, are very comfortable and wear great. A bit pricey, but you get what you pay for w/ tires. Also ck. the Yokohama Advan S4, we get good feedback on them from customers w/ performance coupes/sedans that need a good A/S tire.

Later

p.s. I do have my set of slightly used 960's on a set of Flik Wasps for sale.
Sorry for the shameless plug, but just throwing that out there.

 

Consider Falkin 912's for all season. They are cheep and handle well.
I got these for about the same type of weather you have in Fort Smith, I am in Chattanooga, because I currently only have one set of wheels. I don't have much winter weather to worry about but for the few times a year you need them it is low cost to keep from smashing the car.

They will probably become winter tires when I get a second set of wheels for summer tires.

 

BDMini,
What finish are the Wasps? How many miles on the tires?

 

For snow/ all season duty

Conti Extreeme Contact

check out that siping!


One of the most capable UPHAS tires in snow, and $92 ea - 215/45/17

Alex

 

I am going to tag on to this thread...I am in need of some new tires myself. I am in Memphis and have similar weather to these guys...not much winter weather, but it does occasionally happen and is usually in the form of sleet or ice. We do get below freezing quite a bit for a month or so in the winter (we've been in the teens the last few nights). I am guessing I need to stick with an all-season performance.

Any recommendations for tires that can do double duty - street and light autox? I would prefer decent tread wear and I have the Goodyear run flats now, so most likely anything suggested will ride better than those. To be honest, the Goodyear's don't bother me that much. Maybe I have more padding in the posterior than most.


I know all-seaons are not the preferred choice of most NAMers, but I am just beginning auto-x this season so I don't think having a dedicated set of auto-x tires will make much difference until I get some runs under my belt. I will only be running one day per month.


I tried doing some searches for all-seasons but most of what is recommended to auto-x'ers is performance summer.

 

There is a reason why autocross threads recommend summer tires- they can take the demands of track or autocross better and not wear quite as badly even if for once a month.

On the one extreme there are All Season tires and owners that need them for street use and not have to swap to dedicated winter wheels. Hence this thread and the questions offered by the OP.

Then there is the question you mention. Street tire with some autocross but still you want all season use. It can be done but it's compromise. This means you can run an All Season tire at autocross but don't expect much. You'll be exceeding the capabilities of the tire easily and screeching around corners but it still can be fun to do. If you want better handling then better summer Max or UHP tires will work better but cannot be used in snow and tend not to do well with cold temperatures.

 

Minihune and Alex, I really appreciate your input. After checking the links that Minihune supplied, I see that not all tires are offered in the stock 205 45 17 size but most are offered in the 215 45 17. I was not aware of the limitations of the stock size. I am leaning towards the 215 45 17 size tire in maybe the RE960 or the Conti that Alex recommended on my stock crown spoke wheels for winter use.

However, I have put just over 2000 miles on the stock Conti all-season run flats that came on the car, and I have to say they are not as bad as I thought they would be. I may live with them for this winter saving my coinage for lightweight after market wheels and performance tires for the spring and upgrade the winter tires next season. We are supposed to get a little ice tonight, so I may have a better feel for it in the next day or so.

Again thanks for the input. Great wealth of knowledge on this site for new owners.

 

I meant to say thanks Minihune, Alex and others for the input.

 

Similar boat as some other posters - in central North Carolina, and drive on business from DC to Atlanta - so I get some snow and ice occasionally, but not a lot of it. Running Kumho Ecsta SPT summer tires, and just put a set of Goodyear Eagle F1 All Seasons on my spare wheels - so far I really like the F1 All Seasons - frankly seem to grip as well as my summer tires... and look great, but a little pricey. Both sets are 215/45ZR17 on stock suspension height.

 

Hey Blimey

Just picked my MCS 07 tonight from Charlotte. So much fun on the ride back to Raleigh. I do have replace the two front tires immediately, as one has a slight bulge on the sidewall. Any suggestions on shops in the area? Is it okay to keep the runflats on the back and go with all season non runflats on front? All tires have 9000 miles on them, 17' stock

Thanks

 

I've had very good luck with Apex Autoworks - they've sold and installed two sets of tires for Blimey on my OEM rims with no issues - and they removed a set of runflats which some shops have problems with. JustTires in downtown Cary messed up one of my rims doing a runflat, even though they say they can do it...

You COULD run mixed tires - but I don't recommend it - the handling characteristics of the tires will be quite different between RF and non-RF... you'll like the ride quality of 4 non-runflats much better - I recommend you go ahead and bite the bullet - then keep a CLOSE eye on your tire pressures and rotate every 4-5K miles to maximize life of your new tires.

By the way - welcome and congrats! Join the Tar Heel MINIs if you haven't already - www.tarheelminis.org
And come to our meet in Holly Springs in two weeks!

 

Just installed a set of Goodyear Eagle F1 all seasons (non-runflat). Great grip, low noise and amazing ride. It actually shocked me how much the ride improved. I knew the OEM RF's were harsh, but I figured it was also the MINIs suspension which was somewhat rough. Definitely not so, on my stock suspension I can legitmately say the ride is smooth now. Undoubtedly sporty but not the least bit jarring like before. And this was in moving from 195/55/16 tires to 215/45/17. So staying with 16" wheels I'm sure one's results would be even better.

 

That is interesting. I am actually considering going from the stock 17" runflats to 16" non runflats. I think I am going to stay with the runflats for this winter, only another month or so here, and go with 16" wheels with summer tires. Next winter I will probably go with 215/45/17 all season on the factory crown spokes.

I seem to remember reading that some people had trouble getting a matched set of four of those tires to pass road force balancing. Did you experience any troubles? Where did you get them if you don't mind sharing.

 

Yea in that case you're definitely in for quite the improvement in ride.

Hmmm, to be honest I'm not sure whether mine were road force balanced or not. No trouble yet, other than that I'm in extreme need of an alignment now (steering wheel shakes at speed, very annoying but not to the point where I see it posing a danger). However I've been told that's pretty much standard when you do a wheel/tire change, especially to a larger size. I'm getting Eibach springs installed on Friday, so I want to wait and do the alignment then since it'll be pretty much a requirement.

I got them from a Goodyear Auto Service Center. One of the recommended installers by Tire Rack, they're close to me and were one of very few tire places in my area that had the tires in the size I wanted. Also from a quick walk through they seem to be a professional shop and were able to get me the tires in just one day. Price wasn't exactly cheap, $764 installed, but these tires are relatively expensive. Also I opted for road hazard (don't flame me ).

 

Can the folks that have the Eagle F1s chime in with the amount of mileage before replacement that they have gotten?
I'm looking to get a set based on numerous recommendations, and the 420 treadwear rating is very attractive, but if they do not last past 20k, it's not worth it to me.

The G-Force sports have also been highly recommended. I know that I can get almost 30k from a set, based on others' driving habits compared to mine.

I am looking to stay at the stock 205 size, because of the rubbing that I have with the current 215s on the car now.

Input greatly appreciated.

 

Hmmm, so looks like I spoke to soon after all. Turns out the problems I'm experience aren't alignment related, but rather exactly what you said - they can't get the damn things balanced properly! Went in today and they did rebalance one of the front tires. Took away high speed vibration, but now it just does it at low speeds instead. Scheduled to bring my car in on Saturday so they can poke at it for a couple hours...

Sucks because I really like these tires, if not I'd have returned them right then and there. I'm definitely gonna try to get everything done possible to get them functioning correctly. The installer is thinking it may be a bad tire... We'll see.

Thankfully it's a pretty mild vibration, but still annoying nonetheless. And definitely not what I paid almost $200 a tire for.

 

From memory about what I read I think the tires had to be replaced. I think someone had to go through 6 or so tires to find 4 that would balance. There is a thread here somewhere about this. Might get them to try some more tires. I think they were very happy with the tires when they got the 4 that would balance. Good luck. Please post results as I may be considering these next winter.

 

I just bought a set of the F1 All Seasons and they balanced fine the first time - though it DID take a lot of weight on one or two of them... Have driven hard for about 1000 miles with no issues.

 

I have a set of 8 all season tires for my MINI

4 -16" Dunlop SportMaxx for spring summer and fall
4 -15" Michelin Pilot Alpin PA2 for winter.

 

I lived in Arkansas for several years, thanks to Uncle Sam, and I would not waste my time with All Season tires for the little bit of winter weather you get there. I mean... geez, what do you average, 5 inches per year ?

I'd just go for the performance tires and on those two or three days per year when you get wintry weather, take public transportation, get a ride from a friend, know that the front-wheel drive plus DSC will carry you through, hope it comes on a weekend, or just call in sick that day.

Me, I'm running all-season BF Goodrich Traction T/As on our Coopers (high performance summer tires on the MCSC). They're doing just fine but we've only had two snowfalls this winter ourselves (so far). They ride nice year 'round and the tread life is 60,000 miles.

 

That is not always the best idea. Most summer tires are not happy when the temperature dips below freezing. I felt like I was on ice with my Eagle F1 GSD3s when the temperature was below 35 degrees. The rubber compounds that give the tires good grip in the warm weather get very hard in cold temperatures.

The best option is to get 2 sets of wheels and tires. Look in the marketplace and you can find a bunch of people selling MINI wheels for cheap. In the long run it might actually be cheaper. A good UHP tire is going to be a lot more expensive and wear quicker than a cheap decent all-season. Why burn up an expensive tire all winter? A cheap set of all-seasons will last you 3 to 4 years and save your expensive tires for the summer. In the end, you will probably go through less tires which will recover the cost of the extra set of wheels.

Of course, this is from a guy that has 4 sets of wheels and tires now. (stock, all-season, track, and autoX).