Well it's time for some new front tyres on my car - currently wearing Bridgestone Turanza ER30s all round. But one tyre place I went to for a quote also recommended the Yokohama S306.

I can't find much out about this tyre online, does anyone know of any reviews or tests, or how it fares against the Turanza? I know my ER30s are poorly rated for their wet weather performance.

Also not sure what the implications are for putting a different brand/tread on the front compared to what will be on the back.

Any thoughts, anyone?

It's a Seat Ibiza btw, 1.8T 150bhp fwd.

I would not mix different tires if there would be no information how their characteristic differs from each other, specially if car is driven on track or at limit.

Quote from JTbo :

if car is driven on track or at limit.

It's not, no way am I taking my car to the track, and I don't drive at the limit on public roads.

Do you mean limit as "on the edge" or the speed limit

Also, don't mix tyre brands...they say anyway

Quote from STROBE :

It's not, no way am I taking my car to the track, and I don't drive at the limit on public roads.

Then in _some_ cases you could mix them, but certainly better not if there is not known characteristics of other brand, it can become terrible to drive, unpleasant to be passenger at or even dangerously oversteering for street car.

By limit I meant situation where tires say IIIIEIEIEEEEEHHHHH and driver's face is like this

For road use, you won't notice different brands, assuming you drive like a sensible person.

To be honest, a set of cheaper, longer lasting tyres will be fine, work in all conditions (except perhaps very cold ones), and give you mor than enough grip if you have a boy-racer moment. Save your pennies for nice things, like furry dice

You and your smooth and not icy roads

I buy 4 new ones at time so don't need to worry so much

Smooth? Blimey, you must pave your roads in angle iron!

I replace the tyres on my MX-5 one at a time, with whatever is the cheapest at the time. At the moment, 3 are decent Pirellis that were on special offer, and one (the right rear iirc) is a budget tyre. Can't tell the difference to be honest. It'll slide round roundabouts just like with 4 budgets, grip as well in both directions, brake in a straight line, work in the wet. Doesn't tramline. And will happily keep up with 'quicker' machines if I'm in the mood.

As long as they're round, dark grey, and rubbery I reckon you'll be fine (on the road).

Angel iron is about right, I'm happy if I can make out 40 000km from my tires on these tire shredders (roads) but actually it can be that your roads are bit more slippery at wet because those are smoother in general, at least your roundabouts sounds to be bloody slippery at rain.

Do you know such tire brand as Fate O? Those are considered to be budget tires here, when I bought car those were ok, but destroyed that set in two weeks and got middle class tires, actually ride is worse and car does not feel even near as planted to road as before, sometimes difference can be that way around too I guess, also these seem not to wear at all, damn Nokia tyres, would like to get rid of them already

I'm moving my files and pics to another server at the moment, but I post one pic of road so you can see how close angle iron is to them

Quote from tristancliffe :

Save your pennies for nice things, like furry dice

Piss off, it's not that kind of Seat Ibiza.



Thanks for the comments everyone. I certainly don't loon about on the roads, I hate people that drive as if they were on a racetrack (I've often thought about being a traffic cop, were it not for the fact that after a dangerous pursuit, when the pikeys bail out, I'd just run the f***ers over instead of stopping and chasing them on foot).

However my car understeers and wheelspins sooo easily in the wet (no doubt due to the poor wet performance of the Turanzas - and a sudden dollop of turbo torque at 2200 rpm), but the front left tyre is pretty shot from tipping it into roundabouts on a clear road in the dry. Completely bare on the outer shoulder, with 2.0-2.5mm of tread across the width.

I can't imagine the Yoko S306 being a nightmare, if anything I suspect it will be softer than the Bridgestones, I was just wondering if anyone knew where to find any tests or user reports (car forums, owner clubs, etc?) before I make the decision. The S306 is also £20 cheaper per tyre than a replacement Bridgestone.

When you get tires, do yourself a favor and get wheel aligment checked, some decent 4-wheel aligment could save you wasting 2 perfectly good new tires.

I had outer shoulder worn as you tell and it was because of wheel angles being wrong, that was reason why it took only 2 weeks to destroy those Fate Os.


Pic as promised
Perfectly good road, click pic for proper size

edit: If you feel that current tires are slippery at rain, perhpas put new tires on back and old rear tires to front so you don't get surprising tail out situations on wet if you need to dodge some chavs in their Novas

Bridgestone Turdanza tires are horrible. I was driving in my moms Honda that comes with them stock, and I understeered slightly making a right hand turn at 20mph. The tires began to skid, and the steering wheel started feeling a little more loose. I obviously did not hit the brakes. I just straightened the wheel a little, and took the rest of the corner really wide. When we got home, I waited for the tires to cool, and then checked the tire pressure. The left front tire was at 17psi, and it's supposed to be at 32psi. So, I pumped it up to 30psi, and figured it was good enough. My mom drove it the next day, and the tire was down to 25 psi! I keep adding air to it, but the air just leaks right out. Same thing happens to the right front tire, except at a slower rate.

EDIT: The road was dry as a bone BTW.

Quote from JTbo :

edit: If you feel that current tires are slippery at rain, perhpas put new tires on back and old rear tires to front so you don't get surprising tail out situations on wet if you need to dodge some chavs in their Novas

Hmm, hadn't really considered that. However it has to be said that it seems my car is set up very safely. All it does is understeer. The brake bias seems heavily front weighted - the ABS kicks in too readily when the front wheels hit a manhole cover under braking and slide, but never even a hint of ABS or locking from the rears. The back end doesn't even hint of twitching if you come clean off the throttle half way round a quick bend.

Wheel alignment should be okay thanks, it was checked at the same time the car was M.O.T.ed earlier this year (MOT = mechanical inspection for cars in the uk, done once it's three years old then every year after that). Besides, these Bridgestones haven't worn out in two weeks, they've worn out in three years.

Quote from wheel4hummer :

Bridgestone Turdanza tires are horrible. I was driving in my moms Honda that comes with them stock, and I understeered slightly making a right hand turn at 20mph. The tires began to skid, and the steering wheel started feeling a little more loose. I obviously did not hit the brakes. I just straightened the wheel a little, and took the rest of the corner really wide. When we got home, I waited for the tires to cool, and then checked the tire pressure. The left front tire was at 17psi, and it's supposed to be at 32psi. So, I pumped it up to 30psi, and figured it was good enough. My mom drove it the next day, and the tire was down to 25 psi! I keep adding air to it, but the air just leaks right out. Same thing happens to the right front tire, except at a slower rate.

EDIT: The road was dry as a bone BTW.

Erm, thanks for that, somehow I doubt that's a fault of the Turanzas though. My fronts are supposed to be 33psi and I've had to top up the air in them about three times in as many years.

Quote from STROBE :

Erm, thanks for that, somehow I doubt that's a fault of the Turanzas though. My fronts are supposed to be 33psi and I've had to top up the air in them about three times in as many years.

Well you do have different Turanzas then my moms accord. The ER## code is different.

ive been more keen to use toyo's/Goodyear then Yokohama's or bridgestone but from that choice outlined in do go with Yokohama's , better reputation and will last unlike bridge stones which... they dont need an explanation


also never mix tyres... differant profiles on the wheels makes traction vairy and thats the last thing you want ( unless its a p.o.s u.s rail car )