I know this is an old 'nut' but here's my recent experience. We've just bought a very nice Sterling Grey 03 3.0l Auto with genuine and documented 43K on the clock. It came fitted with almost new Khumo run flats on 17" wheels and a 300mile old MOT.
I had test driven the car on good smooth surface A and B roads before buying the car and thought the ride harsh but acceptable after running a '98 MX5 for the past 10 years. On the way home after parting with my cash I drove over less favourable roads and.......OH DEAR what have I bought!
Steering pulling to left and right, jarring, serious tram lining, every pebble felt like a boulder. Driving along the last half mile to our house the steering wheel was almost pulled out of my hand by a slight change in camber.
As this car was bought to be my wife's daily driver to replace the superb handling Mazda 1.8 Sport something had to be sorted to make the car pleasurable, easy and above all safe to drive. A quick Google search found posts on this forum which suggested the run flats were to blame.
I read reports on the various tyres others have fitted, and on line tyre reviews. So considering the time of year and our local road conditions I decided to fit the new Michelin CrossClimate tyres.....non-runflat.
My local tyre fitter allowed me to try the car with the 2 new front tyres fitted and WOW what a difference! All the problems had dissapeared with only a little harshness from the run flats still on the back. The two rear tyres were changed and harshness gone totally. It's now like a totally different car, fully transformed for the better.
So now your thoughts are requested..... I have 4 almost new runflats which need to be used. I'm keeping the CrossClimates on during the winter but considering fitting 2 runflats on the rear for the summer to wear then out. It'll probably take a few years as the car will cover about 5k per year. As I said, I tried this combination today and handling seems fine, just a bit of harshness at the rear.
Comments please.
I had test driven the car on good smooth surface A and B roads before buying the car and thought the ride harsh but acceptable after running a '98 MX5 for the past 10 years. On the way home after parting with my cash I drove over less favourable roads and.......OH DEAR what have I bought!
Steering pulling to left and right, jarring, serious tram lining, every pebble felt like a boulder. Driving along the last half mile to our house the steering wheel was almost pulled out of my hand by a slight change in camber.
As this car was bought to be my wife's daily driver to replace the superb handling Mazda 1.8 Sport something had to be sorted to make the car pleasurable, easy and above all safe to drive. A quick Google search found posts on this forum which suggested the run flats were to blame.
I read reports on the various tyres others have fitted, and on line tyre reviews. So considering the time of year and our local road conditions I decided to fit the new Michelin CrossClimate tyres.....non-runflat.
My local tyre fitter allowed me to try the car with the 2 new front tyres fitted and WOW what a difference! All the problems had dissapeared with only a little harshness from the run flats still on the back. The two rear tyres were changed and harshness gone totally. It's now like a totally different car, fully transformed for the better.
So now your thoughts are requested..... I have 4 almost new runflats which need to be used. I'm keeping the CrossClimates on during the winter but considering fitting 2 runflats on the rear for the summer to wear then out. It'll probably take a few years as the car will cover about 5k per year. As I said, I tried this combination today and handling seems fine, just a bit of harshness at the rear.
Comments please.
