There's one thing you forgot! Age!!! Depending on how much you drive, it is not only wear that affects the tyre but also age. Rubber compound is only guaranteed for a certain period. So although you get more surface contact are as the tyre wear down, with time the compound losses its characteristics becoming stiff, dry & brittle
That was the 2018 Camry. Looked into it myself this year, but read all the negative reviews of how much molded plastic Toyota used this time around, making the interior look and feel so blah. An untrained eye will like all the curves in the console though.
I really like tire videos. I also really like when you use sponsored content to make high quality educational content with connections. Great video, really hope to see a video in that testing facility. Also want a video in the factory if you ever get the chance- I would love to see the molding process and tooling
Glad you enjoyed it! Something often overlooked (that you pointed out quite accurately) is that sponsored content generally provides access to engineers and product managers that I typically wouldn't have the ability to speak with, especially not for long durations on a single project. It's great to be able to pick their brains for information, and ultimately we all learn from it (this is always my goal for sponsored content). With regards to the onsite testing, here's a link to a few videos: bit.ly/2LdI157. Under the section where it says "we partnered with Jason Fenske" there are three clickable video thumbnails. And I agree, it'd be very cool to see the molding process!
Engineering Explained there are videos showing the tire making process, although the ones I've seen kind of "leave you hanging," especially if you're an engineer or technical type. IIRC an episode of "How it's Made" deals with tire manufacturing. Unfortunately, again IIRC, it deals with retreads. It was plenty informative for that particular subject, and I'm sure many of your more inquisitive viewers would enjoy it. However, I think more would enjoy the process of producing a "virgin" car tire & the different options such as steel or corded, especially if done in your style of video, and even moreso if you had some company sponsorship. In the meantime, I suggest that anyone looking for the tire molding process to seek out the retreading video as the final molding is going to be nearly identical to that of a brand new tire.
The tire companies get pretty frigid when you ask to see the the magic behind the curtain :). It'd be rare to get to do footage on a modern tire company production floor. Great video.
Matthew Zaleski Yeah, I just remember How It's Made videos. This is the kinda channel that would be perfect for making a video on a non-proprietary process, like molding. I don't think they'll want to talk more than generalities about compound.
Very interesting. On a Porsche that I had years ago I had a set of Yokahama A008Ps that I carefully rotated frequently to equalize treadwear. I timed the point when the tread wore down to zero to the beginning of our dry season in San Diego and so I was able to drive the car for quite a while on slick tires. The handling was fantastic, above the already great handling of the tire and I had no problem. On the rare occasion when I did encounter water on the road I would just slow down and drive more carefully and so I never had an issue. However, when my wife found out that I was driving on slicks she made me go out and buy new tires😟
This is how a video about Tires should always be done. It doesn't mean necessarily to be kind of similar copies, but the explanation should be correct. I saw different videos where there was this tendency to actually make all people think that is not an issue at all on the wet surface as the Tire Wears. Thanks for giving us this explanation.
True that on the average economy tyre it will grain performance with wear, but UHP road tyres with much softer compounds are susceptible to heat cycles. So if you push them get them hot you will change the compound over time and make it harder, losing dry performance with wear.
This is one of my most favorite channels on TH-cam. The Michelin Pilot Super Sport tires on my 2018 Corvette Grand Sport grip like glue but at 10-15k miles they will be worn out due to soft sticky rubber. It's the sacrifice I can live with due to the turning performance that is amazing!!
Go with the Pilot Sport 4s, it is the number 1 summer performance tire on the market right now. I run them on my car and the performance is outstanding.
Thumbs Gaming they would be next for me but my Tesla's 21 inch rims means they don't even make pilot sport 4s's in that size yet. Only the older pilot super sports. Looked up reviews and people say apart from longevity, performance is not any better
Assuming you drive the car spiritedly, 15k miles on a tire/car like that is very impressive life. Cup 2's are pretty much as close as you'll get to an R-compound tire, along with bridgestone RE-71r's. If I remember correctly, the cup 2's are actually 180TW, which isn't even allowed in most street tire class races, where treadwear ratings are capped at 200.
I really enjoyed this one! My work revolves pretty much entirely around tires. The insight you brought really helped me understand the inner works of a tire!
As a Certified Tire Pro for National Tire and Battery and TBC Corp, I gotta say... Damn good job and on point with everything about the Michelin Premier :) I'll be using that explanation about partial depth siping with cheaper tires to explain to customers why dealership tires are the way they are as well as the explanation about the thinner steel for skinnier siping making the process more expensive, but overall justified due to the better performance :)
I work in a tire shop so I already know these Michelin Premier are pretty much top of the line, but it's nice to learn something new. No matter what brand I get, I make sure it has a long mileage warranty. I also look to see if the sipes go down to the bottom so even when they are worn out, performance isn't degraded as much. Michelin and a few Goodyear ones do this as well but I haven't seen Pirelli do it.
I had those Michelin Premiere A/S on my Accord before it was traded in and those tires are the best all season's I have used to date! It got me through 6-8 inches of snow with no issues and also with no compromise on safety!
My brother works for Michelin in Lexington, South Carolina and has done the very same test you did! Tires are extremely important and way more complex than most people realize.
I love hearing that the tires I replaced the original ones with are better and I love hearing that, in some ways, my tires get better with age instead of just diminishing in value. Thank you skinny Subaru man.
First of all - great video as always! Advances in tire technology have been fantastic. There are a few considerations here that perhaps warrant mentioning. 1) Depending on where you live, the percentage of your overall driving time that is done in rainy weather is relatively small. Some regions have a lot of wet weather, some less. But regardless, the percentage of hours in the year in which precipitation is falling is fairly small. Statistically, more than 2/3rds of the total precipitation in the US happens in just 30 to 55 calendar days per year. And on those days, it rains far less than the entire 24 hours. Overall, the percentage of time it's raining in the US is between 2 and 8%, depending on where you live and how you measure it. So there's statistically a 95% chance it will be dry when you are driving. 2) Michelin should really differentiate between "wet roads" and "standing water". What Michelin REALLY means in their testing is standing water of some specified depth. For roads that are merely "wet", the compound matters FAR more than the tread pattern or depth. Even more than the tire compound, the actual road surface itself is an even larger factor! Grooved concrete with a broom finish surface, like is used widely here in Texas, provides vastly superior grip over smooth rolled asphalt. This is true whether wet or dry. Further - grooved concrete is permanent. It does not change over time largely. So the effect of worn tires is mitigated by the surface treatment of the road surface. 3) The statistic of one being 4 times more likely to have an accident is also somewhat misleading. There are two aspects to this. First - "being involved" in an accident is different than you being the cause of one. If someone else has terrible tires or drives too fast and slams into you, the tires on YOUR car will have little effect on that. Next - you aren't entirely helpless here. In the USA, few if any drivers receive any real wet weather driving instruction. Drivers get education about driving in the wet, but little to no practice. But the point here is that the WAY you choose to drive when it's raining has the majority of the impact on whether or not you have an accident. One could simply slow down a little, drive more cautiously, take turns slower, and make other adjustments that would have a much greater impact than your tires. 4) On my own car, I run Michelin's Sport Cup 2 track racing tires - and I use them for daily driving. The rationale is that they have much higher dry traction due to a very sticky rubber compound. Since 95% of the time I am driving on dry roads, I benefit vastly from better grip, shorter stopping distances, and better turning control that a wet weather tire. Further - these tires are actually designed for wet tracks - so on wet (but not standing water), they actually outperform many tires designed for hydroplaning resistance. The tread compound on the inner third of the tire is highly optimized for wet traction, the outer for dry and wear resistance. Their only shortcoming is that they do not perform well in standing water. So when that happens and I have to drive, I simply reduce my speed a good bit. Most modern roads have excellent drainage - and as I noted before, many have grooves in them to help shed water. In the end, I actually feel like a tire optimized for world-class dry and wet, but not standing water performance, combined with some driving modifications for standing water, is actually safer than going for a "one tire to rule them all" approach - mostly because of the trade-offs that invariably must happen. And we haven't talked about snow yet!
Great video. Have you considered doing a comparison video between premium brands vs. budget brands but instead of using the same size of tires, use a budget brand tires that is 10-15mm wider but still maintains roughly the same circumference. For example, Bridgestone/Michelin/Goodyear 195/65 R15 vs. any budget brand 205/60 R15 or even 215/55R R15, etc. if these tire sizes exist. My theory is that would the wider width of the budget brand tires compensate for traction/grip and match the performance of the premium tires and at the same time cost far less? I will be watching. Cheers
If you wear a tire within say 1/2 years the compound won't change; anyways after 3 to 4 years the compound will start to degrade, getting worse with time. After 5 to 6 years the compound will have become harder and will provide less grip. TCS tested this and they found that a 6 year old tire is dangerous. This test was done with full thread depth and with different tire ages.
Wow I thought you would 100% say worn tires are worse, being as you're sponsored by a tire company i thought you would tell everyone to get new tires. Good to see you don't sell out out and just say whatever your sponsors would be most happy with. Keeping it 100 with your viewers big respect
Last week I changed my front tyres. Both old and new were Continental contactsport 5. The outer half of the old ones were slicks, the inner half had just a bit of profile left. After about 1h on the new ones they currently don't have the dry road performance the old ones had. Braking is less and in corners I have to correct more.
One other thing that you didn't mention is that tires can be paired to a vehicle's suspension. Usually this is with high performance cars, but also with all terrain models you see it as well, where the tire's characteristics are specifically designed to compliment the suspension of the vehicle - even down to ensuring that the spacing of the tread pattern reduces noise compared to the harmonics of the vehicle body. I didn't buy into this at first, and then I went and put tires designed for my oddball sized old Forester on it, and despite being A/T they significantly quieted the car down over normal touring tires, and improved handling, road feel and steering precision in all conditions except smooth dry pavement, where I don't really need it as much anyway.
When I started diving I tried to buy budget tires over the years I noticed that some wear faster others came defective or became unfixable in some cases and needed to be replaced sooner. Then I started buying more expensive performance tires and noticed they last longer and performed better for a longer period of time and didn’t have any mayor issues for the life the tire. Lesson learned as with other things you buy you pay for what you get. Also Michelin is not the type of tire that I buy anymore.
Michelin tires can be great on some cars in certain environments, but an absolute mess on other cars in the same environment. When I was growing up Michelin tires got great ratings for tread life and mileage, but not so good in the rain. Over time they have gotten better in the rain.
Very cool stuff about the silica in the tires, with the binding agent! In pavement engineering, we need to have binding agents and emulsifiers for the gravel and sand aggregate to mix in with the bitumen. There is definitely a lot of chemistry happening there and different mix designs do very different things. Very cool to understand this is happening in tires...makes a lot of sense, as these items genuinely hit the roads, and being complementary to the roads is smart!
I had Premier A/S tires on an old car of mine, they seemed really nice and I liked the idea of the tread expanding as the tire wears down. Sadly they don't make them in 235/40R19, so I guess I'm gonna go with the Primacy MXM4s when my current Continentals wear out.
as always: Great video! But we need to consider: a new tire has more rubber to work with. That means a new tire gets warmed up faster, while a really worn tire can get problems to reach his working temperature at all (which was one reason when I crashed my Caterham . 4°C tarmac and worn semi slicks are no good combination :-) ) More rubber on a new tire means also a softer limit range. Maybe it won´t be as high as with a worn tire in the dry, but for most people with average driving skills a wider range would be better to be warned, that the car will reach it´s limits soon. Regards
Hmm... These designs for better wet performance when partially worn are exactly as I've expected. The reason they're not more widespread is because they do compromise dry and new tyre performance significantly unless you resort to expensive solutions to compensate, such as narrower but deeper sipes that impose more stress on the tyre mold and make damaging them and the tyre more likely, more expensive tread compounds that are stiff enough to not flex too much when new while still providing good grip, etc. Basically, trading off a bit of new tyre performance for more consistent performance over the entire usable lifespan of the tyre.
I had those Michelin Premiere A/S tires on my Accord and didn't need winter tires at all. It had gone through 10+ inches of snow without issues and fuel consumption was awesome and just as good as my Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3's. It's an awesome all season tire and if you don't get much snow then this is the best you're going to get for an all season tire!
Funny story with a question attached. I drove my brother and myself from Seattle to Portland for a funeral in my C6Z. I had 345 40 R19s Nitto NT05R’s on the rear. It was supposed to be clear weather however it decided to dump rain. I could not safely exceed 55 mph. The car was riding on top of the water most of the time it seemed. I filled up my tank at the beginning and again at the end. I calculated 29mpg. Question: does water and a slick tire equal significant reduction in rolling resistance (if so how much) or does simply displacing the water negate any potential efficiency gains?
idk man, i was in between michelins and pirellis when i brought my tyres. after watching reviews online i decided to get the pirellis and i couldn't be happier. they wear good, the grip is still there and they are really quiet. i got about 30k miles out of them and they hould be good for at least 5k while still passing the mot.
Wow what timing with this video because I was actually tire shopping at the moment. Now with all this new information I shall reconsider my previous choice in tire
Go Bridgestone Tires! I bought some BF Goodrich tires about a year ago because they were known for good wet grip and living in South FL its always raining ( its raining right now ). I have to say these are very good wet grip tires, they give me a great boost of confidence when driving in the rain. the tires are BF Goodrich G Force Comp II . My favorite grip tires so far are Bridgestone Potenzas.
What about heat cycling effecting the physical characteristics of the compound. Isn't it true that tires become "harder" over time, reducing wet and dry traction?
Best way to increase braking and performance is to slow down when the weather is bad. I and many others often forget this. Somehow Jason is convincing me to buy cheaper tires, with good compound for dry; and just drive more cautiously when there is the rare Southern California rain.
Great vid. In my dry weather driving (rear wheel drive grip) experience with tires, when the tire wears and the tread depth is reduced and more actual rubber is touching the ground grip is reduced when compared to a newer tire with deeper tread, I’ve always thought that maybe the compound is harder the more the tire wears but according to your video there should be more grip the “balder” the tire is. I’ve also thought that maybe the actual flex of the deeper tread allows the rubber to get a better hold on the rough asphalt surface, allows it to kind of dig in because there is more material to conform. I’d like to see a side by side grip comparison with a low tread performance tire and a brand new tire of the same make/model, I still feel like the new tire would provide more grip...
As a general trend, the newer your tyres, the better they are. The more worn a tyre is, the less effective it is, the less safe it is, the less it will resist punctures and the less it will resist aquaplaning and skidding. There are some things though, an old tyres may be slightly better for. 1. An old tyre, run at fairly high pressure, will have lower rolling resistance than a new one. That makes a small difference to fuel economy. 2. A worn tyre will build up far less heat at continuous high speed. That makes tyre failure of the tread separation type or the overheat and blow-out type, rather less likely. 3. A mostly worn tyre will have much lower slip angles than a new one, because it has less tread to distort. (Colin Chapman : "if it's not there, then it can't flex or break.") 4. If you're going to play with a car, and risk the chance of a flatspot because of a spin, or a brake lock-up, wouldn't you rather have that on a tyre that was about to be replaced, than one that you still wanted to do another 20 thousand miles on? 5. On a cold day, a newer tyre will grip much better than an old one. But on a hot summer afternoon, on a road with fast sweeping corners, in a car that is heavily loaded, a worn tyre generates less heat and gives off that heat much faster & easier. In most ways, a newer tyre is always better, but not in every way, not all the time.
I just bought Premier A/S last November and ran them through most of the Canadian winter. They had very good start/stopping traction in the snow (for all seasons) but understeered quite a bit when turning. Tread design probably affected this the most as they are designed for water not snow. No issues with wet traction or wear so far. Overall they are decently quiet and I am happy with them.
I bought the Michelin premier AS for my girlfriend’s sonata and it improved the feel and handling of the car in the dry and wet immensely over the stock Kumhos. I’m going to be ordering Michelin Pilot Sport AS 3+ for my Infiniti G37 next week to replace my aging and slightly dry rotted Dunlop Sport Maxx AS and I’m expecting a vast improvement.
A coworker has the same car you do and did the same switch. The Dunlops were not as nice, even when new, as the those Michelin tires. Lots of G37 owners I talk to cannot figure out what Infiniti was thinking with that Dunlop tire choice, especially for rain driving.
My experience has always been that new tyres have better dry weather (and definitely wet weather) grip than worn. Is it possible that the compound deteriorates over time due to kinetic and thermal stresses to be less effective?
What about the degradation of compound performance with time? I think that some great tires get really bad with age, Pirelli Cinturato is an example, after two summer seasons the compound on my tires became terribly hard, lost the grip.
There can be a mistake at 1:20-1:40 - compound DOES change with wear (with time). Because rubber isn't 100% chemical inert - it changes, usually becomes firmer.
Well that was very informative and impressive. Impressive because we all know that hype creeps into such videos, but Jason, you managed to avoid that very well indeed and just deliver useful info. Thank you. Can you do the same for off road tyres too? A debate seems to crop up now and then in 4WD forums where one group believes wide tyres are best for offroad, while the other believe narrower tyres are the best. Now the debate is over grip in sand, mud and gravel and when the air pressure is reduced purposely to increase the area of the footprint and to absorb impacts more readily, and ofcourse, the flip side is fuel economy, wear and bitumen performance when the pressures are back to normal levels. It's a much more complicated scenario than for normal cars and understanding the basics will help many offroaders choose a tyre that is fit for purpose.
I've got some Heidenau K66 Silica winter tires on my bike and they perform like a beast in every situation! from -10-30° C they can Perform great but with sunshine and dry roads the sweetspot is between 0-20°C. They can handle icy (not iceplates xD), slightly snowy roads or while raining under 6mm water on the street pretty impressive. They feel like sports tires at our todays temprature about 15°C.
Jason, How about doing a whiteboard about replacing one partially worn tire on an all wheel drive car. Say 1/32 worn, 2/32s worn etcetera. After getting a flat, the tire salesman wanted to sell me four new tire because my tire had worn 3/32s and he said it would be unsafe for me to replace just one tire. Please talk about the differential, the transmission, and tire ware. Is it really unsafe, will I damage my transmission like he said? As always, great work, Keep it up!
That’s one of the main reasons why they’re so many accidents in rain and snow conditions in high populated areas. Driving too fast for conditions and having worn tires on vehicle also plays a major part. Many people can’t afford to buy a brand new tire so instead they go out and buy on average used tires which are fairly descent. If you come through the city of st.louis you’ll see many used tire shops around especially in the hood because folks can’t afford newer tires like that.
Still using my Michelin Energy XM1 from 7 years ago. Even if the tread is nearly gone, the tire still performs well except on wet as expect though and still doesn't have bulges unlike the former Bridgestone tires I had when its tread is almost gone.
Some good insights on why some tires cost more than others. As far as driving on older tires, if they have no dry rot, you are probably OK on back roads below 50mph, but on the highway, watch out. Proved this recently with a set of 10-year-old Dunlop winter tires that look like new as I rarely drive the car on the highway. But at 60 mph had definitely developed a shimmy. Also, stay away from Chinese tires with unknown brand names to avoid balance issues in highway driving.
Jason, While I appreciate the contents and your presentation in the video, I'd have to disagree with your premise that the tire compound's performance does not change over the course of the tire's life. While it is true that lower tread depth provides stiffer tread blocks which would perform better than full tread depth where there is more tread squirm, this higher performance claim would only be true if the age of the compound is the same -- ie. you're literally comparing a brand new tire vs a brand new tire that has been shaven down to having less tread.. In everyday situations, the tire compound's performance deteriorates over time as a result of heat cycles, UV damage, general drying out as the tire age, etc. Especially as a result of heat cycling, both the dry and wet performance of a street tire will drop significantly due to changes in the compound.
Had a set of Premier AS thrown into my Grandmother's Mercedes to replace the stock ContiProContacts. Night and day difference in rain & snow as well as being massively quieter & more comfortable to ride, but did suffer a 1MPG loss in fuel economy. Still overall they are an excellent tire.
Andrew Malkin true. mine are 16 years old but the average driver doesn't drive a car hard enough to warrant worrying about them getting a bit harder. as long as they are structurally safe it makes little difference unless you are on a racing track or using motorcycle tyres which are more critical.
Great explanation, you left out a discussion of changes to cross linking and structure as tires age/heat cycle, and a number of other fun things like shaved tires, but you hit the main points spot on. Great video
I can personally confirm that good tires, even on stock suspension, makes the biggest handling difference on a car. I drive a 1996 Volvo 850 with a few mods (BC coilovers, sway-bars, wheels/tires, intake, exhaust, etc) on track and autocross and the tires by far were the biggest improvement. Falken Azenis RT615K+ tires.
Hey Jason, wouldn't the degradation of the tire compound of a worn tire effect the grip quite alot and offset any gains to be had through the increased surface area? Most guys I know that go racing shave their tire to get better lap times, but after a certain amount of heat cycles they either scrap the tires or sell them for cheap. Can you elaborate on this?
I love your video style, very interesting. I have a question. Say you have a 500bhp car in a hot climate. E.g 35/40*c. What would happen if you took that car to the north pole. How much more power would it make due to the decrease in temperature and higher volume of air. Would it make a substantial increase or not much? Every car I've ever owned always feels more responsive during the winter times. And when it's red hot outside I can feel an impact on the engine power.
lelelel cya BRO I agree, I wonder just how far (cold) you can go. I remember back in the day the little intercooler sprayers were everywhere, now it's meth/water injection but those are two mostly unrelated things.. It'd be cool (lol) to see what a steady source of say, 20*F air would do for naturally aspirated and especially forced induction 🤘🤘
Can you make a benchmark with light rims vs normal aluminum vs non-aluminum rims to save fuel? is it worth to buy special light rims to save fuel? Also how much a tire must weight to improve performance?
Engineering Explained: Please do a video on "Why do car tires need to match, FWD, RWD, AWD, 4X4" explain the consquences and how tire tread/wear can make a difference on your gears.
Thread pattern/depth changes by wear. But also compound changes by age (eg. for winter tires some additives to rubber may wear/vapor/press/whatever out), and also even compound might get adversely be affected by heat cycling (especially matters for tires used in both daily driving & trackdays). Michelin is often mentioned as providing more mileage in most classes of tires (at usually also proportionally higher price though), but there might be cases where no matter all the tries with smart tech to improve tire performance at higher wear, but cheap new non premium tire can outperform used premium one.
In my old sporty car i have tried several tyres to finally find the one GODLIKE for it. dimensions were R15 205' 55. I originally had goodyear and my god they were horrible. I was having excellent grip for 1-2 corners then they would overheat. then I tried Yokohama, they were consistent but I wasn't really satisfied with the amount of grip they provided. Michellin's were a bit worse but then I got some Pirelli Drago P5200, the grip was not only simply amazing grip but also consistent and only a bit worse than the Yokohama in the wet. I must say however that where I live the temperatures in the summer may peak to 45C during the day and 30+C in the night. There is little rain in the winter and autumn so I was focusing mainly on dry and hot weather conditions... I could do that because at the rate I was consuming tires at the time I needed new tyres every 6 months lol without even burning tyres, just from cornering
I used to work for a Tire cord company that supplied polyester cords to virtually all tire manufactures on the planet. Michelin always demanded the best performing cords with strict quality control. The quality demand by Michelin was quite difficult to meet in most times. So I tend to trust Michelin as a consumer. Some major tire companies (North American brand, sorry) were not really interested in the best quality cords. Instead they wanted cheaper versions. The other tire company that demanded quality cords were Hankook tire as well as Nexen. So I trust this company too. But when it comes to compound technology, Michelin is the best.
AH, I ain't worries about a little water, it is snow. Even a tire at 1/2 its life will decrease performance in snow. Then add a big torque monster engine and 255's on the driving wheels and you have a new contestant in the automotive Luge. Great video -- I like Engineering Explained !!!!
Compounds does age, heat cycles accelerate the aging and most tires become harder with time, which also contribute to better hot/dry performance and worse cold/wet performance.
Dear Friend... I just had almost a fatal accident while running on Michellin Premier LTX - I also thought that the old tire will give me grip... but its completely failed in light rain. and at approximately 80-90 Km/h... its failed. I will take it up with michellin..
fun, i have the Michelin Premier A/S tires on my car. it's good to know as they are about half worn they are still good for the summer. good tires. thank you for this video.
Good video Jason. In Australia here compound is near on ignored both at the consumers end and tyre shop. There is no such thing as a winter tire or sumer tire here, and the tyre manufacturer just goes and picks the best one to suit them, normally a hard compound to last long. For some unknown reason, tyre life in thousands of kilometres is a major reason for buying a certain tyre here. So you have brands bragging bout 80000 km life. This ofcourse is a winter trade off in grip. For example, the 17in bridgestone at dualers for my dads land rover discovery have that hard of a compound that in our cold weather of 5 degrees ,they nearly turn into slicks and become very unpredictable, almost like drivig on 2mm of tread in the rain. Ofcourse same applies for there purpose of off road when your on rocky ground when cold you end up doing burnouts everywhere. I believe they did this because the first batch for that size and load rating( the discoverys are a rather wieghty car at 2600kg full spec) was too soft in summer and lasted but 20000kms for a few early customers. I mean for average driving of 13000km to 20000kms a year making a 4 to 5 year life span on tyres really that bad that they do these silly decisions over here( cooper tires are also bad for this)
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How timely this video is ...I just pointed out the wear bars on a friends of mines car suggesting the tire is worn and needs replacement..Now I have a better explanation more tho say to convince them to replace that tire.
Hey, nice vid, you havent mentiones compund aging, which isn't something it really happens to me as I wear them out in 2Y but when I got the car with 3yo tires and only a few km I got to a point they wouldn't stick anymore pretty fast, even still having good thread depth. JS
There's one thing you forgot! Age!!! Depending on how much you drive, it is not only wear that affects the tyre but also age. Rubber compound is only guaranteed for a certain period. So although you get more surface contact are as the tyre wear down, with time the compound losses its characteristics becoming stiff, dry & brittle
Mihai Constantinescu THANK YOU, just mention this in my question.
Great comment, came here to say the same!
tire.
Tyre, actually. I tire of your antics.
And on top of age let's not forget heating/cooling cycles.
Good they removed the badges, not even God will know that's a Camry
Don't know what I was driving, but I do know it was fast! Guessing something exotic. 😂
Engineering Explained Did the big reveal happen when you found out you were in a Chevy all along?
Jabid21 definitely was a Bugatti... look at those crazy curves and that aerodynamic design
That was the 2018 Camry. Looked into it myself this year, but read all the negative reviews of how much molded plastic Toyota used this time around, making the interior look and feel so blah. An untrained eye will like all the curves in the console though.
Daniel Royer that blah was voted among the best interiors of the year
A good example of sponsored content done right. Thank you.
Very welcome, thanks for watching!
I personally would love an enTIRE series dedicated to tires. Tire engineering explained. In depth, everything. Make me a tire nerd in depth.
Thanks.
When EE makes sponsored contents that are also super educational, I wish I could like the video more than once!
rainystorm88 it doesn't make me want to buy muchilin tyres I already knew they are the best and very expensive and unnecessary for the average driver.
really though.. kill all the advertising and sell the best tire for a moderate price
How does abs work?
rainystorm88 y c
I shall scroll to the top after this comment and like in your honour, rainystorm88.
not enTIREly intuitive huh?
Sold you sole. Like the catholic church. Next train for the coast. Appeal to emotion
Get a GRIP. You are only COMPOUNDing the problem! :)
You mean "soul", not "sole".
enTyrely*
It is 100% intuitive
The only automotive channel explain things perfectly.
I really like tire videos. I also really like when you use sponsored content to make high quality educational content with connections.
Great video, really hope to see a video in that testing facility. Also want a video in the factory if you ever get the chance- I would love to see the molding process and tooling
Glad you enjoyed it! Something often overlooked (that you pointed out quite accurately) is that sponsored content generally provides access to engineers and product managers that I typically wouldn't have the ability to speak with, especially not for long durations on a single project. It's great to be able to pick their brains for information, and ultimately we all learn from it (this is always my goal for sponsored content). With regards to the onsite testing, here's a link to a few videos: bit.ly/2LdI157. Under the section where it says "we partnered with Jason Fenske" there are three clickable video thumbnails. And I agree, it'd be very cool to see the molding process!
Engineering Explained there are videos showing the tire making process, although the ones I've seen kind of "leave you hanging," especially if you're an engineer or technical type.
IIRC an episode of "How it's Made" deals with tire manufacturing. Unfortunately, again IIRC, it deals with retreads. It was plenty informative for that particular subject, and I'm sure many of your more inquisitive viewers would enjoy it. However, I think more would enjoy the process of producing a "virgin" car tire & the different options such as steel or corded, especially if done in your style of video, and even moreso if you had some company sponsorship.
In the meantime, I suggest that anyone looking for the tire molding process to seek out the retreading video as the final molding is going to be nearly identical to that of a brand new tire.
The tire companies get pretty frigid when you ask to see the the magic behind the curtain :). It'd be rare to get to do footage on a modern tire company production floor. Great video.
Matthew Zaleski Yeah, I just remember How It's Made videos. This is the kinda channel that would be perfect for making a video on a non-proprietary process, like molding. I don't think they'll want to talk more than generalities about compound.
Engineering Explained thanks for the linked videos! I'll watch them.
Very interesting. On a Porsche that I had years ago I had a set of Yokahama A008Ps that I carefully rotated frequently to equalize treadwear. I timed the point when the tread wore down to zero to the beginning of our dry season in San Diego and so I was able to drive the car for quite a while on slick tires. The handling was fantastic, above the already great handling of the tire and I had no problem. On the rare occasion when I did encounter water on the road I would just slow down and drive more carefully and so I never had an issue. However, when my wife found out that I was driving on slicks she made me go out and buy new tires😟
This is how a video about Tires should always be done. It doesn't mean necessarily to be kind of similar copies, but the explanation should be correct. I saw different videos where there was this tendency to actually make all people think that is not an issue at all on the wet surface as the Tire Wears. Thanks for giving us this explanation.
True that on the average economy tyre it will grain performance with wear, but UHP road tyres with much softer compounds are susceptible to heat cycles. So if you push them get them hot you will change the compound over time and make it harder, losing dry performance with wear.
This is one of my most favorite channels on TH-cam. The Michelin Pilot Super Sport tires on my 2018 Corvette Grand Sport grip like glue but at 10-15k miles they will be worn out due to soft sticky rubber. It's the sacrifice I can live with due to the turning performance that is amazing!!
Go with the Pilot Sport 4s, it is the number 1 summer performance tire on the market right now. I run them on my car and the performance is outstanding.
Thumbs Gaming they would be next for me but my Tesla's 21 inch rims means they don't even make pilot sport 4s's in that size yet. Only the older pilot super sports. Looked up reviews and people say apart from longevity, performance is not any better
Assuming you drive the car spiritedly, 15k miles on a tire/car like that is very impressive life. Cup 2's are pretty much as close as you'll get to an R-compound tire, along with bridgestone RE-71r's. If I remember correctly, the cup 2's are actually 180TW, which isn't even allowed in most street tire class races, where treadwear ratings are capped at 200.
Try Nitto NT05.
My slingshot back is gone in about 6k bfgoodrich pro comp not getibg afain
I really enjoyed this one! My work revolves pretty much entirely around tires. The insight you brought really helped me understand the inner works of a tire!
As a Certified Tire Pro for National Tire and Battery and TBC Corp, I gotta say...
Damn good job and on point with everything about the Michelin Premier :)
I'll be using that explanation about partial depth siping with cheaper tires to explain to customers why dealership tires are the way they are as well as the explanation about the thinner steel for skinnier siping making the process more expensive, but overall justified due to the better performance :)
I work in a tire shop so I already know these Michelin Premier are pretty much top of the line, but it's nice to learn something new. No matter what brand I get, I make sure it has a long mileage warranty. I also look to see if the sipes go down to the bottom so even when they are worn out, performance isn't degraded as much. Michelin and a few Goodyear ones do this as well but I haven't seen Pirelli do it.
Really interesting video Jason!
Thanks Matt!
I had those Michelin Premiere A/S on my Accord before it was traded in and those tires are the best all season's I have used to date! It got me through 6-8 inches of snow with no issues and also with no compromise on safety!
Lets pray the Michelin sidewalls would not cracks with a million smiles in 3 years just like my.
Unless you used up all the treads before that.
@@loktom4068 That tire had like a 75K or 100K tread life warranty and did you not take advantage of it?
My brother works for Michelin in Lexington, South Carolina and has done the very same test you did! Tires are extremely important and way more complex than most people realize.
I love hearing that the tires I replaced the original ones with are better and I love hearing that, in some ways, my tires get better with age instead of just diminishing in value. Thank you skinny Subaru man.
First of all - great video as always! Advances in tire technology have been fantastic.
There are a few considerations here that perhaps warrant mentioning.
1) Depending on where you live, the percentage of your overall driving time that is done in rainy weather is relatively small. Some regions have a lot of wet weather, some less. But regardless, the percentage of hours in the year in which precipitation is falling is fairly small. Statistically, more than 2/3rds of the total precipitation in the US happens in just 30 to 55 calendar days per year. And on those days, it rains far less than the entire 24 hours. Overall, the percentage of time it's raining in the US is between 2 and 8%, depending on where you live and how you measure it. So there's statistically a 95% chance it will be dry when you are driving.
2) Michelin should really differentiate between "wet roads" and "standing water". What Michelin REALLY means in their testing is standing water of some specified depth. For roads that are merely "wet", the compound matters FAR more than the tread pattern or depth. Even more than the tire compound, the actual road surface itself is an even larger factor! Grooved concrete with a broom finish surface, like is used widely here in Texas, provides vastly superior grip over smooth rolled asphalt. This is true whether wet or dry. Further - grooved concrete is permanent. It does not change over time largely. So the effect of worn tires is mitigated by the surface treatment of the road surface.
3) The statistic of one being 4 times more likely to have an accident is also somewhat misleading. There are two aspects to this. First - "being involved" in an accident is different than you being the cause of one. If someone else has terrible tires or drives too fast and slams into you, the tires on YOUR car will have little effect on that. Next - you aren't entirely helpless here. In the USA, few if any drivers receive any real wet weather driving instruction. Drivers get education about driving in the wet, but little to no practice. But the point here is that the WAY you choose to drive when it's raining has the majority of the impact on whether or not you have an accident. One could simply slow down a little, drive more cautiously, take turns slower, and make other adjustments that would have a much greater impact than your tires.
4) On my own car, I run Michelin's Sport Cup 2 track racing tires - and I use them for daily driving. The rationale is that they have much higher dry traction due to a very sticky rubber compound. Since 95% of the time I am driving on dry roads, I benefit vastly from better grip, shorter stopping distances, and better turning control that a wet weather tire. Further - these tires are actually designed for wet tracks - so on wet (but not standing water), they actually outperform many tires designed for hydroplaning resistance. The tread compound on the inner third of the tire is highly optimized for wet traction, the outer for dry and wear resistance. Their only shortcoming is that they do not perform well in standing water. So when that happens and I have to drive, I simply reduce my speed a good bit. Most modern roads have excellent drainage - and as I noted before, many have grooves in them to help shed water.
In the end, I actually feel like a tire optimized for world-class dry and wet, but not standing water performance, combined with some driving modifications for standing water, is actually safer than going for a "one tire to rule them all" approach - mostly because of the trade-offs that invariably must happen.
And we haven't talked about snow yet!
You’re are genuinely the only Content creator that makes great stuff even when sponsored. Really enjoy this video
Great video. Have you considered doing a comparison video between premium brands vs. budget brands but instead of using the same size of tires, use a budget brand tires that is 10-15mm wider but still maintains roughly the same circumference. For example, Bridgestone/Michelin/Goodyear 195/65 R15 vs. any budget brand 205/60 R15 or even 215/55R R15, etc. if these tire sizes exist. My theory is that would the wider width of the budget brand tires compensate for traction/grip and match the performance of the premium tires and at the same time cost far less? I will be watching. Cheers
If you wear a tire within say 1/2 years the compound won't change; anyways after 3 to 4 years the compound will start to degrade, getting worse with time. After 5 to 6 years the compound will have become harder and will provide less grip.
TCS tested this and they found that a 6 year old tire is dangerous. This test was done with full thread depth and with different tire ages.
I didn't tire of watching this video from beginning to end. 👍
Wow I thought you would 100% say worn tires are worse, being as you're sponsored by a tire company i thought you would tell everyone to get new tires. Good to see you don't sell out out and just say whatever your sponsors would be most happy with. Keeping it 100 with your viewers big respect
Thanks for confirming that worn tire actually has better grip in dry condition, while losing grip in wet condition.
Last week I changed my front tyres. Both old and new were Continental contactsport 5. The outer half of the old ones were slicks, the inner half had just a bit of profile left. After about 1h on the new ones they currently don't have the dry road performance the old ones had. Braking is less and in corners I have to correct more.
One other thing that you didn't mention is that tires can be paired to a vehicle's suspension. Usually this is with high performance cars, but also with all terrain models you see it as well, where the tire's characteristics are specifically designed to compliment the suspension of the vehicle - even down to ensuring that the spacing of the tread pattern reduces noise compared to the harmonics of the vehicle body. I didn't buy into this at first, and then I went and put tires designed for my oddball sized old Forester on it, and despite being A/T they significantly quieted the car down over normal touring tires, and improved handling, road feel and steering precision in all conditions except smooth dry pavement, where I don't really need it as much anyway.
When I started diving I tried to buy budget tires over the years I noticed that some wear faster others came defective or became unfixable in some cases and needed to be replaced sooner. Then I started buying more expensive performance tires and noticed they last longer and performed better for a longer period of time and didn’t have any mayor issues for the life the tire. Lesson learned as with other things you buy you pay for what you get. Also Michelin is not the type of tire that I buy anymore.
Michelin tires can be great on some cars in certain environments, but an absolute mess on other cars in the same environment. When I was growing up Michelin tires got great ratings for tread life and mileage, but not so good in the rain. Over time they have gotten better in the rain.
Very cool stuff about the silica in the tires, with the binding agent! In pavement engineering, we need to have binding agents and emulsifiers for the gravel and sand aggregate to mix in with the bitumen. There is definitely a lot of chemistry happening there and different mix designs do very different things. Very cool to understand this is happening in tires...makes a lot of sense, as these items genuinely hit the roads, and being complementary to the roads is smart!
I had Premier A/S tires on an old car of mine, they seemed really nice and I liked the idea of the tread expanding as the tire wears down. Sadly they don't make them in 235/40R19, so I guess I'm gonna go with the Primacy MXM4s when my current Continentals wear out.
as always: Great video! But we need to consider: a new tire has more rubber to work with. That means a new tire gets warmed up faster, while a really worn tire can get problems to reach his working temperature at all (which was one reason when I crashed my Caterham . 4°C tarmac and worn semi slicks are no good combination :-) )
More rubber on a new tire means also a softer limit range. Maybe it won´t be as high as with a worn tire in the dry, but for most people with average driving skills a wider range would be better to be warned, that the car will reach it´s limits soon.
Regards
Hmm... These designs for better wet performance when partially worn are exactly as I've expected. The reason they're not more widespread is because they do compromise dry and new tyre performance significantly unless you resort to expensive solutions to compensate, such as narrower but deeper sipes that impose more stress on the tyre mold and make damaging them and the tyre more likely, more expensive tread compounds that are stiff enough to not flex too much when new while still providing good grip, etc. Basically, trading off a bit of new tyre performance for more consistent performance over the entire usable lifespan of the tyre.
I had those Michelin Premiere A/S tires on my Accord and didn't need winter tires at all. It had gone through 10+ inches of snow without issues and fuel consumption was awesome and just as good as my Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3's. It's an awesome all season tire and if you don't get much snow then this is the best you're going to get for an all season tire!
Blimey, probably the best video about tyre profiles I have ever seen. Before this was simply a black box to me. THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!
I use those Michelin premier a/s on my forester. Excellent wet and snow traction. Love them for northeast winters.
Funny story with a question attached. I drove my brother and myself from Seattle to Portland for a funeral in my C6Z. I had 345 40 R19s Nitto NT05R’s on the rear. It was supposed to be clear weather however it decided to dump rain. I could not safely exceed 55 mph. The car was riding on top of the water most of the time it seemed. I filled up my tank at the beginning and again at the end. I calculated 29mpg. Question: does water and a slick tire equal significant reduction in rolling resistance (if so how much) or does simply displacing the water negate any potential efficiency gains?
idk man, i was in between michelins and pirellis when i brought my tyres. after watching reviews online i decided to get the pirellis and i couldn't be happier. they wear good, the grip is still there and they are really quiet. i got about 30k miles out of them and they hould be good for at least 5k while still passing the mot.
Wow what timing with this video because I was actually tire shopping at the moment. Now with all this new information I shall reconsider my previous choice in tire
Go Bridgestone Tires! I bought some BF Goodrich tires about a year ago because they were known for good wet grip and living in South FL its always raining ( its raining right now ). I have to say these are very good wet grip tires, they give me a great boost of confidence when driving in the rain. the tires are BF Goodrich G Force Comp II . My favorite grip tires so far are Bridgestone Potenzas.
as an engineering student I prefer the more complicated topics, keep up the good work, love the channel
What about heat cycling effecting the physical characteristics of the compound. Isn't it true that tires become "harder" over time, reducing wet and dry traction?
Yes, I think a video on tire age would be a great idea! (versus wear).
Thanks. I really appreciate your channel and all the good work you do.
Best way to increase braking and performance is to slow down when the weather is bad. I and many others often forget this. Somehow Jason is convincing me to buy cheaper tires, with good compound for dry; and just drive more cautiously when there is the rare Southern California rain.
Great vid. In my dry weather driving (rear wheel drive grip) experience with tires, when the tire wears and the tread depth is reduced and more actual rubber is touching the ground grip is reduced when compared to a newer tire with deeper tread, I’ve always thought that maybe the compound is harder the more the tire wears but according to your video there should be more grip the “balder” the tire is. I’ve also thought that maybe the actual flex of the deeper tread allows the rubber to get a better hold on the rough asphalt surface, allows it to kind of dig in because there is more material to conform. I’d like to see a side by side grip comparison with a low tread performance tire and a brand new tire of the same make/model, I still feel like the new tire would provide more grip...
As a general trend, the newer your tyres, the better they are. The more worn a tyre is, the less effective it is, the less safe it is, the less it will resist punctures and the less it will resist aquaplaning and skidding.
There are some things though, an old tyres may be slightly better for.
1. An old tyre, run at fairly high pressure, will have lower rolling resistance than a new one. That makes a small difference to fuel economy.
2. A worn tyre will build up far less heat at continuous high speed. That makes tyre failure of the tread separation type or the overheat and blow-out type, rather less likely.
3. A mostly worn tyre will have much lower slip angles than a new one, because it has less tread to distort. (Colin Chapman : "if it's not there, then it can't flex or break.")
4. If you're going to play with a car, and risk the chance of a flatspot because of a spin, or a brake lock-up, wouldn't you rather have that on a tyre that was about to be replaced, than one that you still wanted to do another 20 thousand miles on?
5. On a cold day, a newer tyre will grip much better than an old one. But on a hot summer afternoon, on a road with fast sweeping corners, in a car that is heavily loaded, a worn tyre generates less heat and gives off that heat much faster & easier.
In most ways, a newer tyre is always better, but not in every way, not all the time.
Thanks for the reminder on puncture resistance.
I just bought Premier A/S last November and ran them through most of the Canadian winter. They had very good start/stopping traction in the snow (for all seasons) but understeered quite a bit when turning. Tread design probably affected this the most as they are designed for water not snow. No issues with wet traction or wear so far.
Overall they are decently quiet and I am happy with them.
I bought the Michelin premier AS for my girlfriend’s sonata and it improved the feel and handling of the car in the dry and wet immensely over the stock Kumhos. I’m going to be ordering Michelin Pilot Sport AS 3+ for my Infiniti G37 next week to replace my aging and slightly dry rotted Dunlop Sport Maxx AS and I’m expecting a vast improvement.
Really good choice of a tire. I used these this past fall\winter in the PNW and felt super stable at highway speeds in steady rain.
A coworker has the same car you do and did the same switch. The Dunlops were not as nice, even when new, as the those Michelin tires. Lots of G37 owners I talk to cannot figure out what Infiniti was thinking with that Dunlop tire choice, especially for rain driving.
This video should just be at the top of all online reviews of tires
My experience has always been that new tyres have better dry weather (and definitely wet weather) grip than worn. Is it possible that the compound deteriorates over time due to kinetic and thermal stresses to be less effective?
What about the degradation of compound performance with time? I think that some great tires get really bad with age, Pirelli Cinturato is an example, after two summer seasons the compound on my tires became terribly hard, lost the grip.
There can be a mistake at 1:20-1:40 - compound DOES change with wear (with time). Because rubber isn't 100% chemical inert - it changes, usually becomes firmer.
Well that was very informative and impressive. Impressive because we all know that hype creeps into such videos, but Jason, you managed to avoid that very well indeed and just deliver useful info. Thank you.
Can you do the same for off road tyres too?
A debate seems to crop up now and then in 4WD forums where one group believes wide tyres are best for offroad, while the other believe narrower tyres are the best. Now the debate is over grip in sand, mud and gravel and when the air pressure is reduced purposely to increase the area of the footprint and to absorb impacts more readily, and ofcourse, the flip side is fuel economy, wear and bitumen performance when the pressures are back to normal levels.
It's a much more complicated scenario than for normal cars and understanding the basics will help many offroaders choose a tyre that is fit for purpose.
As a riding instructor I have used a lot of Michelin tires for these exact reasons the last years. They do seem competitive.
I've got some Heidenau K66 Silica winter tires on my bike and they perform like a beast in every situation! from -10-30° C they can Perform great but with sunshine and dry roads the sweetspot is between 0-20°C. They can handle icy (not iceplates xD), slightly snowy roads or while raining under 6mm water on the street pretty impressive. They feel like sports tires at our todays temprature about 15°C.
Jason, How about doing a whiteboard about replacing one partially worn tire on an all wheel drive car. Say 1/32 worn, 2/32s worn etcetera. After getting a flat, the tire salesman wanted to sell me four new tire because my tire had worn 3/32s and he said it would be unsafe for me to replace just one tire. Please talk about the differential, the transmission, and tire ware. Is it really unsafe, will I damage my transmission like he said? As always, great work, Keep it up!
That’s one of the main reasons why they’re so many accidents in rain and snow conditions in high populated areas. Driving too fast for conditions and having worn tires on vehicle also plays a major part.
Many people can’t afford to buy a brand new tire so instead they go out and buy on average used tires which are fairly descent.
If you come through the city of st.louis you’ll see many used tire shops around especially in the hood because folks can’t afford newer tires like that.
Jason you’re the man!
Still using my Michelin Energy XM1 from 7 years ago. Even if the tread is nearly gone, the tire still performs well except on wet as expect though and still doesn't have bulges unlike the former Bridgestone tires I had when its tread is almost gone.
Great info! The narrow down to wide sipe is such a brilliant idea.
Some good insights on why some tires cost more than others. As far as driving on older tires, if they have no dry rot, you are probably OK on back roads below 50mph, but on the highway, watch out. Proved this recently with a set of 10-year-old Dunlop winter tires that look like new as I rarely drive the car on the highway. But at 60 mph had definitely developed a shimmy. Also, stay away from Chinese tires with unknown brand names to avoid balance issues in highway driving.
Jason,
While I appreciate the contents and your presentation in the video, I'd have to disagree with your premise that the tire compound's performance does not change over the course of the tire's life. While it is true that lower tread depth provides stiffer tread blocks which would perform better than full tread depth where there is more tread squirm, this higher performance claim would only be true if the age of the compound is the same -- ie. you're literally comparing a brand new tire vs a brand new tire that has been shaven down to having less tread..
In everyday situations, the tire compound's performance deteriorates over time as a result of heat cycles, UV damage, general drying out as the tire age, etc. Especially as a result of heat cycling, both the dry and wet performance of a street tire will drop significantly due to changes in the compound.
Had a set of Premier AS thrown into my Grandmother's Mercedes to replace the stock ContiProContacts. Night and day difference in rain & snow as well as being massively quieter & more comfortable to ride, but did suffer a 1MPG loss in fuel economy. Still overall they are an excellent tire.
Dry traction will not necessarily increase as the tire wears because the tires will heat cycle as they are used, making them harder.
Andrew Malkin true. mine are 16 years old but the average driver doesn't drive a car hard enough to warrant worrying about them getting a bit harder. as long as they are structurally safe it makes little difference unless you are on a racing track or using motorcycle tyres which are more critical.
I hope you're not driving on 16 years old tyres!?
Matowix you've obviously never heard of Paul Walker, have you...
You should not be driving on tires older than 10 years, that's an accident waiting to happen.
Ryan Gehret
I just steal worn tires from my local racetrack. I get free tires and I’m recycling as well as getting free hooiser racing tires
You forgot about heat cycles that change the compound performance
St0RM33 thank you, I asked the same. My a048 are a full second slower when old
Ummmm you don't heat cycle touring tires lol. Trying to race with them will help your drifting though lol
Great explanation, you left out a discussion of changes to cross linking and structure as tires age/heat cycle, and a number of other fun things like shaved tires, but you hit the main points spot on. Great video
Sorry if I overlooked this in the video, but what about dry-rotted tires? Does that effectively change the compound?
I can personally confirm that good tires, even on stock suspension, makes the biggest handling difference on a car. I drive a 1996 Volvo 850 with a few mods (BC coilovers, sway-bars, wheels/tires, intake, exhaust, etc) on track and autocross and the tires by far were the biggest improvement. Falken Azenis RT615K+ tires.
Your videos are always so informative, worth a watch every single time
Thank you!!
Hey Jason, wouldn't the degradation of the tire compound of a worn tire effect the grip quite alot and offset any gains to be had through the increased surface area? Most guys I know that go racing shave their tire to get better lap times, but after a certain amount of heat cycles they either scrap the tires or sell them for cheap. Can you elaborate on this?
I love your video style, very interesting.
I have a question.
Say you have a 500bhp car in a hot climate. E.g 35/40*c. What would happen if you took that car to the north pole. How much more power would it make due to the decrease in temperature and higher volume of air. Would it make a substantial increase or not much? Every car I've ever owned always feels more responsive during the winter times. And when it's red hot outside I can feel an impact on the engine power.
lelelel cya BRO I agree, I wonder just how far (cold) you can go. I remember back in the day the little intercooler sprayers were everywhere, now it's meth/water injection but those are two mostly unrelated things.. It'd be cool (lol) to see what a steady source of say, 20*F air would do for naturally aspirated and especially forced induction 🤘🤘
Wow amazing!!! It’s incredible how many technology are behind on Michelin tires!! Great video! Thanks
Can you make a benchmark with light rims vs normal aluminum vs non-aluminum rims to save fuel? is it worth to buy special light rims to save fuel?
Also how much a tire must weight to improve performance?
Engineering Explained: Please do a video on "Why do car tires need to match, FWD, RWD, AWD, 4X4" explain the consquences and how tire tread/wear can make a difference on your gears.
Thread pattern/depth changes by wear. But also compound changes by age (eg. for winter tires some additives to rubber may wear/vapor/press/whatever out), and also even compound might get adversely be affected by heat cycling (especially matters for tires used in both daily driving & trackdays). Michelin is often mentioned as providing more mileage in most classes of tires (at usually also proportionally higher price though), but there might be cases where no matter all the tries with smart tech to improve tire performance at higher wear, but cheap new non premium tire can outperform used premium one.
In my old sporty car i have tried several tyres to finally find the one GODLIKE for it. dimensions were R15 205' 55. I originally had goodyear and my god they were horrible. I was having excellent grip for 1-2 corners then they would overheat. then I tried Yokohama, they were consistent but I wasn't really satisfied with the amount of grip they provided. Michellin's were a bit worse but then I got some Pirelli Drago P5200, the grip was not only simply amazing grip but also consistent and only a bit worse than the Yokohama in the wet. I must say however that where I live the temperatures in the summer may peak to 45C during the day and 30+C in the night. There is little rain in the winter and autumn so I was focusing mainly on dry and hot weather conditions... I could do that because at the rate I was consuming tires at the time I needed new tyres every 6 months lol without even burning tyres, just from cornering
I used to work for a Tire cord company that supplied polyester cords to virtually all tire manufactures on the planet.
Michelin always demanded the best performing cords with strict quality control. The quality demand by Michelin was quite difficult to meet in most times. So I tend to trust Michelin as a consumer.
Some major tire companies (North American brand, sorry) were not really interested in the best quality cords. Instead they wanted cheaper versions.
The other tire company that demanded quality cords were Hankook tire as well as Nexen. So I trust this company too. But when it comes to compound technology, Michelin is the best.
AH, I ain't worries about a little water, it is snow. Even a tire at 1/2 its life will decrease performance in snow. Then add a big torque monster engine and 255's on the driving wheels and you have a new contestant in the automotive Luge. Great video -- I like Engineering Explained !!!!
Of course. I have said this since I was 10, but ppl don't understand friction. The only reason for grooves is for wet conditions.
How long ago was that?
Dennis Karlsson 40 yrs ago, when I watched indy cars
Ok, got it. =) And I agree with you completely.
Very informative video and well made. Thanks for sharing!
I hope one day we get to see all the stuff the michelin producers cut out.
Congratulations on the job though, you did great!
Compounds does age, heat cycles accelerate the aging and most tires become harder with time, which also contribute to better hot/dry performance and worse cold/wet performance.
hey engineering explained, I live in South Carolina, that's cool that you came to our state.
Dear Friend... I just had almost a fatal accident while running on Michellin Premier LTX - I also thought that the old tire will give me grip... but its completely failed in light rain.
and at approximately 80-90 Km/h... its failed. I will take it up with michellin..
Great video. Could you go over the differences and benefits of mud terrain/ all terrain/ highway tires? Not sure if you've already made a video so
fun, i have the Michelin Premier A/S tires on my car. it's good to know as they are about half worn they are still good for the summer. good tires. thank you for this video.
Good explanation!
Just a tip: u could make a video on how pressure influences grip on wet and dry performance.
I’ve never regretted investing in a new set of Michelins. It imparts the feeling of having a new vehicle.
Yeah because you nearly payed for a new vehicle.
@@starscream42 lmaooi
Good video Jason.
In Australia here compound is near on ignored both at the consumers end and tyre shop.
There is no such thing as a winter tire or sumer tire here, and the tyre manufacturer just goes and picks the best one to suit them, normally a hard compound to last long.
For some unknown reason, tyre life in thousands of kilometres is a major reason for buying a certain tyre here. So you have brands bragging bout 80000 km life.
This ofcourse is a winter trade off in grip.
For example, the 17in bridgestone at dualers for my dads land rover discovery have that hard of a compound that in our cold weather of 5 degrees ,they nearly turn into slicks and become very unpredictable, almost like drivig on 2mm of tread in the rain. Ofcourse same applies for there purpose of off road when your on rocky ground when cold you end up doing burnouts everywhere.
I believe they did this because the first batch for that size and load rating( the discoverys are a rather wieghty car at 2600kg full spec) was too soft in summer and lasted but 20000kms for a few early customers.
I mean for average driving of 13000km to 20000kms a year making a 4 to 5 year life span on tyres really that bad that they do these silly decisions over here( cooper tires are also bad for this)
I need new tires on my Civic, so this video is right on time. Thanks, Jason!!
I swear the thumbnail was Men vs. Woman... either that or I have a bad eyesight
next level dyslexia
I cannot unsee this, and now I read the same everytime 😂
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Good job, EE. Informative while making sense - especially the sipe presentation.
My tires used to be worn out with no tread, and terrible in the rain. Now the threads are exposed and they work pretty well cutting through the water.
GoogleMinus same with mine. They are down to the canvas and the grip is much better now.
GoogleMinus I have really bald tires on all wheels and they still drive fine and I push my car round corners
Excellent information! And very well done. Great work Jason.
Are you able please do a video on the affects of tyre width on both dry, wet, low grip and high grip surfaces?
good vedio EE. please explain how tire and wheel sizes and profile of tire effect performance and efficiency.
How timely this video is ...I just pointed out the wear bars on a friends of mines car suggesting the tire is worn and needs replacement..Now I have a better explanation more tho say to convince them to replace that tire.
What is the difference between retreaded tyre and new tyre there is no video about it..can do a video about its safety and which one I should buy..?
Hey, nice vid, you havent mentiones compund aging, which isn't something it really happens to me as I wear them out in 2Y but when I got the car with 3yo tires and only a few km I got to a point they wouldn't stick anymore pretty fast, even still having good thread depth.
JS
All we have to do is watch one Nascar race, they change tires a dozen times and lap times increase with every tire change