Mollox Posted April 12, 2009 Report Share Posted April 12, 2009 A few years ago, these were the Tyresmoke tyres of choice and as a result I've run about 4 or 5 sets of them consecutively and found them to be a very good tyre overall. However, the last 2 sets I've had have both suddenly deteriorated to the point that grip and handling have been, in my opinion, dangerous. Lots of unpredictability and shocking performance in the wet. Thinking about it, I think the last 2 sets were GSD3s and the others the previous generation tyre. They were very good tyres when new but really don't last and then, whilst seemingly having lots of tread, completely go to pot! Has anyone else noticed similar effects with these tyres? In both cases, I thought there was something seriously mechanically wrong with my car and both times, a fresh set of rubber seems to have made such a difference. On the last set, 2 x audi dealers were convinced I had a worn wheel bearing and it turned out to be the tyres... Gave up on the GDS3s and have fitted F1 Assymetrics. Lets see how long/well these last... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DHA Posted April 12, 2009 Report Share Posted April 12, 2009 My previous tyres were GSD3s, when I had to have two replaced on the left side of the car the right rear was delaminating (which shouldn't really happen in a car tyre I don't think) and the fitters said they had seen it happen a few times with GSD3s. I think they are made in China now, could explain it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tipex Posted April 13, 2009 Report Share Posted April 13, 2009 You have to be careful with tyres, lots of the internet discount retailers sell tyres for warmer climates than we have over here. they get job lots of them in cheap, and while they may look the same they are harder compounds which become more of a problem, and lose grip as the tyre wears. Always make sure they have the 'E' mark on the side. Eagles used to be made in 2 factories, chinese factory was for the warmer climate tyres, and german factory made tyres for europe. This probably isn't the problem your having, but worth watching out for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scotty Posted April 13, 2009 Report Share Posted April 13, 2009 I've had plenty of GSD3's and never had any problems. Worked well in dry and wet. The only issue I had was that they seemed very sensitive to pressure change. If the pressures dropped just one or two psi the grip went off. Since our weather (and hence the tyre pressures) changes so much it meant I was always checking/adjusting them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hashluck Posted April 13, 2009 Report Share Posted April 13, 2009 Tipecx and Scotty have posted the two things I was going to say. There were a lot of non E marked tyres found their way to the UK a couple of years ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muppetboy Posted April 13, 2009 Report Share Posted April 13, 2009 Where did you have them fitted Molly? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Posted April 13, 2009 Report Share Posted April 13, 2009 Sounds very familiar Mollox. Exactly my reasoning for hating the things with a passion. I even sent mine back to Goodyear, (a complete set of 4) but apparrently they were all "within manufacturing tolerances" I decided that if that was their quality standards and acceptable, that i would never use Goodyear again. My set displayed the exact same qualities, with even tread/ wear, still road legal, they got increasingly noisy and sounded like a wheel bearing failing. Ditch them and buy decent tyres like Michelin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidicks Posted April 13, 2009 Report Share Posted April 13, 2009 Sounds very familiar Mollox. Exactly my reasoning for hating the things with a passion. I even sent mine back to Goodyear, (a complete set of 4) but apparrently they were all "within manufacturing tolerances" I decided that if that was their quality standards and acceptable, that i would never use Goodyear again. My set displayed the exact same qualities, with even tread/ wear, still road legal, they got increasingly noisy and sounded like a wheel bearing failing. Ditch them and buy decent tyres like Michelin. Agree - they are (very) expensive, but the Michelin Pilot Sports I have are superb in all conditions. Sidicks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikemod Posted April 13, 2009 Report Share Posted April 13, 2009 I agree, I have just put the Goodyear Assymetric on all round, replacing Michelin PS2s and there is not the same level of grip even when the Michelins had less than 2mm left. Have put about 1000 miles on these tyre so far and no difference as some people have noticed Also noticed some lift off oversteer on roundabouts which was never there before and I am getting about 5-10% less fuel economy so over the life of the tyre the Michelins will probably work out cheaper. Looking forward to them wearing out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gizze Posted April 13, 2009 Report Share Posted April 13, 2009 I have stopped using the Goodyear tyres, great when new but soon go off. I now just buy PS2's, they may be more money but you can buy them with 6 or 7mm for half the new price on ebay, and all tyres have a date code so you know what you are buying. Been a few reports of the assymetrical F1 on the BMW forums and general feeling is most will go back to the PS2 regardless of price. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarMad Posted April 13, 2009 Report Share Posted April 13, 2009 I wasn't sure about the F1 ASSYs on mine at first but after a few hundred miles they we far better. But I've recently dropped the pressures as they were on the same level as the runflats and they got even better. The extra pressure wasn't helping at all it seems, they are more compliant now and provide more grip. Are they as good as the PS2's I don't know I might try them next time but not as runflats, the ride whilst not 'bad' it wasn't good either. Now on standard tyres the car is much better to drive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bazza_g Posted April 13, 2009 Report Share Posted April 13, 2009 I wasn't sure about the F1 ASSYs on mine at first but after a few hundred miles they we far better. But I've recently dropped the pressures as they were on the same level as the runflats and they got even better. The extra pressure wasn't helping at all it seems, they are more compliant now and provide more grip. Are they as good as the PS2's I don't know I might try them next time but not as runflats, the ride whilst not 'bad' it wasn't good either. Now on standard tyres the car is much better to drive. what front/rear pressures are you running now? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarMad Posted April 13, 2009 Report Share Posted April 13, 2009 Can't remember the exact pressures I will go out and check them later. Found the info on a US site I think was where you can buy the car without runflats. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stooH Posted April 13, 2009 Report Share Posted April 13, 2009 Well my experience is subtely different, the GSD3's I had I liked thought they were quite good. Then I couldn't get hold of any so went for the F1's and haven't been at all impressed with them, espectially in the early part of the year which was cold and wet, also noticed that the fuel efficiency dropped noticeably with them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillBlank Posted April 13, 2009 Report Share Posted April 13, 2009 I've had GSD3s on for about 6k miles and they are indeed very sensitive to temp and pressure changes. Similar in behaviour to a sportsbike track/road tyre, super corsa etc. Cold rec. pressures on the '8 are 36f, 42 rear. These in the winter made it unpleasant to drive. Plough on understeer at medium speeds and oversteer at sub ten miles an hour, yes I know that sounds daft but it was not funny. This morning they are 40f/40r and that works very nicely. Apart from that, as they are on a two ton, 4wd car I'm impressed by the wear rate, given that I drive like an insensitive cretin. Bill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teacake Posted April 14, 2009 Report Share Posted April 14, 2009 I've had loads of sets of F1 GSD3 on various cars, from my wife's Clio 1.4 through various turbocharged Subarus and an Audi S8. They'd always been my tyre of choice. One set lasted me more than 45000 miles on one of the Subarus and were still gripping well after all those miles. All that changed two years ago when I put a set on the Saab 9-5 Aero I'd just bought. They were horrible. Really wayward handling, terrible roar, I mean really bad, and they only lasted about 7000 miles. I thought it was the car because I'd only just got it and wasn't used to how it should handle, but now I've changed the tyres all the problems have gone away. At the moment I've got a different pair of GSD3s on one end and some Avon asymmetrics on the other. Much better. So there definitely was at least one bad batch out there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackjack Posted April 14, 2009 Report Share Posted April 14, 2009 Agree - they are (very) expensive, but the Michelin Pilot Sports I have are superb in all conditions. Sidicks I also use Michelin Pilots. They tend to be around 15% more expensive than the best rival tyres but outperform other brands in all areas so the extra money is well worth it. Before that I used Yokohama Advans which I found wore out far too quickly and didn't provide enough grip. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Posted April 14, 2009 Report Share Posted April 14, 2009 My last pair of GSD3s were rubbish too - they distorted. I've Assys on now and I think they are ok. I don't really push them to be honest so grip levels are WELL within requirements! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidicks Posted April 14, 2009 Report Share Posted April 14, 2009 One set lasted me more than 45000 miles on one of the Subarus and were still gripping well after all those miles. 45,000 miles on the same set of tyres?.....On a Subaru? You clearly weren't trying hard enough! Sidicks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattS3 Posted April 14, 2009 Report Share Posted April 14, 2009 How bizzare so many people are having issues. The Goodyear Asymetrics won the Evo tyre test around 9 months ago. That was up against some pretty good opposition too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teacake Posted April 14, 2009 Report Share Posted April 14, 2009 45,000 miles on the same set of tyres?.....On a Subaru? You clearly weren't trying hard enough! Sidicks That's probably right. I'm a bit of an old lady most of the time. They probably had another 10-15k of life in them at 45k, but my wife kerbed one and damaged the sidewall so I changed the set. Actually, that is something of a problem with the F1 - I've had maybe four or five with damaged sidewalls. Perhaps its something to do with the stiffness of the carcass. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mollox Posted April 20, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 20, 2009 How bizzare so many people are having issues.The Goodyear Asymetrics won the Evo tyre test around 9 months ago. That was up against some pretty good opposition too Just what I was thinking - we've all missed a beat with these as we were all over them like a rash a few years back. Worth pointing out that I'm talking about the Eagle F1 GSD3 variant (continuous and distinctive "V" tread) and not the latest Eagle F1 Assymetrics (which have a very different and rather crazy combination of treads punctuated by 2 or 3 very deep grooves). I'm hoping the Assymetrics are a very different tyre... Edit: Goodyear Eagle F1 GSD3 Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billy2shots Posted April 20, 2009 Report Share Posted April 20, 2009 How bizzare so many people are having issues.The Goodyear Asymetrics won the Evo tyre test around 9 months ago. That was up against some pretty good opposition too How many thousands of miles do they do their tests for? Performing well for a day or a weekend is one thing, doing it over the course of years is something else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mollox Posted April 20, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 20, 2009 Don't say that - I've just bought a set of them! Still, I've learnt a lesson - as soon as I start tank-slapping on a little bit of ice on the M25 (whilst been overtaken by a straight-tracking focus 1.6), whenever I nearly plough on on a damp mini roundabout, or if I almost slide into the back of another car at 15mph for seemingly no reason, I'll change my tyres right away and instead not assume it was my newly-fitted suspension upgrades that were to blame Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Posted April 20, 2009 Report Share Posted April 20, 2009 (edited) Mollox ... Worth pointing out that I'm talking about the Eagle F1 GSD3 variant (continuous and distinctive "V" tread) and not the latest Eagle F1 Assymetrics Goodyear Eagle F1 GSD3 For clarity, I was talking about the same tyres. A conversation we have had before when iirc you got stuck in France with suspected wheel bearing failure, which iirc was also proved to be tyres. Edited April 20, 2009 by Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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