Hi everyone, I know this is a "how long is a piece of string "type of question, however - how long should a pair of tyres last?

Firstly, for the front axle. Secondly, for the rear axle.

Assume a moderately loaded 1.9 diesel Alhambra which does mostly A road type driving and is driven fairly gently (no lead-soled driving shoes here).

Tyres are good old Michelin Crossclimate 2 XL in a 215 55 16.

Thank You!

S-D-A - you will probably think me a very sad person, but I confess to maintaining a fuel log for my Alhambra, in which I also note down tyre tread depth every three months or so. This log tells me that I fitted a brand new pair of 16" Nankang CW2 with 9mm of tread to the rear axle at 64000 miles. This pair were moved to the front at 78000, at which point I also fitted new Eicher discs and pads front and rear. That pair of Nankangs lasted on the front until 106000, so I got 42000 miles out of them. This morning, I have just finished replacing the Eicher discs and pads, at 127000 miles, and I also replaced both rear coil springs while working on the rear suspension. So the Eicher sets lasted me for 49000 miles, if my arithmetic is correct.     

This is not sad at all, it is very organised and clever! The data you have gathered is extremely useful and helps me a lot - thank you! I also keep a spreadsheet of date, mileage and work done not the car so that I can track things like when I last changed the key fob battery or did an oil change etc. In this day and age where a tyre can easily cost £150, being organised and scrupulous about these things is a very smart thing to do.

 

Just to complete the picture, I have measured the Eicher discs and pads that I removed from the Alhambra, with my digital measuring stick.

The standard spec for 300mm front discs is 26 max and 22 min (as far as I can make out from OEM catalogues) and the Eichers were 25.8 and 25.6 with light scoring. Front pad material thickness excluding back plate, as far as I can make out, is 15mm and those removed were 8mm and 9mm on one side and 6mm and 8.5mm on the other.

The rear discs are 268mm non-vented with a standard of 10mm max and 8mm min. The Eichers were 9.6mm and just over 9.4mm again with light scoring. Rear pad material apparently starts at 12mm and those removed were down to 4.5mm and 3mm on one side and 4mm and 5mm on the other. So the rears were definitely due for renewal, but I might possibly have got a bit more out of the front set.

Just before we went to Bavaria in 2019, I had to change the left and right handbrake cables, as I discovered the O/S rear wheel was warming up after a long trip. There is a very clever little 'equaliser' connecting the two rear cables to the main central cable, and I discovered the eye of the O/S cable had corroded to the equaliser and was not releasing and floating properly. That might explain the extra wear on the pads on one side at the rear.

This is invaluable data, thank you! I'm going to get out there right now with my micrometer screw gauge and see if I can work out the thickness of my discs currently!

Any tips for replacing the pads and discs by the way, is it pretty straightforward or is it one of those jobs that has the potential to become so maddening that for the sake of 50 quid or so it's easier just to take it to the garage?

Thank you

IMO it is worth watching the Autodoc tutorials about pad and disc changes, and noting down the socket sizes and torque settings for re-assembly. The pad carrier fixing bolts are very substantial and it is unlikely that you will be able to remove them without a tight fitting socket and breaker bar. I have an old 3/4 inch tommy bar to which I add a short length of scaffolding pipe, and even then I had to use a hydraulic jack on the end of the bar on a couple of them to get them moving.

The rear calipers require a special tool to wind the pistons back in - they are screwed out by the action of the hand brake (as I understand it) as the pads wear. You might get away with a G clamp jury rig, but I would not bank on it. I tried a little cube-shaped tool with pins on the faces to engage the rear piston, but I could not get it to work, so I purchased the proper tool from Screwfix and I was astonished at how easy the tool makes the job.

It is also worth cleaning the outer piston seal in the rear caliper and lubricating the inner lip with something like silicon spray. The piston rotates as it winds back in (obviously) and you need to make sure that you do not catch the outer seal and tear it.

I have not looked yet, but I feel sure that there must be a 'How to do it' somewhere on this forum.