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New tires for my car - hard to find

Muse

Muse

Lifer
So, I call Costco yesterday because they have a 1 month special, $60 off on a set of Michelin or B.F. Goodrich tires. They tell me that my car's tires are hard to find now:

Mazda 626 LX 1997 couple, 4 cylinder

The car currently has P195/65/R14, Firestone's.

The guy says they don't have this in Michelins and probably they are unavailable. He says they can get me the B.F. Goodrich in this size, but those aren't included in the special, but they have a separate special on them, $10 off per tire, for a final price/tire of $61.99. He says he has them, and I drive over there only to be told they can't find them. He special orders them and they'll call me in around 5 days. Funny thing is, I keep getting asked if I only want 2 tires and I answer "4." Is replacing 2 a smarter idea?? I figured replacing all 4 makes sense, but I'm really not experienced.

Should I get these B.F Goodrich tires or could I maybe use a different size or should I look for something else?

The car has 19,000 miles on it and the tires are almost 10 years old. They have fair tread at best. I heard that nowadays they recommend replacing your tires after 6 years as insurance against blowouts.

I figure Costco's a good idea because they include wheel balancing and you can go in there anytime (I go there around every two months, anyway) and they'll balance and rotate your tires for free if you bought them there. Right now, I need an alignment, and figure I should get the tires before an alignment. I also have a shimmy in the steering wheel when I'm doing less than around 30-35 mph, all the way down to almost zero! I'm hoping a tire place can figure that one out when they do my alignment. 😕
 
Originally posted by: FoBoT
get Kumho Solus KR21 (Standard Touring All-Season) @ $46 each from tirerack and have them shipped to a preferred installer near you


http://www.tirerack.com/tires/...d_rating=Y&RunFlat=All
Click to expand...

Shipping would be $32.72. Plus I'd have to pay installation including balancing. With the Goodrich at Costco, installation's free and I don't pay shipping and I get free balancing and rotation as long as I own the tires. The Costco costs only around $30 more, so I wonder if it's not the better idea.😕 Are the Kumho tires significantly better than Goodrich?
 
185/70R14 (+1%), 205/60R14 (-1%) or 215/60R14 (+1%) are all close enough to stock rolling radius to substitute without changing your speedometer calibration more than normal tire wear does.
 
Discounttiredirect.com ships tires free, if you take them to their shop or americas tire co (i think thats their other retail name) they will install them for a discount. When I had my tires installed there they said they do free rotations & fix flats free.

Text
 
Remember, they advertise "free shipping," but it's just factored into the price they sell tires at, assuming it's a regular thing. If it's something just to push more products out at the end of a quarter or whatever, that might be different, but if a site is always advertising free shipping, assume it's factored in. I assume you guys would compare final price anyway so it doesn't really matter, but I thought I'd point that out.
 
Originally posted by: CallMeJoe
185/70R14 (+1%), 205/60R14 (-1%) or 215/60R14 (+1%) are all close enough to stock rolling radius to substitute without changing your speedometer calibration more than normal tire wear does.
Click to expand...

Those will all fit on his rims?
 
Originally posted by: Sukhoi
Those will all fit on his rims?
Click to expand...
The 185 and the 205 are both within 1 cm of the section width of his stock tire. The 215 is 2 cm wider, which is usually well within the safety zone. Google "plus one tires" or some such to learn about tire size substitutions.
 
Originally posted by: Sukhoi
Originally posted by: CallMeJoe
185/70R14 (+1%), 205/60R14 (-1%) or 215/60R14 (+1%) are all close enough to stock rolling radius to substitute without changing your speedometer calibration more than normal tire wear does.
Click to expand...

Those will all fit on his rims?
Click to expand...

The calculator here shows that the 185/70R14 is pretty close. When my speedo says I'm doing 60, it will actually be 60.5. With some wear it will be 60. I guess I'll call Costco and see if they have that in a Michelin and how much that would be. How are those BF Goodrich tires? It could change overnight if I get a commute job, but with the driving habits I've had, I'm not likely to wear out a set of tires before I want to replace them, based on that throw-them-away-when-they're-too-old philosophy. It probably doesn't matter too much what tires I get as long as they're safe on my car.

I do like being able to rotate and balance my tires for free any time I want. That http://www.discounttiredirect.com link didn't feature free shipping, AFAIK. They linked some folks with various rates, and the closest place that would install my tires is San Francisco, which is across the bay from me. Seems like way too much trouble. Plus even if they did offer free rotation, that's a long drive.
 
So I call Costco and they say they have the Michelin P185/70/R14's ($85.99 - $15 discount each) and I drive over there again only to be told that the manufacturer doesn't recommend installing a narrower tire and they won't do it. They're cool with installing the P205/60/R14's, so I say "how about that," and they say they don't carry them and have to special order them. They start trying to sell me a BF Goodrich in that size for over $80 each and I say I'm probably better off with my special order of BFG P195/65/R14's ($62 each), and they say "yeah" and tell me they are due in in a couple of days. So, another wild goose chase. 3rd time's the charm?
 
Originally posted by: purbeast0
tirerack.com is the way to go.
Click to expand...

What I'm seeing there, though, is an additional $20+ for extras per tire. Costco's supposed to have the tires in today, the ones I "special ordered." $62 each plus tax, installed, balanced (BF Goodrich Pro series, in my car's recommended size). Free balancing and rotation anytime I want. I probably pay $1 each disposal fee for my current tires. To me, that looks fairly competitive with what I'm seeing online. I haven't poked everywhere or thoroughly, but that's the impression I'm getting.... 😕
 
Originally posted by: purbeast0
tirerack.com is the way to go.
Click to expand...

FFS no it is not, read the thread. Yes Tirerack is awesome if I am buying drag radials or summer tires for my cobra, but BJ's has the better deal when buying tires for my Volvo.
 
FYI - Sears Automotive will generally price match tirerack and some other online places, and won't charge shipping. Might be worth a phone call or two if you have them locally to see if they will.
 
I have a good friend who owns a Firestone shop & gives me wholesale with free road-hazard so thats where I get all my tires. I have dealt with Costco a couple times too & they do have very good prices, but the downside is that if you want anything other then one of the few tires they always carry you'll have to wait & also although they offer free repair theres not always one nearby when you get a flat.
 
Originally posted by: Captante
I have a good friend who owns a Firestone shop & gives me wholesale with free road-hazard so thats where I get all my tires. I have dealt with Costco a couple times too & they do have very good prices, but the downside is that if you want anything other then one of the few tires they always carry you'll have to wait & also although they offer free repair theres not always one nearby when you get a flat.
Click to expand...

Well, this is one of the reasons I'm still leaning toward Costco for this. They are around 5 miles from me. Sears, at least a Sears with a tire center is more like 15 miles. I have one of those mini-spares, so I could make it over there and have a 2nd car, so the 5 miles is no big problem. Plus I go in there several times a year, so I can do the rotation/balance thing if I think it's worth the trouble. Probably go in there this afternoon because I really need an alignment and will be taking a trip early next week. I either get the tires now or put it off a while.
 
So, I go into Costco this afternoon and have them install the new BF Goodrich tires. I come out of the lot and think to check on the shimmy I have had in the steering wheel below around 30 mph all the way to virtual zero. To my amazement, the shimmy is completely gone. The steering wheel (with hands off!) is as steady as a rock. What also blew my mind is the fact that the car no longer steers hard to the right the moment I release the steering wheel!

I was so amazed by this I took the next offramp and doubled back to Costco to ask them about this. The guy said they still insist that I have the car professionally checked for proper alignment or they won't honor the warrantees. So, I guess I'll go into a shop tomorrow (he recommended a shop close by that charges $35 for an alignment) to have it checked on the computer.

They said I should inflate front and rear to 35 PSI. This even though the car's manual says to use 32 front and 26 rear. They insisted in no uncertain terms that these tires, with a maximum pressure rating of 44 PSI, would be severely underinflated under those conditions. So, 35 it will be. The car seems to drive great and I'm really relieved that the shimmy is gone and the car doesn't pull to the side any more. I never dreamed that new tires would solve those problems. I was going to bring the car into a Big O tires tomorrow and have them align and analyze and recommend repairs, but I figure I'll go to the place Costco recommended because they evidently charge 1/2 as much for an alignment.

They recommend having the lug nuts retightened to 87 lb. after 25 miles and realignment/rebalancing every 3500 miles.

The tires they installed are:

BF Goodrich
Pro Series
Trouring T/A
Treadware 500
Traction A
Temperature A
P195/65R14
Max load 560 Kg (1235 lb.)
Max Pressure 300 KPa (44 PSI)
 
Originally posted by: CallMeJoe
185/70R14 (+1%), 205/60R14 (-1%) or 215/60R14 (+1%) are all close enough to stock rolling radius to substitute without changing your speedometer calibration more than normal tire wear does.
Click to expand...

ya, those size will fit. I had 14s on my previous celica. Stock size was 185/70 and I tried 195/65. and then moved to 205/60. it created a large tire-fender gap; but it was mitigated by lowering the car (which I wanted to do all along).

however, I rarely see 215/60 though (i know michelin makes 215 and above for 14'', but they are $$$$$$)
 
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