The Odo is little over 93,400 kms. Got the tyres changed last week. The yoko earth1's have done about 49,800kms and since one of the tyres had uneven wear and was badly worn I decided to change. Else the treads in the other 3 "looked" good for another 3 to 5k kms.
Now was the dilemma on what tyres to buy. Budget was a big factor this time. I couldn't stretch beyond 4-4.2k for a tyre. This figure was in mind since I got the Apollo alnac4g for 4200 (195/55/15) but little did I know that the price diff for 195/55 and 195/65 was so much. Same alnac4g in 65 people was >5k.
Then was plan b. Couldn't source nexen like I did for the Palio's earlier. So started looking for Ep Accelera. The accelera phi again I was unable to source (comes in 60 profile and not in 65). The accelera alpha was available and well within my budget, but the alpha's have a reputation of being miserable in wet condition and hence ruled them out.
Kenda was next as I know quite few using them in punto and linea's. But my cousin gave me a contact who is the distributor for Accelera and UltraMile. My cousin had installed UM555 in his Logan recently and was happy with them. But he had hardly run a few thousand kilometers only.
Looked up into Google and there was hardly any information except the India specific site (
Ultramile Tyre). Called up the distributor and he assured me on the quality and offered a replacement or refund if not satisfied. So went ahead and got the UM555. The deal was done and he shipped the tyres to Coimbatore.
So far I have done about 550kms and the tyres feel good. Will keep the thread updated as I clock more miles.
Post the tyre change, I did feel that I should have changed the earth1's much earlier. Could realise how hard the earth1's have become and the ride had improved so much.
Few pics:
Post that headed to ambal auto a.c. works to check on the a.c. blower noise. After the last cleaning of the blower, the noise reappeared in a months time when driving over a bad patch of road.
So this time, removed the blower again and lubricated the bushes. He confirmed the noise was from the bush and oiled them. So far the noise has not come back. I'll monitor the same for another 2 months before deciding it as resolved.
First highway drive with new shoes. Coimbatore to Chennai
So far done 1900kms since the egr and manifold cleaning and oil has not reduced. Another 3000 kms and can see if the oil reduction is fully resolved or not.