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Continental pro contact vs Bridgestone Ecopia ep422 treadlife

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Fuel Economy' started by plastermaster, May 30, 2014.

  1. plastermaster

    plastermaster Junior Member

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    Just wanted to contribute some more tire data to help (or maybe hinder) tire decisions. My current Pro contacts seemed to live up to their reputation of being short lived. They lost tread pretty early on, but at this point I have 50K on them and they are just now at the wear bars. Not great but not terrible. 29K ago I had a bulge in the sidewall of one of them, and the place I took it to did not have the pro contact so I replaced it with the ep422. Now it is also at the wear bars or about 1/32 away at best. The ep422 is supposedly a longer lasting tire according to reviews on this forum, but my experience is looking like the 422 is even worse than the pro contact! I seldom rotate tires and at this point all 4 tires are worn the same. The 422 has spent time on the front as well as the rear.

    This brings up the question, if having a new tire among 3 more worn ones will cause it to wear faster. I really don't think it would have that much of an effect but I can see it having just a little maybe. This tire has worn out almost twice as fast as the other (supposedly short lasting) tires. If anyone has some real knowledge on the effect adding a new tire has on its lifespan, I'd be interested in hearing about it. I was planning on possibly buying the 422 for replacements but now I am concerned and may opt for the Mich energy saver A/S instead.

    In general I am not hard on tires. Over 50K on my original GY integrities, and about 70K on my Bridgestone Turanza EL 400 gas drinkers.

    edit: I realize this should probably have been posted in the maintenance forum, but don't see a way to move it.
     
    #1 plastermaster, May 30, 2014
    Last edited: May 31, 2014
  2. AAA

    AAA Junior Member

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    Tires have got 0 effect on each on each other.
    Even if you put all 4 different, brand and wear, it will not affect the rest.
    HOWEVER, different wear will affect braking and traction overall. If situation is critical and you brake hard, but wheels have unpredictable travel distance to complete stop. Which translates to unpredictable vehicle orientation. You wanna gamble?...
    On the other hand,
    - it is perfectly acceptable to have same wheels on same axle only.
    - I seen people in one place neglecting ALL rules all the time, even sizes. Heard about NO bad results...
    - also, think of doughnut spare: when you have one wheel replaced it supposedly throws all calibrations to hell, yet....
     
    #2 AAA, Nov 28, 2014
  3. AAA

    AAA Junior Member

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    Two years later, I had Ecopia up in the mountains, snow, -20F, highway drive in >100F, rain, sand and normal conditions.
    Tires are OK.
    Not good.
    Nothing special as to handling
    Fuel economy EXACT same ## as stock tires.
    Wear off not as good, as I would hoped for, given the price.
    Because I also use Michelins I am hardened in "never again" impression on Ecopias.
    Michelin 90K gave us steady performance and ridiculous mileage >>100K, >6 years. I did have to replace them, but not because of wear: in 6 years of baking sun and mountainous frost they cracked all over... Felt like another 20K miles would be within reach
    Primacy Michelins gave stellar performance (60K rated)
    Have no MPG experience with Michelins though..
     
    #3 AAA, Dec 29, 2016
    Mendel Leisk likes this.
  4. Kevin_Denver

    Kevin_Denver Active Member

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    One thing I think is often forgotten is that tires are a safety feature of the car. I would only use a different tire on one of the wheels as a spare tire for very short term use. Otherwise using different tires on the front and rear axle is okay if the tires have similar handling characteristics (eg, do not mix snow and all-season). If one of tires slips significantly more or less than the other tires when cornering or braking, it can make the handling of the car very unpredictable at its limits or emergency situations.

    AAA is correct that in normal driving situations, having one tire new and the other tires older should have no effect on the wear of any of the tires. On a front wheel drive car, the front wheels will wear fastest, and generally the driver's side front tire will wear slightly faster than the passenger's side due to having more weight on it due to the driver. The only reason you would see one tire wear significantly faster (if rotated reasonably well) is if its tire pressure is low, the wheel is misaligned due to the suspension or a bent rim, or the tire is very unbalanced (but this would be felt by vibration when driving at highway speeds). When's the last time you checked your tire pressures?

    On a racetrack it's possible to wear one tire faster than the others, but these are tires consistently at or near their friction limits, which is not representative at all of a normal car's use.
     
    #4 Kevin_Denver, Dec 29, 2016
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