This was an addition to my other thread, but i'll put it here so it doesn't get burried.

currently the car is running the following tires:

Rear - Michellin X-Radials - 185/70/14 - approx 13K miles on them and they look new
Front Drivers Side - Pirelli P300 - 185/70/14 - approx 5 months old (~6K miles) looks new
Front Passenger Side - Bridgeston B381 - 185/70/14 - 68,000+ miles, worn, needs replacing

i talked to a local tire shop about my situation and told him that was looking for tires that would get me good gas milage without to much of a hit in the ride comfort/road noise area, i mentioned the OEM B381's and he seemed to think that the amount of FE i would gain over the pirelli's would be quite small, especially given, according to him, the better ride quality/low road noise of the pirelli's, plus the pirelli's would be a good bit cheaper than the 381's and would last longer as well.

My plan from that was to replace the one 381 with a new pirelli P300 and air all the tires up to the high 30s'.....now, good idea, bad idea, what is the feeling of the group about the tradeoff in ride/noise from a FE tire (381's) vs. another kind?

I am concerned about FE, however, confort is also fairly high on my list. i guess i would rather sacrifice an MPG or two if it meant that the car would ride nice, comfy (for a civic), and quite over freeways, expansion joints, pot holes, varying roads, ect., now, if there is a FE tire (381??) that would give me that and have the added benefit of being a LRR FE type of tire, then i'd be all for it,
i did look on tirerack and the reviews of the 381 were fairly mixed, but a fair number did call out the road noise/somewhat harsh ride. if anyone has these tires or more percisely has bought another set for their car i would be interested in hearing some reviews, opinions, ect.

 

There was another thread here a while back that included a link to a study done on a number of different tires about three or four years ago, but the only thing I'm going to "call out" here is that you're running dissimilar tires on the front axle. Perhaps this has changed over the years, but I've always been told that you should keep the same model tire on the axle, and replace them in pairs.

 

yeah, i know about the dissimiliar tire thing, that happened by accident, got a hole in one, didn't have a replacement at the tire shop, so they put on the closest thing, didn't even think about it, however, i am trying to get it corrected. thanks for the reply though, i found one survey that mentioned LRR tires, but like you said it was from a few years ago. just didn't know what kind of impact on FE i'd see if i went with all pirelli's, all michellins, pirelli's up front and michellins' in back, michellins in back and get two new B381's or all b381's...if there is only going to be a negligable gain/difference in FE with the LRR B381's which cost more than the Pirelli's that (as i have been told) ride better and quieter, then that's would help my decision, but if there is not difference in ride with the B381's vs. others, and the 381's last as long (heard they wear fast as well) then i'd take whatever gain in FE i could get. thanks for offering all you help to this noob to the FE game...

 

Your plan is fine - go with it and do not worry about it. As long as the tires on each axle are the same, and the tires front to rear are of the same basic performance category/style - no worries.

 

How much are you talking about here?

I went with LRR tires on all four corner and it was a whole lot cheaper than OEM.

So for the price of 1 B381 you can get 2:

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....nSpeedRating=S

 

the pirelli was $70 and the B381's would have been $89 each, which i would have had to buy two in order to make the front axel match, so i figured the savings i'd get in gas would not save me as much in the long run as just replacing one tire.....

 

why not buy 2 for the price of one.... click on my above link. that's what i did.

 

I've heard that LRR tires are worth about a 4% increase in FE.

 

Road noise and harsh ride are common complaints of Low Rolling Resistance tires. Harder tires make more noise and are stiffer, so there's no way to get the FE gain without giving up some comfort. I have had cars with much louder tires so my LRR OEM dunlops don't bother me at all.

As for the Sumimoto HTR200 that someone recommended, remember that it's a summer-only tire. Lots of complaints about winter uselesness for that tire. I really wanted that tire, all the numbers looked great, but I need an all-season tire so when I get mine in the next month or so I'll have to find something else.

The LRR article mentioned earlier was from Green Seal, and it was a really useful report listing specific tires and how they compared for FE. Unfortunately it's several years old and most of the tires on it are no longer available. I emailed them encouraging them to update the report with more current tires but the replied saying they had no current plans to do so. Here is the original report:

http://greenseal.org/resources/repor...resistance.pdf

 

so far, the FE of the civic has actually improved somewhat, given the commute my girl takes each day and her driving style (which doesn't help much) she was averaging about 41.9 and now it up to 43, so........but i did also air all the tires up to 40psi (44 psi max), didn't want to go much more since it is still regularly getting into the 110's....