Special Tires?
 

Hi, first post, love my car. 2003 civic hybrid. Bought it used with 29k miles. Everything works great. About 42 mpg. Used to have a POS jetta V6 guzzler. Night and day.

Anyway, I have a flat front tire. The dealor told me that I need a special $90 tire for a hybrid. I'm sure this is somewhat true, but can I put a regular tire on my car? The tire size is 185/70R14, right? That size tire is usually pretty cheap.

Re: Special Tires?
 

You do need to have matching tires on your car (at least in pairs). As you enjoy good gas mileage with your hybrid, you don't want to reduce your MPG. Most tires will cause extra rolling resistance and hurt your MPG. Its good practice to use Low Rolling Resistance (LRR) tires to avoid this. Sorry, but they do tend to cost more. I like the Michelin MXV4 Energ saving tires on my Prius (over $100/tire), but there are some others. Make sure that the tires you buy have the same or higher load rating as your OEM tires (see the sidewall for lbs at psi).

JeffD

Re: Special Tires?
 

My tires are Dunlop SP 20 FEs, I think bridgstone tires also come on the civic hybrid. So you probably have one or the other. Look for a local tire shop selling the tire, it will probably be cheaper.

The tires from just tires are about $40 each. Then about another $10-$15 for each tire for mounting ballancing etc.

I had a set of 4 put on for about $200something.

Re: Special Tires?
 

No sure what brand they are (at work, got dropped off). I will check over the weekend. Thanks guys.

Re: Special Tires?
 

www.tirerack.com also has the tires.

According to tirerack, there are two different stock tires.

Bridgestone B381 and Dunlop SP20 FE

Their price is $75 and $57 respectively. You probably want to buy two anyway just to have a matched pair as far as treadwear goes.

Now, they do have tires in this size ranging from $31 to $87. The dealer is charging you a profit margin for the part plus the labor to do it. All shops do this at different amounts. You can always buy the tire and take it somewhere and they will put it on for you at a reasonable cost.

The O.E. tires will have a much lower rolling resistance, and will get better mileage, the same as inflating them to the max you feel safe with, but ... if you get a different tire, you may notice a smoother and quieter ride, the same as having the labeled tire pressure from Honda ... It comes down to what your wants and expectations are :D

Re: Special Tires?
 

I had a flat passenger/front. I had Les Schwab swap in whatever they said was appropriate for my Civic hybrid, the cheaper $50 one. I can't remember the name offhand and I know I'll forget to check later. I've had maybe 750-1,000 miles on it now and I've noticed absolutely no change in my mpg.

Re: Special Tires?
 

Buying a standard tire but pumping up the pressure may not be a bad compromise for mileage, compared to running the standard tire at standard pressure, and will have the benefit of improved handling (both a stickier tire and more pressure offer improved handling). The stock tires (at least the Dunlops) were terrible as far as handling was concerned, and in heavy rain they were slipping when I'd try to accelerate normally from stop signs. I have heard that the bridgestone low-rolling-resistance tires are far better as handling is concerned of the two stock tires.

I am seeing a pretty substantial MPG loss from using non-rolling resistance tires, however, mine are wider 205/50/16" tires on less aerodynamic wheels, so the comparison is not going to be fair. A standard 185/70/14" tire. However, running these tires, especially at elevated pressure, provides extremely good handling, as if I were driving a much higher-end car.

Re: Special Tires?
 

Really? I will have to check which ones I have now. I have never had my tires slip once under any circumstances. Even when my tires weren't super pumped up as they are now. I didn't think these cars had the power to do so ... you must have a manual. In fact, I have never had my tires slip in the instances where I had to brake rather hard either. Were the tires quite worn?

Re: Special Tires?
 

I've replaced the tires on my 03 already. I had the Dunlops - you'll have to do some looking around. The SP20 is not commonly advertised - it's not even on the Dunlop web site. I had to call Dunlop and ask where they sold them - Sears was their answer. That's if you don't want to use TireRack.

Be very, very careful of advice you get from any tire center. Around here, they understood very little about low rolling resistance tires. Les Schwab, Discount Tire - they didn't get it. There's a short list of tires you'll want to use. OEM is the best way, but neither the Dunlops or the Bridgestones have been very popular. My Dunlops were hard, noisy, and didn't grip worth anything. However, they were not built with that in mind. :)

I replaced all 4 with Continental ContiTouringContact CV95's. The rub is I don't think they come in a 185 14". Didn't change my mileage a bit up or down.

This is a very old report, but it has some brands that are considered low rolling resistance. There's a Sumitomo tire in there that's not too expensive.

http://www.greenseal.org/resources/r...resistance.pdf

Re: Special Tires?
 

I have Kumho Power Star 758's, they are cheap, last for at least as long as the OEM Dunlops, and I haven't noticed any mpg drop.