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Tire siping worth the money? 200 1981

I got new tires for my old 245 at Discount Tire for $140 today. While there I read a little info card on tire siping. Siping is cutting thousands of tiny slits in the tread, and is purported to drastically enhance traction in snow, ice and wet weather.

I've heard other reports of the benefits of siping, but I'm such a cheapskate I didn't want to have it done. I guess I can have it done later, but at $10/tire I don't want to increase my cost that much. Heck, the tires were only $35 apiece installed, and $10 would kind of negate my savings.

Any personal knowledge of siping benefits?








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    Tire siping worth the money? 200 1981

    I know that additional sipes are what make winter tires grip ice, and it works a bit with water also, the edges grab the ice or pavement through the water layer.
    But as some one pointed out, unless those sipes go all the way to the full tread depth, then this will only be good for a few thousand miles.
    And it could very well diminish dry traction, certainly they may feel worse.
    I think it's more important to evacuate the water from under the tread to prevent aquaplaning, and that' s a result of good tread design.
    --
    745-4+OD-16v, 744-4+OD-16v, 245SE auto, 242 4+OD Turbo








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    Tire siping worth the money? 200 1981

    I would not cut any part of that $30.00 tire nor a $100.00 tire..
    --
    john,, 1985, 245:Ti, 251k mi..so.california,,,1974, 145, 230k mi. ..








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    My opinion... 200 1981

    well, from working in a shop and seeing dozens of tires a week without siping and working just fine, siping is a wast of money, a sort of scam. those little slits only last about 5000 miles or 7500 at the most under normal driving (take in consideration most tires are 60000 mile tires). By this I mean their value, after about 5000-7500 miiles they are no longer deep enough to have an impact. tire tread is made for a specific reason, all season tires are made for all seasons, snow tires are made for snow, etc. Tire siping is similar to a mechanic selling you a muffler flush to make your muffler sound and work better, NO SUCH THING. I wouldn't spend the extra cash if you bought decent tires, or even if you bought crappy tires, then there is another issue, but siping to me is a complete waste of money. Oh, and the point about tires running cooler; bogus if you ask me the temperature difference between siping and non-siping could not possible matter enough to make a difference. Besides, tires that run a bit warmer can stick better to the road, remember good manufacturer's design things certain ways for certain reasons, if siping is already part of the tire then great, but if not, I wouldn't bother with it.

    that is the end of my rant!

    Chuck
    --
    '88 244 174K, '87 BMW 325e 180K (used to feed a '84 245, '84 244, '85 744)








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    Tire siping worth the money? 200 1981

    If (additional) siping made an improvement in wet, snow, and ice traction without any disadvantages, all-season tires would come with siping that removes the need for additional siping.

    Which implies there are significant disadvantages to additional siping (perhaps in dry cornering as another poster mentions), or that it does not really help enough to be worth it.

    If you have a long and predictable snow and ice season, why not get another set of wheels and mount winter tires on them? Remember that since you will now be using each set of tires only part of the year, both sets will last longer, so it should not cost more (beyond the second set of wheels) in the long term. Since tires are highly important for car safety (since they are your car's sole contact with the ground), it can pay to be careful in choosing and maintaining them.








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    Tire siping worth the money? 200 1981

    I'll be interested to see some responses. I've been considering siping on my next set of tires. My local shop said siping also leads to cooler running tires in the hot summer because the heat can escape better through all the slits in the rubber. The slits apparently open up a bit each time the tire goes around which help with cooling. So, if the tire guys are right, and I think they are, the tire ends up being better in both hot and cold weather.
    --
    Thanks everyone for all the information and advice, Doug C. 81 242 Brick Off Blocks, stock, B21F (non-Turbo), M46; 86 244, B230, 140k , auto.








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      Tire siping worth the money? 200 1981

      I think I believe most of what the siping promos say, but one area I think there might be a weakness is how they hold up in severe cornering in dry weather.

      It seems to me that the tread blocks need to be fairly rigid to maintain their shape when heavy lateral loads are applied. Small blocks are susceptible to moving around a lot and they may start chunking.

      Even during heavy acceleration and deceleration (none of the former in my Volvo, but great brakes for the latter) it makes sense that the smaller tread blocks created by slicing through the original ones would be vulnerable to bending/deforming and tearing. They don't sipe race tires, you know.








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        Tire siping worth the money? 200 1981

        To shift the subject slightly ... have any of you folks ever seen or used the "AMERIMAC VIBRATION DAMPENING SYSTEM"? Back in the early 70s I saw this system of balancing used .... actually the local MICHELIN plant sent their executive's cars to have it done. The first step was to warm the tire and wheel combination with friction rollers and then the warmed tire was subjected to a very sharp knife set to remove any lumps or bumps from the tread ... leaving a perfectly round wheel and tire assembly. Then the whole unit was spin balanced, usually not requiring more than the weight of the valve stem to bring them into balance.

        I was amazed at how much rubber was sometimes removed to true up even high end tires, but from what I heard from the owners they actually were able to get more mileage out of the tire because they ran so much smoother. I have a feeling that the system disappeared because it was a hard sell to the customer that he/she was actually going to get better mileage when he/she saw all that rubber being cut off their newly purchased tires.

        Brett
        --
        Brett Sutherland & the 1.5 million mile 122 CANADIAN www.ecvintagevolvo.com








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          Amerimac Vibration Dampening System 200 1981

          Years ago when I lived in Colorado Springs, I had a dune buggy I raced and drove daily. I had the standard narrow VW tires in front but on the back I ran 7 1/2 " wide rims with 750x14 snow tires on the back. On new blacktop pavement the car was driving me nuts at low speeds (35-40) especialy with what I thought was a balance problem. I had the tires trued using the system you mention and the car ran out like glass. VERY SMOOTH !. It also , like you state only took minimal weight to bal the tires. The only draw back to this method is if the tire is dismounted and re mounted ...it should go back on the same place on the rim it came off if possible. It did make the tires last longer since they ran down the road smoother. Look at front tires that cup due to being on the front too long. This is without any alignment wear thay will cup. This I beleive is due partialy to the extra bouncing they get in the front due to suspension differences. If the tire was smooth it should drasticly reduce this bounce even if the tire was in balance. This was a realy nice system especialy when the old "Re-Caps" were so popular back then, they were not always so true and when trued up ran much smoother.
          Dennis







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