Tires (Summer/Winter/All-Season)

Have you swapped out the OEM tires on your MINI? What I thought was body roll was actually massive sidewall flex from the Hankooks. They have the thinnest sidewall I've ever seen on a car tire, it almost feels similar to the downhill tires on my mountain bike!

There's still body roll with my BFG comp 2 A/S+ but the whole car feels so much better

 

Yes, @JonR, I’m still really happy with my Continental ExtremeContact DWS06 Plus all-seasons — very glad I got them!

Kind of ideal balance between firm sidewalls without a lot of flexing (i.e., they don’t flop over when I’m cornering hard) to hold the road well while still providing a very comfortable ride, in my opinion…quite quiet, I’d say…and they feel great to me, almost summer-sticky (although I have almost no experience on the OEM summer tires, so I can’t fairly compare them), yet they’ve driven beautifully on the few snow days I’ve experienced with them (probably an inch of snow max, though, so not particularly challenging conditions, really).

Also my impression is that they’re reasonably efficient — but take that with a big ‘ol grain of salt because all my experience with my SE so far has been in the cold winter months, and, again, only a handful of those miles on the OEM summers, so unable to meaningfully compare them.

 

I love how my Hankooks don't squeal when I'm cornering at sub-autocross speeds. That and the SE's silent acceleration make it easier to do serious motoring without causing the wrong heads to swivel and take note.

In contrast, the high-efficiency tires on my Honda Clarity PHEV seem to resent cornering at speed--they misbehave and cry a lot. There are quite a few members of InsideEVs' Clarity forum who have forsaken the car's 47-mile EV range to get tires that provide more driving fun. I would never scoff at them in that forum, but we MINI drivers know what real driving fun is all about.

In the 19 months since our family was blessed with the arrival of our SE, the Clarity has accumulated less than 400 miles. My wife and I work out our schedules so we each get our quality time with Elektro (our SE's name and license plate).

 

Difficult to beat the Hankooks on efficiency and grip, good wet traction as well. We just received new 16 inch wheels for the Hankooks, will keep the Vredestein Hitracs for the winter.

Best Vredestein efficiency thus far was 4.7 miles/kWh, HVAC off, 50F+ sunny dry day. Those same conditions with the Hankooks would return 5.0 - 5.5 miles/kWh. I'm usually seeing 3.8 -4.3 miles/kWh Vredestein winter efficiency.

Personally, I'd rather have the efficiency with the warmer conditions, but it could also be an excuse for new wheels.

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I got my car from Florida and it had Hankooks on it with 16" wheels and 195/55 tires. I thought they were Pirelli run flats but now I realize they must have been Hankook summer tires like everyone else got. I drove in the 2020/2021 winter with these tires in the snow even and they were fine. I had no idea these were summer tires.

I put on coilovers and for me, the Hankooks didn't handle well and were a little loud. I "upgraded" to Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3 tires on the 16" wheels. These have a lot more grip and are a lot quieter but way more sidewall flex. I think the addition of stiffer dampers in my coilovers with the softer sidewalls caused the car to porpoise at slow speeds. I then sold these wheels and got some 17" Mini wheels.

My new to me wheels have Pirelli Cinturato P7 All Season tires. These tires are the stock size of 205/45 and the sidewalls are much better than the Michelin tires. It is a firm and confident ride and it corners pretty well. However, these tires are loud and break traction compared to the Hankooks and Michelin tires. In terms of noise, Michelin were the quietest, then the Hankooks, and then the Pirelli.

That is why I'm looking at the Continental all-season tires. I'm just worried about the sidewall flex. I know these will be quieter and have more traction.

 

Yes, I swapped the Hankook tires early on to Pirelli P1 Run Flat Summer tires.
Sidewalls are definitely stiffer and I think the handling was improved. However, the ride is also a wee bit stiffer as well.

Pirelli calls the P1 a low rolling resistance tire. Not sure what that means exactly. As BEV’s become more mainstream, the tire industry needs to develop a comparable criteria for actually measuring rolling resistance so tires can be better compared.

My selection criteria was primarily weight. The P1 is the very lightest weight run flat tire I could find in the 16” OEM size.


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Given that you’ve put coilovers on your SE and are on your second set of wheels and third set of tires in the pursuit of the perfect-for-you setup, @JonR, I’m guessing you probably push your Cooper harder in corners than I do. So definitely scout out some reviews of the Continentals rather than put too much stock in my assessment of ample sidewall stiffness, because while I drive spiritedly, I certainly haven’t pushed my SE hard in the…(checks app)…mere 1,193 miles I’ve put on mine so far.

 

In Oz, we got the 17 inch wheels with Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 3. I can't fault them - even after 18 months of spirited driving. Excellent efficiency, handling and noise.

 

I’m thrilled to hear that you’re running the Goodyears, @vader, because I am, too, and all those long range numbers you’ve shared with us many times certainly speak well of their efficiency!

I think I put only about 30 miles on mine the day I took delivery before swapping them out for all-seasons for the winter. Your satisfaction with the Goodyears make me look forward to the fun they’ll provide starting just a few weeks from now…

 

You’ve mentioned how rarely you drive your Clarity since getting your SE, @insightman, but that data point sure is eye-opening. Wow!

 

I was so lucky today--I had to get something out of the garage "attic" and pulled the Clarity out into the driveway. When I tried to turn it back on to put it back into the garage, I got all kinds of warnings: unplug charging cord before proceeding (it wasn't plugged in), brakes unsafe, and others. Being a long-time denizen of InsideEV's Clarity forum, I knew those false warnings indicated the 12-Volt battery was failing.

I was lucky because the battery didn't fail inside the garage where a shelf hanging over the Clarity's hood prevents me from opening it more than a few inches. I would have had to worm my way along the garage floor between the right side of the car and the lawnmower and snow-blower to get to the battery to attach my battery charger. I had to do that once before (see below). Tomorrow it gets a new 12-Volt battery so it can go back to sleep in the garage, but wake up when it gets the call of duty.

 

Good fortune on discovering that! I have the same situation - when I need something from the garage attic space, the SE has to leave her parking spot. In all these months reading your posts, I actually wasn't sure if you still had the Clarity or not.

 

Finally some extremely sunny 48F weather and I had to use the AC! With a mix of city driving and stop and go freeway (loop spokes and 16in Pirelli Snowcontrol Serie 3 RFT) I used 23% for 31.06 miles. That's roughly 4.67 mi/kWh without cabin heat in mid mode.

 

Has anyone put 205/55R16 on their SE?

I would really like to put a set of Michelin CrossClimate2s on Vanessa (I’m projecting my Hankook to be toast by 7-10kmi???)
, but they don’t come in 195/55R16.

I know it’s pretty close between the tire and the damper, and don’t want any rubbing… it’s only like, what 1/4” closer to the damper… but still… I’d rather have confirmation before I drop some cash on tires.

Also, what kind of milage have you guys gotten on your Hankooks?? 7k is abysmal… even with my Miata’s old RE56 (200 treadwear) I was able to get 20k out of them.


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I live in one of the snowiest large cities on the planet, and we have exceptionally good snow clearing here (more than $100 million a year in the city budget for snow clearing), so I am frequently on dry or solid pavement throughout most of any given winter. Getting around 6000 to 8000 miles out of two different sets of Blizzaks on two different cars taught me to never get them again, no matter how sticky they were on ice and hard-pack. I’ve gotten reasonable wear from winter Hankooks on lighter cars in the past, but since switching all of our cars to Nokian Hakka R3s, I don’t think I could ever go back to slightly less expensive tires. I am now on my fifth set on four different cars, and I’ve never gotten less than 30,000 winter miles out of a set. That they are also LRR tires is a bonus.

 

I was running some X-Ice SNOW tires in that size up until a couple of days ago. I'm using 10mm spacers for extra clearance (and appearance) but I think they'd fit fine without the spacers too. Here's clearance with no spacers

Tires can fit differently in the same size (for example, if they have an extra large rim protector) but since they're both Michelin it should be similar.

I put a couple hundred miles on my Hankooks but could already see signs of wear in the front (the imbedded Hankook logo on the tread was gone).

They're still sitting on my garage shelf if anyone near Oregon wants some free replacements!

 

I took my SE in today to get my summer tires mounted to my wheels, and after about an hour they told me they were done and sent me on my way. However, as soon as I pulled out of the parking lot, there was a clunking coming from the front left tire. I pulled back in, they put it on the lift, dug around for what seemed like forever, and told me that a lug nut (not from the MINI) got wedged behind the rotor and the metal shroud behind it. It damaged the rotor and one of the lug bolts at the tip where it sticks out the back side of the rotor.

Then they gave me a ride home and are having it towed to a brake place so they can replace the rotor and anything else that was damaged. What a mess!

I'm still not sure how it even happened, but they're doing their best to make it right. My wife is out of town right now, so I can drive her Clubman until I get the SE back, so it's not a huge inconvenience, it's definitely not how I wanted to start the day this morning.

 

Wow that sucks... I'd say it was bad luck but I've personally had enough "bad luck" at mechanics that it seems like a lack of effort (or probably mechanics being rushed by management). Definitely pushed me to do as much as I can myself... and one big reason I paid for a 2nd set of wheels.

If you can, I'd make sure to check the condition of the back side of the hub. If the lug bolt got damaged, there's a good chance the rouge nut took a gouge out of the aluminum hub too.

Generally I try to be understanding (sometimes stuff happens) and judge based on their response. Seems like these guys are one of the better shops, hopefully everything gets sorted quickly!