$10,000 S80 Challenge Topic is solved

[pgill]

MVS Readers,

I don't typically post more than once a day but I wanted to update you on my experience with the Nokian Tires

Its been almost two years since I purchased the tires.

But because of COVID its only been about 10,000 miles

Tires installed at about 135K miles

Here is the odometer today.

And here is the

Front Left Tire

Front Right Tire

Back Left Tire

EDIT: Here is a picture of the Back Right

I haven't been rotating the tires. But looking at the pictures I should have.


The front Left and Right Rear are just below the 80% mark (in the picture you can almost see the outline for the 80)

So they are worn to 75% of their useful life.

The front right tire is taking the beating is is almost down to 60%.


I will rotate the tires in another month or two after the heavy rain.


Thanks

Paul

[pgill]

All,

I had some extra time today so I decided to rotate now.

I decided to do a counterclockwise rotation so that the RF tire wouldn't get back to it original position for 15,000 miles. (I plan to rotate every 5,000 miles)

Rotate.jpg (21.72 KiB) Viewed 1243 times

I was a little concerned that the right front had worn faster than the rest so I checked for wear in the Tie Rod and ball Joint and found none.

The one thing that I did find is that the Worn Tire is the one that has a repair for a nail. It is possible that the wear happened due to a slight under inflation due to a very slow leak. If the tire that I rotated to the right front position doesn't show any abnormal wear I will ignore the fact that the damaged and repaired tire wore out faster then the rest.

I do really like the fact that the wear indicator on the Nokian Tires makes is so easy to see what is happening.

Thanks

Paul

[pgill]

MVS Readers,

The tire that I rotated from back right to front right still has the 80% wear indicator slightly visible.

Picture was taken at night with a flash (iPhone 6 if that matters to you)

The visible 80% mark is very useful to see if the Front Right position is rapidly wearing out tires or if the rapid wear was due to the puncture suffered by the tire that was there before I rotated.

Because the 80% is so faint any excessive wear should be easy to detect in a week or two.

Note: when the tire were new they had a 100% that was also very faint ant it disappeared very quickly.


Just in case this is unclear to anyone the wear indicators are molded at different depths and as the tire gets to the bottom of that number the marking disappears.

Continental does something very similar but they use Dry, Wet and Snow

The Nokian Z line A/S are a really nice tire
(I am very particular about my tires and I will admit that I am not easy to impress when it comes to tires)

Having said that when the Z-line A/S wear out I will be getting another set (assuming that I still own the S80)

Take care

Paul

[abscate]

In the Civil war era it was considered bad practice to change sides of radial tires, even if they were bi-directional, has that changed?

I hate when society changes stuff, the other day I saw someone carrying a phone that worked without cords

In my state 25% of tread depth is considered end of life. That would give you 30,000 mike service life on your S80, about right for a big luxurious battleship

[pgill]

ABSCATE,

You are making a fair point.

When rotating Tires some people recommend that the tires stay on the same side of the car so that the rotational direction isn't changed.

Having said that it is common to see rotation patterns that do swap the side of the vehicle and hence the rotation direction.

If modern radial tires were likely to fail by changing direction of rotation then the manufacturers would not show rotations that allow for a change in direction.


I've been rotating my tires this way for years with no negative effects.


But if someone reading this has any concern then they should rotate front to back and keep the tires on the same side.


Good question

Thanks

Paul

[pgill]

MVS Readers,

I experienced my next failure on the S80 (well actually my son experienced it I just fixed it)

A broken Brake Light Bulb.

Trust me it is broken (I know that it is difficult to see in the picture)

These are the bulbs that the Auto Parts counter person directed me to.
(Note: the bulb that came out had a different number but the parts store didn't have that number so I used these.)

The entire bulb holder assembly come out as a single unit. If you look carefully you will see the latchets that must be depressed (look at the center line of the holder)

I did disconnect this Grey connector but in retrospect I'm not sure that thus is necessary.


The observant reader will notice that the bulb came in a two pack. However at this time I only replaced one of the bulbs. If you feel that I should have replaced both I will accept the critique.

Take care

Paul

[pgill]

An update on my Front right suspension.

The Tire on my front right was wearing out faster than the other three tires

There are two reasonable explanations for this

1. Excessively Worn: Bushings, Bearing, Ball Joint, Tire Rod, Strut

2. Low tire pressure due to a puncture

I rotate a different tire to the front right to determine if the answer is #1 or #2

Its been a few weeks and about 400 miles

Here is the picture of the Tire at the right front now

The wear is hardly noticeable which indicates that #1 is very unlikely

Conclusion the root cause is #2


I also measured the Tread depth of the tire

When new the tire is specified as having 10/32's

Looking at the picture it shows 9/32's

Depending on where you live a worn out tire is either 2/32's or 1/32's


If we assume that the use able range is 10/32 - 2/32 = 8/32


Then my Tire is worn by 1 out of these 8 or 1/8 = 12.5%

100% - 12.5 % = 87.5% (which is over 80% and reasonably close to 80%)


I really like the wear indicator.

Thanks

Paul

[pgill]

MVS Readers,

I determined that my brake light bulb is actually a

P21W

The marking on the bulb had a four digit number and the P21W

I incorrectly assumed that the four digit number was what I needed but I was wrong.


I did find a website that has this information

Bonus point if you can guess the URL

https://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/forum ... hp?t=61483

The good news is now I know that I used the correct replacement bulb.

Have a happy Thanksgiving

Paul

[volvolugnut]

I my state, all too often, a tire is considered worn if the cord is showing more than 1/4 the way around. Really, I see this a lot. Avoid Oklahoma in your travels.
volvolugnut

[abscate]

my state, all too often, a tire is considered worn if the cord is showing more than 1/4 the way around.

You can show fabric cords but metal cords showing will get you a warning to “ get that fixed , son”