Dunlop Streetresponse 2

[Cyker]

Finally went with the Dunlops over the Uniroyals. It always feels really nice when you have new tyres fitted! :D

Were pretty cheap, got them done for £45 a corner.

Initial thoughts - Compared to the Cooper CS2's, they have much better lateral grip. The turn-in is much more positive and cornering feel much more confident. The CS2's had a nasty feeling of understeer but these feel like they are on rails! Be interesting to see if they can keep that up as they wear down.

Straight-line braking and acceleration also feel better - The CS2s had a tendency to slip a little under harder acceleration and braking; I'm going to give these a more thorough test when I go back to the speed-bump hell that is the road to work on Monday

No idea what the wet grip is like yet but this is a good time of year to test it The tread only has two main grooves for water displacement so I suspect it will be worse than the Continentals I had, but probably still better than the Cooper tyres.

Only downside so far is the noise - These tyres are really noisy and remind me of the Firestone Multihawks I had on my first Yaris!

According to the tyre label they should be quieter than all the other tyres I had before (These are rated at 68db, every other one I've had has been over 70!), so chalk up another one to the tyre label being a load of cobblers

Haven't driven enough to see what the economy is like, but took it on a 200 mile run to my brother's and back with a tank full of V-Power, driving at maximum hoon , and got home with only a quarter tank used so certainly not bad!

That said, these tyres aren't full of Puncture Safe so it's not really fair to compare them to the last set as the extra weight and movement of the gel would have impacted the mpg.

I don't think I'll be putting the PunctureSafe back in tho'; It was really nice feeling confident that if I drove over something spiky, like a road full of nails, glass or sharp stones, I wouldn't have to worry about sudden death from a puncture, and to its credit I didn't get a single puncture in the time I had that stuff in the tyre except the sidewall one, which it only slowed deflation for. (Before this I was averaging a puncture a year! )

However the vibrations at motorway speeds were really annoying and it was such a joy to be able to drive at 70mph with the new tyres and not feel like I was driving over the MIRA cobblestone test track

So, adding the Dunlops to my personal tyre rating table:

Dry Grip:

Continental Premium Contact 5

Dunlop Street Response 2

Continental Premium Contact 2E

Cooper CS2

Firestone Multihawk

Noise:

Continental Premium Contact 5

Continental Premium Contact 2E

Cooper CS2

Dunlop Street Response 2

Firestone Multihawk

The Wet grip and Wear well have to come when I've gathered more data on them...

[TomdeGuerre]

So the Coopers are pretty rubbish, well I'm surprised, i've seen them get good reviews - just shows there's nothing like personal experience to find out.

I've had Dunlop SP Sports on a couple of cars I've had, alweays thought they were OK but a bit noisy once they wore down. A bit stiff in the sidewall too which was good for cornering but not in the comfort department.

See this Puncture Safe, were you supposed to leave that in all the time? I mean they've had variants of this stuff over the years and there always ended up some problem. I seem to remember we tried it in the garage and one of the things you got was congealing ie if you came in from a hot run and left the car overnight, especially in winter, the stuff would tend to accumulate in thebottom of the tyre and give you horrendous wheel balance problems when you started driving it the next morning (bit like your Missus's washing machine when it's on the spin cycle with a load of towels in it). Another ting is what happens when you get a puncture? Does it just seal up and keep going? How about an MOT if they see a nail or something sticcking in your tyre woldn't they count that as at least an advisory?

Look at that aerosol stuff you get now instead of a spare wheel, it's a get-you-to-your-nearest-garage measure only isn't it? And they refuse to repair any tyre with that goop inside it although i reckon that's just a con because it's fully water-washable and it's more to do wiht gouging you for a new tyre rather than safety. Rant over.

PS Michelins are better - the dogs in fact.

[4xyaris]

These opinions do not appear to be objective. Braking distances?? In the dry? In the wet? Specific wear details? Rolling resistance? Noise levels etc etc. Have a look at Which? magazine -(no advertising) might be in your local library. I am no expert at all but I know not to trust magazines with advertising.

[Cyker]

Yeah the Coopers were quite disappointing; From the reviews at tyrereviews.co.uk I was expecting them to be a lot better than they turned out to be.

I suspect they work better at larger rim sizes and widths as, if there's one thing I've learned, it's that even for the same tyre model, its performance varies quite wildly depending on width and size.

Really loving these Dunlops so far. Considering they were the cheapest tyres in my buy list, they're performing really well! At this point I just hope they don't wear out as fast as the CPC5's...!


The Puncture Safe is supposed to stay in the tyre - It's a permanent preventative, not a post-puncture sealant like e.g. tyre weld. There are a few threads on here where me and Bob (the IQ guy) were comparing notes and experiences.
It's supposed to seal any punctures for the life of the tyre, although you are supposed to remove any e.g. nails and such.
They have an amazingly dodgy-looking website here https://www.puncturesafe.com/ that has all the blurb.

In theory it's really clever stuff, and actually works quite well as far as filling in punctures is concerned. It's just a shame it's let down by the fact that it unbalances the tyre. I can't see a way round that since it is a liquid gel...

If I never had to go above 50mph I'd totally have it put in again but alas...

What's particularly annoying is Continental and Pirelli DO produce self-sealing tyres where the gel is in a sealed layer as part of the tyre so there are no imbalance issues, but for some reason they haven't really pushed them (Also they don't make them in my car's size ). They would be far superior to e.g. run-flats IMHO.

[bathtub tom]

I reckon I haven't had a puncture in over twelve years (sod's law means I'll get one tomorrow), so I reckon 'll give this 'snake oil' stuff a miss.

[Cyker]

Had a bit of a hoon with them in the rain today. Very nice!

They are right there up with the Continentals for grip in the wet.

Maybe in between the CPC2e and the CPC5. Vastly better than the Cooper CS2s!

[TomdeGuerre]

Had a bit of a hoon with them in the rain today. Very nice! They are right there up with the Continentals for grip in the wet. Maybe in between the CPC2e and the CPC5. Vastly better than the Cooper CS2s!

How much fun did you have with them?

This much?

Or this much?

[Cyker]

I'll have you know I am a safe and considerate driver!

Pretty happy so far tho', now it's just seeing how they wear! The contact surface is pretty big compared to e.g. the CPC5's tho' as there are only two (admittedly, fairly wide) grooves vs the 4 in the CPC5s so hopefully they'll last a decent time.

The Coopers lasted pretty well, but I suspect the rubber was harder and thus was why they had such terrible lateral grip. (Either that or the hybrid tread pattern; I think the blocks on the inside face didn't do it any favours in terms of grip...)

[Madasafish]

Test NOISE levels refer to external noise.

So meaningless for drivers...

(just like fuel consumption tests then)

[MEP's Yaris GS]

So meaningless for drivers...

Rubbish. The more external noise there is in the first place then more will penetrate into the cabin.

[TomdeGuerre]

So meaningless for drivers...

Rubbish. The more external noise there is in the first place then more will penetrate into the cabin.

Come on now, Madsa, why don't you say how you really feel lol.

but this noise issue is subjective at the best of times, i mean what annoys me when I'm listening to Panis Angelica might pass unnoticed by yir good self when you're listeining to GunsNRoasses or whatever your poison is. But how else can they grade tyres other than by external noise, if they tried to measure it inside they'd need to do seperate readings for all the cars on the road.

[Cyker]

Test NOISE levels refer to external noise.

So meaningless for drivers...

(just like fuel consumption tests then)

Y'know, I didn't realise that!

That explains the discrepancy between the rating and what I'm hearing

Agree it's a bit pointless; I suspect external noise would be near the bottom of the list of things people look for in their tyres!

I wonder how they measure it as surely the road surface would make far more difference to the external noise than the tyre...? If they can standardise that, they could standardise measurements for the internal noise too surely? Tyre noise (internally) is probably one of the hardest things to isolate, even more than the engine noise. In most cars, the road noise from the tyres far exceeds the sound of the engine once you're going at any kind of speed.

On a slight tangent, am slightly regretting not getting the puncture safe put in as, yup, you've guessed it, I have got a $£%#@& puncture!

10 ******* days!!! :censor:

[Parts-King]

Its true to say it is external noise but the reasoning behind it is as follows

• A single 'sound wave' shows that the tyre's noise level is 3dB better than the future European limit.
• Two black 'sound waves' shows that the tyre meets the future European limit.
• Three black 'sound waves' shows that the tyre only meets the current European limit for noise.

[FROSTYBALLS]

The EU tyre labelling test for noise is meant to reduce traffic noise, and is carried out using the following method (taken from the Michelin website):

For external noise level, a tyre’s performance is measured in decibels (dB). The test: a microphone is placed at the edge of a track to measure the sound level as the test vehicle passes at 80 km/h (50 mph). External noise is measured in standard conditions (track, speed, temperature).

[Cyker]

Welp, nearly a year on and due to a sudden spate of extreme bad luck I'm getting new tyres again!

Had a slow puncture in my front-left which I'd been ignoring until yesterday, when a massive bolt somehow punched through the shoulder of my left-rear. Went to the garage and they also found there was a nasty bulge on the inside-sidewall of my right-rear! 3 tyres hit!

 

But these events make it a good time to wrap up this thread.

The Dunlops have been great, would deffo recommend; Stopping, accelerating, cornering have all been strong and confident and haven't noticeably degraded over the course of their life.

Wear rate has been decent; Rears are 6.6mm (And sadly these are the terminally damaged ones! ), fronts are 2.9mm, and this is over the course of 15,000 miles of me driving a mix of urban and fast roads 'enthusiastically' .

Not as good as the Conti PC2E's (Which the fronts got me IIRC 25k, and the rears are STILL on my ex-Yaris!!!), but I wasn't driving them anywhere near this hard so all things considered, 15,000 miles is not too shabby!

Now got the surviving Dunlops on the back wheels and some new Goodyear Efficient Grip Compacts on the front so it'll be interesting to see how those do. I only picked them because the garage only had those, the horrible CS2's I had before, some £75 Pirrellis (!), or some Conti Eco Contact 3's, and these had a more similar tread pattern to the Dunlops than the Contis...

Only done about 20 miles in them so far, but I feel they are already noticeably quieter than the Dunlops on urban roads; Will see what they're like on the noisy as hell concrete sections of the M25 tomorrow...!

 

[FROSTYBALLS]

Dunlop nowadays is just a brand name. European Dunlop tyres are made by Goodyear, so there will be a similarity in tread patterns between Goodyear tyres and the equivalent Dunlops. For example for my previous Auris the Dunlop Bluresponse have identical EU tyre ratings to the Goodyear EfficientGrip.

[Cyker]

Ah, I was wondering about that... I wonder how many other tyre manufacturers are like this; I already know Cooper and Avon are basically different brands for the same company...

Still, it's good to know - I did find it odd how similar the tread patterns were!! It's a bit odd as the tyres themselves are slightly different shapes; The Street Responses have a squarer profile (The contact patch is flatter across the tyre face), while the Efficient Grips seem to have a rounder profile (The shoulders curve up more). I think the rubber compound is different too as it feels different to drive, but this might just be the difference of going from 3mm worn tyres to brand new ones 

 

 

[FROSTYBALLS]

12 minutes ago, Cyker said:

Ah, I was wondering about that... I wonder how many other tyre manufacturers are like this; I already know Cooper and Avon are basically different brands for the same company...

Brands known in the UK -

Apollo own Vredestein & Maloya

Bridgestone own Firestone

Continental own Barum, Matador, Semperit & Uniroyal

Goodyear own Dunlop, Debica, Fulda, Sava & Pneumant

Michelin own B F Goodrich, Kleber, Kormoran, Tigar & Riken (they also own Black Circles and ATS Euromaster)

Pirelli own Courier

Kumho own Admiral & Marshal

Sumitomo own Falken

 

 

[Cyker]

Blimey! I must bow down to your comprehensive tyre manufacturer knowledge!!