Nokian NRVi Tires - Thoughts / Feelings

[bradfa]

So, there is basically no information out there on the wonderful internet about Nokian NRVi tires. I read everything there was, and it took me all of about half an hour. Figure I'd write up my thoughts / feelings about the tires on here and keep a little log to inform others about how they work out for me. Try to keep others informed in what's available for "non TDI engine related" products.

To start, I bought these tires based on the fact that really, no one else has them, and cause what I did read basically said they rule in the rain. I really don't like hydroplaning. Sidewall says "Traction A Temperature A Treadwear 300".

These puppies ain't cheap. I paid $149 per tire, plus $10 shipping from NJ per tire, plus $1.50 for valves per tire, plus $2.50 for NY state fees per tire, plus $10 mount and balance per tire. Then we had fun NY state tax. Lets just say the Amex isn't feeling so hot this month.

Tires are 205/55R16 sized. Mounted on my Montreal II wheels I bought off Vortex for $300. You can find good deals on the 'tex if you look and are willing to drive a little bit to get them. Lots of people looking to unload 16" rims when going bigger. I picked the Montreal II based on reviews of them on here, saying they were lighter weight, but still nice wheels. I figure based upon weights published for the wheels and tires, I'm running about 40lb per tire wheel combo. Pretty close to stock. I don't own a scale, so I can't verify, but they feel about the same, and I used to work in a shipping room shipping UPS packages.

The tires are hard to find. I was quoted a 2-3 month wait if I didn't want to have them shipped up from NJ. In NJ, a Nokian warehouse had them.

So far, about 70 miles on the tires / wheels. I installed the wheels / tires yesterday afternoon. So far, seems they grip well in the dry. Supposed to rain on Wednesday and Thursday here, so I'll comment on wet traction then.

I'll try to keep some records of fuel economy too. Probably time for me to start a spreadsheet, now that the engine is broken in a little bit.

Some quick pics I took:

The tread:


Some sidewall info (not including size info):


The Jetta!:


Jetta's just look nice with Montreal II's

I'll update with more info as I feel necessary. If others have these tires, please feel free to add! I know some have the Nokian i3 tires and like them. The i3's are similar, but a little lower in cost.

EDIT 4/11/06 - Updated to correct prices.

[bradfa]

So just over 130 miles on the tires now, and since Monday morning, it seems the car has just a little bit of shake to it. I can just barely feel the steering wheel shimmy back and forth. I'm not sure if it just me feeling the road, where as my snow tires really didn't let me feel the road, or if possibly one of my wheels isn't balanced quite right.

I checked the lug bolts again, and they are all tight. Either I'm just paranoid or I've got a flat spot on one wheel, or one of them isn't balanced right.

If nothing improves over the next day or two, I'm going to bring it into the garage I bought them from and have them balance the tires again.

[BrianCT]

Originally Posted by bradfa

So just over 130 miles on the tires now, and since Monday morning, it seems the car has just a little bit of shake to it...

I do not know what you're aiming for concerning performance. You paid alot of doe for a set of tires without any history other than a great name in Winter/Ice/Snow driving.

For $132.00 shipped tax free to your door you could have had the number one tire in the world for dry and wet weather traction and ....proven. It's also made in Germany. You could have had a tire which I got 55,000 miles out of driving 3 seasons of the year. The wet weather traction on the GoodYear Eagle F1 is as good as the dry and they dry in one of the best ever made. No vibrations.

The side wall is 2 ply reinforced rayon and the thread has 6 ply [2] Rayon, [2] Steel and [2] Nylon with a 51 psi rating. 11,558,664 miles survey.


click image for info

[bradfa]

Yes, I know. I wanted to try something different.

As for other tire brands, I'm hoping the Jetta will be around for a while. So I should have plenty of time to try others
Maybe I'll get a set of the Goodyears next and have a direct comparison.

Besides the shimmy, these tires so far are very nice. I can't hear any tire noise over wind and engine noises, at any speed. Car feels nicely planted when cornering.

EDIT: removed the "me going to the shop" comments. Gonna give the tires a few more days to settle in first.

[BrianCT]

Originally Posted by bradfa

As for other tire brands, I'm hoping the Jetta will be around for a while. So I should have plenty of time to try others.

I will state that the F1 Eagle do tend to pick up every little rock and pebble in the neighborhood. Though the tread wear is excellent, the first couple thousand miles you look at your tread on these tires and wonder how deep that stone actually wiggled into the tread bars.

As for noise? The F1 are not quiet tires and further down the wear bars the louder the tire howls along.

I'm not saying you made a bad choice. What I'm saying is there are tires out there that have millions of miles of reviews supporting claims. It's tough enough to throw $700 USD on a set of four tires let alone second guess if the tire you purchased for that price is really all that good.

I will also add that after mounting a tire on a rim I never have it balanced for the first 500 miles until the beads set in. The tire will shift on the rim after mounting due to the soaps imposed to mount the tire. Even if the tire shifts a fraction of an inch it's still enough to throw off the balance.

I always mount, drive and then balance after 500 miles of road use. Usually 2 days.



-B

[bradfa]

That's interesting to hear about your balancing strategy. Maybe I'll wait till after the weekend to see how they feel. I'll most likely put a few miles on this weekend to wear them in a little bit.

They didn't shimy at all the first drive I took, so it could be that the bead just shifted slightly. I think I'm just getting worked up cause I don't want my money to go to waste on tires with no info available.

[BrianCT]

Originally Posted by bradfa

That's interesting to hear about your balancing strategy.

It's not true of all wheel and tire balancing, more an issue of how much soap/lubricant the shop applied around the bead and rim before mounting the tire.

Think of it this way. You just mounted your new tires onto alloyed rims. You have them spin balanced. Couple of things can happen after balancing throwing the wheel out of wack. I have had several of these issues, the main one was too much soap used to mount the tire.

• Soap remains on the bead and rim surfaces and after applying first brake the rim shifts slightly inside the bead itself = out of balance
• You threw a sticky weight accidently which did not adhered correctly
• Your tire pressure is not equal causing the vibration -off 2 lbs between left and right can cause front end shimmy
• The new tires have accentuated worn suspension or an alignment probelm
• Defect in the sidewall or belt of one tire

[Frankenwagen]

I am about to pick up a set of i3's for my Golf. I can get them here for $84 mounted and balanced.

[Frankenwagen]

Here is an image of the i3 tread pattern:

[volmaniac]

i've put about 10k miles on my nokian i3's and they are awesome imho.

[All of Us]

Folks:

Are any of the tires discussed in this thread M+S rated for all season use? Do all of you have a separate set of winter rims and tires? Or is it possible that snow is not an issue in your part of the world. Just curious, because here in the Chicago area snow (and ice) is/are an issue.

All of Us
'06 Jetta TDI "Graycie" Pkg2, 5spd

[bradfa]

The NRVi isn't M+S rated, and I wouldn't use them in the snow. I have a set of Nokian Hakka RSI tires for the winter, mounted on my 15" wheels. We get a bit of snow here in NY

[AkAl]

I bought some nrv i's for my W8 they have turned out to be a disapointment, they cup on the outside edge & I cant keep them from shakeing over a period of time used. strangely enough my goodyear ultra grip ice snow tires have worked better than the expensive nokians they even have much more tread on them after 4 yrs use and no cupping either. the nokian truck tires seem good but the high speed performance tires are not the best I have found.

[volmaniac]

Originally Posted by All of Us

Folks:

Are any of the tires discussed in this thread M+S rated for all season use? Do all of you have a separate set of winter rims and tires? Or is it possible that snow is not an issue in your part of the world. Just curious, because here in the Chicago area snow (and ice) is/are an issue.

All of Us
'06 Jetta TDI "Graycie" Pkg2, 5spd

the i3's have "m+s in north america only" on the sidewall. we did not get any snow this past winter here so i can't say how well they would do. i got them more for wet weather.

[bradfa]

Originally Posted by AkAl

I bought some nrv i's for my W8 they have turned out to be a disapointment, they cup on the outside edge & I cant keep them from shakeing over a period of time used.

Interesting. . .

Well, I got all 4 wheels re-balanced today. Shop's balancer was not calibrated properly the first time I had my wheels balanced (when I bought them). They said all 4 were about an ounce out. Drove about 200 miles today on them, and they feel much nicer, but still not quite perfect. I'll give them another week or so, and see how they feel then. Interesting to hear about the shaking from AkAl. . .

All together about 750 miles in so far. Fuel economy on the first tank was horrendous, but mainy due to having bikes on the roof for most of the tank. Got 36mpg, which is normal for having a rack and bikes.

The tires grip really well. Still hasn't rained yet, at least not in decent quantities. Supposed to rain this weekend, or so they say. I'd say in the dry, these are better than my old stock Michelin tires, they give me a bit more confidence. They roll really nicely too, so I need to slow down. 90 doesn't feel all that fast, but I'm sure the cops aren't going to like that excuse