Cooper CS5 Grand Touring Questions & Answers

Suggest you direct this question to a tire expert- I am just an end user - no idea.

Do you mean supplier or retailer? You can get them in most big Queensland towns and cities from the main retailers.

Hi Chris, I am not an expert on tyres. I am just a person who uses them. I suggest that you contact either a tyre retailer or your local motoring organisation. They could give you the technical realities of using mixed brand tyres.

Ps I have a Geolander as my spare but have not needed to use it so far. I would only use my spare to get me out of trouble before replacing it with another Cooper CS5.

Quite a few years ago, I was in a Nissan Patrol, in the Outback, when it started raining, turning some areas into skating rinks. After hitting a hidden hole (covered in watery mud) the Patrol, skidded to the side hit the edge of the road and turned over. The car belonged to my employer and when rescued several hours later, one of the rescuers was a car mechanic. He said one of the contributory factors was a mix of tyres, across axles, probably caused by swapping out after a puncture. On my own vehicles, I have always had five same tyres fitted and rotated as necessary.

I would use the Bridgestone as it is only a temporary fix until you either repair or replace the damaged CS5.

G'Day Jimbo, Well the tyre placard says one thing ... but the dealer says something completely different!! I've learned to run with what the dealer recommends ... since these will be the people who will determine if you have a genuine warranty claim down the track!!! They recommend 36PSI all round ... and I have stuck with this. No problems with this pressure .... comfortable, good fuel mileage.

With Coopers current discount making them $200 cheaper than the G95 it seemed a no brainer unfortunately they are immediately noticably noisier than the OEM Yokis though disappointingly that may be partially due to the poor release mold trimming with multiple tags protruding up to 8mm outwards from random sipes on all 4 tyres and a residual thin strip of rubber flush with the surface running completely across all grooves on 2 of the tyres. I've trimmed what excess I could with a Stanley knife to see if they are part responsible for the extra road noise and will wait to rate them here after a country trip in order to more accurately assess them.

Thanks John....I have heard that the Subaru are notorious for road noise unless you go the Yokis.....heres hoping you have a good result!

Good news on the noise, the tyres are very quiet now the injection tabs were removed or have worn off. Unfortunately my tyres did have a mild wheel balancing problem especially noticeable by 90 which worsening as they reached 110, this was felt through the steering wheel and perceptible through the bum meaning the rears were most likely out as well.

Despite a 2nd go by the fitting tyre dealer the balancing problem was not resolved and with a long road trip coming up shortly a little annoying. After reading US reviews which confirmed the CS5s can be difficult to balance many posted they resolved their issues through "Road Force Balancing" by a Hunter balancing machine, living in Sydneys south the closest tyre dealer with a Hunter machine was down in Wollongong. Anyway the trip to the 'Gong was worth the money as the trip back to Sydney was so much smoother and like serenely rolling on a road of air in comparison to the way down, even my wife on the passenger side without prompting on the M1 heading home remarked the difference was astonishing.

After the Bob Jane Wollongong RF Balancing ( have to give them an enormous plug as they helpfully fitted me in on short notice and exceeded my expectations on the balance) the CS5s now seem very good on the highway, suburban streets and absolutely rock solid in the wet during a recent torrential downpour though that's not surprising given the tyres advertised high silica content and deep tread depth, will wait until after our upcoming road trip to evaluate the CS5s in formal review as we'll be doing a lot of kms on country back roads some unsealed and maybe even a bit of Alpine Snow dependent on the weather.

Thanks so much John, I'm very happy to hear that with the effort you have put in to counter the initial noise and then the balancing problems that you have had some success. Travel safe and thanks again for getting back to me regarding this in such an extensive and detailed explanation! I look forward to your review after the longer road trip!

Regards,

Rob

I've now done over 10,000km on my CS5s in all weather conditions and on and off-road. They're excellent. Hardly showing any signs of wear at all and fantastic handling. I bought mine for $265 each...not as cheap as others but I firmly believe that you get what you pay for. I have problem recommending them.

Correcting my last answer... I have NO problem recommending them. Great tyres.