finding 165/70 13" tires
 

two years ago when I bought my 165/70 13" tires, I called every tire place in the phone book, and looked at every tire web site I could find, and the only tires in that size I could find were the yokohamas on tire rack that have a low tread life, low traction, and were only good for I think 36psi and a set of firestone F570's with a 340 wear life, A B traction and heat rating, and 44psi max, so I bought the fire stones, so after many miles, and repeditivly running over sharp bits of steel with one of my rear tires I deside that it would be a good idea to replace them, at least the rear two as one of them is full of holes and is developing a funky vibration at highway speeds.
so I checked at the store that I got the current tires at, and of course when I got them they were 4 of 20 that were left in the wear house 2 years ago, so they sent me to the honda dealer, the honda dealer told me to check tire rack as they didn't have a single suplier that could get that size tire, then for some reason I stoped at a tire store that I had called 2 years ago to ask them what they had in a 155/80, and talking to the crusty old man there for a few minutes he disapeared in to the back store room and came out with a pare of 165/70 13" Cooper sportract or something like that, said that years ago someone had ordered a set of 4, and only took two, then it came to a price, because they were no longer listed in the computer, or and cooper no longer had a listing for them, and their paper catologs only went back so many years, so $40 each and they were mine, and they look slightly better then the firestones.
I kind of wonder how many other tire stores have a simaler thing happen.

165/70/13 is also available in the Sumitomo HTR T4 (available at Sears for around $47 each I think) and Vredestein Quatrac II (available at only a few Vredestein dealers in the US, and $60 or more per tire shipped). Both are LRR tires with reasonable tread life and traction. The Vredesteins are supposedly an awesome LRR and great traction tire. I bought a set of the T4s size 175/70/13 for my '95 Civic DX hatchback a few months ago. I wanted the 165s in order to get a more accurate odometer reading (since I had swapped a CX/VX tranny into it and the odometer was reading about 3% too low), but Sears was having a sale on the 175s at $37 each, so I couldn't pass them up.

I'll have to check again at Sears, as the last time I called them about this size tire, they didn't show any that they could get.

I can't find them online either at Sears, but:
https://www.tirerack.com/tires/Sizes....l=Potenza+RE92

Tires have a limited life, they deteriorate over time. If the tires you bought are over 6 years old the tire shop should not be selling them to the public. Look up online and you will see info on tire life.
My Civic CX also calls for 165's but the choice is very limited, I've been using 175's for years, the odometer is only off slightly if any and the speedometer is pretty close also. PLUS the choices are many more. I use Kumho's, use to use A/R 795's but they were discontinued in that size now I use KR21's and the price is right and the tires are great,so shop around. Look them up at Tire Rack..... They also have some other great rated tires to choose from, but the price goes up.
Just my two cents worth.........

Try www.herculestire.com. I would have bought the G2000H tire which they have in the 165R7013 size but I already had bought two 175R7013's. You can find out if there's a tire distributor near you that sells em but you will have to get them mounted at a regular tire store. Discount Tire might be able to order them from the distributor for you but I didn't try it. I don't know who makes the Hercules brand but the tire specs looked ok and the price was about $37 per tire. If you gotta have the skinny tires - that's an option for ya.

I got some Sumitomo HTR T4 165/70/13 this past July at my local (non-chain) tire garage. I just told the owner that this tire was available in a 165 size and he called his distributor and got some with no fuss.

Where did you hear that the Vredesteins are awesome LRR? I have been thinking about ordering a set.

Two years ago when I began to research tires to replace my nearly worn Nokian NRT2s (because I knew Nokian didn't carry a 13" tire anymore), I found the Quatrac II. I read a number of reviews and comparisons with other tires (they were from the UK, I believe) that showed the Quatrac II to be the best in many categorie, including LRR. I also emailed Vredestein to request a coefficient of drag for the Vredestein, but they could not (would not?) give me an answer because they said cd depended on many factors such as wet/dry, rough/smooth road surface, temperature etc. But they did tell me they were pleased with the results of the Quatrac II compared to other top brand tires.

If you want, send me a private message with your email address, and I will forward the string of emails with Vredestein from September 2005.

Steve

Basjoos, how do the Sumitomo HTR T4s compare to your previous tires for LRR? What were your previous tires?