Yes, big tire companies make ‘no name’ tires

Dear Bob: Many tire dealers tell their customers that “no name” tires are actually produced by one of the well-known manufacturers and are of the same quality as name tires but at a much lower price. Is this true?

Also, what governs the ratings for tread wear, traction and temperature?

Yours truly,

— G.F., Carlisle, Pa.

A: In addition to making their own brand-name tires, major tire manufacturers also produce tires for the aftermarket. Kelly Springfield makes tires for Union 76 stations, for instance, under the brand name of Unocal 76, and also makes Vogue tires and a number of others. Uniroyal Goodrich makes the popular Brunswick tires and, along with Continental and the Korean manufacturer Kumho, makes tires for Big O tire chains.

Dunlop makes the Centennial tire, while Lee Tire and Rubber Company makes the Concorde and also the popular Mohawk tire line. Firestone and Kelly Springfield make tires for Montgomery Ward. Sears tires are made by Armstrong, Michelin and Mohawk.

So yes, larger tire companies do indeed make tires for the aftermarket. These tires are of the same quality as many of their house-brand tires, but can be purchased at discounted prices in the secondary market.

As far as the traction, tread-wear and temperature ratings posted on every tire are concerned, each tire company grades and rates its own tires using the standards of the Uniform Tire Quality Grading System, a project of the Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

These ratings are not safety ratings, nor are they a guarantee that a given tire will last for a certain number of miles or perform in a certain way. The system is there to give tire buyers more information to weigh, along with such other considerations as price, brand name and dealer suggestions.

Dear Bob: I know someone who has a Volkswagen Jetta with 200,000-plus miles, and the oil-pressure light kept coming on.

His mechanic told him to change from 10W-40 to 20W-50 oil. He did, and the light doesn’t come on anymore.

I’m thinking that changing oil viscosities only masks the real problem but doesn’t fix it. What are your thoughts?

— Nameless, via e-mail

A: After better than 200,000 miles, the engine in your friend’s Jetta is probably getting a bit tired and worn. Wear has increased the clearances between engine parts, leading to a drop in oil pressure and causing the light to come on.

The change to a thicker, higher-viscosity oil helped fill those worn spaces and increased the oil pressure enough to make the light go out.

Granted, the real cure would probably be an engine overhaul. But switching to a higher-viscosity oil is much cheaper and will work fine until eventually the engine becomes worn to the point that, regardless of what oil is used, it won’t function properly due to lack of oil pressure.

AMERICAN DRIVERS FIGHT BACK

Here’s a tip that will help you get better gas mileage while fighting terrorism and cutting our nation’s dependence on Mideastern oil:

Dear Bob: A thought on your weather-related fuel-economy comments.

I have found that, in cold weather, my car will climb many highway grades without downshifting, something it can’t do in the heat of summer. This is due, of course, to the fact that the cold air is much more dense than hot air.

I always head for your column in our Saturday paper.

Yours truly,

— A.M., Mead, Wash.

A: There’s no doubt that colder, denser air provides the engine with more power, thus reducing the need for the transmission to downshift to a lower gear when climbing hills. Thus there is also some gas economy involved, because higher gears use less gas than do lower ones.

But there are a couple of caveats here.

First, the colder the ambient temperature is, the worse your gas mileage will be — because cold air is, as you note, more dense and therefore a greater source of aerodynamic drag. This mileage penalty is mainly inflicted during higher-speed driving, however, so it can be offset by reducing your top speed during winter months, thus lessening aerodynamic drag on your vehicle. I assume that your hill-climbing is not done at high speeds, so this dense-air penalty would not apply to your situation.

The second point is that cold weather doesn’t allow all the parts of a vehicle to warm to their most efficient operating temperatures, and that in turn reduces gas mileage.

Except for a few isolated aspects, such as the one you describe, cold is the No. 1 enemy of good gas mileage.