I just took my car in for its 15K miles service, yeah I know im late on it, but my car only has 18K miles and the dealer is telling me all 4 tires need replacing. At least one tire is making some kind of noise I can hear when I slow down, but all 4 at 18K!? I dont buy it. How long are the stock tires supposed to last? I have a 2003.5 Sedan with premium and sport package.


2003.5 Sedan / White & Willow / Premium / Navi / Sport / Aero
www.FierceGraphics.com

 

sUPPOsedly, 30,000, varying on your drving habit. Even 18" PilotSport on my Mercedes lasted more or less 30,000. Correct me if I am wrong.

 

It all depends on how you drive. I got 30K from a set of Michelins and 12k from a set of dunlops. The 30K was when my wife drove the car and 12K was when I drove it



Jim
'03.5 Sedan
Brilliant Silver/Graphite
6MT/ Premium package
Sport tuned suspension
Nismo Body Kit
Navigation and Satellite Radio
Z-Tube/JDM battery cover

 

Yep I changed mine at around 18K if I remember right... I had those crappy Turanzas (all- season). IF you want a cheap yet reasonably performing tire... get the Kumho Ecsta KH-11 in the 235-50-17 (stock size) or 245-45-17 (~5% underdrive). Both are a sizeable jump from the stock 215 size, they DO bulge a little fon our 7" wide wheels but not that badly. The nice thing is that these can be had for about $100-110 (if not less if you really shop around) each.

G

EDIT. BTW, I now have 37000 miles on the car and have never rotated the tires. The rear tires ARE worn out to the wear bar, while the front ones have about 3-4 mm (out of the orginal 7.9mm) of tread. Not bad, b/c i REALLY drive the cracp out of them.

<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small"><EM>Edited by gurgenpb on 08/13/04 10:18 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

That's right folks! It's a sports sedan... with an emphasis on sports, which means it will eat tires and brakes if driven how it likes/needs/begs to be driven. If you don't want to replace these wear & tear items often then change your driving style accordingly; or better yet, move to a Buick, that will quickly remedy the situation. ;-)

I just replaced my original stock Goodyear RSA's at 20K, not much tread left on them, could maybe got another 5K out of them if it wasn't for a sizable gash in the tread of one tire. I've had RSA on previous cars, and was able to drive them past 40K, but then again I never had this much fun driving through the turns.

I also picked up a set of Kumho ECSTA KH-11 in 235/50/17 for stock wheels. In profile they do look a bit larger, but not so much that they draw your attention. Anyway, I've broken them in now and performance is definitely improved over the RSA's. They're somewhat "heavier" handling, but they track better and provide plenty of confidence in turns. Have not had them in wet conditions yet, so can't comment. I doubt that I would be able to tell apart Kumhos vs. top end Michelins in street driving; and you just can't beat the price/performance of these Kumhos.


"There's no replacement for displacement, but forced induction can sure help".

 

You guys must really drive the car hard ... my wife is always complaining about my driving but my tires (Turanza) still look practically new at 20K miles. Well new may be a bit of an exageration but I bet I get 40K out of them

2003.5 5AT Sedan Black/Black Premium/Winter Packages

 

My Turanza's still do look new at almost 10k!


Brilliant Silver/Graphite/Chrome Wheels '04 Sedan/5AT

 

"I doubt that I would be able to tell apart Kumhos vs. top end Michelins in street driving; and you just can't beat the price/performance of these Kumhos. "

Unless you are totally numb I think you will, as the Kumho sidewalls are very very very soft [Touring tire] and the under tread carcass has STIFF NYLON so it takes a set badly even in Summer temps.

I thought the same thing! Till I mounted them WOW they ALL took a lot of weight to balance [3-4 times more than equivalent Michelins] and required rebalancing every 500 miles through the first 3000 miles of break in.

Maybe your experiences will differ?

 

I just got 4 new tires myself. I had a nail and a screw in my sidewall and my tires were almost at their legal limit, so I just replaced all 4. I have the sedan w/ sport and had the Goodyear GS-D, not the RSA. I thought the GS-Ds did a decent job. I did not drive my car hard either. I replaced them with some Yokohama YK-420 (P225/55R-17 95V B). They are only sold at Discount tire or America Tire. The tread design is similar to the AVID T4. They were about $130/tire whereas the Michelins were about $225. I have had them a week and they seem pretty good. Remember, I do not drive my car hard, but I have taken the car around the corner with a little speed. I do not see a big difference between the YK-420 and the GS-Ds. I have not driven them in the rain yet. As I am in San Diego, it might be a long time before rain.

ETicketRide
2003 G35 Sedan/Ivory Pearl/Willow Premium/Sport/Tint

 

I've kept my pressure slightly higher on the Kumhos, 35-36 PSI, so I haven't felt the softness, although the do feel more mellow on the freeway. I attributed this more to the change of tire size rather than soft sidewall, but may be wrong here per your comments Q45tech.

I have noticed the same with regard to the amount of weight needed to balance these out. I've had them for about 1200 miles and had to rebalance them once so far.


"There's no replacement for displacement, but forced induction can sure help".

 

My Q is as new even with 267,000 miles as well over $16,000 [at retail] of parts have been replaced-------not necessarily because they failed just that the components wore and were not performing as new. I am a perfectionist mechanically so I feel and measure and track down vibrations which 99.9% of owners would ignore.
Over the years I learned the hard way about tires! Almost every experiment turned out bad from a cost perspective.
Not necessarily from initial cost, as I avail myself of Tire Rack bargains and close outs for my experiments*. But from frustration and time required to keep many brands vibration free.

Michelins uses extra strong but expensive components and precision manufacturing proceedures that humans can't achieve continuously in an 8 hour shift.
Many workers at human intensive plants make good tires most of the time but there are time of day and day of week variances that get shipped.

It is always a BAD SIGN when a brand new tire takes more than 5-10 grams per side to balance. I have my wheels marked as to their imbalance [and replace wheels when they alone require over 10 grams per side] to stand alone balance!

Most of my wheels are 2-3 grams per side [a standard well beyond the oem as new spec]. A result of hours of fine grinding on a wheel lathe............so any weights are tire imbalances alone!

When a KH-11 requies 50-60 grams [total inside and out to balance] I know I bought a really bad Friday afternoon Dog, When all 4 require that I know the low cost factory has problems. Or to cut cost they cut costs.

* Ocassionally I buy inexpensive tires to try to find satisfactory substitutes for Michelin. All of these are given away after roughly 8,000 miles to poor relatives or just set out hoping they get stolen.

When you study tire manufactures profits [7% operating margin] you will see that Michelin doesn't make all that much vs sales.......maybe they are putting it into the tires?

 

I'm surprised nobody noticed. He has sport package which entails Goodyear GS-D tires. Wear rating is 180, so 18k miles doesn't surprise me.

***04 G35s 5AT/Sport***
***04 Volvo XC90 T6***

 

You would think owners would see the 220 on the Pilot Sports and understand.

But the tire test are confusing and simulate what is an average and mostly obsolete WAY of DRIVING, both in speed, road formulation, and aggressiveness!

At least Ultra and Max Performance tires are pretty honest when they label 140-220 even 260 -300..............it's the 360-400 range that almost never yields 36,000-40,000 miles

 

The first question is do they look like they need replacing? If yes, don't replace them at the dealers!!! Anytime you bring your car in for service, the dealers would like you to replace the whole car if possible. You should be able to tell whether your tires need replacement.

2004 G35X

 

I agree, by no means replace them at the dealer, take the car to someplace like Discount Tire and have them check them out, it will cost you much less than having the dealer replace them!


Brilliant Silver/Graphite/Chrome Wheels '04 Sedan/5AT