Replaced factory Tires? Review needed!
 

I have been researching quite heavily in here on what tires I want to get. And from my research I haven't really seen a review thread for all the tires, just certain ones.
To help those of us who's factory tires are going out and needing new ones, I wanted to see about a review thread.
So, if you replaced tires with stock wheels or not please let us know the following in a short review:

Tire manafacture / type
size
miles driven
tread wear
noise level
driving style
overall performance (dry,wet,snow, etc)

I think there would be alot of us who could benefit for everyone else's experience. Some of the major internet sites are very informative, but this would be a more real world review.

Please let us know.

thanks
mike

Falken GRB
245/45/17
few thousand miles already driven on them
pretty good for a performance tire
i dont really notice the noise cause of my exhaust
great performance

the main reason i like these tires is the price. probably the best bang for the buck performance tire out there.

I'm starting to sound like a broken record but here goes:

Goodyear Eagle F1/GSD3
245/45/17 (ideal size is 235/50/17)
Driven so far: 15-17k
Tread wear so far: ~90%
Noise level: Quieter than the turanzas [became] but not the quietest.

Overall Performance:

In dry and damp and wet and flooded roads, they're solid. They're summer tires but for all intents and purposes, consider them an all-season.
An astounding tire overall. I will probably only buy these from now on. It's become quite an effort to break the back end loose, with the stockers it was an effort not to.
If I only get 25k out of them (1 year of driving for me) I'll still be ecstatic. They honestly made my car a different beast. I've been rotating them every 3k and no uneven wear.

[edit] treadwear is still really even across the tire but I just discovered tonight that I'm well above the 55% I quoted before. In fact I'll bet these tires will need replacing within another 2k. At least one pair of them. Kind of disappointing because 18k is not many miles. And they're expensive... If I have to replace that often I might need to find a cheaper alternative myself.

Downers:

They break down below about 38 degrees and in snow or ice they develop flatspots while driving. (although when you only get 3 snow days a year they still get you to work)
They need to be roadforce balanced; for some reason the regular balance doesn't cut it with these, I experienced it and read several others' experiences on the forums. After the hunter balance however they've been solid ever since.

Thanks for the replies. I know some of you have responded to alot of posts about tires, but I appreciate it.
I just included another thing on the list: Driving style.
I wanted to add this to see what tire wear everyone is experiencing based on your driving style. For example, drive hard and fast and take every turn as an Andretti, or simple driving, obeying the speed limits and don't take hard turns. Or better yet, somewhere in between.

Thanks again
mike

Anyone else?

I drive like an ***, for the most part. I turn off VDC a little too much for my own good and there's nothing I like more than correcting a little fishtailing around a nice wide corner and listening to the tires squeal. In a straight line I drive too fast and in a less-than-straight line, well... I drive too fast then too ;)

Vat iz deese "road force balance"? How does it differ from the usual spin balance? :confused:

Can we use the Goodyear Eagle F1/GSD3 tires if we have the Sedan with the 18” wheels? Aren’t the factory 18’s 235/45? The GSD3 doesn’t come in that size does it? Can you use a 230 or 240 tire when a 235 is standard? What about a 40 series instead of the 45 series? Will your speedometer be off then?

Google "miata tire size calc" for all those answers.

They apply real-world forces to the tires as they're balanced which allows them to balance the tire for a much more realistic rolling shape and load than the regular method. It's a little more expensive (usually around $10 a tire) but it's a lot more effective I guess. Some tires seem more sensitive to balancing than others and for the more sensitive ones, this seems like a good solution.

http://www.sullivantire.com/xcessorize/hunter.aspx

I have a 2005 G35x and I had the factory tires swapped out by the dealer for Michelin Pilots MXM4 P225 17R 50 V-rated 300 Tread wear. I only have about 1K on them but they are MUCH quieter and about the same performance, perhaps a notch better - overall a much better tire for my driving habits. Keep in mind that these are not a pure performance tire, but then again I do not need that up here in Western NY, and I'm not interested in changing tires for the winter.

Thanks for the info, I don't know of anyone in this area that has one.

I remember how they used to do it, by spinning the wheel while it was on the car. You had a gizmo that attached to the rim and it has four little knobs in a row in the center and there was an electric motor with a scrub wheel to spin the tire. You would set a vibration sensitive strobe light on the fender and move each knob until the vibration was gone. After the wheel stopped, you read the weights on each indcator (inside, outside of rim) and attached the proper weights. You then spun it again to see if you got it right. Took a good two hrs to balance the wheels on the average car. But, in the hands of a good tech, it worked better than anything today because, you spun the tire, rim, and brake assembly as a unit.

It sounds like it's a very similar process aside from the fact that it's just the wheel and tire and that it's highly automated now. Most discount tire's will have a hunter road force balancer, you just have to ask for the road force balance. If they don't have one they'll know a place that does.

PS - If you buy tires from Discount tire and the regular balance doesn't seem to work, if you whine enough about how you "just bought them" "spent close to a grand" "really disappointed" etc etc... they'll do the road force balance for free, or at least half price depending on how persistent you are :)

There are several reviews for all brands and model of tires at "tirerack.com". I got a set of Avon tires on the wife's Maxima after reading several great review about them. I must say they outperform the OEM Bridgestone Potenza 92's and look wider. For the ratings of the tire as far as treadwear, traction and temperature go, the price is unbelievably low. Had them for 4 months and 6K miles and are great.

I'm looking at some AVS Sports. Should I get the 245/40/17 or 245/45/17. I still have the stock springs so i'm thinking the 40's might be too short (too much wheel gap)?

Thanks for the reviews guys...keep them coming.