nc211 Posted October 17, 2005 Posted October 17, 2005 Guys, I know we've covered this a zillion times, but the debate usually seems to be between the bridgestone turanzas and michelins. In my case, neither is really affordable with the michelins close to $600, bridgestones at $375 "only need 3, original spare in trunk has never been used", or some Continental ContiPremier Contacts at $352 for all four. I know VW and some other german cars used to use Continental as OEM, not sure anymore. But what do you guys think about those tires? I have a feeling the mechanic is going to say my tires are damaged, which is the cause of the wobble. It's got the Michelin's on there now. But $600 for new tires just isn't in the cards right now, with everything else costing more and Christmas coming up. Gotta start pinching some pennies here. By the way, all prices are estimates from tirerack.com. ps...I'm not an aggresive driver, I like to cruise and putter. edit: here is the tire I'm looking at.... http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?ti...romCompare1=yes Here is what one reviewer said about them. It appears they're great for the LS400's, not so great for the cadillacs. There are a few LS400/430 owner reviews, all seem positive. "These tires are much better than numerous others I have had on a Lexus 400 and a 430. The smooth quiet ride, particulary at highway speeds, is far superior to the various $145-170 Michelins I have owned. I have driven in torrential rains on the Interstate, in 3-4" snowfalls in the city, and on hot, dry state(read: not smooth) highways. I am absolutely "sold" on these tires and recommend them without reservation for other 430 owners. They may not carry the "cache" of some other brands, but once tire purchasers "wise up", you will have been ahead of your time. -- Review Submitted 2005-03-15"
SW03ES Posted October 17, 2005 Posted October 17, 2005 I know one 98 owner who put them on, and replaced them swallowing the cost of new tires because they made his LS ride so poorly.
goformike Posted October 17, 2005 Posted October 17, 2005 I just put these Yokohamas on my 93 LS. I am more than pleased. Much better than the Goodyears that were on them. Great reviews. Great ratings. Everything you could want in a tire. Whatever you go with, at least concider these. Tire rack link below. Tire rack Just my $0.02 Mike
nc211 Posted October 17, 2005 Author Posted October 17, 2005 Thanks Mike, good looking tire! But high performace = softer rubber = shorter life span, and harder side walls. But, that is all just personal opinion and preference for sure. I think if my problem is tire related, anything would be better than what's on there now, god willing! I did read some negative reviews about the continential on tirerack however, but mostly about the side walls being too soft for some "sporty" type driving. I don't do that anymore these days, just drop the wheel down and cruise' on down the road. Funny thing happens when your insurance is perfect due to a flawless driving record for the past 15 years.....you want to keep it that way. B)
Leadfoot Posted October 17, 2005 Posted October 17, 2005 I put 4 new Continental Eco Contacts on my car for a trip on the autobahn in Germany and the ride was fine up to 120mph (my wife wouldn't let me go faster). They handled well around the Nurburgring too, not a squeal from them even when pressed hard. Have only done 2000 miles on them so longevity is not known yet. I can't complain....... Leadfoot.
Steve J. Posted October 17, 2005 Posted October 17, 2005 I put 80,000 wonderful miles on my Michelin MXV4+ and am on the next set. IMO there is no better match for an LS400. And truly economical in the long run.
dcfish Posted October 17, 2005 Posted October 17, 2005 I agree with the comment on the MXV4s... ← I also agree with the MX'S I have them on my ES and they wear like iron and the ride is smooth.
blake918 Posted October 18, 2005 Posted October 18, 2005 I put 80,000 wonderful miles on my Michelin MXV4+ and am on the next set. IMO there is no better match for an LS400. And truly economical in the long run. ← I agree with the comment on the MXV4s... ← I agree with the comment on the MXV4s... ← I also agree with the MX'S I have them on my ES and they wear like iron and the ride is smooth. ← What they said! B) Steve J really nailed it when he said how economical they are in the long run. Mine require hardly any maintinance (balancing, rotating, aligning); one balance/rotate in about 50k miles. The lure of a low priced tire is surely tempting, but I've seen tires nickle and dime well past the cost of a quality tire. I pay $40 per rotation and balance (at an independant tire shop, Sears or WalMart is off limits! lol), so even a set of $350 tires can met or exceede the cost of the Michelins after it's all set and done.
VBdenny Posted October 18, 2005 Posted October 18, 2005 lmao Leadfoot. Doing only 120 because of your wife. My wife is the same way. We were cruising to VT to see our daugter and she was reading a book. She looked up and said "I don't want you going 90" I said I'm not, I'm going 100. She said "well that is too fast, slow down, I don't like going over 80." Hence our issue. I don't like going under 80.
nc211 Posted October 18, 2005 Author Posted October 18, 2005 You guys are nuts. I'm handing over my "floral pattern" duke boys here; there is no way on God's green earth that I'm going to get away with Mich., tires this time around. They're just too expensive for my "new" blond accountant to allow. So, I'm stuck with B+ tires instead of A+. I would rather ride on a vibrating LS than listen to her remind me how smooth my $600 tires are....Guys, we might loose the battle here and there,,,, but we'll win the war.
Reyi Posted October 18, 2005 Posted October 18, 2005 You might want to consider the Firestone LH30s. They share technology with the Bridgestone Turanzas but they cost a hell of a lot less. I've only had them for about 10,000 miles now, but they've been great thusfar. The reviews at TireRack seem to be good as well.
nc211 Posted October 18, 2005 Author Posted October 18, 2005 will you guys post up some links to those mich. tires? the ones i'm seeing are $160, or the wrong ones. time to go to bed. ohhhh, i'm gonna be hurtin' in the morning.
texagun Posted October 18, 2005 Posted October 18, 2005 I had Continentals on my former car (Mercedes E-430) and they only lasted for 20,000 miles and were extremely noisy. I replaced them with Yokohamas and I was very happy with them. They rode much better and were much quieter.
blake918 Posted October 18, 2005 Posted October 18, 2005 Robert, they're not that expensive!! ;) I found them online for about a buck twenty a piece which is about $20 less than tirerack.com: http://www.ec-securehost.com/OnlineTires.c..._MXV4_Plus.html
SW03ES Posted October 18, 2005 Posted October 18, 2005 You can also get them installed at Costco for $120 each with a $60 credit at the end. I know how you feel though LOL, the war is far more important than each battle ;)
akewlguy Posted October 19, 2005 Posted October 19, 2005 Does the 17" tire slow down the LEXUS? I suspect more ground friction may result in decrease in pickup? Just throwing this out there....
nc211 Posted October 19, 2005 Author Posted October 19, 2005 Well she's at the specialist shop now. The waiting has begun. This sucks, it's like waiting to get your final's back that you think you might have bombed, but not quite sure the damage you've done to yourself. Oh how I don't miss that. Actually, I do considering a C is much cheaper than a broken Lexus. I think it's either something very simple and I'll be out $150, or something on the other end of the stick at around $1,000. Whatever it is, it'll be fixed. I'm thinking either tires "most likely", flex-coupling(s) on drive shaft "quite possible" or tie rod / rack related "God help me, need a ski mask to rob the bank". Kewl, I must admit man, you sure do come up with some off the wall questions! I'm not sure if the 17 inch tires will slow down a car, but I would assume due to physics that it wouldn't so much as slow it down, but require more power to keep it going. Bigger the wheel, bigger the dynamics. But I'm a finance guy, not a scientist so I'm not really sure. I do know this though, bigger the wheel, more money it costs which means less gas in the tank, resulting in reduced speed to keep the car going! ;)
blake918 Posted October 19, 2005 Posted October 19, 2005 Does the 17" tire slow down the LEXUS? I suspect more ground friction may result in decrease in pickup? Just throwing this out there.... ← I can see this as an entirely plausible speculation. The rims/tires are most likely heavier than the stock setup in conjunction with the larger footprint of the 17s; I can see some power lost in that equation. ;) Well she's at the specialist shop now. The waiting has begun. This sucks, it's like waiting to get your final's back that you think you might have bombed, but not quite sure the damage you've done to yourself. Oh how I don't miss that. Actually, I do considering a C is much cheaper than a broken Lexus. I think it's either something very simple and I'll be out $150, or something on the other end of the stick at around $1,000. Whatever it is, it'll be fixed. I'm thinking either tires "most likely", flex-coupling(s) on drive shaft "quite possible" or tie rod / rack related "God help me, need a ski mask to rob the bank". ← My guess is that your tires are fine since you mentioned a clunk although it is entirely possible that they are bad, but something in the suspension componetry has to be faulty since there is a clunk. I can be your get-away driver if you want, I already have a ski mask! lmao
nc211 Posted October 19, 2005 Author Posted October 19, 2005 Got the answer, it's the tires. The shop who looked it over specializes solely in high mileage Lexus cars, and the owners both have older LS's like ours. They said they couldn't find anything wrong with the actual mechanical parts, couldn't find any runout on the axles, rims or even the tires. They said the tire wear pattern is excellent, but the tread is down to 4/32. At 2/32 North Carolina requires new tires or it won't pass inspection. The shop said it can be close to impossible to pinpoint where exactly the bad belt is when the outter surface doesn't display any of the characteristics. He did mention however that he has been seeing an increase in Michelin tires coming in with bad belts lately. So, I'll drive it for a little while longer on this set of Michelins while I save up for some new tires. He said he and his busniess partner have been seeing great results with Toyo tires and recently put them on thier own cars. Anyway, don't want to start a debate on tire prefference here, but it appears the mystery wobble is indeed tire related. Cost of diagnostic and tire balancing....$100. Whew, I can live with that.
SW03ES Posted October 19, 2005 Posted October 19, 2005 I wouldn't do the Toyos though, in my experience the Toyos were much louder and harder to balance than the Michelins. How old are the tires, did you put them on yourself or did the previous owner? I'm asking because the MXV4s could be pretty old...
nc211 Posted October 19, 2005 Author Posted October 19, 2005 yeah, i think i'll pass on the toyos and kuhmos of the tire world and stick with the brand names. The tires on there now "Michelins" were put on by the previous owner. Judging by the fact that I've now put 24k miles on the car since I purchased it back in May 04', and I'm at 4/32 of tread left, I figure they were probably half used up when I got it. What really convinced the mechanic it is tire related is that the wobble feeling is at it's worst when the tires are cold, first thing in the morning. The warmer they get, the better the wobble gets. Whew, well, I'm happy it's something related to normal wear and tear and not mechanical. However, I do forsee the need for new driveshaft flex couplings in the future. I'd seriously doubt 7 years and 84k miles of having that off-throttle jerking from the old ecu hasn't had some sort of advanced negative impact on those things. The mechanic did say that when he turned the prop shaft by hand, he could hear a little metal on metal clicking...free-play. But said nothing to worry about at this point. Even if it doesn't turn out to be the tires, I need new ones anyway. But my money is on the tires too.
larryp Posted October 19, 2005 Posted October 19, 2005 Does the 17" tire slow down the LEXUS? I suspect more ground friction may result in decrease in pickup? Just throwing this out there.... ← I'm not a physicist but i did stay in a holiday inn express once. If it's a plus 1 wheel swap the diameter of the outside of the tire would be roughly the same so the biggest factor would be the increase in unsprung weight. if the replacement wheel tire combination weighed more, there would be more mass to move resulting in slower pickup. Of course you'd probably need an atomic clock to measure the difference in acceleration times. As for the friction, that would be a function of the tire tread compound soft vs hard. It must be something about the beds at holiday inn express, this actually sounds like i know what i'm talking about. ;)
akewlguy Posted October 19, 2005 Posted October 19, 2005 The larger tires (17" over 16") would result in 4 more inches of resistance on the pavement. Of course one would result in improved traction (with all being =), but I suspect a slight decrease in MPG and potential pick up exists. Sometime my mind is all over the place, but I am still tying to figure out what variables = my LS's best MPG. So hope you dont mind my jumping around. On top of that I am about to buy some 16" BLIZZZAKKKSS for the winter.. Should be an adventure with the old LS rims.. A change of pace I suppose. Cheers to my 17's and the LS..
LScott400 Posted October 22, 2005 Posted October 22, 2005 I love my Falken Ziex 512's (great price and great ride).
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