I'm looking to the family for wheel/tire advice.

[goofiefoot]

Let me say first that I am horrible at making decisions that will cost me money. Heck, I started contemplating buying a new (to me) car well over a year before I got my ZHP. Unfortunately, this decision would best be made sooner than later.

I need new tires. New tires are expensive. So, here's my thought process:

Option #1 - suck it up and buy new tires that fit the stock 135s. Though they are a pain to clean, and have some curb rash, I do like the wheels. My last name is not Andretti, and I do not race my car, so I would rather buy tires for longevity than performance. All-season seems to be a better option for longevity, so I could consider Yokohama AVIDs, Pirelli P-Zeros, or Continental DWs. This option will cost $850-1000.

Option #2 - find new wheels that keep the ZHP character but give me the option to rotate. 18x8 or 18.8.5 square setup. Pretty much limited to aftermarket, and would end up with an initial higher cost, but be offset by being able to sell my 135s for about $500-600 (realistic?). Factoring in proceeds from this sale, this option will cost $700+.

Option #3 - find new smaller wheels that are budget-minded and still fit the ZHP. Looks like I could get 17x8 wheels and tires shipped from TireRack for about $1000, so this option could cost $400-500 after selling my 135s.

Option #4 - sell my 135s to pay for tires for the winter wheels I got with the car (CLASSY (http://www.tirerack.com/wheels/WheelCloseUpServlet?target=wheelCloseUp&wheelMake=Sport+Edition&wheelModel=KV5&wheelFinish=Silver+Painted)). This pretty much costs me nothing but time (and possibly dignity).

I'd love any and all thoughts from the Mafia. Thanks!

[Marcus-SanDiego]

Option one. Keep the wheels. Buy new tires. Style 135 and the ZHP go hand in hand.

[danewilson77]

Option 2.

HTC Thunderbolt+TT

[Alphatek45]

1 or 2. Please delete 3

[aurelius]

The Style 68M wheels look good on the E46. Those being the 17" ZSP (sport pkg) wheels seen on most US-spec E46 330 models.

I recently sold a set of those: 4 non-staggered "fronts" with decent Sumitomo tires for $600.

Most used sets you'll come across will be ZSP take-offs and therefore will be staggered.

I'd look for a set of those with decent matching tires.

[Hermes]

I vote for #1

[az3579]

FYI,
I would skip out on the Pirelli P-Zero Nero All Seasons. I had them before my current set and had too many quality control issues with them; (2) of the (4) tires were defective. Really.
Plus, they weren't very good handling-wise compared to my current set.

I now have Continental ExtremeContact DWS's and have no regrets switching. This is a truly excellent tire, and price-wise it is inline with the rest. On Tire Rack, they are the highest rated all season in its category (forgot which category though).



What I would do if I was in your shoes is just bite the bullet and get new tires for your existing wheels. It's the cheapest option, and gives you time to decide what you truly want to do and save up for it. Since you need tires now, that shouldn't force you to jump the gun and buy something that you may end up regretting. If you like your 135's, I would just put tires on them.

[goofiefoot]

Option one. Keep the wheels. Buy new tires. Style 135 and the ZHP go hand in hand.

Any thoughts on the tires I listed (this applies across the options)?


Option 2.

Thoughts on the moda MD11 (http://www.tirerack.com/wheels/WheelCloseUpServlet?target=wheelCloseUp&wheelMake=moda&wheelModel=MD11&wheelFinish=Machined+w%2FBlack+Accent) as an option?


1 or 2. Please delete 3

Haha. Tell me how you really feel! ;)

[Marcus-SanDiego]

I really don't have an opinion on the tires. I'm a summer-tire guy. Don't know much about all seasons. My last set of tires were about $600. Falken FK452. Treadwear 300. The original owner had them. I replaced them again with the same tire. I liked them.

[danewilson77]

The AVIDENVIGOR is a great all season.

HTC Thunderbolt+TT

[johnrando]

Not much advice on tires to offer, but my wheel opinion is Option #5. (BTW, agree, delete #3). What, no option #5? Combine option #2 with keeping your 135s for future use/resale with the car. Not the best option wrt price, but I have a mod philosophy on my BMW that says the car can be pretty much returned to "original", even if I never plan to do that or sell it.

Personally, the reasons I'd switch out 135s are to get a square setup which reduces understeer and provides tire rotation (as well as changes the look). If the stock setup were square, I probably wouldn't even consider switching out the wheels. That's just me. I like the 135s, and they do go hand in hand with a ZHP (reason to keep), but I don't love the 135s (additional reason to switch, plus above comment).

[kayger12]

#1

[johnrando]

Not much advice on tires to offer, but my wheel opinion is Option #5. (BTW, agree, delete #3). What, no option #5? Combine option #2 with keeping your 135s for future use/resale with the car. Not the best option wrt price, but I have a mod philosophy on my BMW that says the car can be pretty much returned to "original", even if I never plan to do that or sell it.

Personally, the reasons I'd switch out 135s are to get a square setup which reduces understeer and provides tire rotation (as well as changes the look). If the stock setup were square, I probably wouldn't even consider switching out the wheels. That's just me. I like the 135s, and they do go hand in hand with a ZHP (reason to keep), but I don't love the 135s (additional reason to switch, plus above comment).

BTW, if not #2 (or #5:) ), #1 gets my vote.

[Rustyh]

I know what you mean about the wheels. I loved the look, but found them such a PITB to clean I took them off and picked up some ASA AR1's thru Tirerack.

As far as tires, I feel like I've tried all the popular ones BMW types like. I've run the P-Zeros, the Conti's, Kumho's and Yoko's. What I found I was happiest with (and it's NOT the RF's that are currently on my 3.0si coupe...lol) was the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S Plus. For a matched 225/255 set that'll fit your car it appears Tirerack wants $1008 (jeez, let's raise that $barrel$ of oil a little more, sheesh).

The A/S's were fantastic IMHO. They have a 500 rating, and they really do wear very well. When my car sold the tires had ~8k miles on them and they still looked brand new (I rarely drove in a style you'd call particularly hard....agressive now and then, Ok, but not boy racer hard). And they bit into dry pavement as well as anything I've ever owned, and the one time (lol) I drove in the rain they seemed to have fantastic grip.

I was at first hesitant to get A/S because if for no other reason, the part of Texas I'm in I really have no reason for them. But I read comments by a lot of M3 owners rave about them so I had to give them a try. No regrets here and when I finally get around to punting these RF's, I'm putting them on my coupe.

My .02,
Rusty

[Hermes]

I have the reg pilot sports and theyre great. I was looking at the a/s plus as a possibility for the next time I change mine since mine only have a 220 rating. The a/s also have a higher load rating. I don't have to really worry about weather so I don't necessarily need the a/s aspect but I like the longer life on them

[goofiefoot]

If possible, I'd like to get 30k or more out of my next set of tires. I know that would be harder with the non-rotatable staggered set up, but would it be impossible?

[zj96sc]

I don't see any problem with 17s on a ZHP. I love the look of a ton of sidewall if done for the right sporty appearance. I think the TR motorsport C2s look great on an E46, especially as 17s. Run big fatties on all 4 corners, grin at the grip, laugh all the way to the bank about your $170 dunlop direzzas, enjoy never bending another rim, and dig the smooth ride everywhere you go.

Just my 0.02.

this post is one of my primary reasons for thinking 17s look great:

http://www.e46fanatics.com/forum/showthread.php?t=768970&highlight=

[johnrando]

I don't see any problem with 17s on a ZHP. I love the look of a ton of sidewall if done for the right sporty appearance. I think the TR motorsport C2s look great on an E46, especially as 17s. Run big fatties on all 4 corners, grin at the grip, laugh all the way to the bank about your $170 dunlop direzzas, enjoy never bending another rim, and dig the smooth ride everywhere you go.

Just my 0.02.

You have a pic of that?

[Rustyh]

If possible, I'd like to get 30k or more out of my next set of tires. I know that would be harder with the non-rotatable staggered set up, but would it be impossible?

Just based on what my tires looked like after ~8k miles I'd say that 30k miles is completely doable with the A/S's. You mentioned you don't race your car, and I'm guessing you mean that not only literally but figuratively as well.

If you're only looking at the occasional sprint or the weekend outing finding some twisties, I'm still feeling like you could see 30k out of the A/S's. I didn't hit a track with my car either, but I certainly did let it stretch it's legs from time to time and the tires held up exceptionally well.

Like I was saying, I'm going back to them when I finally wear these RF's down (which I'm trying very hard to do but the damned things are made of brick, so it's a slower process than I'd prefer) :)

Rusty

[zj96sc]

You have a pic of that?

i edited my post with a link to pics before i saw your response. see above.

[goofiefoot]

I don't see any problem with 17s on a ZHP. I love the look of a ton of sidewall if done for the right sporty appearance. I think the TR motorsport C2s look great on an E46, especially as 17s. Run big fatties on all 4 corners, grin at the grip, laugh all the way to the bank about your $170 dunlop direzzas, enjoy never bending another rim, and dig the smooth ride everywhere you go.

Just my 0.02.

this post is one of my primary reasons for thinking 17s look great:

http://www.e46fanatics.com/forum/showthread.php?t=768970&highlight=

That does not look bad! ZHP as muscle car - hmmm....

[goofiefoot]

Just based on what my tires looked like after ~8k miles I'd say that 30k miles is completely doable with the A/S's. You mentioned you don't race your car, and I'm guessing you mean that not only literally but figuratively as well.

If you're only looking at the occasional sprint or the weekend outing finding some twisties, I'm still feeling like you could see 30k out of the A/S's. I didn't hit a track with my car either, but I certainly did let it stretch it's legs from time to time and the tires held up exceptionally well.

Like I was saying, I'm going back to them when I finally wear these RF's down (which I'm trying very hard to do but the damned things are made of brick, so it's a slower process than I'd prefer) :)

Rusty

Given the positive reviews on the Continental DWS, what is the extra $300 getting me on the Michelins? Would the tread life difference be that much greater?

[Hermes]

Given the positive reviews on the Continental DWS, what is the extra $300 getting me on the Michelins? Would the tread life difference be that much greater?

Depends how much you care about tread life, I have about 15k on my pilots and they're gonna need to be changed soon (I have about 4mm of tread left). Mine are rated 220 while dws are 540. price dif prob relates to how sticky they are

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c288/jhermes/d3deb93c.jpg

[goofiefoot]

Depends how much you care about tread life, I have about 15k on my pilots and they're gonna need to be changed soon (I have about 4mm of tread left). Mine are rated 220 while dws are 540. price dif prob relates to how sticky they are[/IMG]

Sorry, I wasn't clear. I was wondering how the Conti DWS (540 rating) would compare to the Michelin A/S Plus (500 rating) and whether the $300 price difference between the two would buy me more tread life. As the DWS is harder, I would like to think it would last longer, for less money. Other than the price, the comparison seems very close.

[Hermes]

Each company rates their own tire, it's not standardized across brands. So a 500 michelin is not necessarily the same as a 500 from some other co. It's just so you can compare say a 220 Michelin to a 500 Michelin. You would have to know how a continental performs before you can really see what a 540 rating means

[Rustyh]

Each company rates their own tire, it's not standardized across brands. ............

Exactly. Very similar to how two identically sized tires might look different when mounted on a wheel, because the way the aspect ratio is calculated by the manufacturer.

I loved Kumho's, but dang those things look fat on a wheel.

Rusty

[BCS_ZHP]

DWS is a faster wearing tire, at least the rears, I bought new sets for both of our ZHPs within the last year. Lost one rear tire on our coupe to a nail near the edge, so replaced both. After just 7K miles the rear tires were at 5-6/32nds. On the conv, we're at 11K miles and the rears are at 5/32nds. The coupe tires were run at OEM recommended tire pressures, I'm running the conv at 3-4 lbs below recommended pressures. Figure I'll get about 15K miles total out of the rears, so I'll be replacing them before winter.

Now the fronts, they're wearing at half the rate of the rears, I should get 25-30K miles. So for a pure miles for the dollars, the Pilot A/S probably makes more sense - you're likely to get 25-30K miles. For the DWS, you'll need two sets of rears and one set of fronts to get that same mileage range.

Even knowing that, I continue to buy the DWSs because the sidewall is not as stiff and my seat-of-the-pants reading is a slightly smoother ride. The style 135s I just put on my wagon had Pilot Sport summers and I could feel they were stiffer than the DWS tires, things rattled inside the car over road joints. The tire wear of the Michelin rears was also twice that of the fronts, was going to have to do something in terms of replacing them before next summer so just sold them and replaced with staggered DWSs.

If you're driving very aggressively, the stiffer sidewall might be to your preference. But for us using our cars primarily as DDs with not too much spirited driving, the less stiff sidewalls were more to our liking.

[Mtnman]

Interesting. My last tire was a mich pilot a/s plus. Fronts went 30k rears 20k. Dws is what I have now. Have about 16 on the rears,, and they look like they will go to 20k. Personally, I liked the mich better, but the dws being 200 cheaper for the set of 4, ill go dws again. I like to run 36 psi front,, and 39.5 rears. Just my 2 cents.

Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using Tapatalk

[goofiefoot]

Good times. Thanks, all.

Sounds like I would really benefit from being able to rotate my tires for longevity. Coming from 10+ years of 4x4 vehicle driving, I've become accustomed to getting 80k miles out of a good set of BFG All-Terrains simply by keeping up with the pressure and doing a full rotation every oil change. Obviously this will not be the case here.

For the aftermarket wheel guys - from what I've read here, looks like a 18x8 or 18.8.5 with a 40mm offset works pretty well. Will this give me more or less of an aggressive/wide stance as compared to the stock setup?

[zj96sc]

You got 80,000 miles out of a set of BFG ATs? Mounted on what?

[goofiefoot]

You got 80,000 miles out of a set of BFG ATs? Mounted on what?

My 2001 Xterra
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v417/jasongoode/Xterra/xfrontcorner1.jpg

32x11.5x15 They were great tires. Kept me out of trouble, got me where I wanted to go (mountains, beaches, rocks and mud), and were relatively comfortable on the highway.

[johnrando]

I have the reg pilot sports and theyre great. I was looking at the a/s plus as a possibility for the next time I change mine since mine only have a 220 rating. The a/s also have a higher load rating. I don't have to really worry about weather so I don't necessarily need the a/s aspect but I like the longer life on them

Anyone have the Pilot Super Sports? I hear a lot about those on e46f.c (but of course they are summer, not all season).

[Hermes]

Anyone have the Pilot Super Sports? I hear a lot about those on e46f.c (but of course they are summer, not all season).

Interested also (too bad it's only gonna work for people like us in SoCal or those who run a separate summer/winter wheel)

[zj96sc]

That is pretty remarkable. I have never gotten more than 30/40 out of sets I've run. I just put a new set on my F-250 so we'll see how they do this time.

I've heard numbers like 80k about Michelin LTX M/Ss but that's a much milder tire. A buddy of mine got a solid 60k out of a set of Dick Cepeks and that was one of the highest numbers I've ever heard for an AT.

[goofiefoot]

Ok, another option idea. Let's call is Option #1.5 - squaring up my 135s. Is this possible? Either going with all fronts or all rears. How would this work with the offset? Ideas?

[Hermes]

Goofiefoot - I was also thinking... It doesn't sound like you're gonna take your car to the limit so you can save some by buying some H rated tires (up to 130mph). Might wanna look into that

[johnrando]

Ok, another option idea. Let's call is Option #1.5 - squaring up my 135s. Is this possible? Either going with all fronts or all rears. How would this work with the offset? Ideas?

That seems to make sense to me. Not sure which would be better, so I'll wait for the experts to chime in.

[johnrando]

Interested also (too bad it's only gonna work for people like us in SoCal or those who run a separate summer/winter wheel)

Don't want to distract this thread, so good info here.
http://www.zhpmafia.com/forums/showthread.php?4011-Tire-Experience-What-are-you-running-and-how-do-they-run