getting new tires friday.

[92683]

i did another ton of researching on tires that will work for me and i have now decided on what i want my next tires to be.
to maybe help others i will describe how i came to this conclusion.
i had a few factors that i thought that i would need to understand before i had narrowed down my selection.
with years of trying out different types and brands i will have to say i couldnt really try every single type and brand of tires out there. i just dont go through enough tires to say i have tried everything out there but with what i have done i know that i have a few criterias.

*side wall needs to be stiff. i dont like spongy tires.
*must be a brand name tire mfg.
*tread life needs to around 300 or more. these numbers are actually vague and not standardized at all but ill still use it.
*performance is not priority as im just driving around town mostly and never going to track/race/drag the car.
*gotta look good, as im going to be starring at it every time i get in it.
*price is not important as i am leaning more towards quality.
*should be summer/performance rated tires and not ultra performance. this would be an over kill for my driving style and location. i live in socal and the worst is rain and even then its rare to very little rain in a year.
*dont need soft compounds for tires. regular ones are fine for daily. soft compounds will just wear out faster, pick up uneeded debris and kick it up on to the painted areas.

so with these criterias i decided on:

bridgestone potenza S04
225/40 r19

now many of you have thought why not the michelin pilot sport 4s as these are the most popular right now. well, i did look into that and it wasnt what i wanted to try out for my next tires. the price was actually pretty close to the potenza's so cost was not a factor. there are a few aspects i didnt really care for it but im not saying wouldnt try them out down the road but for now im not interested in the most popular tire everyone is buying. i guess im not really into following the masses. i dont want to go into details about the p.s. 4s as it would get way to long. for some high lights, they have too soft of side walls, the looks was not my style, and i dont need that level of grip if what people say it has.


now there are also negatives to such a high performance tire for daily driving and many people never really look into why having overly soft/high performance tires is bad, most are only happy that they are super grippy but for daily there is no need. there are many negative aspects to having over soft/grippy tires but no one really mentions it.
but ill bring that fact up at this section. almost everyone i know want or have the michelin 4s as a daily but more than half of these people never truly push it to the limits they are intended. plus did you know that sticky tires can damage your rear paint job especially your lower painted areas.

in the video i have attached it will explain many interesting points. which does a great job of explaining the cons as to why it might not be that good to have high performance tires for daily cars.

i am looking forward to these new tires and will give my review with them on my stock rims.
for pricing, im getting them installed for $900 out the door price on my credit card.
also there is a $70 mail in rebate as of this posting.
im also going to be replacing my brake pads next week too. my brake lights have been on for the last week. since im doing that ill be installing all my other goodies and getting new ss brake lines as well. all that will be done within the next week or two from today. ill give a review on the pads i choose. most likely ill be getting some neuspeed IS3500 pads.

 

[ViperG]

It's funny I actually went the other way with tires. I needed some for winter driving so I picked up some 18" and threw some continental dws06's on there. I do love the look of my OZ 19's but can't bring myself to go back. This size and tires completely change the ride of the car. For a daily they're perfect giving you a little more comfort and can't tell any difference in performance. I just put one size down on my mini as well. I don't know what's up with this huge rim craze the ride and performance seems better to me going one size down with a little more sidewall.

 

[92683]

yeah i agree. i have seen 20inches on these cars and im like wooow .
a guess i can try to answer to your thought, maybe the owners are compensating for something? lol haha. j/k or am i?!?!?!

when i get aftermarkets, i plan on doing 18inches. not sure if it will actually look good but i have been playing with some numbers and making samples to see how it looks. so far i would actually need to make a real full on cardboard cut out to make sure. i would prefer to sample a real rim with the specs im looking at to be sure.

i have used this one site that seems to confirm my paper calculations on how it would look.
here is link to the site.
https://www.wheel-size.com/calc/


with my calculations, i used the stock numbers to get down what i am looking at when i see my current wheels.
at this point the wheels specs are 19x8 et49.
pcd 5x112
tires 235/35 r19

i narrowed down the sizes im interested in.
18x9 et25
18x9.5 et45

so the main question is, how much poke or overhand will it be beyond the fenders.
the front fenders are different compared to the rears. so i would have to do two different comparisons. so far i have only really concentrated on the fronts. now im not doing this anytime soon so i am just having fun with the calculations for now.
i used the actual length on paper and calculated it with actual visual representation.
with stock. there is only 0.75 inches from the face of the stock wheel (front) the fender face. that is how much is really available.
my goal is to stay under the fenders for a clean tuck and for looks the 18x9 et25 would look amazing but the poke is really out there.
with the 18x9.5 et45 i think it might actually tuck under perfectly but wont look as aggressive as the other size. ill try to come up with a solution to see if the other size will work. it would look killer if i can pull it off.

 

[92683]

here is my paper calculation measured to actual length on the paper.
you can see how much difference they are from oem and how far out they will be from oem location.

 

[ViperG]

That's pretty cool you'll have to show what you come up. I maybe interested in a more aggressive looking 18" setup If I can keep the same ride quality. I just went stock rim and tire sizes for now. Would be fun if you knew someone at a tire shop that you could try out some sizes and see how they look and feel.
Nice thing about the S is no tpms sensors so you can play around without having to mess with those.

Thanks to my color my wheels aren't as important to make my car stand out. I wonder if it would be weird to go with a 235/40ZR19 on my 19"s to keep a little more comfort with the big rim look? It would probably throw off my speedometer but that can be fixed.


I went from this: 235/35ZR19



To this 225/40ZR18 Continental ExtremeContact DWS 06

 

[92683]

thanks for sharing the comparison. that's awesome.
*i would have to stare at your two pics for a few days to get it all in.
That's pretty cool you'll have to show what you come up.

I maybe interested in a more aggressive looking 18" setup If I can keep the same ride quality.
*For ride quality, I would recommend focusing on the suspension if you can. It will make up for the tire/ wheel combo if you want it to be aggressive. Depending on how much handling you want to do I can give you some recommendations on spring rates. Depending on your budget, look into either BC racing coilovers or Feal suspension. BC racing is great for the price. They will allow you to custom your spring rates and allow super low setups. I would recommend the super low as I have seen that past customers wish they had done the super low to get that dialed in more. It will give you that little more you need if you go with a smaller wheel setup. As for FEAL, they will cost more as they will allow even more customization. At this level you then can select your spring rates, compression, and rebound rates plus allow you to upgrade to external reservoir. You can imagine how much more that will cost over the BC setup. Don’t go with the more popular types cause those just are not versatile as they let you believe. Plus I never go with companies that don’t tell you and say they cant tell you their spring rates.
*Aggressive in my book requires the car to be low but have wheels that are wide and flush or poking out of the fenders. Having a large diameter isn’t always the reason I view a car is aggressive so going smaller is not a bad idea like you mentioned before. Tire size is always hard to imagine, and no tire business will allow us to just have one mounted for just a test look. All manufacturers create their tires differently even with same spec numbers. so I hate that I need to imagine what it would look like on my setup with looking at a different size tire I like.

I just went stock rim and tire sizes for now. Would be fun if you knew someone at a tire shop that you could try out some sizes and see how they look and feel.
*I agree, but once a tire is mounted, they cant really sell it as new anymore so I totally understand why its not possible. But it would be awesome to see it in person when they are mounted to the rim and compare.

Nice thing about the S is no tpms sensors so you can play around without having to mess with those.
Thanks to my color my wheels aren't as important to make my car stand out. I wonder if it would be weird to go with a 235/40ZR19 on my 19"s to keep a little more comfort with the big rim look?
*Only real trial and testing will net you real data but how bad are your roads there?
Im in socal so the roads are mostly great. Give that to the high taxes we pay here.



It would probably throw off my speedometer but that can be fixed.
*I have seen vcds coding for this but no one has gotten it to work yet. what process are you using?

 

[ViperG]

That is an amazing looking pic. It doesn't even look like it's possible for it to move or turn. Honestly I was surprised that the magnetic adjustment on the S from comfort to aggressive was almost indistinguishable. I don't think I'm ready to ditch the current magnetic suspension just yet. So the tires were a good temporary solution until I decide where I'm going with the car.
I'm all for mods but not if appearance takes away from the performance of the car. The roads around here are pretty bad and I see to many lowered aggressive looking cars with torn up front ends.

 

[92683]

the magnetic suspension caught my interest too when i ordered my car. so i paid for it. i feel the same way you do about it. its very hard to tell which mode your in. if you do end up removing it, it wont be permanent if you want to reverse the install.

the front ends getting destroyed is most likely caused by parking or deep drive ways. that just requires some finess but for the roads, i can offer you some advice on spring rates to order with. the new rates will make the car ride even more smoother than you can with the mag ride. most of the popular suspensions dont let you choose and they end up being too stiff which is what your talking about.

 

[ViperG]

It's Friday so where are the pics?

 

[92683]

just got back. i have pics ya'll!

are you ready for an added bonus feature??
now the pic of the wheels on the car, i dont have yet as i just got the wheels remounted on the car just now, midnight of course. but ill put some fun pics of the bonus unit i added.

let me explain what i just said as it sounded confusing when i just reread it.

i had taken off the wheels and brought the wheels only to the tire shop. good thing i did that because the owner said all the lifts were taken but since my wheels are off, i was able to get a guy to work on it right away.
the lifts were being used for alignments at the time.
once i was done there i dropped them off at home and i went to go eat dinner and didnt get back till around 11pm tonight. then i proceeded to mount the wheels back on the car and took it for a quick drive around the area. full review when i get some miles on them.
as for pics of it on the car, ill do that tomorrow as i have plans to go meet up with a fellow enthusiast and grab some lunch. once thats done ill do some photo shoots as well. but for now i have some other photos ill post up tonight.

 

[92683]

install day today:
the stock tires were at the point where i wanted to be at for replacement. i prefer to actually wear them down to the steel belt if i can.

i really like these stock rims. they look great! just wish they were wider by 1.5 inches.
tires are now off the rims and now im getting them ready for my bonus addition and the new tires:

 

[92683]

the bonus item im adding is real time TPMS sensors!
these are not super cheap but not expensive. chinese kit and im just going to try them out. i couldnt find a really nice japanese brand so here i go.

mounted the valve stem that contains the sensor and sender:

tires now being mounted after i installed the sender units into the rims:

 

[92683]

the tpms in the car. this just a temporary setup. i do plan on doing a hard wire install with a different position. the way it works, makes it a very versatile installation with just a few mounting options. currently this is what i comes with and it still work well but i cant really see it down below very well while driving but it does look great at night. in the photo the numbers look off cause i just plugged it in and have not calibrated it yet by driving it. once you drive it, it automatically calibrates. this unit has real time psi and temp with adjustable warning levels for temp and psi. such as, if the psi either drops below my set level or is over my other set level it will warn me and tell me which tire it is.

 

[ViperG]

Nice you got your money's worth out of the old set haha.

 

[92683]

It's Friday so where are the pics?

will these do?

 

[92683]

Nice you got your money's worth out of the old set haha.

yup. i had to replace one in the past for a major damage to one rim. it was pretty expensive. stupid freeway debris.

for the last year, i had tire shops tell me to replace them so many times way too early. i mean super early and then they kept nagging me till now. there was still a lot of tread when they told me i needed new tires. i know how they gauge it but in reality a healthy amount of tread is important for only rainy days. but im in socal, its been mostly sun and while the tread is now gone there has not been any rain. therefore, the traction is actually greater now with the treads gone and there is way more rubber on the road than there has been before.

since there is a leaking repair plug that no one wants to fix again i had no choice but to replace it at this point. also after they removed it i now see some steel belt showing which makes it perfect for replacing.

 

[ViperG]

Looking at all these pictures now has me itching to put my 19's back on haha. Damn it it's so smooth with the 18's.
Maybe I'll try it today with lower tire pressure in the 38psi range. I was running them at 42psi

 

[92683]

you should try different pressures. over here the roads are pretty good and i enjoy driving the conti's at 49psi.
i love the stock rims. really nice design, would have been even nicer if they were wider. if comfort is your main objective you should try 32psi. you might really enjoy the softer feel you get with that but honestly the conti's were meant to be more stiffer of a ride. you should also try michelin's ps A/s 3. their sidewalls are way more softer. they can soak up all the road bumps while still giving you some control. i have them on another car and i can say thats its great for streets with horrible pot holes or defects but is still somewhat performance oriented. it leans more towards comfort tho.

comparison with weight the conti's at 235/35r19 were heavier than the new bridgestone's at 225/40r19.
so far, the side walls are pretty close to each other to stiffness which i do like. gives it more control. this was the main reason i didnt want to go with the michelin ps 4s.

with the stock conti's;
@49psi, the tires seem to wear out very evenly till the end of its life. it has a more direct feel. the acceleration is also quicker from a stop or a roll. cornering is tight and can help you predict more before it lets loose. i can tell when there is a nail in one of the tires and which one usually.
@40psi, the tires feel pretty lazy. softer and can soak up more bumps on the roads, when there any. i do avoid those while driving. i have seen many just drive over those like potholes which i assume they feel the suspension needs to do its job.
@35psi, the tires feel like the are deflated. the car is struggling to move from a start. with the tread ware, the outsides of the tires are wearing out faster than the insides of the tire. i feel like i have a flat on all four.

the new tpms is very cool. i now can tell what each tire is doing. what i have noticed with one drive is that the tires seems to inflate about 3psi on regular driving. it does go down when parked. temp is around 88-109F.
currently im at 42psi. ill try 40psi next to see how it runs. it does feel soft at this psi but since they are new i wont get up to the higher range at this point.

 

[ViperG]

Well I switched them. Going to try out 38psi now. It's funny thought my summers were Continental's but they're the same Bridgestone Potenza's 235/35/R19.
I'm curious why did you go with a smaller than stock 19"? Since 235/35 is the stock tire.

 

[92683]

a few reasons.

Im always interested in trying different and new things.
I wanted to see how different the traction is on a 225 tire would be vs a 235 would be. if I go with a really good tire compound, would I still retain the performance. the 40 series helps with keeping it looking a little thicker rather than a thin tire as the series are a ratio to the width. in essence they look kinda similar this way.

with a narrow tire I should get a little better mpg. its not a goal but im curious and it doesnt hurt with the current socal gas prices.

im also hoping to see if the narrow size will also give the illusion the rim is wider than it really is. so the visual aspect is a curiosity of mine. in the past I have usually wanted to wider so i would go towards the 255 series. so ive been there done that.

I may even want to try a 215 series next time if I can find one I really like.

tread wear on these are at 280 which means they should be pretty sticky for a daily. now this rating is subjective as the numbers are not regulated and its basically a number that says these will sit at a level compared to they tire lineup. its not a comparison to other manufacturers tires ratings. hence these are just a subjective guideline.