really? I thought pilot sport 4s were summer tires. I guess the 4s stands for 4 seasons? I didn’t do enough research clearly

 

Can’t agree more, all Pirellis I had, usually as original mount, were quite acceptable on dry ground, but catastrophic as soon as weather got even slightly wet...
On rear wheel drive cars I mostly go for Michelin SP Sport for the front, as very precise, and Dunlop SP Maxx for the rear, as perfect grip even when wet.
(And yes, except if your car is a 4WD, there is absolutely no reason to match front and rear tyres, on the contrary ...)

 

Summer tires are really 3 season tires. The A/S tires add acceptable performance in snow and very cold weather. Generally, summer tires will outperform all seasons in rain, as long as the temperature is still above a certain number.

 

4s stands for the 4th generation of Michelin Pilot Sport tires. and are not reconnected for conditions below 40 mph. However, in my experience they drive harder below 40 degrees road temperature but are more than acceptable and come up to temperature rapidly. I would definitely not recommend Michelin Pilot 4Ss for extended driving in the snow but the occasional dusting we can get in Georgia is fine.

 

Update:

picked up the car after getting new tires installed and aligned. The car feels better, but not 100%. The vibration softened out a bit. The mechanic told me there’s still a bit of road force on one tire, but how can that be if the tires are new? Maybe I need a new rim (that rim was refurbished

im going to drive it a bit and hope maybe the tires just need to be broken in. The mechanic at the tire shop told me things look good under the car, they didn’t notice anything out of sorts

i still have my appointment with the other mechanic on Monday morning. It’s about an hour away. I’m wondering if I should still go.

 

What is it about the Dunlops that means you don't like them on the front?

 

They are good tyres, much better than the Pirellis IMHO, it's just that I think/feel that at the front the Michelins have a better grip and are more precise.
Now, why not Michelin at the rear also? well, they are excellent tyres, but the grip of the Dunlop at the rear is the one I like, esp. on wet roads. Plus, in France, you can get them at very interesting prices, whereas Michelin, being the national champion, does not need to do many marketing efforts and makes much less discounts...

 

That's interesting, as here in the US the Michelins are a little cheaper. The Dunlops are amongst the most expensive options. Tirerack has the rear Dunlops at $365 each, and the Michelins at $350 each.

Michelin US also seems to have a very frequent "buy 4, get $70 off" deal. Shame there's no discount off 2.

 

I noticed they (Tirerack) have Pilot Sport 4s, and Super Sport, for about the same price. I'm confused.

 

The Pilot Sport 4S is the successor to the Pilot Super Sport and is an even better tyre, see here: Big sellers like Tire Rack still have old stocks of the PSS to get rid of.

 

Thanks for the explanation. If they start doing the PSS at a big discount, I might snap a couple up.

 

Yes, as said, in France they are the national brand, considered as the best in world, thus they do not have to do many efforts to sell, and especially not on prices...

In other markets they have to fight much harder...

Enjoy: in the US, Jaguars are much cheaper also than in Europe... For the XK, which to convince an average US consumer couldn’t be much more expensive than a Corvette, almost all margins were made RoW, while the US sales brought mainly volumes but no margins.

 

update: after driving it ~100 miles these past 2 days. it definitely got better, but the vibration is not 100% gone. I can still feel it between 65+mph, and more steering wheel vibration (they did an alignment). They're telling me there's still a bit of road-force in one tire...but how can that be if the tires are brand new? could the rim itself not be perfectly round?

is it possible it could be mechanical?

 

Mark/ Leadfoot,

Re Bearings,

You are probably correct but please indulge me in a little anecdote.

I used to fly a fairly heavy jet fighter. Whenever we landed, the impact of a non-rotating wheel with the ground would flat spot the main wheels. As you can imagine, after just a few landings the tires looked like junk. However, given that they had 26 Kevlar plys and were inflated to 220PSI you didn't notice the flat spots in taxi/take off conditions.

When the aircraft was placed on "ALERT' condition, ie 15mins to get airbourne, the engineers would insist that the aircraft was moved and the wheel bearings rotated every 7 days to prevent flattening of the bearings. The theory being that all the lubrication had been crushed away from the load bearing bearing surface. basically, two very small points of contact were carrying the entire weight (27k) of the aircraft, leading to metal/metal contact and hence deformation. The Nose wheel carried a very limited weight.

Only once did I have a wheel bearing failure on landing, not something I'd not like to do twice.

I understand that aircraft and cars are dramatically different but, please don't just scoff when a new idea is suggested. I can also guarantee that military aircraft are built to far higher standards than road cars

wombat

 

 

update:

took the car back to the tire shop, measuing 26-28lbs of road force on BRAND NEW Conti DWS06 tires. tells me the rims are fine, the car is fine mechanically, its really just the tires. this is so bizarre! He tells me he's had a bunch of issues with these tires (I never had this issue with my XFR, same tires). I am calling tire rack to see if they will switch the tires for me for Michelin, or else im just SOL

 

update:

tire rack is going to send me new tires, another set of 4 conti DWS06's....good news is they will roadforce test them on their side before sending, and their threshold is 18 lbs of force. my tire shop tells me my tires are true....so its really just an issue with tires at this point

 

so now im exactly where i didnt want to be. new tires were put on the car...and it still doesnt drive well (according to the mechanic, i havent picked the car up yet). so its not a tire issue.

The shaking feeling is definitely most present in the front and in the steering wheel....not so much the rear

The mechanic is telling me its probably not worth me spending my money to have them investigate it, they have no idea, could be the driveshaft, axels, blah blah.....take it to the shop that would do any of the warranty work (if covered). the service center for the dealership i bought my car from is about an hour away....i can probably take it next friday just to hear them tell me its not covered under their limited warranty. so we'll see. the saga continues

 

Well, before looking at other parts it was a good idea to eliminate the wheels and tires as the cause, which it sounds like you can consider as done.

 

yeah i know, my issue was timing. the 60 day warranty ends soon, and i travel every week, so finding time to go to the dealership was near impossible.we'll see what happens on friday