panjfj

I currently have the Continental DWS on my IS250 after reading rave reviews. I agree that it is a great tire for snow, winter, wet and dry. However, there are some annoyances which i am willing to trade off slightly considering i am moving from Michigan to Southern IN where there would be substantially less snow.

Currently with my DWS, i am getting a high speed shimmer and vibration. The vibration would come on at about 82mph, go away after that and come on again just before 90 mph. I have had my tires zero balanced and road forced at my local dealership and i know my rims are 100% good because they are almost brand new stock rims after being replaced from corrosion. Also, i feel that comfort is quite low going over asphalt roads and stripes on the filled up cracks on the Michigan roads.

The dealership attributes it to the aggressive pattern on the tires and basically telling me that i should put on a touring tire. Like the Michelin Primacy MXM4. I am certainly not an aggressive driver and dont take corners very fast, i would say that i am a normal to spirited driver.

I recently drove the 2013 GS with the Primacy MXM4s and feel that they are pretty good, however, the road nice seemed higher at higher speeds.

I am not sure what to do here, and hope that someone can chime in with some thoughts. My concern is really the high speed shimmer which i am trying to get rid off.

Sango

iTrader: (10)

Year and mileage of the car?

So above 82+ it does that and gets worse?

Is it doing it at a certain wheel? Sounds like a wheel bearing maybe wearing out which can cause this at high speeds and also under braking.

panjfj

2007 IS 250, 47K miles..

above 82, it is ok and then at about 87 it starts again. Basically as i am increasing the speed it comes off and on... I have rotated and balanced multiple times and it is always there- both wheel and cabin.

Basically, it is not BAD, and hence i used the word shimmer. I have been living with it, but driving a lexus, this should not be something i should live with. And i want to fix it.

The dealership is telling me to put OEM Potenza RE92 on, but i hear those suck..

What do u mean by under braking?

Sango

iTrader: (10)

Do you feel vibration under braking? Ie. pulsation/shaking on the wheel. It would also do it on acceleation at those speeds as well.

panjfj

not braking... my complaint is with cruising and acceleration at those speeds. Thanks for the replies so far..

pinoyIS250

iTrader: (3)

I had a Continental DWS on my previous 08 IS250 AWD. I didn't experience any vibration even at higher speed you mentioned. The only thing I hated on that tire was it has a soft side wall.

Sango

iTrader: (10)

One thing which maybe a possibility but it may happen. The tires may not be "true" as in it is slightly out of spec which can cause it as well. Ie. tire is oval than round.

I know my co-worker has that issue on his Continental on his M3. Had to go to two tire shops to finally figure out the problem. The problem only happened at speeds and since he races on the track with the M3, there was no way he could race his car with that vibration as it could be catastrophic at racing speeds.

One shop didn't bother testing couldn't find that out, so he brushed them off went to another. The other shop test drove the car and close to freeway speeds it started doing it. They then inspected the wheels, it was all good; then the inspected all the tires using a micrometer. Finally found out that the inner part of the tire was not true, instead of being round, it was a bit out of spec such that it was an oval which was noticeable measuriing as it was indistinguishable to simply looking at it with your eye!! It was critical enough that the manufacture was contacted and they replaced the tire because the tire that he had should of never had this problem. The vibration was going after that.

panjfj

would my local discount tire be capable of doing that since i bought it from them? Is it something i can request them to do?

Sango

iTrader: (10)

I believe so. Do you know if the shimmering is happening on a particular wheel? That would narrow it down, as opposed to switching a new set of the same tires and test driving.

panjfj

i cant pin point it...

Also, my discount tire cannot seem to balance my tires. They do a terrible job and have been in multiple times, after which i give up and pay my lexus dealer. That is another problem.. Is this something my lexus dealer can do?

Is it likely anything mechanical with my car can cause this as opposed to the tires?

Sango

iTrader: (10)

Try another tire shop or a dedicated private shop before trying to go to Lexus.

I'll have to ask my friend which shop he went to for his M3 to find out what was wrong.

Kurtz

iTrader: (1)

I agree the issue isn't just the DWS design, as there's thousands of folks running it without your issue, so it's something specific to your car or one or more of those specific tires on it.

That said regarding the MXM4-

Why bother taking the mileage and performance hit of AWD if you're gonna put crap tires on the thing?

A RWD with winter tires in winter and summer tires the rest of the year is gonna accelerate, handle, and stop significantly better while getting better mileage doing it.

Doubly so if considering the MXM4, which is the poster child for all-seasons sucking-

http://www.insideline.com/features/t...vs-summer.html

MXM4 compared to a summer and winter tire from same manufacturer.

The all-season comes in 2nd in a few tests, and 3rd in even more... including about 20% longer distance to stop in the snow compared to a winter tires, and almost 40% longer to stop than the summer tire in the wet.

Yeah it's a pain to have a second set of rims/tires (though discount tire swaps em free every time if you bought the tires there).

It's a lot less of a pain than taking 40% longer to stop in the rain and crashing into another car though.

panjfj

other than the DWS which all season tires would you put on the 2IS then?

Thanks

CANDYAPPLE

iTrader: (1)

i have the conti dws on my is250 and not a vibration in the world, one of the smoothest tires i ever owned. and i also have them on my 2 other cars they are flawless. you might have a slightly bent rim. try swapping the rims around and see if the vibration changes.

Kurtz

iTrader: (1)

I wouldn't.

I'd get dedicated summer and winter tires.

That was the point.

The DWS is the best of the bunch, but generally speaking you will get significantly better performance, handling, and most importantly safety, out of dedicated seasonal tires.

The MXM4 is a great example of this as the link I posted shows because if you told most people "If you keep a second set of wheels you can knock 40% off your stopping distance in the rain" that'd seem like a good idea to them, which is exactly the case in using summer tires instead of all seasons in the testing shown. (and 20% shorter in snow using winter tires)