TMitchell

I have no complaints at all concerning the stock 17" tires after 7,000 miles. I just measured the thread depth with my dial calipers. The fronts are wearing even with .275 left. The rears .250 on the outside and .225 in the inside. I still have not rotated or balanced the tires. All I ever see on this forum is how crappy these tires are and how they wear out at 15,000 miles, so I have been paying close attention to the tires. I don't seem to be having any of the symptoms. I would expect to get around 25,000 miles on these tires at the rate they are wearing.

mooretorque

TM, my sense of most of the criticism of the RE030s has to do with vibration. From my standpoint, they have good wet and dry traction but are only about halfassed quiet. Nonetheless way better than the Dunlop SP8000s on my 93 SC. And I never saw more than 23k on any set of tires I had on the coupe, and then, only when I was doing about 90% highway driving.

Traction (soft, sticky tire) and high mileage (hard, slick tire) are essentially antithetical in the world of tire compromises. I didn't buy a GS as an economy car, after all.

TMitchell

[QUOTE]Originally posted by mooretorque
[B]TM, my sense of most of the criticism of the RE030s has to do with vibration

I was wondering if the vibration people are complaining about is the stock shocks. I notice in the mornings that for the first mile or so that it feels like the shocks don't have any damping for the first 1/4" of travel. I am not experiencing any vibration, it just feels like the road has a minor wash board to the surface. I know what it feels like when soft compound tires flat spot when the car sits for a while or it is cold out and it takes a mile or so of driving before the tires feel like they are round again, it is not that type of feel. I think if I were to start to feel a vibration even after I had the tires balanced the first thing I would do would be to switch to quality after market shocks. IMHO Lexus has tried to set the valving of their shocks for the GS so they will be firm on smooth surfaces and soften as they encounter rough surfaces. I put Edelbrock IAS shocks on my Grand Cherokee that are designed to do this with dual valving and they do a great job.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

The first mile or two problem is because the tires get flat spots over night that even out once the car is warmed up. I just got used to this with my original 17s and now my 18s.

TMitchell

[QUOTE]Originally posted by bitkahuna
[B]The first mile or two problem is because the tires get flat spots over night that even out once the car is warmed up. I just got used to this with my original 17s and now my 18s.


You are probably correct, but I have driven on high performance tires for quite a few years and am used to the flat spot feel, this to me feels more like a shock valve problem. I just thought I would throw this theory into the equation. It could be a combination of both the flat spotting and defective shocks. Has any one on the forum switched to after market shocks, while keeping the stock height and stock 17" tires?