Hi everyone. I installed the Tanabe NF-210 (1.3 in. drop rear, 1 in. front, although it could be the opposite) about 7K miles ago, for a total of 12,500 miles. My stock Yoko Advans are now howling like a pack of wolves and driving me nuts. They don't appear that worn (definitely not to the wear bars). There wasn't a camber kit available at the time, not sure if there is now.

My questions:

1. Is 12,500 miles acceptable life for the Advans (I think not)?

2. Has anyone elso experienced this problem with this modest drop?

3. Could it be either the front or the rear making the noise, and not both?

Do I just keep buying new tires every 7-10K miles, that being the price you pay for the drop?

Thanks, Tim

http://homepage.mac.com/tim.meade/Le...otoAlbum6.html

 

I guess early excessive tire wear is the price for a nice looking drop.

On my last GS, I had the conservative l-tuned suspension and staggered wheels. The combo resulted in burning through a few set of tires pretty quickly. But at least my GS looked good though

 

did you get an alignment after the drop you are suppose to. If your alignment is in spec you wont have abnormal tirewear and youre tires will last a lot longer. Check if youre tires are wearing unevenly

 

EX996 - the stock yoko advans are absolute crap. mine started howling at 5k miles and we put up with it for another 10k. i just took them off and put michelin pilot sport a/s on them, and the car is as quiet as it should be. i asked so many people and made a few threads on forum and eventually did some online research. if you take a look at tirerack or discount tire websites, you will see quite a few postings on the yoko advans howling, some reported as early as 3k miles. someone on this forum even reported that their dealer let them get michelins at cost to replace them. since it's not necessarily a lexus defect, i don't think you can claim warranty repair, but i do think they should know that the tires they put on there are total crap and they should take responsibility for it. we were too late after 15k miles and 1 year + , so we just bit the bullet and got new tires.

in any case, my GS is NOT lowered or modified in any way, and we have the same result. so don't feel bad - your drop is fine. i saved my Yoko Advans b/c there is actually a lot of treadwear left and i may decide to put the crap back on when the GS goes back after lease-end. i was contemplating calling Yoko myself but i don't know if i have the time or energy to argue with them and even then, i'd already put 15k miles on them, although we were living with the howling for more than 10k miles.

in any case, i suppose if enough people got together and wrote them a letter, maybe we could be compensated or something. i spend $1200 on new michelins and although it was worth every penny as far as my sanity goes, it really seemed unncessary when you see the tread on the tires. i would be happy to post a pic of what was left if you are interested...

 

hmph, if you change your springs, you have to do aligment, end of story.

 

seconded on getting an alignment. That drop is not so severe that it's uncorrectable.

Not getting an alignment exacerbates the supposed problem with the Yokohama advans.

 

I did, in fact, have a full four wheel alignment done after the drop. Naturally, toe is unaffected by this modification, as I'm sure you know. Camber is the big prob as you know, and unfortunately at the time there was no way to correct that. However, the camber measurement was barely within specs, but within spec nonetheless, Caster ok too, not that that would affect tire wear.

Frankly, I'm inclined to think it's the Advans as all other measurements are within spec....

Was just making sure....

 

LL, given my particular set of circumstances, I think you are right. I will be replacing the tires shortly (probably with GSD3's) and will report to the group in 5-7,000 miles! I read the reviews you mentioned. The chairman of the Lexus division probably plays golf with the President of Yokohama, and that's how we got those cheesy scrubs!!

 

yeah that's what i was thinking also

i was/am pretty disappointed lexus didn't QC their tire choice more, but the car is great otherwise. it's too nice of a car to put crap advans on there.

 

OEM tires are junk for the most part on many cars, its the lowest cost to the car manafacturer to put on the car to sell to you. Even my dads 2000 740 came with a real crappy model of Continentals, found dunlops that were less expensive and performed better. Tire retailers will sell OEM for high prices because most people just dont know anything about tires and will just say "ill keep what I had on it"

OP: are you actually getting abnormal tire wear, I read the thread expecting you were getting some uneven wear but there was no indication of it. If its even then youre alignment is fine and the stock Advans are junky

Read some reviews about it on tirerack and other Lexus GS owners hate them also, dont buy those when your up for a replacement. The 2IS folks get Dunlop Sport Maxx as OEM on the 18" wheeled IS, actually an excellent tire by OEM standards, one of the higher rated summer tires on tirerack.