philbrennan

I had the misfortune to have a nail in my left rear tire over the weekend. The dashboard flat tire indicator worked as advertised, which I how I first found out. Funny thing was, I didn't notice it otherwise. What was even better: I took it to Stevens Creek Lexus and they replace the tire for free. They didn't have to do it, but they did. Needless to say I was quite impressed with the service.

On the downside, and let me qualify this by saying I am not a expert on tires in any way, the runflats do seem to skip around during high speed cornering. had a hard time holding the car on turns up on Skyline boulevard, especially beyond 60mph.

phil

WJSOLOMON

Phil - I am interested in how your new SC performed at Speeds closer to the Car's Top End (156 mph + / -) in road surfaces with some minor road irregularities, Twists / Turns. Unless the tires were overinflated, it's rather unusual for such a High-Tech, High Speed Sport Car to "dance around" through the curves like you describe. Very Scary!

:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

SOLO - 1

philbrennan

Solo,

My problems were on high-G turns. I noticed them mostly at high speed, but I also felt it at low speed on hair-pins. The tendency was for the tire to feel as if it was slipping by small amounts thru the turn when the G's were highest. I haven't had the car over 110 and my fastest corners have been at about 80 on sloping corners on Skyline Blvd above the South Bay. I have heard similar complaints from others with the tires. If you want true sports car performance, you have to change them. For me, since I'm not too radical at my age, they are a reasonble tradeoff to having to carry a spare.

Phil

WJSOLOMON

Well said. Our journeys through Life can require a lot of "Compromises", in order to negotiate a few Twists, Turns, and Tight Curves along the way.

When you're listening to your Awesome Stereo, you can't hear the Run-Flats squeal anyway, so why make them?

Enjoy the Best of what is available on the Market Today!

SOLO -1

TOPLEXS

Run flats do indeed squeel loud enough to be annoying, even in moderate cornering. Car pushes terribly, and is very tire limited. The suspension and brakes are world class. Believe in such a large and heavy car there should have been engineered a spare tire compartment. That should have been the solution, not puting on poor performing, hard riding run flats.

I believe those tires on a Lexus are like a pimple on a super model's nose.

Shame on Lexus for that.

Puting the spare tire in the trunk, standing up, right in the way of everything is inexcusable.
It's like puting a continental kit INSIDE the trunk!

Other than that I flat out love the car.

therocker

What a coincidence! A few days ago my tire pressure warning went on as well. I kept trying to fill up the tire but nothing worked. Turned out there was a nail in my tire. Lexus also replaced mine for free because Lexus has a new program with the SC430. If something happens to your tire and it needs to be replaced, Lexus will replace it free of charge only as long as you have not worn more than 25% of your tire treads. However, the old SCs were notorious for gaining fast tread wear. I used to have to replace the tires on my old SCs every 6 months. As for the runflats, I hate them. I feel every bump.

KSUFlasher

Seems that a lot of people complain about the run-flats, but I don't have a problem with them. No squeals and the ride is not harsh (not as plush as an LS or even an ES - but better than my old BMW).

I haven't driven at high speeds around corners, but have gone through some twisty canyon roads at more than 'typical' speeds and didn't have a problem. Have RFs changed much over the last few years (mine are 07) or are people comparing the typical ride to 'super-plush' ride or the performance of real sports cars?

I'm just curious why so many bad comments about run-flats on the SC when they don't seem bad at all to me.

Cloud9

iTrader: (2)

I had runflats on my 06 and came accross the same problems - harsh ride, car bouncing around hard turns, etc.
I switched to non-run flats and it fixed all those problems. I feel more confident take hard turns at high speeds and seems to stick more to the asphalt. Try driving a SC without runflats and see what you think.

pctsc430

newbie here, just got an '02 sc430 w/ 37k miles (after 1.5 month search). during that period every dealer salesman / private seller offered to replace runflats w/ non-runflats. (they dont like them). so I replaced them w/ Yokohoma YK520 (exclusive at discount tire) for ~$700 total (you can go for Michelin or others ~$1000+). my sc ride now is like 100 times better.

Harold57

pctsc430, I've been eyeing the Yoko YK520 myself. Do they get rid of the groove following characteristic that the Bridgestone run flats exhibit? (Really annoying. Scares my wife.)

Seattle SCone

Non runflats totally changed how my SC behaves. Virtually all the dangerous tramlining on highway grooves stopped. It became capable of going in a straight line without constantly wanting to veer off course. The car also sticks much better to the road in hard maneuvering. It's a huge improvement and saved my skin when I had to perform a snap over lane change to avoid a bad collision. Get rid of those runflats. The small increment in safety regarding flat tires is far overcome by predictably driving on your intended course instead of where the runflats decide to point you.

stevenable

Okay, so the Yokohoma YK520 is a replacement option. Can anyone suggest other tires? (For a FAQ on replacing runflats this is rather bare of options ) And what about the spare? I saw various suggestions (in other thread) but I'm leaning toward fix-a-flat and just replace any blown tire/tpms.

Just bought an '06 Pebble Beach and was surprised how hard the ride is (I didn't notice it at lower speeds which is all I did for test drives).

[Added 4.1.08] For anyone reading this, I found a lot of suggestions on the other lexus club:
http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums...howtopic=34196
http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums...howtopic=42358

dalarainc

I noticed a fair amount od skipping aroundspecially on decending curves (laguna Seca turn 10-11) with the run flats, switched to YOKO AVS ES100 on the rear and YOKO S Drives up front and the handling was a lot better specially on turn in aceleration i have the runflats on my GS now and somehow it gives it a better ride.

AM

Lexus One

Does anyone know the name or number of the program mentioned by "therocker" under which Lexus will remedy a nail or screw in a runflat for free ? My SC 430 only has 1100 miles and the person I talked with at the service department didn't know of such a program.
Thanks in advance - Brigitte

Harold57

Stevenable, there is a spare tire kit available from Lexus, the problem is you sacrifice 3/4 of your available top-down trunk space.
http://motors.search.ebay.com/SC430-...E_W0QQfromZR40
One thing to keep in mind if you go with the non-run flat tires and use the "tire repair in a can" instead of a spare, is that the goop that those cans spray have the potential to mess up your air pressure sensors and those are quite expensive to replace (more than a tow job).