Wheels and Tires on 2002 SC430
 

I really dislike the ride of my car. Has anyone out there ever put any 17 inch wheels on their SC430? I did this (put smaller wheels) on my Mercedes and the ride is 100% better. I know the popular thing to do is put 19 and 20 inch wheels on the SC430, but I would like to go the other direction. What do you think?
I am new to your forum, so please have patience with me.
Happy Holidays to all you SC430 drivers!!:)

ditch the run flats and you'll be fine. the difference is night and day better. i'm not sure if smaller wheels would even clear the brakes. even if they did, they would look horrible.

+1

It's the runflat tires, change them to conventional and you'll be perfectly fine, the ride totally changes for the better

I'll go along with the other 2.
I'm on my 2nd SC and I swapped out the run flats on both. Totally different vehicle.

I keep a can of run flat in trunk, just in case.

^^^^ X3
ditch the run flats and you get the ride you expect from a Lexus
Welcome to the forum.

agree with everyone...the dealer quoted me $1200 for four new run flats and I said screw it and bought brand new 19" chrome wheels, staggered with tires mounted, balanced and shipped to me for that same price!!!! then i turned around and sold my old wheels and ****ty runflats to someone on here who wanted another set! one person's nightmare is anothers dream!!!

go with other tires AND bigger wheels, you will LOVE it, it changed my car completely.

get good 18inch tires for comfort
 

Non-runflats like Michelin's

Primacy HP

or

Pilot Sport A/S Plus

in 245/40 R18

will give you comfort without switching wheels.

These may not be best in performance nor best in comfort,

but they do a good enough job in different road situations,

with performance and comfort hopefully during the majority of the tires' life.



Other people have gotten Pirelli P Zero Nero M&S, or Yokohama Advan S.4.

which is comfortable or quiet respectively,

but may perform less well, especially when worn.


The rest are probably not worth considering.

I have tried many Bridgestones, and I never find them comfortable.

Anyone with good suggestions for tires, please tell me also.


You are right; for some reason, the SC 430 was designed with 245/40 R 18

which is too wide and too low profile for comfort,

which is the current trend in tires and car design.


The stock SC430 should have gotten 235/50 R 18 front, 245/45 R 18 rear

from the design stage, and set up with better suspension settings,

e.g. relatively firmer rear spring/shock rate compared to current setups,

and stronger, bigger, more durable, and more sophisticated bushings,

to yield better performance and most importantly comfort at the same time.


The tires that come with the current Lexus cars can be crappy.

And there is so much to improve on with the ride and the whole setup.

Hence, so many are tuning their Tein CS suspension to get a better ride,

and getting rid of run-flats.

comfort
 

I am currently starting on a new set of Michelin (made in Japan)

Pilot Preceda PP2, as of this afternoon.

245/40 R 18 97W

http://www.michelin.com.sg/car/newpreceda.pdf


These have european profile with rounder shoulders; they are quieter than

the PS2s but more sporty than Primacy HPs.


My previous set was the infamous Dunlop 2030,

which lasted only 21000km of HK driving,

with parts of front tires inner shoulder leaking, about to blow and rip off.


The 2030s were terrible from day 1, with terrible grip in dry or wet, and

never rode comfortable ever, except on straight smooth pavement.

A lot of it depends on how old the run flats are and what kind they are. I too bought a used SC430 and it had the Bridgestone R040 (or whatever # it was) tires on it. They weren't great, but once they were within 5 to 8kmi of their end, they were horrible, almost to the point of being dangerous! They tracked grooves and everything. My wife didn't even want to ride in the car with them like that. I replaced them with the Pirelli P Zero Nero M&S run flats and for the first 10kmi or so, they have performed just fine, however, I don't really push the tires that hard either, so I can't speak to "high performance".