A lot of thanks....a little venting
 

Well, she's mine. A big THANKS to everyone for the advice on purchasing a used box. I bought my 99 box with 30k, 18's, hi fi sterio, trip comp, custom blue leather, and the wind screen. I took all the precautions and she checked out okay and runs like a champ. Only bad news was that it needed one new tire and a rear spark plug tube. My maiden voyage from NJ to Central VA was a ton of fun. Top down at 1 in the morning ....what could be better. (30 mpg)

Here is the kicker. I noticed at around 70 mph the steering wheel was shaking. Took it in to allign the front tires just to make sure and the front right wheel's belt shifted. So now i have to replace two tires.

Time for the question.

Tires:225/40 18 front, 265/35 18 rear P Zero Nero 8/32nds on the front but one bad tire. Left rear needs to go.

Should i replace all 4 or just the two.

If I change all four...any suggestions. The car is my daily and I need a tire that can do it all. I was thinking Pzero M+S or The Kumho all weather.

I've got the M + S on my daily driver here in Chicago. 2 winters now with no problems. BUT...after a few inches of snow...DO NOT go out!!! You will get stuck. The tires are much too wide. As long as the snow plow is keeping up with the snowfall your in good shape...just take it easy.

As far as the wet...awesome!! I've gone through some pretty good puddles and have never hydroplaned or felt like I was loosing control.

In the summer...also awesome!! This car never sees the track...only the street and I have never come close to breaking the car free from the pavement. I take on/off ramps pretty hard and the car just sticks. I have 12,000 on these tires now and although I have yet to take a tread measurement I can say by looking that I have at least another 12,000 left in these tires.

Good buy as far as I am concerned!! :cheers:

Thanks xclusivecar, appreciate the insight. :D

Anyone else out there with all weather tires?

I use the continentals in the summer and Blizzaks in the winter.

I am using the Continentals now and am very happy with them. I think I will have to find something else though for the winter. Maybe some Michelins.

My car was also shimmy-ing at 70 MPH. I took it in and had the wheels spin balanced. According to the service manager the weights on the rims were off by appr. 2 ounces. Shimmy-ing is completely gone now. You may want to check on the warranty on the tires. Belt separations do happen but I don't think they are very common. I would think that a belt seperation would be covered under the tires warranty though and you would at least be able to get a partial (pro-rated) credit. Maybe somebody could correct me if I am wrong but I thought that belt separations were always visible in the tire?

You may also want to take it to another shop for a second opinion about the tires. Did the other shop that told you you had belts seperating tell you how dangerous that can be? If you do have a partial belt seperation the tire could go anytime without warning. Very dangerous especially at 70 MPH. Who remembers those Firestone 500's?

kumho all weather on 03 S, now have 8000 miles on them. they still look and seem just fine.

had the same issue in my 05, tires needed Road Force Dynamic Balancing. Had that done at the dealership, solved my issue, even though the back driver's had a flat spot, the shimmying decreased markedly.

I use the Kumho ASX and get about 25-30K miles out of a set. Great traction for all conditions in daily driving and a great price to boot.

yeah, I have a set of Winter Contis I used all winter and had no probems in the NJ snow with my DD.

Congrats on your purchase.

You may want to check on the warranty on the tires. Belt separations do happen but I don't think they are very common. I would think that a belt seperation would be covered under the tires warranty though and you would at least be able to get a partial (pro-rated) credit. Maybe somebody could correct me if I am wrong but I thought that belt separations were always visible in the tire?


No, they are not always visible. And belt separations are rarely a manufacturer's defect; they are usually caused by impacts with pot holes, etc., and are more often refered to as "impact separations". These would not be covered under a standard tire warranty, but if you purchased a road hazard warranty with your tires, they would be covered on a pro-rated basis.

Wow, thanks for noticing my absence. Nothing really going on here lately – just a lot of work and haven’t been on the board in a while. Nice looking car btw – very clean!

With regards to the snow, I was nervous at first, my experience in Mustangs really made me leery about RWD + snow, but the Porsche has performed flawlessly. Obviously you can’t drive like it is summertime, but the snow tires make driving in the winter as safe as possible. I feel better in my RWD Box w/ winter conties than in my wife’s FWD Toyota w/ all seasons. The real danger isn’t in the driving, it is in the stopping, and to that note, it doesn’t matter whether you have a FWD, RWD, or 4WD, you just want ABS and the appropriate tires. I suppose there could be clearance issues in very heavy snow, but I wouldn’t want to be out driving in that with anything anyway. There seems to be enough weight over the rear wheels where traction isn’t a problem.

In terms of experiences, it is coming up on 1 year of ownership for me and I love driving the car more than the day I bought it. My wife and I are still pouring over maps before we go most places, trying to pick out the best looking back-roads to take. It seems to be holding up well with the exception of the ebrake release. The button keeps getting stuck when I press it in to release the brake, so I keep a pair of pliers in the console to pull it back out again from time to time until I finally get around to taking the car in to have the problem corrected.