Michelin Pilot Sport for 05 Boxster S - need opinions
 

I went through a rear set of Michelin Pilot Sport in only 7,000 miles with no burn outs or track time. Is that normal? The tire size is 265/35ZR19. Are there any other tires that anyone recommends. The front tires look like new. I would appreciate any opinions.

Thank you,

Greg

I had the same sized tires on my 2006. Great tires. I got right at 20,000 miles before replacing them last spring.

7,000 miles is pretty fast, but not unheard of.

Is your alignment good? Did you properly maintain tire pressure? Balanced?

You can try to replace the rears only, but it will be very difficult to find your tire and size again. Michellin replaced our tires with the PS2's.

Whatever you decide, don't mix tires on your car.

I now have the PS2's. Great tire. Very $$.

Greg, that is typical of our Boxsters. We've had many discussions on this subject.

Greg, I would also advise you to call PCNA (800-767-7243) and complain strongly & firmly for approving a tire that has been discontinued. Clearly state that you only need new tires in the rear, and that the fronts are fine.

If your are persistent, a good negotiator, and articulate, you may be pleasantly surprised by Porsche's response.

Talking about alignment, when I had the boxs aligned last month, the mechanics had some problem in aligning the rear tires because they never reached the 'proper' setting whatever they did. Ended up they picked the closest setting that they could get. Because of that the rear tires will go out faster than the front.

I have PS2 on the boxs.

Thank you for everyone's input. Fortunately, I do have the Pilot Sport PS2 tires on them, so I am going to just replace the back tires. I can not believe that I went through the rear tires in 7K miles! Imagine if I drove it hard!

What was the wear pattern like?

If they were worn mostly on the inside edges, then you might want to reduce the amount of camber in the rear wheels.

If they were worn on the outside and the inside edges, then it might have been under-inflation. If worn more in the middle than the edges, then over inflation.

Were you keeping the tires inflated to spec?

Are you sure? PS2's were not put, as OEM, on the 2005 MY. Not until about the 2007 MY. Most of the 19" tires in 2005 and 2006 were Pilot Sports. And a few Conti's.

If you do have PS2's, then that's at lest the second set of rear tires. How many miles are on the car?

5-7K is normal for me with PS2's on the rear. Alingment is fine, tread wear pattern is fine. I dont autocross the car, but do often drive it the way it was meant to be driven. I am on my thrid set of rear PS2's with probably 1-2K left on them, the fronts still look fine. I suspect I could get four sets of rears to one set of fronts, but next time the rears go, I will replace all four.

Ed

:dance:

I've got PS2's with about 1/4 life gone and the wear is fairly even. A little more on the inside of course. I actually was thinking of having the rear tires swapped for more even wear.

I was on TireRack.com and found a set of Sumitomo HTR Z II's. PS2's are $217/$303 and Sumitomo's $97/$141, with a $564 delta. You can get a two for one deal at that price. That's a savings I can live with.

true, but do they stick like a PS2. Me, I am addicted to the PS2's for sure.

A little correction to my post; I don't have PS2's, I have the Pilot Sports, duh. I did some more research and compared the Fuzion ZRi, Kumho Ecsta SPT and the Yokohama S Drive and they basically have all the same test results. The S Drives are about $100 more a set.

I guess the real question is what your going to do with the car. Track it, go sticky which means $$$ and frequent replacements. Joy rides with a few bursts up to a buck thirty plus, I think the tires above would be fine and you can pocket a few dollars.

I just bought a set of Sumi HTR ZIII's in 18". I am waiting for the wheels (will post pics when Its all set and mounted). On Tirerack they tested out just a shade above Brigestone RE050A's and Conti 3's. I'm not expecting them to be the grippiest tire in the world, that's what I have a race car for. But at $109 for a 235/40/18 and $165 for 265/40/18 they are quite reasonable. In person they look very Pirelli like and have good attention to detail.

I only expect 12-15K miles out of a set of performance tires on a sports car. If I got 20K out of these tires I would be very happy. That being said, the point in which you replace a tire can greatly effect the "life" that you get out of a tire. I have a habit of cording tires before I bother to replace them, I guess it comes from driving in an area that rarely gets rain.

"true, but do they stick like a PS2. Me, I am addicted to the PS2's for sure."

Sad but true because of the cost, I think I am addicted to the PS2's as well. I ended up getting a second set of Carrera lightweight wheels and put on a set of inexpensive Nexen 3000 tires, man those were inexpensive.

I got the second set of wheels both for the all-weather performance of the Nexen, but also to see if I could wean myself off the expensive PS2's, especially after hearing good reports from others on the fourm with the Nexens.

For me, the Nexen's are OK, but feel heavier, provide less road feel, are less responsive and definately less sticky. Still, for our household, the Nexen's are the tires for these economic times. I sure like my PS2's, but they seem to melt away before my eyes.

Ed

:cheers:

HTR3 vs PS2
 

Last Friday I replaced a set of worn Michelin PS2s with a new set of Sumitomo HTR3s and my initial impression was very favorable to the HTR3s. However, once I took the car out on to the Florida Autobahn, errr I-95, where the posted speed limit is 70, which apparently most people read as "80", I almost immediately noticed a difference. Suddenly the car was being blown left & right by gusts of wind that I would not have felt with the PS2s. This is particularly surprising as the PS2s were very worn out in the back.

I'm hoping this is due to the tires not yet being "broken-in". I have less than 300 miles on them however, with soft tires like these and the aggressive nature of Boxster tire wear, I find this unlikely.

Anyone else have a similar experience?

I'd love to here more on this. Could it all be in the tire compound and sidewall?

more time needed
 

While I would like another week of driving before I really make a judgment, I discovered two things in the last day. First is this review of the HTRZ3s

http://www.rightfootdown.com/?p=83

The author complains of soft sidewalls and poor braking ability. After reading this review, I will probably go back to the Michelins simply to compare again. To me, saving several hundred dollars is not worth the performance sacrifice.

The second is that as I was driving yesterday evening, crossing about the 400 mile mark on these tires, they did appear to be gaining traction left and right. I'll need several days of driving to discount other variables like change in weather, change of roads, my imagination, etc ...
but they did feel like they were improving, hopefully breaking-in.

PS2's to HTRZ III's
 

like others have said the ps2's are hard to beat for traction. I had them and went through exactly 2 sets of rears for one set of fronts at 40K intervals and drive pretty conservatively most of the time. They got a bit squirrely in wet weather like we have here in sunny Florida
I bought the HTRZ III's about 8K miles ago and also had some break in jitters, but they are gone. I check air pressure every week.
I was in a big hurry today and on a very long sweeping on ramp with nice warm tires I held the corner at +/-85-90 (i was watching the road) and had a little drift but no squeal and it was the first time I actually felt them drift(soft sidewalls do drift much more than PS2's no question). I paid 555 for a set of 4 sumis and spent the extra money on a proper alignment.
I actually like the sumitomos for daily driving due to acceptable grip and great wear for the money. seriously i would never drive that fast day to day and never with other cars around but on the rare occasion that you'd like to go fast and turn you can still feel confident even with a "cheaper" tire.
the one complaint i have seen is that when the sumis get low on tread they tend to get loud. Lots of good info on tires here but it really comes down to what you want- stickyness or wear. for me, longer wear, less grip is okay and i still feel safe pushing them. good luck