tires and road-noise - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

ehljags · 12-03-2002, 07:16 PM

I noticed my tires are getting a bit "louder" as milage is slowly increasing (around 13,000). The most interesting (or in this case, anoying) feature of tire wear, appears be increased road nose with temperature drop. We have finally hit a few cold nights in North Florida, yes guys, it does get cold in North Florida, or at least relatively cold (around 32 F). My tires are getting rather loud, and the flat spots take around 10 minutes to smooth out!!!

Perhaps one needs to invent "tire heaters."

mjbliemel · 12-04-2002, 02:41 AM

Wow, that is cold for Florida. Still in the 70s here in Southern California.

What kind of tires are they, if I may ask? I need to get some tires soon. Thinking about getting the Bridgestone SO2 or SO3, or the Michelin Pilots. Your thoughts? I'd try the Kumos, but the quality does not seem to be consistent which makes me tend to shy away from them.

ehljags · 12-04-2002, 06:41 PM

Northeast Florida daytime highs range from mid 50's to high-70's during the winter. Nights can get rather cool -- 30's to mid 40's.

Regarding tires, I have spent a significant time researching shoes as I am also getting ready to purchase. My research, in order of preference:

*Continental ContiSport (ContiSport II): Excellent handling, great looks, a bit noisy after a some miles. I presently have 13,000 miles on ContiSports and I really love them.

* Yokohama AVS Sport -- Fantastic look (who says "tires ain't pretty?"), very good performance. Very noisy and high flat-spot problems. Also, quite expensive.

Michelin Pilot Sport -- Very good ratings, good looks and handling. A bit pricy.

* Dunlop SP Sport 9000 -- Excellent reviews, but rather costly. Very good handling and looks.

Pirelli P-Zero System or Rossa -- Great looks, very noisy, and not so great wear. I have been told by some local guys that they have a tendency to split belts. However, Pirelli backs them up very well. A lot of Porsche dealers us these tires...

* Kumho Ecsta -- great price, decent performance.

* Sumitomo -- I hear they are similar to Kumho's: Good $ for decent performance.

I am not a big Bridgestone fan, as I have had them on previous cars ( I know they get good reviews, but....). I also tend to think "Firestone" everytime I think of Bridgestones....

I have Toyo's Proxes H4 on my BMW 525i. They are very good, handle good, and are decently priced, so I need to look into their ultra-performance rubber (T1-S)
.

mjbliemel · 12-05-2002, 02:28 AM

Great info on the tires. I have the Toyo Proxes on my 2000 Jetta. They are not bad, but I don't care for them too much and will go back to the original Michelins once they are gone. They seem noisy to me.

Have to take a look at the Contiinentals, I have had Continentals before on other cars, I liked them a lot.

Again thanks for the info, very helpful and a good reference.

ehljags · 12-07-2002, 01:59 PM

looked at the shoes closly today. Yuk.

Inside of rears are getting rather thin. Also, noticed it yesterday on wet pavement. Getting closer by the day....

Will most likley stay with the Continental ContiSport, but options are open.

mjbliemel · 12-07-2002, 03:30 PM

Just got the Bridgestone SO3s yesterday. I like them a lot so far. Will see how they hold up, but it seems like these are very good tires. $696 out the door, which ran me about $80 less than if I had gotten them from TireRack.com with shipping and having them mounted locally. I bought from a small local retailer. They look very nice too.

ehljags · 12-08-2002, 05:08 AM

great price! I have frequently noticed small independent guys can come through. This is especially true with hardware and plumbing supply stores. WWW shopping is not always best, just easy.

Keep up posted on their performance and wear.

ehljags · 12-08-2002, 05:09 AM

How many miles did you have on the old tires?

mjbliemel · 12-08-2002, 05:59 AM

Well, I had a mixed set front and back. After I bought the car used in May, I didn't like the condition of the fronts and replaced them only with some Goodyear Eagles of some sort. Still a newbie at the time and not educated on Boxster tires then. That was at about 38,000 miles, it now has 46,700. So those went about 8,700 miles and still had a lot of tread left, not much wear. They seemed to work out quite well. Next at about 42,000 I replaced the Rave tires (seemed okay, but I guess they are really crap) with some Yokohama AV520 (?). Those seemed okay at the time too, but wore very quickly. After 4,600 miles I hit the bars. That was a shock.

So now, all new tires, one of the best as far as I can tell that you can put on the Boxster.

I may have some alignment issues, going to have that looked at next week. Right rear suspension is also kind of suspect, have to have that looked at then too. I get a very harsh ride from the rear right wheel when I go over a road joint. Any ideas what the reason for that would be? I notice it on the right, but not on the left. Kinda weird.

I will keep you all posted on how the SO3s work out for me. Have driven about 150 miles on them now and they feel really great so far. My ride is smoother and quieter for one thing.

ehljags · 12-08-2002, 03:30 PM

The rear problem may be shock related -- You will need to have that checked out. Having a "proper" alignment performed should include a complete suspension evaluation, including shocks/struts. Be carfeful in the alighment shop's ability to do the p-car. The car must be properly weighted during the testing/adjustment. Two local tire stores (both national companies) told me they can not align a Porsche and recommend either a dealer or a private shop whom has the right equipment.

mjbliemel · 12-08-2002, 04:06 PM

My thoughts are similar on all of that. Think I have found a qualified Porsche mechanic that I can trust to do things right.

mjbliemel · 12-13-2002, 03:13 AM

Took the car to the mechanic I found in San Juan Capistrano yesterday. He only works on German cars like BMW, Mercedes and Porsche. Spotless garage, he used to work for Porsche in Germany, apparently also raced for them at one time. So I felt this guy would be the mechanic of choice for me. Good decision. He took care of my problem and now the car feels so much better, no more rattles and of course it rides a lot better now. What it was is that the right rear top shock tower was loose. Unfortunately he does not do alignments, but he knew of a shop close by that does Porsche alignments, so I will have to go and pay them a visit next.

I had mentioned this problem to my dealer here in Carlsbad on two visits (Hoehn Porsche), telling them I wanted them to check the rattle on the convertible top (I thought it had something to do with the top at the time). They never did what I asked them to do for reasons I can't understand. So, last time for Hoehn for me ever. I am never going there again. This shop in SJC is going to be the only one I will let touch my car from now on.

You know, if you have a problem with your car, there is always a solution and I expect the dealer to take whatever steps are necessary to locate the problem and fix it. Don't just blow me off. That sucks.

So, now I have the new Bridgestone SO3s on the car, the shock is attached again as it should be and the car now is again a pleasure to drive. Next -- alignment. It is not terribly misaligned, but I feel with the new tires I should have it done to optimize the driving experience.

ehljags · 12-14-2002, 07:34 PM

alignment will also do one additional thing -- keep your tires from breaking down quicker. Hmmmm, is this possible with soft high performance tires?????

mjbliemel · 12-15-2002, 02:59 AM

Yes, I understand a good alignment will help to give you more even wear resulting in some extra life for the tires. The alignment does not seem to be off by much, if any, but hard for a lay person to tell for sure. These ultra high performance tires just don't get the high mileage unfortunately, the price we pay I guess for our fun. Oh well, so it goes.