The SO2 was replaced by the SO2PP at least six months ago possibly more. I fitted them to my car and have noticed an awful lot of wear on the edges of the tyre but this could be due to incorrect gepmetry settings and/or lunatic driving style should be getting some new ones fairly soon at which point I will have the geometry checked and post the results.

 

Hi All,

Just got off the phone to Micheldever tyres. I'm looking to replace my current tyres with a set of Bridgestone S-02's. Micheldever tell me that the S-02 has been REPLACED by the S-02 Pole Position and that Bridgestone do not recommend that they are fitted to the Impreza.

The guy at Micheldever also went on to say that they'd fitted lots of them to lots of Imprezas and no-one had ever complained.

Whats the deal here? Has anyone else heard this before? What would the recommended tyre be then? I'm looking for a tyre with good wet weather handling.

Cheers

Andy

 

Paul,I'm sure you must have bought slicks!!
Tim

 

AndyM

What ever tyre you are currently running the performance increase with the SO2 is so much better in the wet that you can forgive any short comings. Like Paul above I did wear the outside edges from the front tyres meaning that replace was necessary with 3mm or so tread on the rest of the tyre. I don't think 100 miles around Donnington helped much! With my current car I have changed the camber and toe in settings on the front, which seems to stop wear on the outside, but now run P Zero's which came with the car from new. The P Zero's are notably worse in the wet, but just as good in the dry and I am not wearing the outside edges yet (6,000 miles), 135 of which was on Wrougton Airfield.

Steve

 

S02s have not been wholesale replaced by Pole-Position, they are both still made. PPs are about £5-10 per tyre more expensive, as they have a dual compound to retain performance/minimize down turn later in tyre life. From personal experience standard S02s are better in the dry, PPs better in the wet.

Either version, they are the best tyre around

 

The S-02 Pole Position is indeed a dual compound tyre... as it wears the compound gets softer. This is to counteract the loss of grip as the tyre wears (eg a normal tyre is down to 35% of it's grip when you've worn 50% of its tread...)

The PP version also appears to be a bit softer than the normal S-02. Not sure, but I believe both are still available.

Dry grip is phenomenal (and quite civilised at the limit, giving plenty of warning), wet grip is absolutely amazing: you can almost ignore the fact that it's raining :-)

Neither are particularly cheap, but both (PP even more so) are worth every penny. IMHO, of course.

Cheers,

Pat.

 

I am still getting quotes for tyres. I have 16" wheels and was looking for S02's. The best price I now have is £125 fitted and balanced.

BUT

The guy in the tyre place said that some people had not been happy with S02's on 16" wheels and he recommended the "new" Bridgestone Potenza RE720 at £120.

His boss has an Impreza turbo and he runs on S02's but, according to this employee he is going to fit RE720's next to "test them out".

HELP I'm really confused now!!

RE720 or S02?

I can't afford a 17" upgrade at the moment but this would solve the problem as the RE720's are not available in 17" according to the Bridgestone leaflet.

 

The S02s are the better tyre, recommended retail price £70 higher than the REs - therefore your dealer is just protecting his profit margin. S02s are leagues above REs - hence why they are Bridgestone flagship!

 

Andy

More words on the S-02s. OK so my current car is hardly in the same league as a Scoob (modified Honda Ddel Sol VTEC), but even so I can tell you that the tyres are simply unbeatable. Grip in all weather is incredible, and with a gentle and progressive loss of grip towards their limits. If you can get the OK to fit them to an Impreza, I should seriously consider them.

Since I had my alignment checked & adjusted, the wear rate is also quite reasonable, although the rears is starting to show signs of excessive outside edge wear after about 10,000 miles (but we have LOTS of roundabouts in my neck of the woods). Probably just too much enthusiasm on my part!

S-02s are well worth the money. The only downside I have found is that they are not the quietest tyre in the world. Even so, its not exactly what you call unbearable. I'm on my 3rd complete set now, so you can guess that I'm happy with them.

Michedever are normally amongst the cheapest around for prices in the South, but if you can get to Southampton, try calling Chessington Tyres. Its a tiny little back-street sort of place, but they get a lot of their stock from Micheldever, and I've usually managed to haggle another few quid off the price, especially if you are buying 4 at a time! Telephone number: (01703) 630539

Jules

BTW if you're wondering what a Honda owner is doing on a Scooby web site, I'm just about to take the plunge and buy a tuned Twin Turbo Legacy. Looking forward to it!

[This message has been edited by bigjules (edited 26-09-1999).]

 

Doc

Bridge Tyres, Taunton right? I have just used the Bridgwater depot to put 2x Yokohama AVS Sports on my BMW 333i Turbo. The tyres seem very good & I will be replacing my horrible SO2's on my Impreza as soon as I can afford it.

 

Nick

Spot on about the dealer.
How much did they quote you for the yoko's.
The consensus on this BBS still seems to be in favour of S02's.

What is it that you don't like about them?

 

Doc

Comments apply to 16" wheels only.

The SO2's take a long time to bed in - on my car it was 1,500 miles. For the first 500 miles the tyres were so slippery the car was unsafe. Now some 7k miles later, the tyres have badly worn shoulders & are certainly not as grippy as they were. Wet grip is good & dry drip is technically good but they give less feel & seem to loose grip suddenly & with less warning than even the OEM RE010's. The overall levels of grip are slightly better than the OEM's though.

My car is a UK 99my with 16" wheels & standard geometry. The settings have been checked & I use standard air pressures.

I currently have Yoko AVS tyres on my Beemer & am very impressed with them. The Beemer develops a very high torque & the AVS holds the tendancy to oversteer very well.

I'm currently saving up to buy some AVS Sports for my Scoob.

 

I have 17" S-02 PP's on my car, they have done 18000 miles, the front nearside is well worn now, due to geometry problems, so i am going to replace them with another set of S-02's saturday. The grip level now is as good as, if not better than they were 5-6000 miles ago, especially in the wet, but i am close to the wear bars.

 

My S-02 PPs need replacing after about 11,000 miles -- as others have reported the shoulders have worn down quicker than the central tread area (my alignment was set to the standard-car spec when the tyres were fitted). I'm very happy with the tyres and want to replace them with the same.

I phoned Micheldever tyres today to get a price and was told that they wouldn't fit them because "Bridgestone do not recommended them for fitting to the Impreza" and "people have had handling problems with them". I expected them to tell me that Bridgestone didn't recommend them but NOT to flatly refuse to fit them. I asked the guy whether they had Bridgestone's disapproval in writing, and he said they did.

Has anyone had Micheldever fit S-02s to their Impreza recently or have they refused everyone who has enquired?

I phoned Chessington Tyres in Southampton and got a price of £116.50 per tyre all inc, and the guy said to phone him back if I got a lower price and he'd see what he could do to beat it.

Has anyone been quoted a similar price to this recently in the Hampshire/Surrey/Berkshire area?

Cheers,

Paul.

 

Hi all.

I can't remember the number but try Southampton Performance Tyres. I found them to be the cheapest when I had the Cossie. Since I've had the EVO I haven't needed any tyres so I don't have a clue what his price is like at the minute. Ask to speak to Tim & tell him Liam with the EVO 6 recommended him.

Liam

 

Just had 2x SO2's fitted to rear of my scooby (done 200miles so Far) and I think they are fine but my main point is I paid £120 each ALL inclusive at Jet Tyres on Canvey Island, anyone seen cheaper for 215/40/17s?

Trev.

 

Doesnt anyone know about the tread coming off the Bridgestones then (similar to firestone in the US)

 

wierd how this thread came back to life after a whole year!

i have had so2 pp's for the last 5000 miles.
the first 1000 were very dissapointing.they are now absoletely amazing.especially the wet grip.england is always wet!!!!

pete

 

Had 4 S0-2 PP fitted by Micheldever at the end of August/ start of September, for £425 all in, (16 inch). Grip not fantastic for about the first 1000 miles but now a big improvement.

This thread was floating around a year ago and then somebody said that the tyres were OK even on a 16 inch wheel and that this came from Bridgestone.

As I and many other owners are very happy with them, what's the problem? and what do Bridgestone recommend as an alternative?

Jon

 

They are the tyre industry bench mark. FIT THEM!!!

As for bedding in, the funniest thing I ever saw was our very own JF at MIRA. Brand new SO2's fitted to his Sport and off he went onto the massive "magic roundabout" (a set of circles approx 60m-100m in diameter with 4 surfaces and rapidly decrease grip as you get closer to the centre). Perfect full powerslide circles, as you would expect from John... until suddenly all that wheel spin deemed the new SO2's well and truly bedded in.

As if flicked by some omnipotent being, JF was on the grass in the MIDDLE of the roundabout

 

Seem to remember reading that fitting SO2's to 16" wheels was not recomended as the tyrewall was not stiff enough and the tyre moved around too much. Apparently it was OK on 17" wheels.

Micheldever have fitted both 16" & 17" to mine during the last 12 months.

Grip is good esp. in wet but bedding in is a pain as is outside tyre wear (running Powerstation settings).

Just came back from local garage who refused to swap my wheels front to rear as front sides were worn. They claimed that this would make the car dangerous as you need the flattest tyres at the rear. I thought that this swapping was common practice - perhaps they could not be arsed and used this excuse.

Rich.

 

Bridgestone representatives visited Micheldever Tyres recently.
Position is they do not ACTIVELY RECOMMEND fitment of SO2 to Impreza.
They DO NOT however recommend that they are not fitted. Depends on how you view the wording I suppose.
This is from the horses (or service manager anyway) mouth, in a non-working environment,so no grinding of axes. He knows he gets my business anyway.

BTW he also reckons the new SO4 next year will be awesome (forget the SO3)

Regarding wear, remember the higher the level of grip the higher the rate of wear, you can't get owt for nowt.

DJ

[This message has been edited by DocJock (edited 28 October 2000).]

 

I had 4 fitted to the EVO on Thursday and they never mentioned anything about it, but then it isn't a scooby. They are excellent! I'll have to wait and see how quickly they wear.

 

Suffice to say that PTMW! had SO2's on Friday...



I do not believe that I would have gone any faster in the DRY! (Slicks apart )

Awesome tyre

(BTW I overtook virtually everything with NO hairy moments )

 

Mine lasted 18,000 miles and 2 trackdays (Silverstone and Brands) and still have 2-3 trackdays left. So yet another set fitted by Tyre of Northampton on Friday

Awesome grip (apart from once ) in all conditions and even wear (until Friday) although, to be fair, I have no experience of any other tyre.

 

Puff,

I'm still on my first set of tyres since owning the scoob (SO1's, which have been said to be crap compared to S02's) and haven't had the chance to compare and other tyre, but from what I saw on Friday (Brands), no tyre stood out on its own.