Hawkeye D

Hi all,

For my 2007 Hawk STi, which would be the best PS4 tyre? My old Bridgestone RE070's were 90W speed rated.
I've found 2 different types of PS4 in one place, Michelin Pilot Sport 4 PS4 - 225 45 R17, only 1 gives a ply strength as XL

Perhaps sidewall strength is the same on both of them, and XL isn't to do with wall strength, but why the difference in price? Why would XL be cheaper?
Would the non XL perhaps feel stickier if it's not so rigid?

£95.15 inc.VATBuy-Info
Michelin Tyres / Car / Michelin Pilot Sport 4 PS4 -
225/45 R17 (91Y) TL

3 Working Day Dispatch if ordered before 2:00pm (Mon-Fri)** Michelin Cashback Promo (UK Residents only exc. NI) - Buy 2 receive £12 buy 4 receive £30 **


£89.65 inc.VATBuy-Info
Michelin Tyres / Car / Michelin Pilot Sport 4 PS4 -
225/45 R17 (94Y) XL TL

2 Working Day Dispatch if ordered before 4:00pm (Mon-Fri)** Michelin Cashback Promo (UK Residents only exc. NI) - Buy 2 receive £12 buy 4 receive £30 **

Vxr2010

The second tyre due to the stiffer side wall , im pretty sure mine are all xl tyres , vredestien ultrac are also very good , other options are a 40 profile , or a 235 width tyre or a combination of both 👍

Hawkeye D

I was thinking that, but why would they be cheaper, it doesn't make sense?
I'm going to go with Black Circles, they do them cheaper I just found out - they use their own basket promo code for the Mich PS range, which even beats the Camskill Michelin cashback offer in my case of £12 for 2 tyres.

Vxr2010

Openeo , plus the fitting which they can arrange is another good tyre place 👍

Hawkeye D

Thank you vxr, I checked them out too, I can get them fitted at where I work...VW.
I'm going to put the new PS4's on the back, and the Bridgestone Potenza Sport (rubbish compared to RE070) currently on the back....to the front.

I'd stick with RE070 if I could, but they haven't been in production for a few years now, and all stocks are gone...at least of 17" ones anyway.
I used to like them, and always looked so aggressive on the car. The walls on RE070 actually formed part of the suspension I was told years ago. Those days are gone.

Vxr2010

The downside is it should be the same brand and even the same level of wear on all four tyres , the scoobies don’t like mis matched brands , i spoke to bridgestone as i can not get hold of run flat re 070 they said all their brands are the same size , the car a gtr is more tolerant of different tyres as it’s staggered any way , used another bridgestone brand that’s run flat , but mid matched is not tolerant on scoobies , if it was me i would see if there is a 235/40/17 and look at vredestien and do all four , or a 225/40/17 which maybe cheaper than the 45 profile and do all four , Michelin are very good but ££ , the vredestien ultrac vorti should work out cheaper , have a look on tyre reviews 👍

Vxr2010

Looking on line you are a bit tied into the 225/45/17 , and there’s not a lot of choice in the 17 size , 18 gives you more options as per my Fsti , when i put the 235 Or the 40 in even less choice , as above if it’s me , I would do all four not worth risking diff or box damage , the vredestien ultrac are 77 £ each including delivery , via openeo , the Michelin as above starting at 95£ plus delivery 25£ , 308 for the vredestien , Michelin inc delivery 405£ 👍

fpan

iTrader: (11)

I would go for the XL, too. If they are more popular/widely sold, that could be one of the reasons retailers can sell them cheaper.

JdmSti2006

other option could be potenza sport

Hawkeye D

That's what I've got all round at the moment - OK at best really.
I may just do PS4's on all 4 and be done with it in one go.
I need a stickier compound and greater wall strength to try and get as close to RE070 as I can....not an easy task!

CaptainJohn

Don`t forget the Michelin PS4 is now obsolete and has been superseded by the PS5 , the performance tyre is still the PS4S though that has not yet been replaced , the S being key . However the PS5 seems an upgrade from the PS4 for everyday use :

https://www.asdatyres.co.uk/michelin...-pilot-sport-5

2pot

iTrader: (3)

Standard load tyres are 35psi max.
XL tyres can be inflated to 41psi max - heavier vehicles need higher tyre pressures.

Load index is the max load that tyre will experience: 88,91,94 (560kg, 615kg, 670kg etc). Lower tyre pressures, than their max inflation pressure, will decrease their max load.
Standard and XL tyres, with the same load index, will have the same load rating up to 35psi.
Sidewalls that are too stiff, like a run-flat, give a poor ride and poor grip as the sidewall can't deform to the road surface.

Hawkeye D

I can't see 17" PS4S's anywhere.....

fpan

iTrader: (11)

Goodyear Eagle F1 Supersport, if you can get them in your dimensions. Fantastic grip in both wet and dry and stiff sidewalls that provide excellent steering feel.
Although I am a Michelin fanboy, the only Michelins I have liked are Pilot Sport 2 and Pilot Supersport.
The PS3 were horrible, too soft sidewalls and mediocre grip, the Uniroyal Rainsport 3 were much better.
I haven't tried the PS4 or PS5 so can't comment.
I would have gone for PS4S but they are not available in my dimensions in Europe hence the GY Eagle F1 Supersports which have pleasantly surprised me!

2pot

iTrader: (3)

Not available in the UK.

WRXrowdy

iTrader: (2)

In what way? I like to have matching tyres but sometimes hasn’t been possible, but I have never encountered a problem having different tread wear or brands front and back, over 15 years and 130k miles of having the car.

Vxr2010

I damaged a tire. Do I need to replace all four now?

Your Subaru's AWD system needs tires of uniform diameter and tread pattern to operate at peak performance. Subaru recommends replacing all four tires at once. However, if your remaining three tires are relatively new then you may be able to replace just one with the same brand, model, and size. Contact us if you need help deciding what to do.


is it worth risking issues , 200 £ for 2 tyres 400 £ for four , so 200£ v a possible damaged box or diff 👍

fpan

iTrader: (11)

If one rotates the tyres (fronts to rears) every 6k miles or so they wear evenly.
Even if they don't, a 4mm tread depth difference between front and rear tyres will have a very small effect in the wheel/tyres' circumference to wind up the diff IMHO.
E.g. a brand new 235/45/17 has a sidewall of 4.2" or 106.7 mm. If it wears by 4mm, the sidewall will become 102.7mm
Diameter of 17" wheel and brand new tyre = 431.8+106.7+106.7 = 645.2 mm
Diameter of 17" wheel and worn tyre = 431.8+102.7+102.7 = 637.2 mm
The circumference of the new tyre is 2 x Pi x r = 2 x 3.14159 x 645.2 = 4,053.90774 mm
The circumference of the worn tyre is 2 x Pi x r = 2 x 3.14159 x 637.2 = 4,003.6423 mm
i.e. 50mm circumference difference or 1.3% circumference difference between a new and a worn tyre
For every km travelled, the front tyres will rotate 246 times and the rears 249 times.
I very much doubt the central diff will be affected by such a minimal difference.
Personally, I prefer to rotate my tyres so that they wear evenly and the car has an homogeneous handling, hence I replace all 4 at once but not for fear of damaging the diff.

Vxr2010

I always do all four , plus the original post was talking about a different tyre brand from front to rear , I know some cars are more likely to have issues around tyre size , my older Fsti was making a slight noise , tyre rotated with the same brand of tyre it went away , tyres were not that worn either , peoples choice what they want to do just be aware what subaru say 👍

fpan

iTrader: (11)

It's not a good idea to use different brands of tyres mainly because they behave differently so why would one want the front/rear axle to have unbalanced grip.

fpan

iTrader: (11)

Tyre noise or diff noise?

Vxr2010

Diff or box not sure 👍

Hawkeye D

Went for 2 PS5 in the end. They were less than PS4 plus £12 cashback from Mich.
Nice and fresh, DOT code on both is week 35 2022 so only 8 weeks since production.
Will report back once fitted...unless I've found a local ditch of course!

WRXrowdy

iTrader: (2)

as I mentioned, different brands front and rear have been used at times throughout the 15 years and going from 40k when we bought the car to current 175k and no real issues.

The dealer we bought the car from had replaced the tyres with cheap crap. Replaced the front tyres with decent ones and it had a loose rear end in the wet, but I didn’t mind that.

Flat4x4-again

iTrader: (1)

Agree with the Point about different tyres not making much difference. I do remember Vauxhall Cavalier / Calibra 4x4 being really susceptible to transmission damage if the tyres were out by 3mm(?) front to rear, which seemed a bit crap.

Vxr2010

Is it worth the risk for 200 £ ? I was at a subaru mechanic recently , there was a large tub of broken centre diffs mainly wrx ones, that’s around 1k£ to fix , a set of good tyres 400£ , I know that an sti box is expensive to repair or replace and getting hold of parts for it another issue , plus subaru saying not a good idea , and my Fsti did not like mismatched wear even in the same tyre brand ,and as above Vauxhalls prone to problems , why would subaru be any different to a vauxhall ? is it worth taking the risk ?? , most of my Subarus for the last 20 years have been high mileage ones 198k miles the last one box and engine still running when it was broken , i always do sets of tyres and rotate , I’ve never had a box fail 👍

stockcar

not very good advice even on a 2wd car to mix brands end to end and can potentially cause an accident when it rotates unexpectedly in a panic situation........ track or competition then we have been known to do this to get this specific reaction but far more controlled!!!

the Vauxhall 90's 4wd system was terribly unreliable at best and keeping tyres 'matched' was just one way to attempt to keep things correct

WRXrowdy

iTrader: (2)

Don’t get me wrong, I suffer from ocd and autism and it bugs me if things don’t match, be it tyres on my car or cutlery I eat with.

I am not advising to buy different brand front to back, merely pointing out that over the course of 135,000mls I’ve not had a problem whenever I have had different brands on each axle, and I don’t rotate tyres either. I just asked why it is considered a no no and wondered if anyone has actually had catastrophic failure caused by different brand tyres front to back.

Also begs the question, why Subaru stick a space saver in the boot, with completely different size and tread pattern to tyres it left the factory with on the four corners of the car.

Don Clark

The space saver is a "temporary" wheel/tyre but is sized to match (within specified limits) the rolling dia of the other wheel/tyre combinations fitted.

For example for MY05


STI oem 225/45R17 compared with supplied oem space saver wheel T135/70D17


As for using different makes, it has been known for different makes of the same size tyre to vary in Rolling Diameter, hence using the same brand and replacing 4 at a time.

Vxr2010

The space saver is probably enough to get you onto a break down truck ,( I’ve never used mine ) 😁 the recovery is there , maybe if the gearbox failed through mis matched tyres 😂😂 😂😂 the fact the centre diffs are failing could be the cause of the mis matched tyres ? If some one tells me dont and that some one built the car , it’s got to be worth a shot following what they say , it boils down too , an extra 200 £ for peace of mind , my gtr had a boost controller was going like a stabbed rat , i then found out the car had not been mapped around the boost controller , car was running fine , but based on ….i want to protect my gearbox and engine as too much torque is not good , I got it mapped , it was quite ££ but I now know it’s all good , again peace of mind as people say don’t just use a boost controller , same as those that put a sports cat down pipe on scooby and then ask shall i map it , the answer is yes 1 get the best out of the cat 2 protect your engine , i had a forged 2.5 put into my foz recently , i did not know it changed compression , i was advised to map it , it had very slight det top end like 7 k revs , i did not even feel it , got the map done , peace of mind no more slight det and it runs better 👍😁 no one’s stopping people from making choices , if I was buying another scooby and it’s got mismatched tyres , you would think what else have they cut corners on , a sensible warm up and cool down or just ragging it all the time etc 👍