Leeroy

Had a bit of an incident in my 06 Sti on the way to a wedding do last night - a front tyre blow out at 90ish (Bridgestone re070)!

The car was totally stable but rather noisy I changed the wheel in my best whistle and flute at the side of the road in the dark and 2 miles from my destination (after a 74 mile trip!). Needless to say I got sh!tted up and was not happy about fitting the crappy space saver . It was even more fun when driving home late at night on deserted roads at 50mph

I had a look at the tyre this morning and there's a large gash in the centre, which looks like the tyre actually blew rather than was punctured. It was a tyre which was punctured previously, and I had repaired - just goes to show you shouldn't repair tyres on a car like this . The tyre is also very worn after only 7k and has numerous cracks on the slick surfaces.

Anyway, I now need a new pair of tyres at the front, so what's the best type to replace the standard bridgestones? I'm not happy with the rate of wear and the cracking. The ride is also very poor and the car tends to tramline badly, and on slippy surfaces the cars a handful! I was thinking of Toyos but not sure which to go for?

Leeroy

Had a look at Goodyears and found :EAGLE F1 GS-D3 225/45 R17 91Y - these aren't the XL type but have a higher load rating than the standard potenzas(90W), so in theory should not crack. Any comments??

Granby

iTrader: (5)

I've just had these fitted onto mine after having RE070's and it's totally transformed the car for the better, it rides better, doesn't tramline anymore and the grip in the wet gets a big

Drewster

With the way you are getting through rubber, I would recommend a set of tractor tyres. Plenty of grip...strong side walls....and no chance of a high-speed blowout...

Trout

iTrader: (1)

I would not recommend repairing a tyre like an RE070.

But that is just my opinion

dynamix

iTrader: (3)

Get your geometry fixed and you wont get through the tyres so hard, it wont tramline and will handle superbly.

I have done 15000 on my RE070's including 3 track days, 1 sprint and 1 ring trip - no cracking, splits or uneven wear.

Agree on the repairs - never do it on a performance tyre on a performance car.

hoskib

iTrader: (1)

i'm using michelin pilot sport2 for the winter. if you're after an improvement in ride quality but still after a grippy tyre, i would recomend it.

not as good as the REO70 for dry grip but it's quiter, rides over bumps better and doesn't tramline. if it wasn't for the 4 new REO70's in the loft i'd consider it a permanent switch!

Leeroy

Good to hear! Did you get the 'XL' type?

Granby

iTrader: (5)

No i didn't but they still have a load rating of 91, and the RE070's have a rating of 90

Leeroy

As I said, it proves you shouldn't repair tyres on a car like this!

Leeroy

That sounds like it's settled - i'll be ordering a set today (cheapest seems to be mytyres.co.uk & £77 each)

Granby

iTrader: (5)

Thats a good price, i paid £80 each fitted from elites plus the geometry setup

pippyrips

i've got these in 18's on my STI - no probs whats so ever, infact they are very good

Mangel

The wearing and cracking on your tyre could well be due to the fact that you drove it for some miles with it deflated. I've had this mi self in the past and the wife had it on my Impreza.

The tyre pressure is low initially but niot flat, you would only notice a banging when you cross cats eyes or road surfaces. As the tyre heats up due to the excessive rubber contact with the road and no air cushion the air expands until it find a weak spot in the tyre wall, caused by the heat and wear and BANG it blisters and blows out.

It may be that your repair didn't take correctly and caused a slow puncture and it is very difficult to feel tyre deflation on a modern 4 wd. I would also not reccommend repairing tyres on a car of this sort.

Why is it that BMW mini 1 gets tyre deflation light...........and we don't!!??

stilover

Michelin Pilot Sport 2's for me every time.

Have them on mine now. Replaced the RE070 after a couple months, as I got sick of going sideways in the wet under just half throttle. !!

Leeroy

Scary aren't they!

davedipster

I must admit that the ps2's are a MUCH better all round tyre, the re070's are great warm weather dry tyres. But when it gets cold and wet they are not the best.
I bought Four ps2's (225/45 17) for £360 fitted from costco, bargain.

So to sum up, the new ps2's are the best tyre on the market...

dipster

Granby

iTrader: (5)

Strange my RE070's were never like that, my first track day was at castle combe in the pouring rain yet they were very good and the only time they lost grip was when i backed off half way through a corner just to see what would happen

Mangel

^^^^

And let me guess you seemed to have got out of your car and onto the waltzers for a few senconds!!! LOL

Runnin Yoko Parada 2 miself, excellent tyre all round (as tyres should be)

Tilly

sorry if this is a little off topic but these RE070's... is this what the new cars have on as standard? When I looked at a couple of scoobies yestreday, didn't spend too much time but saw the tyres and cringed, they looked like glorified semi slicks! there was no tread to them, surely they're lethal in the wet, I mean yeah AWD will overcome a lot of issues but still, wheres the rest of the tyre?! lol

dynamix

iTrader: (3)

nope - in the wet they are pretty good but you need to get the geometry set up properly to make use of it. In the dry, on the track and in the wet once warm these are superb !!

Leeroy

Looks like you've sussed smilies! Shouldn't you be doing work rather than tossing it off on here??

hoskib

iTrader: (1)

nothing wrong with the REO70 in the wet, plenty of sipes to dispearse the water.

the problem comes on cold, damp roads where the compound isn't getting enough heat into it to give full grip.

i've only changed mine for these damp conditions (which seems to be most of the winter!) push any tyre too far in the wet and it'll bite back eventually.