This is my second set of Yokohama yk580's. I upgraded to a 17" 2007 Toyota Solara wheel and love these tires. I would never put on anything else. Handle great, quite, smooth and have a great looking sidewall. Size is 215/50/R17 95 V. I got them at Discount Tires 5/2013 60k warranty.

 

I second that CHADLEX, four sets of Yokohama between all of my cars/trucks, love them. Looking at snow tires but will go with Bridgestone Blizzak because of rating/history.

 

i got free sets of Micheline tires!!!..ya free tire and installation . But i just paid for alingment. I picked Defender. Mnnn those tires are the best. i got it yesterday but boy they are the best. Smooth ride yet very stable. Drove in dry and in rain and both time it was well planted on road. Felt very confident driving in rain too. Also the alignmentis all perfect. I love my ES even more

 

I have had the Michelin Premier A/S tires on the ES330 now since around January, so let's say around 13,000 miles or so. They replaced the original MXV4s that were on the car from the factory. Replaced with roughly 42,000 miles. Yes the still looked new, still drove nice, just scared of 10 year old tires doing 75mph+ in 100 degree heat.


I got the H rated (which is 94H on the sidewall BTW), will get V rated next.


Nice ride, good handling for the car, quiet (not silent). Had one bad tire that developed after 7,000 miles. It took me taking the original spare and actually finding the tire. Balancing, even road force balancing did not find the bad one. Once replaced, good to go.


Premier are pricely, I am OK with them. Not enthusiastic due to my bad tire experience. I have had other bad tires, I was not expecting it at this "level" of pricing and quality to have bad tire that took me to find versus the tire dealer. They tried, they are just not as **** as I am, as it is my car, not their car. I don't blame the dealer, this was a hard one to deduce.


So far the Defenders I have in my Accord and CR-Vs are going good with rotations done every 5,000 miles. Rotation has been the key for excellent tire wear and noise control in my Hondas.


Bob

 

How did the tire go bad? Was it out of round? Did it have flat spots? Or was it cupped when you moved your hand across the circumference?

Just wondering if it was initially caused due to a bad strut or an alignment issue.

 

I believe, based on prior tire problems, that one of the belts had to have broke, moved or slipped in the tire. There was no visual way to see the malfunction of the tire. Based on the road force testing and print out I got from my Discount Tire dealer here in Oklahoma, I thought would have been another tire that was the most likely offender.


That's what got me to grab the spare, I first changed out that suspect tire, not change. Then went around the car and touched each tire to see when the rumbling went away. Then unfortunately, purchased a new tire to go with the other new one warranted out so I had two new tires on one axle as I had close to 8,000 miles as I recall before I had everything ironed out.




Now, it was like 30 days later after all this I brought the car to our lovely Lexus dealer here in OKC to have the timing belt changed and had the alignment checked. Again, checking the initial alignment versus the "adjusted" alignment.....I believe one front wheel was adjusted by 0.1 degrees of camber....no other adjustment was needed as everything else was right in the center of the required specs. (which was good to know).




Bob

 

I'll add a vote for Michelin Defenders so far. Just put a brand new set on my '01 ES and they ride great. They seem to be a bit noisier than the old MXV4s that were on the car previously, but that may just be in my mind. Heading out on a 400 miles round trip today so I'll know more soon.

 

I am not there is anything you can do about the increased noise as Defenders age. One on of my CR-Vs, I rotated the tires every 5,000 miles and they still got noisy on me. The premier's are not getting noisy yet, but I suspect I have another band on a tire that isn't hanging in there like it should. Very slight vibrations at speed. I am going to have it aligned again before I call it a tire though.

Bob

 

After a 425 mile trip, the Defenders rode very well, but they were noisier than my previous Michelins (probably the harder compound needed to give them their 90k mile warranty!), still rode great, though, except over poor pavement, which was noticeably harsher. Will check to see if installers over-inflated the tires.

On the up side, got 425 miles on the same tank of gas, and stopped to refill just as the fuel light came on for the first time. Got an avg. of 26.25 mpg. Not bad.

 

Sounds great, definitely check the cold pressures. It's not uncommon to see 35psi+ from a tire shop.