I discovered an air leak in my rear left tire a few weeks ago which was supposedly unrepairable. So today I decided to just get a pair of new rear tires and ended up getting continental DW tires in stock size. After leaving discount tire all seemed well while cruising at 30-40mph around town. But after running some errands I got on the expressway and immediately the car felt like the front was floating. Up to that point, the car felt like it was on rails while Cruising at 80 (which I drive every day to and from work). But this time, I was constantly making wheel adjustments from left to right just trying to keep the car straight. Furthermore, when making steering wheel inputs, it felt as if I would turn the wheel and the car would react a second or so after, as if was lagging, with the steering wheel feeling like there was torque steer when the car would actually point the nose in a different direction. I did pull over and measured the tire pressure right away, and the fronts were at 37 while the rears were at 50! I didn't know if the tires were warmed up and the measurements were off, so I limped home at 50mph. A few minutes ago I checked the pressures again and the fronts were at 34 and the ars were at 48, 49. So I adjusted all the tires to an even 36.5, but haven't had a chance to drive it yet. So my question is would overinflated rears cause the behavior that I described? I was sure that my fronts were deflated, but that doesn't seem to have been the case.

Any input would be appreciated.

-Yuri

 

I've seen it before where the installer will inflate the tires to the max pressure listed on the sidewall rather than the listed pressure on the door sticker. Makes no sense to me why they would do it, but they do. Morons!

 

Report this to to manager at the Discount Tire store you went to. I've been a Discount Tire customer for close to 15 years now. Your situation is totally unacceptable Because 1, they overfilled your rear tires and 2, because they didn't check the pressure on the fronts. If you have an '08 or '09 did they put the wheels back on in the correct position?

And, when I buy new tires, I always watch whats going on, and specify the tire pressure. I also never let them use air tools.

And, EJC, they always blow the tires up way over pressure to assure a good seal at the bead, they then should bleed them down to the correct pressure.

BTW, with a Max Performance tire, it's wise to replace all four at the same time, since one tire company's Max Performance tire may not have the same handling characteristics as anothers.

Lou

 

I hate to see people take nice cars to Discount Tire where its mainly a bunch of kids working. I have seen so many people's wheels here locally get messed up by Discount Tire since they seem to care less about peoples cars. But for sure go talk to a manager and if he gives you attitude then call the 800 number. A girl at my work just took her van there which she uses everyday with her two young kids. She had a nail in the car and they were supposed to do an alignment on the car. She left it for the day. Paid for everything and later found out that they did absolutely nothing. The car did not move all day. The nail was not taken out and no alignment was done. Lets just say the manager of that store no longer has a job there to say the least.

 

^^^^As I said above, this has not been my experience. Discount Tire has always been a BIG for me. Customer service, service after the sale and installation service have always been top notch. Never any wheel damage and always balanced properly. Two recent examples:

1. My wife drove over a screw in her ES with OEM tires. Went to Discount tire and I was in and of of there is less than a half hour with a quality patch and a rebalance for not cost.

2. I bought a set of Continental DW tires there and after about 6K miles they developed a terrible sing that drove me crazy. Discount replaced them at 8K with Bridgestone S-04 PP tires for less than $200. I called Continental Tire first and the customer service there was truly awful, but Discount Tire made it right

I send many people there and no one has ever had issues. Your experiences certainly don't mirror mine.

BTW, I have never seen a Discount Tire store that offers wheel alignment, must be something new

Oh, and in my youth, I managed a Firestone Tire store for awhile, so I don't consider myself a novice when it comes to tires.

Lou

 

SOB. I just noticed they banged up my rim too! I will post more info later on but I am pissed off!

 

Wow, hopefully you get all this sorted out.

 

That sucks man! Go back and speak to the manager! I agree with Lou on the tires, need to replace all four at the same time. My roommate borrowed my car once (different car, G35) and got a flat in Phoenix, so since he was no where near home he took it to the only shop in town that had a tire that fit... what a nightmare did I find when he got home. Not only did they scratch the hell out of the rim, but they also marked it with black marker!!! Not what my 20's chrome polished lip wanted to see!

 

That sounds about right. They scratched 2 of my SSRs when I had my STi. Then claimed they were already like that and did not offer to fix them. That was the last time I went there years ago. Nothing has changed though. I still hear about them messing up wheels all the time.

 

So a little bit of an update on my ordeal. First with the tires. I am not sure if I received a bad batch, or this is just how they are designed (though I suspect the latter after having read some reviews), but the Continental DWs are utter and complete junk. Now having a pair or Michelin PSSs, I can really see how bad the DWs were. I think it has to do mainly with a soft sidewall design, which allows the rim to sway laterally in relation to the contact patch. In the end, it causes the side-to-side feeling that I felt the whole week while driving on these tires. Some have said that you have to give the tires the time to break in, but I am not convinced. While the ride had gotten a little better by day 7, it was far from reassuring, and while making a lane change on the highway and stepping on the gas a bit to overtake a car my gf was wondering why the hell I am driving like some jackass who can't keep a car straight. These tires scare the bleepity bleep out of me! After letting discount tire know about how dangerous the ride was, they agreed to do a complete swap out for whatever I wanted. I decided that I might as well give the PSSs a chance, and wow, am I glad that I did that. The car feels like normal again the minute that I had them on. Rock solid at 80mph, no wiggle at the rear of any kind, and no more constant adjustments of the steering wheel. Never again will I even consider the Continentals.

Now as far as the nick, they did agree to fix it but they wanted to send the rim off instead of having Lexus take care of it. I told them I would get back to them in that, but after thinking about it a little longer, I think I am going to have to insist on Lexus taking care of it. Unless they can arrange for a loaner, I am not driving on a spare tire 200+ miles at freeway speeds while they get the rim done. Neither do I feel comfortable leaving my car in their parking lot. So I will let you know when I speak with them again what the results were.

All-in-all, discount hasn't lost a customer yet, and they are trying to make it right. I know it's easy to blame a place when you have a bad experience, but considering the alternatives, discount's actions of attempting to rectify everything do put them is fair light for now.

-Yuri

 

glad to hear you're having good luck so far getting the problems resolved....

 

As you can see from my post above, I am not a Fan of the Continental DW, But I did not experience the problem you did with them. They handled well for me. My thought is, again, the mismatch between the front and rear tires. I don't know what you have on the fronts, but they are probably a better match with the PSS than they were with the DW.

Lou

 

Hey Lou, I have a pair of Bridgestone 050As up front. I am no tire expert and certainly won't argue your point. But I know that others have complained of the same behavior from these tires. A google search for "continental dw squirmy" revealed many posts with people talking about their cars feeling floaty. I have a feeling that you may be right to some extent, with the fronts having a very crisp response, a floaty behind may have seemed exagerated. But at the end of the day I never expected z-rated tires to feel so bad that the first day I was afraid to go over 50mph.