SW17LS

Yeah the Michelin Premier would also be a viable option, but they don't come in either the 18 or 19 size.

One thing to understand about TR ratings. You have to compare the overall ratings and the miles reported. The Pirellis have way more miles reported, and statistically results regress to the mean as more sample size is included. So even if one tire is slightly better rated, I would choose the tire with more miles and still a very high rating as that is more impressive.

7milesout

Agreed.

The alignment is going on. Lots of ratcheting sounds and cussing.

seanl

I'm on half worn Turanzas, but love what TireRack has to say about those Pirellis....I'm definitely interested in hearing your feedback about ride quality, grip, and sound levels. I don't care too much about longevity as I'm only driving 7-8K miles per year.

CJITTY

P7 is my next tire once the P Zero's run out. I think I have about 10K left in them.. Keep us posted on the P7 success/fails

7milesout

Well I took it for a drive to the next town over. I noticed a couple minor things. The traction appears to be increased, but that's expected between new tires and Maypops I guess.

In the south (not sure where all this may be done), some older roads get a bead of tar in the wallered-out "2 track" parts of the lane. These tar beads are generally along the length of the road, and fill the cracking of the asphalt. But the beads sort of zig zag around following the cracks, so you cannot completely avoid them. These tar beads give the state / county / whatever more time before a repave is needed. Anywho, these tar beads create noise when rolled over. So I generally "ride the ridges." Meaning one side is on the outer side of the lane (away from other traffic) and the other side tires are somewhat near the center of my lane. This mostly avoids the tar beads. Yesterday when I drove to Newnan, I ran through plenty of tar beads and the noise was much reduced. Due to either deep tread depth or just the tire design itself, dunno.

Lastly - My car used to have a light tap-tap-tap-tap noise that slowed with speed, under light braking. That noise is mysteriously GONE. It wasn't the Maypops making the noise. But the Maypops were doing something to contribute to that noise. It's friggin gone. I listened close. Some tires (ahem ... Korean tires were consistently the worst when tested) have a tendency to load a suspension sideways ... pulling left or right. Not something a driver would feel. There's a term for this, but I forget the term. An extreme example is laying an ice cream cone on its side and rolling it. The cone will roll in a circle (the term might be "Lateral Rollout," something like that). Most or all tires do this, but some (ahem) are worse than others. The way the Maypops were worn, maybe they were putting a "sidewards" load into the suspension, resulting in that tap-tap-tap-tap noise I was getting under light braking. I'm glad it's gone.


7milesout

Rhambler

I like my Pirelli P7 Plus. I had them on my previous car and they were great. Quiet, comfortable and smooth.

The only knock against them is that they tramline on the freeways near me, at least portions that have those parallel grooves in the concrete (mainly older freeways that don't have asphalt). On these portions of the freeway it gets rather frenetic and I have to provide minor corrections to stay straight as these tires loves to stick inside those damn grooves on the older part of the freeways in California.

But other than that, great wet all-weather traction. My previous car was AWD so it made it even better. They seem just as surefooted in this car, although I haven't had a chance to drive them in the Sierras and snow yet, but I'm sure it will be fine.

I settled on 33 to 34 cold PSI as well. I'm really not going to fuss over this and I haven't made adjustments to test other pressures as this works for me just fine.

I previously had Michelin Pilot Sport AS (not the 3s that replaced the ones I had) and while great at first, they wore down quickly and the noise went up appreciably as they wore. Those tires also caused my alignment problem, meaning that they wore unevenly and no matter how much my car was aligned it would pull to the right. Well, the minute I put on my new tires my alignment problem disappeared completely. Felt like an idiot wasting money on two alignments to no avail when it was the tires all along.

In any case, Michelins are great at first, but wear like crap. The Pirellis I had on my previous car wore much better and stayed the same in ride quality and smoothness, at least for the two years I had them before I sold the car and got this one.

7milesout

Sounds like the "lateral rollout" issue I mentioned in my previous post.

droclex

I had a similar lateral rollout issue with Michelin Pilot Sport AS3's. They were brand new and my LS badly drifted right. I think the LS is sensitive to certain tread patterns in this way. Luckily, I was able to switch to Yoko YK580's (Michelin took them back). With the Yokos and one last alignment to straighten the steering wheel, the car tracks straight, rides quiet and smooth. Almost went with the Pirelli's - a friend has them on his A8 and LOVES them - but am glad I took a chance and saved a pretty sizeable chunk of change on a different brand.

SW17LS

No tram lining or drifting with my LS on the Pirellis. They track great.

caha14

This is exactly what my experience (mentioned in CRowe's recent tire thread) was with the Michelin Pilot Sport AS. While at this point (barring a catastrophe, LOL), I will go with the P7 next time, I do want to underscore the distinction I made in CRowe's thread between Michelin AS performance tires and Touring/Grand Touring tires, just FWIW/to be fair.

The Sports fall in the former category, and they flat-out sucked (IMHO) in every way on the LS, plus there was that incurable pull. However, my experience with touring Michelins, specifically in terms of wear, pull and smoothness has generally been very positive, especially on the LS460.

Indeed. One little-known optional feature/software module of the Hunter GSP9700 measures lateral pull, advising the technician on where to place tires on a vehicle to minimize side force. Some tires sets are just hopeless, but it's a helpful additional feature (provided the user knows of it).

LS is very sensitive, most definitely, and there's also no camber adjustment on the RWD model, which could arguably alleviate this (provided that tires are not too far off). Interestingly, though, I have (at the moment) a set of somewhat-aggressive Falken summer tires on my 600, and while I am not crazy about them, the thing tracks pretty straight.

Separately, in that other thread I referenced, I left open the possibility that the "latest" Pilot Sport A/S might be better than the ones Rhambler, I and other folks have had trouble with. You have now answered that and removed doubt .

teedub21

My new to me 2011 LS has a random pull to the right and also has half worn out AS/3's on it. Good to know new tires should correct it.

Kennyr44

The lot I bought my car from had just put on 4 new Uniroyal Tiger Paws. 225-50-18. They ride real nice and seem to be pretty quiet. They are balanced perfect also. I looked them up and everyone has them for about $110 each including Wal-Mart. Just a suggestion for anyone on a budget. I'm not replacing them since they feel good enough for me.