Anyone riding on falken ZE-912/ZE-512 tires? yes i searched -_-, I think these tires have what Im looking for but I want opinions Options

[enderswift]

hey everyone, I've been doing alot of research on tires lately and I think i've settled on falken ZE-912/ZE-512 tires. According to the interwebs, the falkens are UHP tires that wont kill me when it snows. They seem to offer really good performance (z rated) and tread life but tend to be noisy. I'm a bit suspicious because they sound too good to be true, and their description on falkens website simply gushes about their technical prowess blah blah blah. I've read reviews all over the place BUT i know that most online reviews suck because the reviewers hadn't given the tire any time to break in. Thats why i want to see if anyone here has had these tires for an extended period of time. Do they really grip that well? How much worse do they make our already bad road noise prob? What is snow traction like? Is it true that the sidewall is actually softer (IE handle worse) than on the older 512's?


Im stuck between choosing these falkens a set of toyo proxes or khumo ecstas. I've had the proxes before on a different car and they were AMAMZING even when almost worn out. help me out here

This post has been edited by enderswift: Nov 26, 2008 - 11:54 PM

[richee3]

Hey, I have a question. 6strngs, you seems really knowledgeable on tires, so this one especially goes out to you. You say the Falkens are cheap crap, but I've had a different experience. But then again, I've driven like a grandma on these tires so at 20,000 miles I'm just to the point where most other people are at 10,000, so I'm guessing that I'm about to start experiencing the problems that everyone else has had. I was planning on buying the 912's when these wear out, but you say they are utter crap too.

So my question is, what are the best tires I can get for under $100 apiece? Best in this case means a good balance between grip and tire life. I know $100 isn't much, but I'm on a tight budget

[6strngs]

Hey, I have a question. 6strngs, you seems really knowledgeable on tires, so this one especially goes out to you. You say the Falkens are cheap crap, but I've had a different experience. But then again, I've driven like a grandma on these tires so at 20,000 miles I'm just to the point where most other people are at 10,000, so I'm guessing that I'm about to start experiencing the problems that everyone else has had. I was planning on buying the 912's when these wear out, but you say they are utter crap too.

So my question is, what are the best tires I can get for under $100 apiece? Best in this case means a good balance between grip and tire life. I know $100 isn't much, but I'm on a tight budget

well, I assume you have stock rims, going by your sig, and that you want the stock size of 205/55/15. I don't know if you meant $100 installed, or $100 without installation so I'll assume you meant installed. Also, some people like to order their tires from places like tire rack because they are usually cheaper, and then take them to a tire shop to be installed, but, usually when you do this, the tire shop will jack up the price of installation just cause they won't be making as much money since you didn't buy the tires with them, anyway, it comes out to be about the same price depending on what tire shop you go to. So, my recommendation is to have 2-3 different tires in mind, call around and ask how much the shops in your area would charge for these tires with installation if you bought them from them, and then ask how much it would be if you brought the tires in and wanted them put on (keeping in mind that you also have to pay for shipping with tirerack). when you find a price you like, get the salesman's name and set up an appointment.

anyway, I just briefly browsed on tire rack for tirea around $75-85 in that size, and I saw a couple good tires. I see the Dunlop Direzza DZ101's for $75. I had these on my 6gc in a 225/45/17 and they gripped and handled excellent! no idea on the life because I only had them on for maybe 2-3K, but they still look new after that, so life should be pretty good. I also see the BF goodrich G-force sports for $84, these were ones I was considering for my 17's. I heard a lot of very good things about the performance on them, though they tend to start cupping after a while, which is where the tire tread is uneven and when you run your hand over it it feels like waves of water, it's up and down, up and down. It can be caused by too much positive caster (an alignment angle, in case you didn't know) or worn shocks. Unfortunately caster isn't adjustable on a celica, but still, to ensure long life on these, I'd get an alignment done at the same time, and rotate often. anyway, I also see BF goodrich traction TA's for $89, which I had on my stock wheels for a while and loved them, I talked about them somewhere in this thread already. And also, I see yokohama AVID V4S's for $81 and yokohama S.drive's for $88. I've heard good things about yokohama tires, in general, though I didn't like the AVS ES100's that I had for a couple hundred miles. (got them used with about 5/32" of tread and had them down to 2/32" in a month or so, but I did a lot of burning out with the freshly turbo'ed 5s at that time... ) anyway, if you need an all-season tire, the BFG traction TA or the yoko avid v4 are the only two that are. Those two also will most likely be the longest lasting of the 5 I mentioned. For more of a performance, summer tire, the S.drive, dunlop, and g-force are the way to go. Personally of those 3 I'd go with the dunlop because it's cheaper, and I already have experience with the tire and know it's a quality tire. the decision is ultimately yours though based on your needs. hopefully my input was helpful