Tyres for IS300H

[route66]

It's not the first time I've disagreed with you Linas about tyres. The last time you made some ridiculous comment that a car with "400hp needs 20inch wheels". When anyone with some engineering knowledge knows that that is simply not true.

But I should probably know better than to argue with someone who always wants to get the last word in. And someone is always right. Other have tried and either failed or simply got wound up.

I remain happy with my Bridgestones and do not accept your - now confirmed in my mind - "highstool" commentary / conspiracy theory about how manufacturers select tyres for production cars.

As I suffer from "ignorance", a lack of "nuance" and seem to be accepting of things "mediocre", you should probably not bother wasting your time with follow-up mud slinging.

 

[Linas.P]

I think you just looking for conflict where there is none (I am at fault as well) or perceive any disagreement as "aggressive and negative"... same as in previous conversation - you made statement of your opinion, proven nothing, but concluded that I am in conflict with myself, despite your strawman argument with which I mostly agreed. 

It is still strange that even when presented with objective source you still give no credit to what I have said. Question is really simple and not at all provocative - why would you spend more money for objectively worse tyre? 

I don't think it is controversial goal to get the best product for lowest possible price? 

[PRT68]

Just go to settings and invoke the ignore user option. I did  a long time ago.....

[ruralrat]

Hi all,

I've always felt that the 18" wheels look too small on my car , would love 20's, but have opted for 19's, I know the tyres will be more expensive anyway, but have budgeted for this, i've now got to decide which tyre i have, as the new wheels are on their way, I currently have Bridgestone weather control tyres on my original F sport wheels, and they have been great, been on over a year, and there's still 6mm tread all round, I don't drive  fast usually, BUT, sometimes i like to  ' OPEN IT UP!!!' down the lanes when i am alone, and it's quiet ;);), and i'm not filled with confidence, my question is, is it just the car?, it is a heavy car,is it the tyre choice?, been looking at reviews for all makes, and i found that the Michelin crossclimate 2's have the top overall score, any thoughts out there please? 

[J Henderson]

CrossClimate 2 are indeed very good, even in current 25-35 degree weather.

However...

4 hours ago, ruralrat said:

I don't drive  fast usually, BUT, sometimes i like to  ' OPEN IT UP!!!' down the lanes when i am alone, and it's quiet ;);)

...if this is a common activity I wouldn't recommend them.

Not sure you can get them in suitable 19" sizes anyway, but although they do have lots of grip, they're not really designed for sporty driving. The shoulder of the tread pattern is rounded off to maximise water & snow dispersal, not steering response.

Better off choosing a genuine UHP tyre.

[Linas.P]

5 hours ago, ruralrat said:

Hi all,

I've always felt that the 18" wheels look too small on my car , would love 20's, but have opted for 19's, I know the tyres will be more expensive anyway, but have budgeted for this, i've now got to decide which tyre i have, as the new wheels are on their way, I currently have Bridgestone weather control tyres on my original F sport wheels, and they have been great, been on over a year, and there's still 6mm tread all round, I don't drive  fast usually, BUT, sometimes i like to  ' OPEN IT UP!!!' down the lanes when i am alone, and it's quiet ;);), and i'm not filled with confidence, my question is, is it just the car?, it is a heavy car,is it the tyre choice?, been looking at reviews for all makes, and i found that the Michelin crossclimate 2's have the top overall score, any thoughts out there please? 

Tyres are always compromise and CrossClimate is very very big compromise. Yes CC is great all season tyre which provides safe driving experience most of the time, but they really have nothing when it comes to sporty driving, not handling, not grip, not feedback. If you really want to enjoy the car, get predictive grip and reactive steering you have to get UHP tyre. There the recommendation remains the same Continental and Goodyear UHP tyres are good, Michelin just released PS5 which is good but as always overpriced, Bridgestone as always lags behind. Get one of those 3 tyres (Asymmetric 6, Sport/Premium Contact 6 or PS 5) and car will handle much better. All season tyres just never going to handle as well on the limit, they meant to be safe tyres at normal driving speeds, not the tyres you enjoy when "opening it up".

[ruralrat]

Thank you very much J Henderson and Linas.P, I value your opinion greatly,

I will be taking a look .

[ikeja]

Lots of information regarding suitable tyres for an IS300H and reciprocate last comment by ruralrat.
Have now come to a decision regarding replacement tyres for my vehicle so will be fitting Continental Conti Sport Contact 5 which I think will be suitable for my driving style - no longer boy racer:(

[fourbanks]

3 minutes ago, ikeja said:

Lots of information regarding suitable tyres for an IS300H and reciprocate last comment by ruralrat.
Have now come to a decision regarding replacement tyres for my vehicle so will be fitting Continental Conti Sport Contact 5 which I think will be suitable for my driving style - no longer boy racer:(

Continental has always been the best choice for cars, along with Bridgestone the aircraft choice. You know it makes sense. 

[Mr_Groundhog]

Soooo I was looking to replace the OEM yokohamas blue earth e51 (a bit cracked; got an MOT advisory) and I have seen that these are "XL" ?

Do you perchance know whether that's accurate and hence any new tyre going into my 2018 IS300h HAS TO BE an XL tyre too?
I like the figures on the Michelin Primacy 4 but those don't seem to be XL ....

[ColinBarber]

39 minutes ago, Mr_Groundhog said:

Do you perchance know whether that's accurate and hence any new tyre going into my 2018 IS300h HAS TO BE an XL tyre too?

Ignore the XL, you need to match the load index stated in the owners manual. I think for the IS on 16" and 17" wheels it should be 91. You can go higher to support extra load but that would compromise ride comfort.

[Mr_Groundhog]

2 hours ago, ColinBarber said:

Ignore the XL, you need to match the load index stated in the owners manual. I think for the IS on 16" and 17" wheels it should be 91. You can go higher to support extra load but that would compromise ride comfort.

Thanks @ColinBarber 🤩 I went ahead and ordered the Michelin Primacy 4 ...I had them in my previous car and I was very happy with them. Like new after 12k miles.

[Mr_Groundhog]

So, I got the Primacy 4 on as of yesterday and rolled on the motorway for a few miles.

Hard to tell given the state of the tarmac in this country but I'd say no weird noises or vibrations.... HOWEVER, I noticed the tyres have a white dot on the side (not yellow or red), and when asked at the garage, i was told "not to worry" about it. The position of the dots regarding the valves don't follow a pattern and when looking it up, I have found contradicting info (as to what the white dot actually mean). I might contact Michelin CS but.... does anyone know? Should I worry?

[Mr_Groundhog]

Edit: I contacted Michelin CS, lessee what they say.

[cadman2k]

Looking around seems to suggest the following 

Dynamic Balancing Dot

 

The White Dot (Dynamic Balancing Dot) Regardless of the type of wheel, if there is no red dot, mount the tire with the white dot next to the valve stem. The white dot indicates the overall light dynamic balance point of the tire. In other words, it's as though the white dot represents a bit lighter in the area of tire.

A good shout if you or anyone you know is a Costco member, would be to ask their tyre fitters as they must fit more Michelin tyres than most places due to the volumes they sell.

[Las Palmas]

Without being much interested in size of tyres, (think factory know what they are doing) I wonder why so many think that compromise tyres are the way to go. All season are not the best when it is warm and absolutely no good if snow and ice are what you find on the roads.

While still living where summer was not really much summer (but still driving down to where summer is summer) and winter mean spreading salt on the roads to make sure that cars rust well (and stupidly enough also sometimes driving up to where winter is really winter and they do not salt the roads: Norway) I knew that the only intelligent thing to do was to have summer wheels and winter wheels. Been in car business very many years. Even if not driving to any of the real summer and winter places I believe that having the best tyres on is most suitable. Climate seems to get more extreme and if not being wealthy enough to have a summer car and a winter car, 2 set of wheels is not a bad idea.

Will soon (half a year or so) need new tyres and again summer tyres are going on. Even if going up to top of mountains here temperature is seldom down to 5 Celsius and market where we are buying fresh just out of the earth vegetable is only 1000 m above sea level where temperature maybe never come down to 15 Celsius summer tyres will be best. If (when maybe) going to northern parts of EU it will only be in summer, so summer tyres are for us.

[Las Palmas]

On 11/25/2022 at 9:58 AM, Mr_Groundhog said:

Soooo I was looking to replace the OEM yokohamas blue earth e51 (a bit cracked; got an MOT advisory) and I have seen that these are "XL" ?

Do you perchance know whether that's accurate and hence any new tyre going into my 2018 IS300h HAS TO BE an XL tyre too?
I like the figures on the Michelin Primacy 4 but those don't seem to be XL ....

Yes. Lexus sure is a stupid company, claiming that our CT must have at least W and 91 tyres on, when car is no faster than H tyres would be fast enough and 87 able to safely carry the weight of the car.

I need W 91 instead of V 87 which would have been 1db lower noise.

Stupid Lexus.

[Mr_Groundhog]

On 11/26/2022 at 10:22 AM, Las Palmas said:

Yes. Lexus sure is a stupid company, claiming that our CT must have at least W and 91 tyres on, when car is no faster than H tyres would be fast enough and 87 able to safely carry the weight of the car.

I need W 91 instead of V 87 which would have been 1db lower noise.

Stupid Lexus.

Not sure of sarcasm or you do mean it....... it is true that nowadays tyres and wheels are waaaaay oversized, for the sake of aesthetics. It's an arms race.
The basic version of the IS300h, same engine and same weight, comes with 205/55/16 , which is more than enough to handle the car.
The tyre size of the F-Sport version is just ludicrous and wasteful

 

On 11/26/2022 at 9:48 AM, cadman2k said:

Looking around seems to suggest the following 

Dynamic Balancing Dot

 

The White Dot (Dynamic Balancing Dot) Regardless of the type of wheel, if there is no red dot, mount the tire with the white dot next to the valve stem. The white dot indicates the overall light dynamic balance point of the tire. In other words, it's as though the white dot represents a bit lighter in the area of tire.

A good shout if you or anyone you know is a Costco member, would be to ask their tyre fitters as they must fit more Michelin tyres than most places due to the volumes they sell.

I investigated and that's orientative. It's not always the case, depends on the overall balancing job which is done with an accurate machine (or at least i hope so). I was ready to go to the garage and shout at them

[Las Palmas]

5 hours ago, Mr_Groundhog said:

Not sure of sarcasm or you do mean it....... it is true that nowadays tyres and wheels are waaaaay oversized, for the sake of aesthetics. It's an arms race.
The basic version of the IS300h, same engine and same weight, comes with 205/55/16 , which is more than enough to handle the car.
The tyre size of the F-Sport version is just ludicrous and wasteful

I mean that Lexus is utterly stupid to claim that a CT need W (270 km/h) tyres when it cannot drive faster than a H (210km/h) when driving downhill. Actually T (190km/h) should be enough.

I do not enter discussion about 16 or 17 inch wheels though 16 would mean cheaper tyres with more comfort, where 17 mean more accurate handling and penalty for that is a bit less comfort.

[Digifant]

On 7/27/2022 at 6:05 PM, route66 said:

There is another consideration - tyre "skip". Something the IS300H suffers from along with some other RWD and AWD cars.

Mine was so bad, sometimes passengers could ask me if I had driven over something when, say, pulling out of a parking spot on full lock.

I know what causes it (tyre blocks being stretched because front wheels are not parallel on full lock and then "releasing" suddenly when they can stretch no more, worse in winter when tyres are cold and less flexible than in summer, worse on worn tyres where the blocks are shorter and less flexible, etc, etc) and had just learned to accept it as a characteristic of the IS300H.

And then I swapped my Dunlop Sport MAXX rt2 for Bridgestone Turanza T005.

Night and day transformation !!!

Looking at pictures of the 2 tyres, I don't know exactly why the Bridgestones are so much better, but they are - no more tyre skip.

I can't say I have noticed any of the negatives mentioned above with the Bridgestones for fuel efficiency, comfort or noise - although they are too new for me to see any age-related cracking ...

Perhaps suffice to say that these cars came from the factory in Japan with Bridgestones fitted (Autocar test of the IS300H in 2013 had Bridgestone Turanza T001 fitted) so I very much doubt they are as mediocre as some may suggest ...

Dunlop Sport MAXX rt2:

Bridgestone Turanza T005:

Some advice I would go with is to avoid "ditchfinders". Tyres are a boring purchase (you're not going to invite your friends to have a look at your new tyres, whereas you might if you spent the same money on a new phone for example) but that is no reason to try to skimp by buying rubbish. Some of the cheap asian brands are cheap for a reason and can give dangerously low levels of grip in the wet. Do a google and you will see how some of the poorer ones perform.

I've got the same tyre skip trouble with the same Dunlops. I was not sure if it's tyre problem or wheel alignment or something else... also this tyre has poor rim protection. 

On back wheels I have Bridgestone Turanza ER33. Also have cracking rubber problem meantime tread is about 5mm. Grip of this model is a kind of joke))). sometimes I've got wheel spin even on eco mode not using even half of accelerator. But wear is very good. Very long lasting.

Looking forward to give a chance for Pirelli Powergy.