Bridgestone Potenza Run Flat Tyres

[Keith Bowler]

Just fitted a set of refurbed wheels on my 1999 LS400 with the DHP which happened to come with what appeared to be excellent secon hand Bridgestone Potenza run flat tyres. Tyre size is 245/50/17.

The tyres are fully balanced but I am getting really bad road noise. Car was previously running on identical wheels with Michelin tyres and ran silky smooth and quiet.

Went to my local tyre man and asked him to check the fitting of the wheels and to see if the tyres were correctly inflated etc.

Turns out that two of the tyres have a fault on the outer tread band where every other section of tread has raised for some reason by about 1mm presumably enough to cause the noise. I lowered the pressure just in case they were over inflated but to reduce the noise to an acceptable level the pressure needs to be reduced to below 30 psi which cannot be right for an LS400 (my GS300 sport ran tyres at 32 psi). We tried to check the correct pressures but the LS400 with the DHP has no tyre pressure listing.

Just wondered if this is a common fault as I have never experienced this in 30+years of motoring.

[Tony-Bones]

I wasn't aware the LS can use RFT's?

[Keith Bowler]

Why do you say that Tony?

Most top marque manufacturers have them as an option.

[dave1]

Why do you say that Tony?

Most top marque manufacturers have them as an option.

Maybe the 400 wasn't set up to use runflat tyres. It tends to be more recent cars that use them and usually fitted from new? Just a thought.