Tire Replacement Tips
 

So after reading through this section's history about tire replacement due to wear, I still have a few questions:

(Note: I have a 370z Nismo and it's my DD. It very rarely snows and I drive ~12k miles a year)

- Is it recommended I get the same tires as OEM? Yokohama 285/35/ZR19 for rear and 245's for front? (nismo) Or can another brand (like BS PS2 or Eagle F1) possibly be better?

- What sort of characteristics do I "need" to have in order to maintain the performance of the Z? I live in Georgia, so I'm assuming I should always be looking at "summer performance" tires? What other features are necessary/not necessary when shopping for tires?

- Is it recommended that I go to a reputable tire shop and purchase the tires/warranty from them? I have the wheel/tire warranty from the dealer, mainly for the wheel coverage. Should I order the tires online if I get a better deal?

- It's been noted that about 10-12k miles is what we should expect out of our tires. I hope to get a little more, since my driving is far from aggressive, I don't track, I don't do burnouts, and I don't ever chirp/spin tires, but I'm an optimist. Can I buy better tires to get a little more mileage? Because of my driving habits, will I be able to get away with getting a higher mileage tire while losing the ability to perform at 100% performance?

Tirerack.com has some great rating sections. If you outside the snow belt, I would get Max performance Summer tires.

It rains a bit down here and if they are still made, I will get Goodear GSD3's. They are flat out the best rain tire I have every driven on. The sidewall has a bit more flex but on the street it is hardly noticeable....unless you are one of those @ssclowns that drive like an idiot on the street. I noticed a difference on the track, but I never drive more than 6/10th on the street. Just not worth it.

If rain is not a concern, there are many other great tires with stiffer sidewalls in the Max Performance category. Personally, I have never been too concerned with tire warranties.

Any additional info would be great

When it gets time to replace the tires, should I go to the dealer? Performance shop? Tire repair shop?

You can get better tires than OEM but the stickier tire you get the shorter the life span will be. Always a trade off.

If you want to maintain the same performance new/different tires, they will need to be either max performance summer tire or extreme performance summer tire. As someone else said above, tirerack.com is a great place for tires and info.

Yeah, like Import said it's a trade off. You can get tires that will last 30-40K miles but the performance wont be as good.

Any tire with a treadware rating between 140-200 should give approximately the same longevity as with the OEM tire, there's no particular reason to stick with the OEM brand. Once you start going above 200 TW the tire life will increase but dry weather performance grip will start to decline.

consumer reports actually buy the tires and test them. So there is no bias. They tend to lean towards michelins. But what Chris said is correct

Stay away from the BF Goodrich G-Force T/A's unless you want to sound like a semi truck after about 8k miles. Great tire for traction but the road noise is unbearable once they start to wear into the tread. (too bad because the tread pattern is aggressive looking and looks great on the vehicle)

Also, I'd suggest going with Nitrogen. While I thought it was a bunch of bunk at first, none of my tires EVER lost any pressure with Nitrogen.

I never lose pressure with air either, it's all in the quality of the valve stem. Plus my air comes with 80% Nitrogen for free.

Fair enough.... perhaps the last 25 tire stems I've had have been bad. Not to mention, my tire shop doesn't charge me for the Nitrogen so it's typically a no brainer.

All my cars that have metal shelled valves and OEM stems hold pressure perfectly, however my cars that have the cheap plastic ones always end up having problems.

Plus given that I race and change pressures constantly it's not really an option unless I want to carry a high pressure tank around with me.

Matt, your weather is very similar to mine. You might get a little cooler in the winter, but not by much. I think you're safe with summer performance tires. I think Augusta is very similar to Charleston, if it snows, which is almost never, almost everyone stays home because we never see it and no one knows how to drive in it :p Read the reviews on the various brands at Tirerack, including their own testing. I think Car an Driver just did another performance tire shoot out as well. Also look for things like treadware and noise. As one poster here mentioned, some real good handling tires, like the KDWs, are noisy. Sticking to the factory sizes means there will be no issues with your VDC, but you can go wider and make sure that you don't mess up your VDC by using a tire calulator to make sure the fronts and rears stay within correct tolerances so the VDC doesn't kick in when it's not supposed to.

Tire size calculator

John

I don't think nitrogen filled tires are effected by temp. as much as air filled tires are. Each 10 degree change causes a 1 psi change in tires filled with air.

Research indicates that as gases they are affected at almost exactly the same rate, the difference wouldn't be distinguishable. The main difference is probably the amount of water vapor in the gas, refined nitrogen gas will have almost none.

I have a air compressor in the garage. Check mine quite often. Even my 9 yr old is versed. He checks the air in my trailer(utility) tires and the atv tires. One of my favorite tools. Nitrogen in my boat trailer tires was a good investment though.

Oxygen is actually a larger heavier molecule than Nitrogen so there is no reason to think you would loose pressure any faster with Air compared to Nitrogen.