So I rotated my tires today, and this is what I found on two of the wheels, on the INSIDE of the sidewalls:



Yep, they're cracked all the way around. Both the cracked ones were on the front, where Penkhus had been telling me to leave them because they wanted the better tread on the rear wheels...so I think taking the weight of the engine all these months was too much. And Penkhus had the tires at 32 psi each...but only the left front was really 32. The others were all at 40 psi. So we set them all at 38 and left them.

Anyway, those tires are on the back now, but I don't trust them for highway driving. Probably good around town, but that's about it. Looks like I'll be getting new ones sooner than I thought. I was aiming for November. LOL.

Here's the tread on my worst tire:



Yep, that says ZERO.

And my BEST tire:



Penkhus, of course, had them all measured at 3...all four...looks like they're back to pencil-whipping their "safety inspections." I'm lucky one of these didn't blow at Red Rocks.

well that blows. to me those tires are still driftable lol

LOL, well you know, if they weren't cracked on the side walls like that, I'd run them until November, buy the Alpin PA2s I really want, and run those all winter.

Aaarrrggg....this is the point that I'd LIKE to type a long, all-caps, venting post about how my wife says I have to stick to $500 or less on tires, but I won't. Some people just DON'T get it.

you can find good tires new for less than 5 bills. i know dave @ coloradoland coulda done that earlier this year, but alas, they dont carry that tire anymore.

its doable man, just keep searching around and be patient.

tbot wrote:you can find good tires new for less than 5 bills. i know dave @ coloradoland coulda done that earlier this year, but alas, they dont carry that tire anymore.

its doable man, just keep searching around and be patient.

I'll keep trying, but it pisses me off that she's going on a vacation to Cali, spending double what new tires will cost me, then telling me I have to be thrifty on tires. WTF? Double standards piss me off.

LaginWagon wrote:http://www.tirerack.com/tires/TireSearchResults.jsp?tireIndex=0&autoMake=Mazda&autoYear=2007&autoModel=MazdaSpeed6&autoModClar=&width=215/&ratio=45&diameter=18&sortCode=53450&skipOver=true&minSpeedRating=V&minLoadRating=S&tab=All

Yeah, one of my favorite websites evar! I'm using them as a baseline for my search. I think the cheapest all-season setup I got from them was just under $600.

Just because something is inexpensive, doesn't necessarily mean it is cheap. As some of you remember, I experienced a flat tire not that long ago, and as such, I'm running inexpensive Primewell tires currently. They meet or exceed all the specs that I would normally look for in tires, in terms of load index, speed rating, etc... They are a directional "Summer Performance" tire, and I got them to the tune of $79/per. I actually think they look pretty sharp too.

If you don't think 80 tires can perform, take a ride with me up the canyon to Black Hawk sometime... Just my $.02.

~Barn~ wrote:Just because something is inexpensive, doesn't necessarily mean it is cheap. As some of you remember, I experienced a flat tire not that long ago, and as such, I'm running inexpensive Primewell tires currently. They meet or exceed all the specs that I would normally look for in tires, in terms of load index, speed rating, etc... They are a directional "Summer Performance" tire, and I got them to the tune of $79/per. I actually think they look pretty sharp, too.

If you don't think 80 tires can perform, take a ride with me up the canyon to Black Hawk, sometime. Just my $.02.

Hmmmmm...so, did you get those from Firestone?

stealth how many miles you get out of those tires?

6i_guy wrote:stealth how many miles you get out of those tires?

I bought them in February 2009 with 32,304 miles on the car. Right now, there's 43,500 on the car. So 11,200 miles. PATHETIC. Great grip, good in snow, but TERRIBLE treadwear.

Good god that's horrible Stealth. And I thought the 25K on my stockers was a rip-off.

Stealth01 wrote:Hmmmmm...so, did you get those from Firestone?

Indeed I did. It was a sale price, for the sake of full disclosure.

If you move to a different size, you can get them for less. Take the Tire Rack quote to AAFES and get them to match the price. Then you don't pay tax. I also go free mounting and balancing when I bought mine.

Example:
225/40-18 (bit smaller, waaay cheaper)
225/45-18 (a little bigger, still cheaper)
235/40-18 (a little smaller, still cheaper)

Sometimes I go down to the local Peerless and they are always cheaper than Discount or Big-O for my tires.