Shiznit! Busted-@$$ RE92

[Spoonwacker]

Coming home from dinner tonight, I took the second-to-last corner before my place with, shall we say, "gusto." Halfway through the turn, BAM! Sounds like I nailed the center divider, but I know for a fact that I was well clear of it - I know that corner like the back of my hand. WTF? Did somebody put a 2x4 in the road? Car rides fine, no funny noises, so I decide to check it out when I get home. A minute later, I take a look at the tire, and it's looking pretty flat. I checked the pressures last week, so it's not a slow leak - the sucker's got quite a hole somewhere. I didn't want to hassle with taking the tire off in the dark, so I'll find out where the puncture is in the morning, but I'm pissed.

What's more, the wheel has a tiny (but fairly substantial) scrape the size of my little fingernail right on the rim. I've never curbed my LR, and never curbed the LF before it got rotated back, and the tire has what may be a puncture right above the scrape on the sidewall. I'm thinking the loud noise was the tire submarining under the wheel when I went around the corner. Since I'm assuming the tires wouldn't do this fully inflated (never have before), I'm guessing this isn't the main puncture, but it may be the reason it was fully deflated by the time I got home.

I'm not sure whether I want the puncture(s) to be reparable or not - on the one hand, I don't want to shell out the $$$ for a new set of tires...on the other hand, ditching the RE92s sounds pretty good. Somehow in the last several weeks, they're feeling a lot worse/more unpredictable in the wet that they did for their first 10k miles. And they mark me as a Subanoob :icon_chee I'm thinking some Proxes 4s, since I've heard good things, I'll be at Les Schwab, I want an all-season tire, and I don't really want to wait around for something to be ordered unless I absolutely have to.

Anyway, one quick clarification - having already taken time to :rtfm:, am I to disregard the part that says that "the spare tire must be used only on a rear wheel. If a front wheel tire gets punctured, replace the wheel with a rear wheel and install the temporary spare in place of the removed wheel"? I take it I should do the opposite to save my rear LSD, and put the spare in the front, and just be careful b/c of the reduced grip for turning.

Thanks for reading my rant,
~Zach

[Underdog]

Sorry to hear it man, the same thing happened to me a week or two ago.

I ended up putting on some Dunlop M3's because the winters here in New England can be... interesting. They have consistently outperformed the RE92's in every condition I've encountered so far. The price of a replacement re92 ($250) versus the dunlop ($190 -> $170 with AAA discount) was enough motivation for me to bite the bullet.

[executor485]

Pirelli P-Zero Nero M+S FTW!!! :) They are only $119 a tire (iirc) at discount tire's website and free S&H... I put em on my car and it just feels a lot stickier... :)

[ilh]

Your cheapest option is to buy a used RE92 from someone here for $30-$50, with tread depth comparable to your own. If you want to use this as an excuse to ditch your RE92s, nobody here will blame you!

[Spoonwacker]

Well, it was a straight up sidwall puncture. Grumble grumble. Still very confused about how. On the bright side, I'm now 92-less, in favor of the Proxes 4s - like I said earlier, I was looking for a quick turnaround, and everything I've read about them says they're very good in the rain, which is my #1 priority. I don't get up into the mountains very much, and these puppies ought to last me through the few days of snow we're bound to get around here every year.
I bumped up the size to 225/45, and I'm pretty happy with how they look - they fill out the wheel well a bit better, and they look like they'll provide the rims with a bit more protection. Having only driven a couple of miles, I can't really give much of a review, but they felt pretty sticky. Hopefully they'll last better than the stockers, and if not, at least I know Les Schwab stands by their product.

~Zach

[godwhomismike]

Just to give you a heads up - I love the Proxes 4, amazing dry and wet tire. But, be forewarned - they make the Legacy a white knuckle experience in the snow.

[Spoonwacker]

Thanks for the heads-up - I saw a few threads mentioning that they weren't so hot on the snow, but I drive like a grandma when it gets slick out (unless there happens to be a big open parking lot...). I'm travelling across the mountains next weekend, so I'll probably stop at the top just to get a feel for the new tires on the snow. That way I'll know what I'm getting into if it snows again down here this winter.

BTW, I did a little more driving this evening, and I can verify that I can now take off- and on-ramps at speeds that truly scare me (the Toyos are solid and quiet at speeds where the RE92s were giving up and announcing it loudly to anyone within half a mile), and the ride is much nicer. I'm not sure how much is due to the fact that they're 225/17s, and how much is because they're Toyos, but I like them a lot!

~Zach

[tantal]

Now you know just what a POS tire the RE92 is. It has very little to do with the size.

Just check out how much wider your tread is compared to the RE92.

And your proxes 4 itself is not all that great a tire! No offense.

:hide:

Thanks for the heads-up - I saw a few threads mentioning that they weren't so hot on the snow, but I drive like a grandma when it gets slick out (unless there happens to be a big open parking lot...). I'm travelling across the mountains next weekend, so I'll probably stop at the top just to get a feel for the new tires on the snow. That way I'll know what I'm getting into if it snows again down here this winter.

BTW, I did a little more driving this evening, and I can verify that I can now take off- and on-ramps at speeds that truly scare me (the Toyos are solid and quiet at speeds where the RE92s were giving up and announcing it loudly to anyone within half a mile), and the ride is much nicer. I'm not sure how much is due to the fact that they're 225/17s, and how much is because they're Toyos, but I like them a lot!

~Zach

[Spoonwacker]

Now you know just what a POS tire the RE92 is. It has very little to do with the size.

Just check out how much wider your tread is compared to the RE92.

And your proxes 4 itself is not all that great a tire! No offense.

:hide:


Fair enough, but it feels like plenty of tire for the stock suspension - I'd rather firm that up first, then move onto some dedicated summer/winter tires...but it might be a while before I get to that point...for now I'm just happy with the improved ride!

~Zach

PS - I do love the tread pattern - it certainly doesn't look all-season-y. Which is probably why they're not so hot in the snow...

[ih8vtec13]

Any performance all season is pretty bad in the snow. I had Perelli P7000 SuperSports on for a winter, and yes I made it through. Did I ever really trust them in snow? No. Did I ever get to relax driving in snow? No. But it was a FWD car so I did learn to slide the front in to parking spots while the back wheels were stationary. Sort of a backwards drift lol.

[tantal]

Fair enough, but it feels like plenty of tire for the stock suspension - I'd rather firm that up first, then move onto some dedicated summer/winter tires...but it might be a while before I get to that point...for now I'm just happy with the improved ride!

~Zach

PS - I do love the tread pattern - it certainly doesn't look all-season-y. Which is probably why they're not so hot in the snow...

Actually that's not it. It is a good rain pattern, though, and really for snow you'd want more siping. But anyway the big problem with running this tire in the winter is that the rubber compound is just a bit too hard for good winter running. It makes the tire better for summer, and the rain performance is good, but it's really not a winter.

For me, I'd rather run the Toyo T1-R (this is for my miata) which has among the best wet performance available, outstanding but not the best dry performance, and is useless in winter, and just get a set of winters. I looked pretty hard to find a 4 season tire that I could put on my miata this year, and came up with two choices - the Proxes 4 and the Michelin Pilot Exalto. Now I am NOT saying that these two tires are close in performance - hardly. But here's the thing - the Pilot Exalto tests out (at tirerack) as being a better summer tire than a LOT of cheap summer tires that some peeps on LGT.com like (dont tell them tho). It's impressive how high this tire rates. The problem is, for my 195/50/15, the tire is $141 each. The nearest thing in performance is the Dunlop G009, or some other dumbass name like that. But that tire at $89 or so tests out only marginally better than the eagle RS-A, the standard test tire. So, the dunlop isn't worth it. Keep in mind the limited choice in this size.

So anyway, I can get the T1-R in 195/50/15 for $60 each! In 225/45/17 this is a $135 tire, so it isn't normally cheap. But the Gods bless us miata owners. Anyway for less than half the price of the Pilot Exalto, I can get slightly better dry grip and significantly better wet grip, but give up 4 season use. At that price, it makes sense for me to wait for a cheap set of winter rims and spend another $60 a tire for a half decent winter - I'll be out the cost of the rims minus the ~ $20 I save buying 2 sets fo tires instead of the Exaltos, but I WILL have better performance under all conditions.

OK, so rant over. Anyway I checked out the Proxes and decided the marginal winter perforamance, combined with what it gives up to the T1-R, which is a LOT - especially in the wet - just wasn't worth it.

However, among a/s tires, the proxes 4 is pretty decent. It is well and truly beaten . . . . by tires costing at least 50 % more.

So, not a bad choice, but it's still not a great tire. :icon_bigg

[Spoonwacker]

Wowza. You know your tires, sir. I did look at the T-1R, but I figured that the Proxes would be (perhaps only marginally :)) better in the snow.

Anyhoo...I'd like to congratulate you on your 666th post! :icon_twis

~Zach

[tantal]

Wowza. You know your tires, sir. I did look at the T-1R, but I figured that the Proxes would be (perhaps only marginally :)) better in the snow.

Anyhoo...I'd like to congratulate you on your 666th post! :icon_twis

~Zach

LOL thanks - hope it helps. :icon_twis