New tires - prelim report - Michelin Pilot Sport A/S Plus

[StealYourFace]

So I finally bit the bullet and got new tires for the '07 M35 Sport. I went with the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S Plus in the OEM 245/40/19.

Few things:

I had Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3's on there in a 255/40/19. That tire handled beautifully in both dry and wet conditions. It was however, quite possibly the loudest and stiffest tire I've ever driven. You certainly felt every bump in the road. Great compound for Summer, but not suited for year-round use in Nashville, TN.

After doing a lot of research, I had narrowed my choice down to the Michelins and also the Continental Extreme Contact DWS. Read a lot of good things on here about both tires, but it seemed like more people had experience with the Conti's. My buddy, who drives an '06 M35 Sport, has those on his. After a couple of test drives, I liked them, but something told me the Michelin's were going to be better. While the Conti's seemed to have superb snow traction from everything I've read, that's not a huge concern for me as we don't get a ton of snow, and I have a Jeep if we do.

Well, I can tell you after 2 weeks of driving... the Michelins are flat-out amazing. I wasn't a 1/2 mile down the road after getting them on, before I was thrilled with the purchase. The noise was totally gone. Even though these Michelins are directional as well, they are very smooth and quiet. No more Goodyear roaring. The handling has been exceptional... no drop off from the Goodyears.

The 2 biggest surprises? The car drives like a whole other car... the ride is smoother than it has even been... feels like you're driving on silky smooth pavement everywhere. And the best part? ZERO tramlining. They have not moved one single time... not even on 2 roads in town that would literally jerk you both directions on the old tires.

If I had to nit pick, I would say that I miss the look the 255's had with the wider stance. It just looked slightly more aggressive. That aside, I am thrilled with them. I will update as they wear to see how they pan out.

[The Bodyguard]

How much $$.... Great news to hear, I'm going back to stock 19" soon and will look at these when tires are needed on them....

[kmiles]

Congratulations - I'm driving them on a '07 M35x in the OEM 245/45/18 and just passed 12k on the tires and have had a very similar experience to yours. Enjoy the great ride!

[StealYourFace]

How much $$.... Great news to hear, I'm going back to stock 19" soon and will look at these when tires are needed on them....

Got them at Discount Tire for $302 ea. They were $320 at Tirerack and $319 at Sam's Club.

[The Bodyguard]

How much $$.... Great news to hear, I'm going back to stock 19" soon and will look at these when tires are needed on them....

Got them at Discount Tire for $302 ea. They were $320 at Tirerack.

WOW! Hope yout get what you pay for...seems so far you have!!

[sunoco]

Just replaced my Mich pilot sport a/s plus with.. you guessed it... another set. I love them. I dont know how many miles were on them when I bought the car, but they werent new, and I put about 25k on them. I got them at the dealership - $1572.91 out the door. That included alignment, taking the best old tire and putting it on my spare, swapping tpms from spare to rear right. I love these tires

[07sportm35]

Great tires. I tried a Month back to get some slightly used ones from e-bay(9/32). After the bidding went over $825 I gave up. They eventually sold for $875.

I have heard nothing but great things about this tire. Very expensive though. I guess you get what you pay for.

[M35 Sport]

Well my wife has the Michelin pilot sport a/s on her 2008 Acura TL. They are a nice tire. I personally have the yokohama Envigor a/s tires. To me they are the perfect all season tire for my M35 sport

[StealYourFace]

Just wanted to drop in and give a 5K mile update. The tires have been wonderful since day one. Still zero tramlining. The ride is still very smooth and quiet. Response is great and all around traction has been superb. Highly recommend these if you're in the market.

[thomasm35]

These are nice tires, but don't last. I have 33k on these tires and there is about 3 or 4K miles of life remaining. These tires are on my Lexus LS460 which is heavier than my M35 - you might squeez more miles out of them on the M35.

I have about 10K miles on the Conti DWS that are on my M35 and have been great up to this point - don't know how long they will last.

[cjrdriven]

Considering going A/S next time, currently on PS2s and in Nashville area too. And Discount Tire is great! They meet or beat any online price I can find. Thanks for the review.

[szh]

Well my wife has the Michelin pilot sport a/s on her 2008 Acura TL. They are a nice tire. I personally have the yokohama Envigor a/s tires. To me they are the perfect all season tire for my M35 sport

On your wife's TL, are they "Pilot Sport A/S" or "Pilot Sport A/S Plus"?

The new model is a replacement design - should have different characteristics. I have used the "Pilot Sport A/S" on my car, and, as All-Season tires, they are pretty good, but did wear faster than I expected.

Z

[MOWellsinVA]

I ordered a set of the Sport A/S Pluses today to replace my Continental ExtremeContact DWS's. They were great tires for the first 20,000 miles, but lately the ride and handling have fallen off a cliff and I'm fed up with them. They still are showing plenty of tread and all three letters can still be seen, but they are noisier and " hoppy" and tramlining again. After alignment, slightly better but still not good. My mechanic said that they were cupped, and I was pretty careful about tire pressure and rotations every 7,500 miles. Based on the comments here and on other forums, I'm hoping the Michelins will solve my issues, and I hope for more mileage before the next replacement.

[antzrus]

I ordered a set of the Sport A/S Pluses today to replace my Continental ExtremeContact DWS's. They were great tires for the first 20,000 miles, but lately the ride and handling have fallen off a cliff and I'm fed up with them. They still are showing plenty of tread and all three letters can still be seen, but they are noisier and " hoppy" and tramlining again. After alignment, slightly better but still not good. My mechanic said that they were cupped, and I was pretty careful about tire pressure and rotations every 7,500 miles. Based on the comments here and on other forums, I'm hoping the Michelins will solve my issues, and I hope for more mileage before the next replacement.

Cupping can be caused by cheap tires, an unbalanced tire condition, faulty wheel bearings, loose parts, fatigued springs or weak shock absorbers.

With the Conti DWS rule out the cheap tires noted above. The problems you note are more probably caused by the aforementioned rather than the DWS.

[MOWellsinVA]

I'm planning on saving the Conti's and giving them a close examination to try to find out what the problem is. I had the wheels balanced and aligned when the Conti's were first installed. I asked the mechanic to check the wheel bearings, which he said were fine, but I can't rule those out. I have not noticed any bearing whine or noise. The shocks have 64,000 miles on them, so they might need refreshing. the car seemed to be riding and handling fine until this winter. I wish I knew what the real cause of the problem is.

[antzrus]

I'm planning on saving the Conti's and giving them a close examination to try to find out what the problem is. I had the wheels balanced and aligned when the Conti's were first installed. I asked the mechanic to check the wheel bearings, which he said were fine, but I can't rule those out. I have not noticed any bearing whine or noise. The shocks have 64,000 miles on them, so they might need refreshing. the car seemed to be riding and handling fine until this winter. I wish I knew what the real cause of the problem is.

I had to replace my front wheel bearings @ about 50k and my shocks all around at about 53K...

[MOWellsinVA]

What symptoms did you have that indicated that your front bearings were bad?

[antzrus]

What symptoms did you have that indicated that your front bearings were bad?

Bearing whine. I first thought the tires (the Conti's) were getting noisy. But it kept getting slowly worse. I took it in to my independent mechanic. He just loves the Infiniti; he sees so few of them. Anyway he found the problem and replaced them-noise gone! He also told me about the struts-but I could wait for a while. He couldn't do them-but referred me to a Les Schwab Tire store that replaced them w/the OEM struts. I'm @ 66K now-no problemo.

[MOWellsinVA]

Thanks for the suggestions, Antzrus. I'll get the car looked over by ssomeone else before installing new tires.

[antzrus]

Thanks for the suggestions, Antzrus. I'll get the car looked over by ssomeone else before installing new tires.

Hope, it's helpful.

[MOWellsinVA]

Put the car up on a lift at the tire center, they showed me that one of my wheels was bent! No wonder the steering had felt weird. They said there was some cupping, but nothing unsafe. Today I had the Alloy Wheel Repair guy come by with his garage-on-wheels and he straightend the bent wheel. Car is now driving and riding much better. I had cancelled the Michelin tire order, and will keep researching replacement tires. I've read great reviews for the new Cooper Zeon RS3-A all-season high performance tire. It was a Consumer's Reports pick and is available from Discount Tire for $197.00 with free shipping.

[antzrus]

Glad you found the problem. In my opinion the DWS is a really fine all season tire-its great in the summer, but up North here in WA State the snow capability of an all season is very important. It excels in this area especially. So far the wear on mine appears negligible w/about 20k on them so far. If a true all season (w/lots of snow) is important, I don't think you can do any better for a very reasonable price too.

[The00Dustin]

Glad you found the problem. In my opinion the DWS is a really fine all season tire-its great in the summer, but up North here in WA State the snow capability of an all season is very important. It excels in this area especially. So far the wear on mine appears negligible w/about 20k on them so far. If a true all season (w/lots of snow) is important, I don't think you can do any better for a very reasonable price too.

Have you ever used the DWS on a non-AWD or even been disappointed in the snow with another tire on your M35x? So far I am not impressed with the snow performance of DWS, it's 0 for 2 in light snow as far as I'm concerned. It is possible that the only two snows mine have seen were the extra slippery kind, but my Pilot Sport A/S Plusses were good in snow until my alignment got so far out of whack they couldn't help anymore, they just happen to be louder than the DWS (but quieter than the OEMs).

[antzrus]

Have you ever used the DWS on a non-AWD or even been disappointed in the snow with another tire on your M35x? So far I am not impressed with the snow performance of DWS, it's 0 for 2 in light snow as far as I'm concerned. It is possible that the only two snows mine have seen were the extra slippery kind, but my Pilot Sport A/S Plusses were good in snow until my alignment got so far out of whack they couldn't help anymore, they just happen to be louder than the DWS (but quieter than the OEMs).

I've only used the DWS on my M. The OEM RSA's were horrible in all categories. I agree w/you re the traction in light snow. Universally, I've found that light snow is more of a problem (more slippery) vs deep. It's contrary to common sense & don't know why, but that's what I've noted over the years.

[kmiles]

I'm one of the Michelin PS AS+ owners. We live on a hill and had 8" of snow yesterday and they performed just fine. I was able to get out of our neighborhood, while every one with FWD or RWD couldn't make it up the hills at the ends of our street. We had another 14" over night and I'm betting I don't go anywhere without chains. Has anyone used chains with their M35X? I understand that I need to chain up the rear tires, but wanted to find out if anyone has used chains and how they performed on an X with deep snow. Thx.

[M35 Sport]

Well my wife has the Michelin pilot sport a/s on her 2008 Acura TL. They are a nice tire. I personally have the yokohama Envigor a/s tires. To me they are the perfect all season tire for my M35 sport

On your wife's TL, are they "Pilot Sport A/S" or "Pilot Sport A/S Plus"?

The new model is a replacement design - should have different characteristics. I have used the "Pilot Sport A/S" on my car, and, as All-Season tires, they are pretty good, but did wear faster than I expected.

Z

Sorry it took me a while to reply. Yes the tires on my wife's car are the plus type. Maybe the pilots would react differently on our Ms than they do on the TL

[merlinq2]

I'm one of the Michelin PS AS+ owners. We live on a hill and had 8" of snow yesterday and they performed just fine. I was able to get out of our neighborhood, while every one with FWD or RWD couldn't make it up the hills at the ends of our street. We had another 14" over night and I'm betting I don't go anywhere without chains. Has anyone used chains with their M35X? I understand that I need to chain up the rear tires, but wanted to find out if anyone has used chains and how they performed on an X with deep snow. Thx.

I am shocked to have read this! Where do you live that you got that much of dumping overnight? How often do you get snow that deep? How cold is it in winter?
I live in Southern Ontario - Canada. I have summer tires and winter tires. I have two complete set of rims. The winters go on at the end of November and stay on the car until mid march. I did a lot of research and was informed by many reliable sources that summer or all season tires do not do well in the cold, the compounds are way too soft to give you any real traction in temps below 23 F or -5 C. If you have temps that stay below that for more than a week, you need snow tires. That is what I was told!
The only real safe ways to get around in severe snow load situations is with a good set of snow tires on all four corners.
Ton answer your question, I think that chains are required on all tires that get power. I wonder what it would be like to steer with chains on the fronts?
All wheel drive is not like four wheel drive, so don't be too optimistic in getting our 14 " of snow with chains on!

Maybe 2.5 cents worth.