Warning about Sumitomo's

[audtatious]

Hi gang....I put on a set of Sumitomo HTR+'s appx 11 months ago. Initial review of them was great. Great dry and wet traction and relatively quiet. Snow was no problem either.

After 3 weeks of driving, I had a blowout. No problem as TireRack replaced it.

At around 15k, I noticed the tires were not quite as good as new, but I somewhat expected it. Still nowhere near as bad as the factory RE92's when they were new.

At around 20k I was seeing traction problems. Tires would spin very easily when turning or being semi-agressive. Wet traction was somewhat further reduced as well.

At 25k, they were getting pretty bad. Starting off at anything other than a roll from a stop where there were yellow or white lines on the pavement would induce spin (dry weather). This continued to happen even after rotating the tires. FWIW, the "Uh-Oh" bars are not showing yet and I assumed I would easily get another 5k+ out of them or get them to last until winter started hitting. This was two weeks ago....

Wednesday, while driving in Cinci pre-rush traffic (80mph in the fast lane), a front tire blew out. I was NOT very happy. The blow out seemed to happen at the transition between the sidewall and tread. There was nothing stickin in the tire, but the belts sure were sticking out the side.

In 23+ years of driving, I have only had 3 flats. One was 10 years ago due to road debris. The other two were within the last 11 months on the Sumitomo's. The tires were pretty good up to 15k at which time I started noticing changes. Near the end, I felt like the car was ice skating.

So, instead of simply replacing one or two of them, I am replacing them all. I don't trust them. Monday I will be installing a set of Yokohama AVS DB S2's. Hopefully these will do better than the Sumi's.

[Fezzik]

Yeah i have heard that the sumitomo's side walls are not that strong. But may I make a suggestion of toyo proxies 4

[maxhopper]

Glad you're ok Matt. I bet that was one hell of a ride.

[audtatious]

Yeah i have heard that the sumitomo's side walls are not that strong. But may I make a suggestion of toyo proxies 4

Yeah, but I ordered them while driving back from Cinci after replacing the tire. TireRack does not have them so I thought I'd try the AVS's...

Glad you're ok Matt. I bet that was one hell of a ride.

It wasn't really that bad. The front got sloppy really quick and I could smell burning rubber. It did not scare me or anything. I was simply pissed off since I was trying to get home after 3 days of travel.... No damage to the rims either. That is one thing I do give the Sumi's is that the two flats did not allow damage to the rims.

[574-240sx]

I just put Sumitomos on my 240sx so the front would turn during a high speed drift at the RSR event. the 225 are comparable to the 205 kumho MXs. The sumitomos were the cheapest with a decent rating. So now I have to stay away from Sumitomos and potenza RE92s. I need to buy tires in the next few weeks for the maxima, any suggestions for a 205/50-17. Nick

[PalmerWMD]

I am switching from performance tires to winter tires real soon.

Never keep a performance tires beyond 15-18 k though..

Either way, blow-outs of that nature shouldnt happen.

Fred..

[audtatious]

I just put Sumitomos on my 240sx so the front would turn during a high speed drift at the RSR event. the 225 are comparable to the 205 kumho MXs. The sumitomos were the cheapest with a decent rating. So now I have to stay away from Sumitomos and potenza RE92s. I need to buy tires in the next few weeks for the maxima, any suggestions for a 205/50-17. Nick

Fez likes the Toyo Proxies. The Yokohama's I have are OK so far....