OctaneGuy- The howling is loud going straight and makes a different howling
while cornering hard. It's just the way most performance tires are. My S03's
are SUPER howling noisy bearing shattered tone..but it's normal.

I bought the ES100's from Jim (Mijnor- sp?). it looks like he auto-xed it a
couple of times, but wearing flat. I would say if he drove it as a quiet
commuter, it looks like about a 13-14k miles wear. I drive my commuter
(modded- G20) quietly so I haven't put much wear on them.

Falken ST115's are very popular amoungst the car stereo fanatics...they
are high performance tires and super quiet ride. I was planning to buy
those, but Jim gave me a super deal on the ES100's so I took that instead
and used the remaing money to buy other stuff for my cooper-s.

I don't have regrets getting the ES100's...they are good tires. I just want
a quieter ride on my commuter to enjoy my Nakamichi.

 

Wow if you got 70% tread and over 13K, then there is hope that Cyn's tire guy was a little off---atleast for me . LOL. I'm in no hurry to find out if my new tires will only last 10K, I just don't have the money to be replacing tires so often--no matter how fun.

Well, the tires arrived today, and are on their way to the tire shop so I should have my new shoes by tonight. Looking forward to it, and will post any thoughts here!

Thanks for the info on the Falkens. Will have to look into them for my next set.

 

Tire wear really depends on how you drive and driving conditions, but

those ES100's should last a good 25k miles+ if driven as a commuter.

I got about 10k miles on my S03 with sprited driving and still have about
40% left.:smile:

 

I just got my tires installed. Man were these guys fast!!! I called earlier once I saw that FedEx had delivered the tires. They said come in 2 hours. I drove up 2-1/2 hours later--and someone had just pulled away cause one bay was empty. I drove in, they said my tires were waiting. The lifted it up, and within 1 minute had all 4 tires removed! It was like watching a pit crew racing the clock! Another 10 minutes and the tires were mounted and back on they went. I'd say I spent no longer than 15 to 20 minutes from start to finish. I chatted with the boys for a bit, took lots of pix, and drove off! Immediately my first thoughts were:

1.) Ok it's definitely smoother, not as smooth as I had imagined, but much better than the runflats.
2.) I haven't heard the road noise I expected. Of course I only did about 25 miles of surface street driving. I'll be hitting the freeways in an hour, and will let you know my thoughts after that.
3.) They are sticky!!! Yay! But that's to be expected with new tires.
4.) They look fantastic. I love the tread pattern.

If you're in Los Angeles, and want a good tire installation place, American Tire (Ozar Brothers) on Lincoln Blvd is fantastic! Thanks Tire Rack!

 

congrats! :smile:

 

Some post comments now. I've put some 300 miles on my ES 100's now, and I love em, except for one little problem, and it's a big one. Big enough to make me question whether I will get them again for my next set.

Tramlining is now even worse than when I had my runflats. It's to the point my wife asked if my car was ok because she noticed the side to side shakiness. This is happening on the 405 freeway, especially on the area north of LAX and south of the 10 freeway. On flat freeways, or newly paved, it's a dream, but over any freeway with rain grooves, I've noticed the Yoko's are much more prone to tramlining. It seems the only way to lessen the effect is to drive faster!!! Which is fine, except when I'm driving rush hour traffic, and I don't have that option! I really had hoped the tramlining effect would be lessened with softer tires --compared to my runflats, but I was wrong.

 

octaneguy- yes, tramlining happens with any tire wider than your factory
size (did you get factory size?) with bold shoulders and stiffer
sidewalls. It will pronounce even more if you have less than factory
offset too.

One of the reasons why I got 16's with softer sidewalls (GY-F1 GS-D3) than
other hi-perf tires like Potenza S03's on my SSR comps with 42mm offset.
No tramlining.

The ES100's on my G20 (commuter) does have slight tramlining too...just
the way it is. You might want to consider a slight toe-in on the front
to lessen that feeling if it bothers you too much...but if you want to
rid that feeling completely, you may want to stick to stock size, stock
off-set wheels (48 to 50mm), and go for softer all-seasons.

 

The ES-100's don't come in the factory size of the 16" 5 Stars---195/55-16, so I got the one that people get and it's the 205/50 -16

Oh well. I wish I could take different freeways, but I'm stuck with what I got. Isn't tramlining affected by tread pattern too?? I've never experienced it in my life, until I got a MINI.

 

Hummm..your decision to go 205/50/16 was correct. The ES100's with its
edgy shoulders follow grooves pretty well (? bad). Usually it is the
shoulder design + sidewall firmness that determine whether it follows
grooves or not.

I know where that area is....i use to live in LA too.

 

I just got a new set of ES-100's (215-45-17) and it might be my imagination, but it appears that the tread pattern is slightly different than my first set.

The grooves appear to be a little bit wider than the ones I bought a year ago?

Maybe I am nuts, but I see what I think I see. . . .

 

Just to add my $0.02 to this thread:


I have the Es-100s in 215/45-17s. They have about 11k miles, 6 autocrosses, and one trip to the dragon on them. They were rotated every autocross, and are now at the wear bars. They are, however, even stickier now than when they were new. I plan to get one more autocross out of them (this weekend) and then I'm going to be buying new tires.

Mine got VERY noisy the last 3k miles or so. So bad that I've gone back to the stock wheels and runflats for a while, and just mounting the yokohamas up for autocrossing.

However, I run them at lower pressures than most of you seem to be running them for autocross. I go with 39 psi (hot) all the way around, and feel that I have a very balanced setup. They felt like they lost a lot of "stickiness" at anything over 40 psi hot.

 

Octane guy -


What your inflation pressure? We have found in the past adding 2-3 lbs a tire cold can help resist tramlining.

Alex

 

Alex, thanks for that tip. I'll give that a shot on my ES100's. Im already
pumped up to 34psi though...(factory recommendation is 30psi/29psi).

 

Just curious, why is tramlining percieved as such a negative thng? Maybe it's my motorcycling background but I just relax and ignore it. Or, maybe I'm not sure what tramlining is. If it is the tendancy for the car to follow rain grooves it just never bothered me much. Also from CA and some of those puppies are almost like canyons!

 

Well cause it's an uneasy side to side tossing feeling. Following the grooves isn't the problem, it's the side to side motion that's bad.

 

I purchased my AVS 100's last summer and the improvement over the stock runflats was really quite dramatic. The tires are wonderful, I only use them from May through October so this is the beginning of their second season. I didn't rotated the tires when I remounted the wheels they all went back in the same locations I took them off of last year. However the total mileage on the 100's now is approximatley 7,000 miles and the wear does seem to be bit more than a normal tire, but the AVS' are reasonably priced so I think the trade off is equitable. When it comes time for a new set, (I predict around 15,000 miles) I would buy the same tire hands down from Alex.:smile:

 

I usually kept my Yoko 100's at around 38 psi (cold) and got excellent (even) wear across the whole tire. I've tried factory recommended settings on other tires and all that got me was rounded off the edges and plenty left in the center. It must be my driving style...

 

So that's a good question. Do I use the recommended PSI from the tire manufacturer or the car manufacturer? That is, I know the Cooper on stock runflats has a lower recommended PSI than the S. I just checked my tire pressure and they were at 38psi. I just reduced them to 33psi since that's about what I ran on my runflats. I dunno, will this adversely affect my tires?

Are the ES100's supposed to be run 38psi or higher? Right now, it's being used as a commuter, so I was thinking the lower tire pressure might help the comfort level, although according to Alex, it should be higher to prevent tramlining. That would mean I should be running around 42psi??? Is that safe??

 

Octaneguy, 42psi range is for auto-x events and not for street.
You should be in the 32-38psi range. Your tramlining is a side effect
on your ES100's..and it is bothersome in some situations, but a lot of
car enthusiasts kinda got use to it and takes it as part of having a
hiperf tire.

 

Usually we like using tire pressures as recommended by the car manufactorer. So for two persons use 32-33 psi and for four persons use 37-38 psi for the MCS for example or close to it. For autocross you can use higher psi numbers and it is OK.

You don't use the tire manufactorer numbers as printed on the tire.

 

Historically tire pressures recommended by Manufactures are generally kept low to give a "softer" ride. Higher pressures in the tires will not only possibly provide more even tire wear (as is the case for my driving style) but also improves MPG!! Yes, one side effect of running higher pressures is better fuel economy.

 

>one side effect of running higher pressures is better fuel economy.

...and increasing the chance to actually damage your tires upon impact.

 

I have 205/45-17 ES-100's and am running 34 psi front and rear on my S. They're better than 50% gone and the wear is very even across the tread. For AutoX I run embarssingly high pressure, but they still roll some so..

 

I got 12,000 out of my last set of es100's 215/45/17. Ran them at 34 to 36 and had less tramlining then I did on my stock set of Dunlop 195/55/16. I rotated every 3000+/- miles, and don't AutoX, I do however live an hour from the Dragon

I've gone back to a stock 16" wheel and tire, this time the Goodyear EST on the MINI 5 spoke rim. This makes set 3 in 36,000 miles, guess that shows that it was a very enjoyable 36,000 miles

 

>however live an hour from the Dragon

hehehe. I use to live about 40 min from Malibu and took my
car out there every weekend. Was using dunlop's old SP8000's
and they only lasted 3k miles. went through 5 sets very quickly.
:smile: