So as some of you might remember I had a so3 seprate while driving from Cali to Phoenix. This weekend I was in Utah and I had another failure. This time the inner sidewall completl.y seprated from the main tread, leaving me with two distinct circles of tire. As these are expensive tires to say the least, I am very disipointed. I have been runing a set of Pilots in the front since my failure in June as Pilots are expensive, I guess I will be buying two more for the rear now.

For anyone looking to buy the Bridgstones, I would recomend against them in the head, I surfed a few other boads and it seems to be an issue when they get older in the heat. 18k miles on them.

Since this is the first trip on the Pilots in the front, i can defnaly say the are far better than the so3's based on the following:
1. Smoother ride.
2. Considerably less road noise
3. They do not Tramble at all, the so3's are horrible at this.

 

Will post some pics later today

 

I had the S01's as OEM on my old C36 AMG. They were pretty good cept the tread wore out so fast. Had a set of Toyo T1-S's as well. They were amazing...quiet, grippy and long lasting tread. Problem was that In toronto, I have to store summer tires and the T1-S's don't store so well. They hardened up over the winter and when I put them back on, they slipped all over the place because they became really hard. I had a set of Pilots betwen the S01's and the T1-S's and then a second set of Pilots after the T1-S's. They are pricey but the quality is top notch. High tread wear, great grip and not noisy.

 

Here are some pics of the second failure: http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2055408

 

If you search "Bridgestone" over at ClubLexus, you'll find that several of their members had problems with the S-03 tires as well. Similar to your failure. I've had probably 3 different sets of S-03 and never had the problem like yours and those at ClubLexus, but then my tire size (225/45/16) was smaller than all those who have problems (most of them are 18"+). But from reading up on those stories, it doesn't sound promising at all.

 

That's nasty but it looks like you needed new tires anyways.

 

Ordered two more Pilot PS2's today. It will take a week to get here as nobody on the west coast seems to have them......Strange.

 

Agreed!!! As I'm looking at these pics I'm thinking, lots of camber and well worn tires.

 

With tires that worn, it's a ticking time bomb.

 

Can't judge about the so3's, but I switched from Michelin Pilot Sports to Bridgestone Potenza RE50A's and think:
1. Smoother ride.
2. Considerably less road noise

Sofar I like the Potenza's over the Pilot Sports.... Also in a lot of tests here (europe) the RE50A's come out better then the Pilot Sport's... But again, can't judge about the pole position's...

 

The SO3's were a very good tire, however the trambling was a huge issue for me as it was almost scary to drive the car on an older road. I have riden in a number of high performance cars and never experenced anything like this. Bear in mind I am running a 235 setup so its a pretty wide tire.

 

You are definitely lucky that's for sure. I thought I wore my Michelins down, but you have me beat by a whole lot.

 

I've owned so many sets of S-03's, I know its not the tire. This pic of yours explains why.....




#1) In the pic it looks like you had a alignment issue prior to the blowout (extreme neg camber and toe wear)

#2) The tires were worn. They were worn down to the wear indicators, meaning you didn't have much miles left on those tires in the first place.

#3) The tires were worn down to the belts before the blowout. I know this because the location where the belts are showing in the pic, is not where the splitting of the tire occured.

#4) The trambling you described in the quote above already tells me you had an alignment issue. Trambling occures when the toe is out of spec.



Future Prevention


#1) Get a camber kit for the rear and get it aligned on all 4 corners.

#2) Run higher tire pressures. With aftermarket wheels and tires, the stock tire pressures dont cut it. I recommend 38+psi.

 

you hit it on the nail i was gonna say the same thing but you beat me to it.

 

Sorry but I had to clear things up......I love S03's too much!!!

 

I fully agree that they had way to many miles on them but I firmly belive that the trabling was not the car but the tire as when I had the pilots put on the alignment was perfect. When I first got the car did a bunch of research on Trambling and it is a common issue in cars with a wide tire that have a completly circular tread pattern. I did admitly drive quite abit without a camber kit before having one installed. My main point of the thread was:
1. Damm that tire be dead.
2. The pilots beat them hands down.

The flip side is that the pilots were very expensive and I would probably not buy them again but at the time of purchase this was the only tire in the city of phoenix that was available the same day.

 

I think what some of the guys here are saying: the blowout looks like it was caused by very uneven tire wear from too much negative camber - so unless you get it corrected, it is probably going to happen to the next tire - S03, pilots, whatever.

Even if you believe pilots are better, i don't think they won't survived much longer than S03 in this case.

 

I totaly agree with that assesment.