I'm full of posts today.

Here's a <a href="http://www.tirerack.com/survey/SurveyComments.jsp">review of the Sumitomo HTR+</a> that may of interest to some folks. Text is as below:

Vehicle: 2002 Acura 3.2CL-S
Location: Rehoboth Beach, DE
Driving Style: Fast and Aggressive
Driving Condition: Combined Highway/City
Reviewer's Overall Ratings: 5.62 out of 10
Review Submitted 2003-04-30

After reading another survey from someone having the same vibration and balancing problem with these tires, it at least gave me a better understanding of what was happening. When I bought them and had them mounted by a reputable service station, the tires performed and rode beautifully for a few weeks. Then the vibration started for no apparent reason and I thought that possibly a weight fell off one of the wheels so I brought the car back and the service station re-balanced them for me. They were never the same since. After taking the car to the dealer I was told that the tires have high spots in them and are not round. Balancing cannot correct this. The situation seems to have gotten much worse again and I seem to have no choice but to buy new, more reputable tires since I cant ride over 40 MPH without getting vibrated. If anyone has a better solution please contact me at rdm1000@hotmail.com

 

How many tires out of round? All four?
How many miles before problem?

I've had no problems at all with the HTR+, but have only had them on for about three months, 2500 - 3000 miles.


You suggest that Sumitomo or the HTR+ has a bad reputation. Why?

 

and did you discuss the "out of round" hypothesis with Tire Rack and give them a chance to have you send them back to them (their expense) for examination? Had a similiar problem with a wheel/tire package I bought from Discount Tire Direct and they paid for pickup and return shipping of all four, found one wheel out of round, and replaced/rebalanced all four - at their expense.

 

My buddies WRX has the same problem on relatively new Sumi's. I was all about getting these but now am not so sure. I've also heard it is worse with the 235's than the stock 215's. Anybody?

 

I have 225's and they are just fine.

 

ugh. I have 235's that are mounted fine but only 1000 miles on them..I can't expect T-rack to help much since I bought a large size...I don't think they'll help if I have issues.

We'll just wait and see.

 

I started with the Sumitomo HTR+ 235/45/17 on the stock rim and I had a lot of balance problems, but after I changed over to the Sumitomo HTR+ 225/45/17 all my problems want any way!

Matthew

 

How long have you had the 225s on with no problems?

Has anyone else had these wheels on for long with no problems?

I'm thinking about going back to stock and was planning on getting the HTRs since they can be had for cheap, but I'm going back to stock to avoid any further issues and don't want to have to deal with anymore of this bullshit...so should I go for the Sumitomos or what else? Remember, I'd like to keep the wheels cheap since I may just get rid of the car anyways.

 

I'm going on about a month with the 225/45/17 with any problems. I think Siggy has had his about five to six months with any problems???

Matthew

 

I should clarify that I didn't write the review. I just happened to catch it when doing my research and thought that I would share the review.

I still run stock tires. And man, they seem to be getting louder as they get older. (Just hit 33,000 miles.)

 

On TireRack alone there are 225 surveys for about 1,000,000 miles and the tires still hold up in the ratings. I wouldn't worry about a few outlying poor reviews in the sea of great reviews. Somebody is going to say something bad about everything, it's a fact of life. For this issue, I'd rather look at the bigger picture then focus on a few bad reports.

 

Good point, I had only heard good things about them until the few posts on this forum recently, but it seems that the issues are mainly due to fitting 235s on the stock wheels and I'm not worried about this since I'll probably stick to the OEM size.

 

I got the sumitomo HTR + in the stock size 215/50/17 from tirerack and had them mounted yesterday.

After driving for about 15 minutes at highway speed I noticed steering wheel vibration at around 65MPH that would come and go.

If i took my hands off the wheel you could see the steering wheel shaking back and forth very fast.


I am going back to the place that mounted/balanced them this afternoon to have them try and rebalance.

I hope I don't have bunk tires

 

Now at 3000 miles on these tires. No big complaints but they feel more squishy than the OEM. I know that sounds like a girl description of a car problem but I haven't come up with a better description yet...

 

Mine still work great -- about 3K miles too and no significant wear, no balance issues, great wet traction, great dry traction, much improved cornering (as compared to stock), quicker steering (as compared to stock), and a great deal to boot.

Hopefully this winter will prove that this tire is also respectable in the snow (or at least as much as an M+S tire can be considered).

I'd still recommend them highly to someone interested in a performance all-season tire.

 

Nope no problems for me.... wierd. I've had them for quite awhile now too.

How about you matt?

 

I just put the Sumi's on mine, stock tire size. So far, so good. And the price is definitely RIGHT! I say go for it.

 

I went back to the place that mounted my tires and they rebalanced them all and put one suspect rim that might be a little bent in the rear of the car. Since they all the vibrations at 65mph are gone, so it wasn't the tires.

I've also had some time to test on the new tires and they definitely seem better than the stock. I can go around tight turns quicker than before and they barely squeel. I am pretty impressed esp since they are almost 1/3 the cost of the stock wheels.

 

Guys, it's not the tires...

It's the shiity roads in Delaware... Too many potholes from the Amish horse crap & overcrowded beach traffic...

 

I've had the Sumi's HTR + for about 2,000 mi. and they are excellent in all respects. quick poll: What psi. are you guys running them at? I started at 40 all around but seemed too harsh. now at 37. seems right.