arseny87

Hey guy, im trying to decide which new tires to get to replace the turanzas. I was thinking of going with the falken ziex 512's 235/45/17? Anyone have these tires, because all of the reviews that I have read rate them very well and they are affordable! Another question, do you guys think I should upgrade my tire size, or keep it stock? Any input would be great as well as tire recommendations and good sites! Thanks guys for the help....

omnuts

how about Michelins, check out tirerack.com, they are great

arseny87

I wanna keep it low budget because it is a lease and I am sure the turanzas will not last me the 3 years and I dont wanna give it back with new tires, i rather put new tires on now and actually have a better ride while I still have the car. Thats why I want to keep the price low, but I also want to get the best bang for the buck

csmeance

the falkens are alright, but when they start to wear down, they make alot of noise. I'vs had them on my car for 23,000 miles and now the noise is starting.

arseny87

so only after 23k miles they are beginning to make noise? How are they in all other aspects, rain, snow and compared to the stock turanzas?

Modeler

DO NOT get them! You get what you pay for! I was seduced by the $85 per tire cost and got them to replace the horrible flat-spotting Bridgestones that came on my 2004 TL. Well, the Falkens were very good the first few thousand miles, but got very noisy, started flat-spotting and lost a lot of traction after only about 7,000-9,000 miles. I also got two flats in them in the span of a few months, after not having any flats for about a decade, so I feel they are prone to punctures. I got rid of them and will never consider another Falken tire for the rest of my life!

The next tire I will get will be the Michelin Pilot A/S - the best tire for the 17" TL wheels by far.

arseny87

Hmm...something to think about, thanks!

JDM5lugHatch

I've never had a problem running the Falken Ziex 512's. Ran them on my slammed EG now running them on my girls car. My mom is getting to run a set of them and 5 of my friends have run them all with no problems and on commuter cars.

I can tell you that they are a Thousand times better than the Factory Continentals on the VW Passat and better than the Goodyears on my girls Corolla S. So far my girl has well over 10k miles on them and they are still holding up just fine. I also have a friend that logs about 75miles a day on a honda accord and he has had no problems at all. IMHO they are one of the best bang for your buck tires on the market.

arseny87

thanks a lot jdm5lug, ive also read tons of reviews and the tires get great ratings. I am sure many people have problems due to incorrect inflation, etc.

whatjones911

How about some BFG?

Modeler

Falken in general might be making fine tires, but NOT the 512's in the Acura TL OEM size! Just read all the comments on Acurazine about them. Initial comments are always good, but the performance drops dramaticaly after a few thousand miles! It might be the fact that these are pretty skinny tires that are making them different from the rest of the Falken's line-up...

Modeler

I have an electronic guage and I check the tire pressure on a monthly basis. Let me make a suggestion: before you go ahead and buy 512's, read ALL the posts about them on THIS board, which is what is applicable. What do you care what a guy with fat 16" wheels thought about their 512's on a Honda Civic? It's like comparing apples to oranges. And don't just read the initial reviews of these tires, just after they were put on the car. I posted one great review myself awhile ago. Read what people thought a year and a few thousand miles later...

arseny87

Do you think that if I upgraded the width of the tire to 245 45 17 that I would still have the problems with them? My friend had them and said that he loved them and didnt have problems so, all of these mixed reviews are making my decisions mixed :/ ...

SpecialFX

I have the Falkens on my other car (Altima) and they seem to be fine. They have about 10K on them. Decent dry traction, very good in the wet. Not sure if that will carry over to the TL. I'm looking at Toyo Proxes 4s for the TL. First I'm taking the car back to the dealer to get the rear tire wear TSB addressed. I'm expecting a good amount of resistance about replacing the tires since I will not allow the Turanzas back on the car. But after they do the bump stops and allignment I'll get the new tires put on.

arseny87

What is the issue with the rear tire wear tsb?

pimpin-tl

Michelins are not all that. There are much better tires out there than that brand for much cheaper.

Modeler

I don't know what the effect of going to a different size would be (why would you do it anyway?), but the question to ask your friend is: "what speed rating are your Falkens?" When I was buying the 512's, it was only the V and Z rated ones available in that size, or maybe just Z. Obviously V-rated tires are inapropriate on the TL. The differences between V-rated and Z-rated 512's are similar to the differences between a Falken and a Michelin. You simply can't compare the two...

Modeler

Sorry, but you're not being nearly specific enough. Sure there are really crappy Michelins; the ones that come on new TL's with NAVI (MMX or something like that) are total crap for example, BUT there is no better high-performance all-season tire for the TL in the OEM size than Michelin Pilot Sport A/S. Period!

Modeler

I bet they're not Z-rated, right?

DMZ

I have them. Good tires. I've had to replace 2 of them due to bubbles thanks to our wonderful NYC roads, but it didn't cost a lot because I got them with a road hazard warranty. If I had to do over, I would definitely have gotten the 245/45/17's. They're 3/10 of an inch larger in width and diameter, hence better curb protection.

Best deal I've found on them in NYC is at http://ganintire.com, http://ganintire.com/locations.htm.

Make sure you get the road hazard warranty!

Good Luck ....
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pimpin-tl

Hmmm, www.tirerack.com there are much better tires than the A/S for half the cost.

Modeler

You are exagerating. I went to TireRack and pulled up the available Ultra-high Performance tires in TL's size. There were three tires that were rated marginaly better than the A/S by the TireRack consumers: Pirelli PZero, Conti ExtremeContact and some Avon tire. I'm not even going to discuss the no-name Avon.

The Pirelli and Conti are both only 25-30% cheaper and I would pay that extra 30% premium for the A/S any day of the week now that I'm wiser. There are three reasons for that: quality control, quality control and quality control...

arseny87

I just found a new tire, now im debating between the falken ziex or the hankook HRII. My friend has them on his maxima and he loves them, especially for their price...anyone have these tires?

Modeler

Arseny, given your name and location I'm going to assume you understand Russian. There's a great Russian saying: "Mi ne takiye bogatiye shtobi pokupat desheviye veshi". Loosely translated as "We're not rich enough to buy cheap things". Given that you're doing bargain hunting, I figure you haven't learned your lesson yet. I have. While it is not true for everything that you get what you pay for, it is very true of tires.

Falken, Kuomo and Hankook are all in the same category: cheap tires. Cheap as in "lower quality". If you go this route, I wish you good luck.

DMZ

This debate can go on endlessly, but since you're on a budget and you need a superior tire to replace the Bullshitstones, consider what Consumer Reports had to say. Some of these models have since been replaced and new ones have been added since this chart was published, 11/04. In the end, I'd buy tires from a local dealer rather than over the net as the typical tire shop is more likely to give you better service if you bought from them, especially if you need to invoke the road hazard warranty which I would absolutely get living here in NYC. And considering NYC, expensive tires like Pilot Sport A/S's could improve your chances of having your wheel(s) stolen. One reason Falkens are cheaper is because they don't spend $millions on advertising like Michellin does.

My additional 2¢.

Modeler

That would be a very good advice, if TL was using H or V-rated tires. I'm a big believer in the CR and I checked their ratings of tires before buying mine two years ago. I don't remember if it was H or V, but it was one of the two, which doesn't make the ratings quite applicable. The second point is that CR rates new tires, and I absolutely agree with the assessment that new 512's are great tires. The problem is that they VERY quickly become garbage. Again, that has been the experience of several people on this board.

arseny87

Lol, modeler, you are good, but at the same time...my car is a lease and i got 2 years left and don't want to spend a fortune on tires. If it were my car I would definately go for the better branded tires, but in this case I just need a good replacement so that I can enjoy the car for another 2 years, after that I am going to slap the original bullshitstones on and give it back. Thanks for all your help guys!

SpecialFX

Sorry for the delay. There is a good thread here regarding tire wear. Everyone should read it but it really pertains to "04 and early'05 TLs.

Modeler:

I can't remember whether they're V or Z rated. I'm thinking V but I forgot to look.

BruceLandry

So far I like the Dunlop Sport Maxx we put on our 06 TL. Good grip decent ride quality and noise.

ARX-01b

iTrader: (1)

I got about 12k out of my Falkens. Total junk

skotchrox

Modeler, I'm with you on this one.

I put 25K miles on the Turanzas that came with my 04 TL, fortunately didn't have any major problems that I've read about. I just bought the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S (special order thru Costco) as a replacement and waiting for them to be installed.

Sure there are cheaper tires available, but why use them? While you're at it, why don't you just use regular gas instead of premium? Why didn't you buy a cheaper car to begin with??

As in other situations in life, go with quality and try to get the best you can afford -especially when it comes to critical things like tires!!

Rocketsfan

I have an '04 TL. I replaced the OEM Turanzas with Falken 512's. They stuck like superglue. Great handling tires (and I tend to drive like a nut sometimes, I admit it... lol). The problem I had with the tires, as others have already mentioned, is that they wore down quick. I can't remember how much I got out of them - maybe about 17-20k? I think they had something like a 360 tread rating and I sure didn't feel I got that type of wear. Good tires while they last. Once they go, they do get noisier, but oddly enough, still stick pretty well.

I replaced them with Pirelli PZero Nero M&S. I think I've gotten around 30-35k out of those and am about to replace them. I think the ride was a bit smoother, the grip wasn't quite as good as the Falken's, but close. But they also lasted almost twice as long. My next set may be another set of these or the Yokohama YK520's. I still haven't decided. I won't go back to the Falkens simply because I need the tires to last a bit longer than that.

Rocketsfan

If that were true, many of us would be riding around on Goodyear Eagle RS-A's... several cars use them as OEM's and they suck. But they fetch a good price for Goodyear.

The best indicator of tires are several reviews by various drivers, otherwise, I could price a tire at whatever I wanted to and a consumer would buy them because he thinks "you get what you pay for". Well, in my opinion, anyway.

arseny87

I forgot to update my post, i ended up getting the falken ziex 512's and i absolutely love them...truely does feel as if im driving a new car that has handling ..thanks for all the info guys!