NCTL05

iTrader: (9)

I forgot to rotate mine this last time. On the fronts the s is gone. I have 24,000 miles on the whole set so far. I can imagine another 18k to 20k out of them.

PSURob12

coming up on this purchase....

still torn between the contiDWS's and Mich A/S Sport Plus tires.

Rocketsfan

My old Michelin Pilot A/S (non-plus) tires are worn and I need to pick up a new set of 4. I think I put about 43,000 miles on them. I'm leaning towards the DWS over the Pilot Plus right now - they're a lot cheaper, but the only thing I worry about is do they stick going around corners because that's when I drive like a bat outta hell sometimes. lol. The reviews about cornering not being all that and lack of sidewall stiffness has me a bit concerned, but I may go for them anyway.

I've owned PZero Neros, Pilot A/S (non-plus), and Bridgestone RE960's and I'd buy any of them again. They were all great tires. Hopefully the DWS will be great, too - I'm trying to get them put on by this weekend.

jsonkimz

iTrader: (1)

I love my DWS's, but I don't corner exceptionally hard. The TL is my daily and I'm usually sleep driving during the week- so I take it pretty easy with an occasional quick corner on an on or exit ramp. They're great for what I use them for though. CAN NOT beat them for the price.

drjoe

all these concerns about the dws are, in my experience, ridiculous. i have over 10K on them now, and they function way better than the originally installed michelins on the curves. and as advertised, amazing in the rain.

pttl

They'll probably feel too soft for you, based on how you drive.

PSURob12

what about snow?

Rocketsfan

Well, it may be a moot point for me now as I can't find 4 of the Continentals in stock anywhere in the Dallas area.

nfnsquared

Did you try SEARS?

Rocketsfan

Yeah, I called one sears up and he almost immediately said they weren't in stock. Then he said something about them being back-ordered for 6 months or something. I remember that being the case a while back, but didn't think it was still the case.

DanL

iTrader: (2)

Discount Tire Direct (http://www.discounttiredirect.com/direct/home.do) has them in stock. $133 each with free shipping and a $50 rebate if you buy four (expires today, October 30). Since you're in Texas and they have a Texas warehouse, you'll probably have to pay tax on the purchase. I bought a set for my 535i during the summer and have about 3K miles on them so far. Although they are a bit softer and the steering isn't quite a precise, overall I'm extremely happy with the tire and wouldn't hesitate to purchase them again.

Rocketsfan

Thanks Dan. I had seen them on the Discount Tire Direct website, but was hoping to get some tires put on today and then take advantage of my lifetime alignment with Firestone tomorrow (since they're usually packed within 30 minutes of opening... lol). Sears had them for around $134 or $139, but again, not in stock.

My current set of Pilot Sport A/S (non-Plus) were about 4,000 miles past warranty, but amazingly were still gripping fairly well in dry conditions. They were jittery/prone to hydroplaning in wet conditions, though, since they had worn down so much. One of them was also starting to crack because of wear and I didn't want to do any more high-speed driving on them which is another reason I wanted to get this done this weekend.

I just got back from a local Discount Tire. I went ahead and got the Pilot Sport Plus A/S tires put on. Their website has it for $199 + tax. They matched Tire Rack's $179 + shipping (about $12 per tire). That only took off about $8/tire, but... they have a $25 instant rebate if you buy 4 tires through today and another $50 mail-in rebate of some sort on the Discount Tire website. If I get that mail-in rebate, that's a decent discount, I guess. When the Pilot Sport Plus came out, they were clearing out the older Pilot Sports and had a coupon as well. I think I ended up paying $120 for those $190 tires back then.

I've only driven about 10-15 miles on these now and initial impressions are that the ride is similar to my previous Pilot Sport A/S. I only tried to take one corner/curve aggressively and they stuck like glue. I'm guessing these will be the last tires I have on this car.... of course I said the same thing about my last set. lol.

My previous tires were

Rocketsfan

Ooops... Ignore the last sentence I didn't complete... I was editing and forgot to delete it.

pttl

You probably made the right choice of tire, no matter the price difference. The Contis would have been too soft for you.

Rocketsfan

Yeah, you're probably right.

I should also add that I noticed several people talking about losing mileage with the Pilot Sport Pluses. Immediately after I had my previous Pilot Sport A/S tires installed I noticed about a 1-2 mpg drop (according to the MID) in mileage on a 600 mile round trip I take about 1 every month to every-other-month. I never could explain it, but maybe it was the tires. I wanted to try another brand/tire and see if the mileage would go back up a bit, but seeing as I basically got the younger brother of the tires I had before, I'm guessing the mileage will probably be about the same or maybe even *gasp* less.

NCTL05

iTrader: (9)

So I went to the tire place for a balance and rotation. They were trying to sell me some tires hard core. I can do some quick figuring in my head and it turns out that if you're a spirited driver and you do your rotation every 5000 miles you can expect to get 34,000-36,000 miles out of these DWS. I missed one rotation and my fronts will now only have lasted about 30,000miles.

Apparently, once the S wears away there is only 4/32s tread left. To pass inspection you need 2/32s. So once the S is gone it is time to start saving for some new tires.

95oRANGEcRUSH

I had 4 new Continental Extreme Contact DWS put on today in 245/45/17 on my stock Type-S wheels. My dad reported flat spots today after the car sat for a few hours so we'll see how it turns out but this seems somewhat normal. I bought mine at tires-easy.com for $536.98 delivered ($494.40 for 4 tires + $42.58 for shipping) and got them in about a week.

I got about 46,XXX out of the factory Michelins with 1 rotation. I bought the car with 13,XXX miles so it's hard to say if they were rotated before I bought it but I imagine they were. I'm 90/10 highway/city driving.

Steven Bell

iTrader: (2)

OK-this flat spotting has me concerned. I'm going to need tires soon. I was going to buy the DWS', but the flat spotting has me 2nd guessing them.

nfnsquared

Steven, I think only 3 people in this thread have claimed to have flat spotting. I'm in ND and no flat spotting so far (2K miles). These are great tires. I'd still buy them even if I knew they would flat spot.

pttl

I've had a set for about a week. This past weekend my car sat from Saturday evening until Monday morning....no flat spotting. You should be fine.

blkaspec

i have not suffered any flat spotting in probably 2k miles. garage park at night and outside during day.

jsonkimz

iTrader: (1)

Have had mine for about 1000 miles and haven't had any flatspotting whatsoever. I park outside on the ground every night and it's getting cold here at night. Not exactly sure about the temp but I have to scrape frost off my window every morning. I am extremely happy with the tires so far.

95oRANGEcRUSH

I don't know if what I'm about to suggest makes sense, but, I really don't care, either.

I am running tires that are 1 inch wider than stock. Is it common for larger tires than what is required stock to flat spot? Is it a byproduct of running a tire too wide for the wheel?

And, to be fair, flat spotting doesn't feel like you're driving with a square, cement stone on each corner. It's hard to describe how mine are but it's just enough to notice. Literally, after I drive about 2-3 miles they roll perfectly smooth. I put about 52 miles on my new set today and they are quieter than the stock Michelins by a landslide and the dry grip is impressive. I love 'em!

Turbonut

iTrader: (1)

It's not the size of the tire, but the construction that causes the flatspotting, mainly the nylon belt as it will take the position of the tire when at rest and in cold weather remain in that state until warm. This is why you don't have OE tires flatspotting as the auto manufacturers would not allow this condition so the tire manufacturer's need to build the OE tires differently.

I have Yoko's S.4 245/45-17, wider than normal tread width, exceptional handling, nice ride, but boy do they flatspot when cold, to the point of being an annoyance.

Jackass

My OE EL42s flat spotted every day. My car had a shake in it every morning for the first 3 miles of my commute.

Turbonut

iTrader: (1)

Very interesting as the OE specs calls for a tire that doesn't flatspot, thus the Michelin HX MXM4. I guess that is why there is a class action suit against Bridgestone, but I believe that is for the EL42 RFT's.

nfnsquared

Wow! I sure didn't know that about OE spec requirements.

The OEM EL42s on the 04 TLs were notorious for flat spotting. Mine would flat spot almost every day, but it only took about 3-4 miles to go away. There were tons of threads about the 04 EL42s flat spotting. I wish we would have known this OE requirement back then to use as possible leverage to get the EL42s replaced. We hated those EL42s!!!

jsonkimz

iTrader: (1)

I have the DWS's in a 245/45-17 and haven't experienced flatspotting. So I doubt it has to do with your size.

HondaFan81

People that report flat spotting on DSW, can they post their cold tire pressure settings?

I'm wondering if this is a factor considering the weight of our vehicles.

pttl

33-34 psi all around. Nothing new for me though.

Turbonut

iTrader: (1)

Let me take a step back for a moment as it's been many years. I do not have Honda's OE specs, but normally the OE manufacturer designates the characteristics, e.g. no flatspotting along with the tread design and tire dimensions, speed rating, load, etc, then the tire manufacturer constructs the tire accordingly, within the characteristics specified.
So, given the problems with the EL 42, looks like someone dropped the ball.

95oRANGEcRUSH

I responded to your PM but for everyone else here I am running 34-35 PSI in each tire.

TLingham

I bought a set of Continental DWS a week ago and took one decent interstate trip. Unfortunately there was a noticable vibration at over 75mph so I had to go back to the tire place to have them rebalanced. The two rear tires were not properly balanced the first time. Hopefully they did it right this time.

I have not driven them in heavy rain but the Tire Rack rain tests sold me on the tire. The tires are quieter than the OE EL42s which lasted more than 50,000 miles but I kept those longer than I should have.

I am noticing flat spotting after sitting overnight in my garage. It's very noticable for the first mile then it becomes tolerable and goes away pretty qucikly. My air pressure is set at 33psi and goes up a little as the tires heat up.

pttl

Good balancing is critical for a smooth ride. Once you get your balancing straightened out I think you'll like how smooth these tires are.

The rubber seems to be more supple than EL 42s or the Bridgestone 960 Pole positions that I last had. They seem to absorb road irregularities better than both of my two last sets.

As far as rain goes...the DWS are absolutely like a rock! They are completely planted and stable in rain (water covering the road) up to 75 -80 mph.

nfnsquared

Yep, fantastic in rain. Kind of scary how well they perform in rain. Could lead some folks to push it too far in rain....once you reach a certain speed, no tire can avoid hydroplaning.

pttl

I was driving along thinking. "why is everyone going so slowly?", then I looked at the speedo....

Rocketsfan

Finally got to drive in a lot of rain on the Pilot Sports this past week and just like the Pilots, they stuck like glue. I was tooling down the freeway at 70-75 and didn't really notice any issues. My old Pilots that had worn down would get jittery at those speeds. They were solid when new, too, of course. I've put a few hundred miles on the tires now and can say the Pilot Plusses every bit as good as my Pilots were. The only downside seems to be the gas mileage hit I'm taking. This happened to me on my old Pilots as well. Initially I was getting 28-29 mpg when the Pilots and Pilot Pluses (when new). The Pilots started giving me 30-31 mpg as they got older. I just got back from a trip to Arkansas (700-800 miles driven) and I was getting about 27 mpg before I hit the hills/mountains (which is horrible for me). I'll see what kind of mileage I get to Houston and back in about 2-3 weeks.

nfnsquared

Just got my free Tom Tom Ease from the rebate deal. Nice little unit for free. Free map updates for first 30 days. Then after that it's $40/year or for $100, lifetime updates (4 per year as long as you own the unit). You can add traffic and speed cameras for an extra fee.

nfnsquared

^^^Correction: no traffic or camera info for the EASE series...

PSURob12

probably going to go with the DWS. I can't justify the extra cost for the pilot a/s pluses....and the DWS seems legit according to user review and tire rack tests.