hey everyone, I've been doing alot of research on tires lately and I think i've settled on falken ZE-912/ZE-512 tires. According to the interwebs, the falkens are UHP tires that wont kill me when it snows. They seem to offer really good performance (z rated) and tread life but tend to be noisy. I'm a bit suspicious because they sound too good to be true, and their description on falkens website simply gushes about their technical prowess blah blah blah. I've read reviews all over the place BUT i know that most online reviews suck because the reviewers hadn't given the tire any time to break in. Thats why i want to see if anyone here has had these tires for an extended period of time. Do they really grip that well? How much worse do they make our already bad road noise prob? What is snow traction like? Is it true that the sidewall is actually softer (IE handle worse) than on the older 512's?


Im stuck between choosing these falkens a set of toyo proxes or khumo ecstas. I've had the proxes before on a different car and they were AMAMZING even when almost worn out. help me out here

This post has been edited by enderswift: Nov 26, 2008 - 11:54 PM

i dunno what review you read.. but every review i read about the 512 is that don't use them when it snows... even though it is all season... they suck bad in the snow... they seem to do great in the rain tho... as long as it's not freezing rain...

and their treadlife is pretty bad too.. i think people say they usually get between 20-30k miles out of them

they also get really noisy when they start to wear

no idea about the 912 tho

This post has been edited by elvasoshexai: Nov 27, 2008 - 10:50 AM

im usin the 512s. im also dropped with teins and havent had a problem. they are loud. but with a 215/45zr17 i expected that wen i bought em. decent tread wear, ive had em for about 70,000 miles and they still look about 50%. of course it doesnt snow here in vegas, but it has been raining for like thre days. the people here have absolutely no idea how to drive in the rain either. lol. but after nearly being killed about 4 times the tires were holding the ground and i could stop. snow is a bit out of my range but in an inch of water they held up.

Don't get the ecstas, I had them, tread life sucks, theyre noisy, too soft rubber (they get damaged easily). Performance is ok... But I have yet to find a set of tires I like.

In other words just stick with the proxies? anyone wanna chime in regarding those?

WOOOT!!! for toyos some damn good tires they make me feel like AWD

are you guys serious?! proxes are CR@P!!!

they couldn't handle the 3sgte power anyway, they spun to easy, understeered, noisy as heck, and rain driving was downright dangerous....hydroplane to the max! and in light rain they made the car feel RWD through a simple turn (spun the car out doin a wide 20mph turn)..

Ive had Both the 512 and 912.....the 512 was good when new on my stx and rain grip was excellent but the tires wore FAST, got like 12K miles out of them...and they were soft so you couldn't really tell the limit was approaching..

I have the new 912's on my current celica on 17inch wheels and they are GREAT...dry and wet grip is great, the noise level/comfort level is great (rides really quiet and mine is convertible!) I have 3K miles on them and they show almost no wear

really? I had horrible worn proxes on my vdub and they handled waaay better than the goodyears i replaced them with. As for the 912's, I've read that they are way superior to the 512's but the prices are just too good to be true ~60 per tire. cmon. sigh this tire stuff is hard

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was just kidding

rain driving wasnt a problem

have had the 512's loved 'em. got 24k miles out of em, got 912 on the xb love them too, not as soft as the 512's but handle and grip just as well and are a true "all season" tire. for the price you can't beat them. the celica got an upgrade to the falken fk 452's and a set of hankook ice bears for winter.

I just got a set of 512s. They cant have more than 100 miles on them and i like them. I had a set of potenza g009 before which i loved. As far as i can tell so far the 512's have amazing wet and dry grip. I cant really speak for the treadwear yet though.

512's will probably last you a year.........2 if you drive like a grandma

gotta love buying tires every year... im gonna do some more research on the 912's. ill let you guys know what i find out

i had 3 sets of the 512's.
theyre great....when theyre new.
once they get ~10k on them, they turn to junk in the rain, and dont even THINK about driving in snow with them, you will go nowhere.

I have been running the 205-50-15 ZE-912's for about 6,000 miles or more. So far they have provided adequate traction around speedy corners and are quiet on the highway. Good tire for the money.

Keep in mind, I have not had them very long and I'm using them on smaller wheels.

452s are nice, proxies are lame (not enough bite for me)

okay. avoid the 512's got it. bhawk have you had a chance to drive those in the snow?

I wouldn't say avoid them altogether at all! I'm running a set of 512's on my car right now. I've had them for 18,000 miles. They are REALLY quiet when they are new. Now that they are about half worn, they are starting to get a little louder but still aren't noisy by any means. I've had the Ecsta's on my car and Cooper Zeon's and both were crap. The Ecsta's didn't give much traction, but they at least lasted. The Zeons had wires showing before 10,000 miles and I never even drove them hard Overall, the 512's are my favorite tire. All my friends and I have had them and we all love them more than all the other tires we've had. I get GREAT traction in the rain, but from every review I've read, I'm not even gonna consider my car once we get some snow here. But in the end, it's your money and you can buy whatever tires you want. I know I'm getting a set of 912's after my 512's wear out just so I can see which set I prefer.

i'm not sure, but do 512s also give a slightly harsher ride? both my cars r running them so not sure if it's just my crap low profile sizing or the tire

profile matters alot. But any UHP tire will give a harsher ride, its one of the tradeoffs you concede for more grip.

All right, Im going to get the 912's since they are the replacements for the 512's and alot of people seem to like those. As far as snow goes... Ill try them out, if they suck Ill just bolt on my stock rims/allwheathers until spring. Thanks for the input guys. Anyone who has the urge to can hijack this thread now

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Good choice! I <3 my Falkens After you get your 912's could you PM me and tell me how you like them? Since I'm getting a set for my next set of tires.

will do sir. may take a while, Majoring in M E eats ALL of your time

This post has been edited by enderswift: Dec 2, 2008 - 7:26 PM

THREAD JACK!!!

I got new tires on Wednesday and I really really love them so far, granted I only have like 80 or so miles on them but I've driven them on dry pavement and in good ole' Oregon rain which = 3 inches of water in the ruts on the highway, and I absolutely love them. They handle great, are smooth and much quieter than the POS Khumo Ecstas I had on before.

Yokohama S Drive 225/45/R17

oooooo fancy. nice rims too

(too bad they're chewed to all hell LOL)

griffy you got the same rims and tires as me! how do they feel to you?
i had those yokohamas on it when i bought it. i think i shoulda stuck with those. instead i got the falken 512s.

This post has been edited by BURNSJ2: Dec 2, 2008 - 9:35 PM

I used to sell Falkens...ALOT...I originaly had a set of FK452s on my celica, I had 512s on my civic when i bought it, and ive driven in cars on 912s...personaly...I like falkens for being sooo freaking sticky...when they are new..like Manny said. My 452s, not even 20xxxkm on them. One season...gone..bald as hell. And my car was aligned properly too. My 512s, lasted me 6 months, like 10xxxkm on my civic, and it was aligned properly too. 912s, same story. They are amazingly good tires when they are brand new, but when it comes to highspeed driving, or bad roads, they melt like a wet news paper. What I was running on my celica before I parked it was a set of Toyo Proxy TPTs. They were pretty cheap, good grip, quiet, good tread wear/life. I liked them. Right now on Keroppis celica im running a set of General Exclaim UHPs up front and a set of BFG Traction T/As that i got from my work for free (go tire repairs). The generals are good, cheap (about $110CND per tire for a 205/50R16) and are lasting pretty good.


As for wanting an all season that will be good in the winter, the best one is a winter tire. All season tires are 3 season tires, they loose grip at about 7 degrees C, or about 40 degrees F (just guesstamating..but some where around there). But when you also use a UHP tire or any thing that is suppost to be a dry weather/performance tire...you arent gonna get the grip you need at all. I always buy winters for my cars. My supra, winters, my celica, winters, my civic, winters, my girlfriends celica, winters. Its a $400 safety poloicy....u spend $400 on gettin tires that will make sure you have grip in the snow and wet and the cold, and $400 isnt that much compaired to crashing your car and having to repair it. The winters ive been running for the last 4 years on the different cars has been Perelli winter carving tires..I was going to get some Nokian's but they were out of stock with more coming in in Feb.


EDIT: Also, the 512s have been discontinued, and superseaded by the 912s. So if some one says that they have a brand new set of 512s for sale, check the manufacturing date on the DOT # on the side. Most likely they are at least 2 years old sitting or they are used.

This post has been edited by Valo666: Dec 2, 2008 - 9:46 PM

the 912's are much better in snow than the 512's were, but still not intended for heavy snow.

falken tires don't last for crap. you're lucky if you get 15K out of them. even though the milage warranty is like 50K miles no real experience driving on them, but they're real soft, cheap, and overall crappy tires. same with kumhos. I've currently got a set of hankook HR-IIs on my alltrac and I really like them. Really soft tires, but tons of grip in the corners and launching. I've got about 3K on them right now and they still look new, even with how I drive on them.... but, they probably wouldn't be great for the snow. I dunno cause it only snows in the mountains here and I haven't gone snowboarding yet this year. Anyway, you might be happier with a slightly more expensive set of tires. Anything with the michelin name on it is going to be one of the best tires you can get, unfortunately also one of the most expensive. I had a set of BF goodrich traction T/As on my 6gc for the longest time. Bought them the day after I bought the car and they lasted probably a good 16-17K miles before I took them off, and they still had quite a bit of tread then too! They handled better and gave better traction than the yokohama AVS ES100's that I replaced them with too. I shouldn't have taken them off when I did

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Didn't think to check the manufacture date on mine, but I knew they had been discontinued. But somehow, Discount Tire keeps getting shipments in. And ONLY Discount Tire. They still get new 512's in all the time, so they must be in good with the right people at Falken to get the last ones.