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they probably just get them dirt cheap now and still sell them full price with no regard for your safety a tire over 6 years old should be replaced regardless of tread life. The tread can start to seperate and cause a nasty blowout which can end in a deadly crash.

btw, those who are wondering, you can check what year your tires were made in by the DOT number on the side of the tire. Look at the last 4 digits in the last bubble, the first to numbers refer to what week and the second two refer to year. for example, if the last four are 3407, then the tire was made in the 34th week of 2007. if it's only a 3 digit number than the tire was made in the 90's... btw, the full dot number is only stamped on one side of the tire so depending on how yours is mounted, you may have to crawl under the car with a flashlight to see it. on the other side of the tire you'll just see a random assortment of 7-8 numbers and letters. These can tell you what plant they were made in and stuff like that, but I don't know how to read them. lol.

...just when i thought i was settled everyone has to raise doubt again

I can live with a short life span if it means highlighting my celicas handling (its all I have ). I already have winter tires on there right now so Im set. plus I drive about 6 K a year. Think ill be good?

6strngs, you've got me worried now lol. I know my tires aren't 6 years old by any means, and I know they were discontinued before I ever bought them. I had heard great things about the performance of the 512 vs the 912 though, so I went with the discontinued 512. I was told the 512 was more performance oriented whereas the 912 was more daily driver friendly (still performance oriented though. Hope that little tidbit of information helps somebody out.) Anyway, I just went outside and checked the DOT number on my tires. It wasn't anything like you said, it just said V4H7. There was also the string of numbers and letters that you said, but the 4 digit code was simply V4H7 so I have no idea when they were manufactured.

Oh well, my tires are out of alignment and I've had to skid to a stop a few times, so I need new tires pretty bad anyway

EDIT: Enderswift, I think you'll be fine with the Falkens. Everyone else is saying that theirs didn't last very long. I hardly go flying around any corners as fast as I can, and I doubt if my car could do a burnout if I wanted it to. So my 512's have 18,000 miles and them and have at least that to go. Well, if they wre aligned properly, they would lol. So since you only drive 6,000 miles per year, I think you'd have no problems with 912's. That's just my opinion. In the end, it's your money and you can buy whatever tires you want. Don't buy Falkens just because someone else likes them and told you to.

This post has been edited by richee3: Dec 3, 2008 - 12:59 AM

appreciate the reply richee, Im not too worried about their tread life but if you're getting 18+ K, I should be alright. Dont worry, I did ALOT of hw on tires before I narrowed it down and im not one to simply go on recomendations alone. Its kind of my own little ocd tendency to research something to death before I commit. Just wanted to get the communities input since the reviews on tire rack are just too wide ranging.

oh yea I think this website might clear up your manufacturing date question:

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/tec...e.jsp?techid=11

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yeah, sorry I didn't do a very good job at describing it. it's probably on the other side of the tire. on one side you'll see something like "BJCD AMH" while on the other side, it'll be the same numbers/letters followed by 4 numbers, example: "BJCD AMH 1308" That tirerack link will explain it better, I'm sure.

it's not like you'll die immidiately if your tires are 6 years old, though tire shops will try to tell you that so they can sell you stuff. lol. But, if your tread is seperating, which will look like there is a large air bubble underneath a section of the tread of your tire, it can be dangerous. and older tires are more likely to seperate. Most tire manufacturer's recommend to replace your tires if they are more than 4 years old, except a couple companys, such as michelin, recommend 6 years. When I worked at America's tire/discount tire, we recommended tires after 6 years old, and refuse to touch anything more than 10 years old. honestly, if you take your tires in for a rotation, they should be able to spot if you have any seperation (that is, if you're lucky enough to get somebody who knows what they're doing.) I'm positive though if you took it in for a rotation, and asked them to tell you what year your tires were from, they would do it for you.

one last thing, be sure to check all 4 tire's dates. even if you bought all 4 at the same time, they can still all have different dates on them.

Enderswift, I'm glad you did your homework before deciding on your tires. That's more than a lot of people can say. I got 18,000 miles out of my 512's already and have quite a few more to go, and the 912's are supposed to last longer, if I'm not mistaken. I think you'll be happy with them.

6strngs, I just went out and looked again after reading that article, and I found the manufacture date. All 4 of mine are 3307, so the 33rd week of 2007. They aren't separating at all, no problems there. The only problem I've had with these tires is that I only have two options for getting my tires aligned. One place SUCKS!!!! And the other charges out the a** for it. So I got my tires aligned when I had my car lowered, about a week before I got these Falkens. Then since my struts were already blown before I lowered the car so needless to say my Eibach's weren't the best thing for them. So I raised the car back up and sold the springs just to have some extra money and replaced my struts. Anyway, I haven't been able to afford another alignment since then so the outsides of my tires are starting to get chewed up pretty bad. But they've still got a while to go. Rather than paying for another alignment, I'm just going to lower the car again When I buy new tires, I mean. Get all of that done at once.

But yeah, Discount Tire is still getting 512's in so if anyone else orders them, they really should check the dates. I'm guessing you won't be getting 6 year old tires, but nonetheless, it's worth it to be safe. I didn't even think about checking the date or even know anything about that when I bought mine.

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LOL Must've been the America's Tire special aka Discount Tire other places in the US. The rims were on it when I bought it, along with some horrible Khumo Ecstas and Fuzion ZRIs that I HATED.

I've only got about 200 miles on the Yokos, I literally got them a week ago, so I can't exactly give an accurate review but in the week I've had them, they've handled just as well on dry pavement as on wet pavement. I absolutely LOVE them. I did research the hell out of tires before I decided on these, and in researching them there was a really great review on Tirerack.com that strongly influenced me to get them. The person who wrote the review wrote one review a couple hundred miles into the tires, updated it a little while later, and then added a 3rd review about 10k into them. That's what I call thorough! I had a budget so it wasn't like I could just get the best tires I could find, I had to get the best tires I could find within that budget.

The really awesome part is that I printed out the tirerack.com page on the tires and brought it with me to America's Tire, where they pricematched them. It wound up saving me $100, plus another $60 because I had a coupon America's Tire emailed out. So basically it was like getting 4 tires for the price of 2 and a third

Nice Griff, I would like to know your review after driving on them for a while. I want to get the S.Drive I just have no reason to yet. I have Yokohama AVID H4S right now and they are maybe about half worn if that, I got them well over a year ago. I love my Yokohama's, I fully intend to stay with the brand and highly recommend some form of Yokohama to anyone.

I had Falken 512's on my stock wheels and loved them... for 6mo before they became almost bald and horrible in anything but dry racetrack conditions, but for the money they were just fine. Not to mention they were like screw and nail magnets, or I just had bad luck with them.
When I got my rims they came with Kumho Ecsta 712's that I had so many problems with bubbles in the sidewalls, I hated them and everything about them. After having to replace one because of a bubble and 2 more bubbles in another one I replaced them with the Falken 512s again, and I loved them again, you can't beat them for the first 6 months.
Then Dustin recommended the Yokohama's and I decided to try them. (Knock on wood) I have had no problems with them whatsoever. I picked up a nail once but it didn't go all the way through, never had a bubble in the sidewall, they wear nice and evenly, I rotated them once after about 20-25k miles because I thought I probably should and there was almost no difference in tread depth, traction could be a little better in heavy rain. Overall the best tire I've had and have lasted the longest.

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hey watch yourself lady

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to get maximum life out of your tires I'd recommend rotating every 5-6K miles. you could do it every oil change or every other, depending how often you do it. unless, of course, there's a noticable difference in tread between front and rear. you wanna keep your best 2 in the rear to help you from losing control in the rain and whatnot.

This post has been edited by 6strngs: Dec 4, 2008 - 12:40 AM

yeah i was gonna stay with the yokos but they were so expensive. i had the es100s, and they were like 300 a piece. really loved those tires though. thats probably one of the only tire brands ive never heard anything bad about.

This may, or may not, be appropriate as I have a GT4 ST205 and I'm in the UK.
However...
I'm surprised noones mentioned Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3s.
Highly recommended on the GT4 ST205.

Having said that, I have just got a set of Kumho Ecsta KU31s.
Only done about 3000 miles on them but so far they handle extremely well and I've had no issues, or moments, in the dry or the wet.
Only down side I could mention is that I do notice a bit of road noise.
But for the price I got them fitted they were like $50 a tyre cheaper than the Falkens.

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excellent tires! also up there as being one of the most expensive though, which is the issue.

Oh, no doubt those Goodyears are excellent tires I've heard too. But yeah, they are SPENDY.

On the Khumos - I know there are several different models they make. There's several different Ecstas, IDK which ones I had, all I know is that I hated them. They were brand new when I bought my car in July 07, and DEFINITELY needed to be replaced probably less than a year later. Actually, yeah, because I went to get them rotated the following spring and the back tires were so worn that my car handled really funky so I went back to have them put back the way they were. They sucked in the rain, were alright on dry but nothing special, and while I realize I drive a hell of a lot because my commute is so long, I still expect tires to last longer than a year.

Just remember that whatever tires you buy, or anyone, shop around and get the place to pricematch. America's Tire/Discount Tire wanted $140/ea for my S.Drives (plus mounting/balancing @ $13/ea) but Tirerack.com has them for $115/ea. plus that coupon I had and I saved myself $160!

Here are the Kumhos I've got Kumho Ecsta SPT KU31
This may have been mentioned already but the Falken FK452 is ment to be a really good tyre but I have heard that it wears quite quickly.

just another example of how crappy falken tires are. At work today I had a mustang come in, and all 4 tires were bald, like beyond bald. like past the wear bars, less than 1/32" of tread left, BALD! The tires were falkens, I think they were the ZE-328's. anyway, I show somebody, and he says that the tires had 13,000 miles on them! and the person got an alignment when they bought them from us... this was only her second rotation for these tires as she rotated every 6K like you're supposed to.

Eh, I think a lot of that has to do with driving conditions and driving style. For example, there have been a few people in this thread say that their 512's didn't last very long. But mine have 18,000 on them and have quite a bit left to go. BUT I never drive my car very hard. Then again, I had a set of Cooper Zeons on my car. Great traction, but around 8,000 miles they were gone and at 10,000 they had wires showing. I think I have a picture.. Let me go look.

Yeah, found one. This is with between 8-9,000 miles.




Also, I'm not saying that it's the driver's fault that her Falken's wore out prematurely. I honestly don't know anything about the ZE-328's.

so now that im reading this post about these tires. i was all for buying zome fk452 cause some people said that they are really good at first but dont last very long. You think that if i rotate tires every 3,000 miles they could last me 20,000 miles. Or should i just buy zx-912 instead.

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why are you set on buying falkens? I know they're cheap, but you get a cheap tire in exchange. The FK452 is a better tire, a lot more stiff than the other falkens which are very soft, it's also more of a performance tire though, which means they sacrificied longevity and road noise in exchange for performance. you might still get 20K out of them, though, rotating won't do a lot of good since they are directional so they can only be rotated front to back. if you get an alignment at the same time, you might get 20K though if you drive like a granny on them.

SHUZAAAMMMMM

just came yesterday!!!!
if you have 16in wheels they are 49.00 a piece closeout sale!!!!!
GB highly recomend rode in a mini cooper s with them as street tires they are gummy (treadwear is like 280)
they'll only go for like 20k though

and its prob cuz its winter but i live in texas it just broke 32 here (oooo ahhhh)

will be going on my gt-s wheels and then clear turns and then i will finally have pictures

: ) yay

This post has been edited by 97celiman: Dec 4, 2008 - 11:51 PM

btw those are eagle f1-ds3...if you can afford it id get some : ) and of course if your running a 16

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lol. I love how they jump from $49 for 205/50/16, to $141 for 205/55/16. lol

Well the reason why im settling for falken is cause i'm on a budget. Trying not to spend no more than a grand on wheels and tires. I mean all other local stores and tires shop charge you alot for wheels and tires. like 1100-1200.

Mainly cause im ordering these rims and tires package from edgeracing.com
I want the silver finish 17" Raze R74 . and plus i still have to do alignment for my cars since i havent done it since i put in new shocks and lowering springs.

It going to be $900 for the rims and tires plus another $70 for alignment. My current credit card only allows me a grand to spend thats my credit line.

I mainly drive very moderate or like a grandma sometimes. I really like to drive my car hard sometimes whenever i get the chance. But thats every once in a while. Would you suggest i just try the fk 452 and then go to a better tire later on. or go with the zx-912 since i mainly just drive normaly. How much longer you think the 912 would last. i mean 912 is all around season performance tire. and 452 is summer tire correct.

What tire would you suggest that i get later on that has pretty good tread life and grips well like the 452's..??? edgeracing is located in miami. here is the link to the tires and bundle packages with a selection of the different tires to choose from.

http://www.edgeracing.com/1994/Toyota/Celica/bundle/2843/

well, I just looked at the bundles for the raze r74 wheels. it looks like you have the sumitomo HTR Z III as an option there for only $10 more than the falkens. Normally, I'd say sumitomo's are also pretty cheap tires, but tire rack did a test on these new HTR Z III's and wrote them an amazing review! might be worth giving them a shot

alright then thx then 6 strngs, Ill look into them your probably right. but ill also read the review for the 3 different tires for myself...

This post has been edited by BonzaiCelica: Dec 5, 2008 - 8:14 PM

Hey, I have a question. 6strngs, you seems really knowledgeable on tires, so this one especially goes out to you. You say the Falkens are cheap crap, but I've had a different experience. But then again, I've driven like a grandma on these tires so at 20,000 miles I'm just to the point where most other people are at 10,000, so I'm guessing that I'm about to start experiencing the problems that everyone else has had. I was planning on buying the 912's when these wear out, but you say they are utter crap too.

So my question is, what are the best tires I can get for under $100 apiece? Best in this case means a good balance between grip and tire life. I know $100 isn't much, but I'm on a tight budget

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well, I assume you have stock rims, going by your sig, and that you want the stock size of 205/55/15. I don't know if you meant $100 installed, or $100 without installation so I'll assume you meant installed. Also, some people like to order their tires from places like tire rack because they are usually cheaper, and then take them to a tire shop to be installed, but, usually when you do this, the tire shop will jack up the price of installation just cause they won't be making as much money since you didn't buy the tires with them, anyway, it comes out to be about the same price depending on what tire shop you go to. So, my recommendation is to have 2-3 different tires in mind, call around and ask how much the shops in your area would charge for these tires with installation if you bought them from them, and then ask how much it would be if you brought the tires in and wanted them put on (keeping in mind that you also have to pay for shipping with tirerack). when you find a price you like, get the salesman's name and set up an appointment.

anyway, I just briefly browsed on tire rack for tirea around $75-85 in that size, and I saw a couple good tires. I see the Dunlop Direzza DZ101's for $75. I had these on my 6gc in a 225/45/17 and they gripped and handled excellent! no idea on the life because I only had them on for maybe 2-3K, but they still look new after that, so life should be pretty good. I also see the BF goodrich G-force sports for $84, these were ones I was considering for my 17's. I heard a lot of very good things about the performance on them, though they tend to start cupping after a while, which is where the tire tread is uneven and when you run your hand over it it feels like waves of water, it's up and down, up and down. It can be caused by too much positive caster (an alignment angle, in case you didn't know) or worn shocks. Unfortunately caster isn't adjustable on a celica, but still, to ensure long life on these, I'd get an alignment done at the same time, and rotate often. anyway, I also see BF goodrich traction TA's for $89, which I had on my stock wheels for a while and loved them, I talked about them somewhere in this thread already. And also, I see yokohama AVID V4S's for $81 and yokohama S.drive's for $88. I've heard good things about yokohama tires, in general, though I didn't like the AVS ES100's that I had for a couple hundred miles. (got them used with about 5/32" of tread and had them down to 2/32" in a month or so, but I did a lot of burning out with the freshly turbo'ed 5s at that time... ) anyway, if you need an all-season tire, the BFG traction TA or the yoko avid v4 are the only two that are. Those two also will most likely be the longest lasting of the 5 I mentioned. For more of a performance, summer tire, the S.drive, dunlop, and g-force are the way to go. Personally of those 3 I'd go with the dunlop because it's cheaper, and I already have experience with the tire and know it's a quality tire. the decision is ultimately yours though based on your needs. hopefully my input was helpful

It was VERY helpful. I know all about caster and camber, since my tires are WAYYYY off. Lucky me -_-

I do actually need an all-season tire, since it's getting ready to snow here. We get a lot of rain and snow here in southern Illinois, and a longer lasting tire better suits my needs since I know my stock GT is slow and I don't do a lot of aggressive driving. That $100 was before installation because my parents always pay for mounting and balancing as long as I buy the tires. The tire shops here are gay and will rob you blind as you can see from my earlier picture of the Cooper's I had. My stepmom had the car for the day since I had school, and they told her that "my car needed performance tires, and there was only one company that still made tires that would fit my car." We had them check the alignment too (which I knew was out since my steering wheel was sitting sideways when I was driving straight) and they said that everything was aligned. They knew full well the life of those tires, and knew that even if I could get the maximum life of the tires that I'd have to come back soon because I was destroying the edges of the tires. The reason I had to buy new tires anyway was because they were so far out of alignment that the Kumhos I had before were cupped really bad and one of them was ruined. Anyway... I'll need new tires before too long since I got them aligned when the car was lowered and now it's back on factory springs, so I will definitely look into the BFG's. Thanks for your input!

This post has been edited by richee3: Dec 11, 2008 - 5:43 PM

took your advice 6strngs on buying that bundle of raze r74 and sumitomo HTR Z III. Just ordered them. They should be here in a week. I'll see how they perform. But ive read good stuff about them after you told me to look into them. Thanks!

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Glad I could help. Let me know how they work out for you Do yourself a favor though, when you get them check the tire pressure in them, I'm sure they set it before they ship them, but shipping from miami to CA they are sure to be exposed to all different kinds of temperatures and elevations (especially if they go by plane). If you don't have an accurate tire gauge (cheap $.99 ones from walmart aren't that accurate, lol, though the $3-4 digital one at walmart surprisingly is fairly accurate before it breaks 3 weeks after you get it.) any tire shop should be able to do it for free. 99% of all passenger cars call for 32-38 PSI. The stock pressure for the 6gc is supposed to be 33, but since you are going with a different tire size, that's no longer applicable. Set it anywhere between 32-38 based on preference. Slightly higher pressure can result in better gas milage, while a lower pressure will give better traction and handling. 35 is the happy medium that most cars call for and the pressure the tire shop will set it at if you don't tell them otherwise. hope this helps

This post has been edited by 6strngs: Dec 11, 2008 - 9:04 PM