Liquid_force
SHO Member
Two reasons for this post --
One, just sharing my experience with Sumitomo tires, and two - to see if anyone follows my reasoning on my judgement of them.
About a year ago I put on a set of Sumi HTR A/S P01's. I knew they were inexpensive, but I didn't think they'd be "cheap". I ran a similar set on my old Turbo Tbird and was happy with them (HTR T4's IIRC).
All new front end parts, and alignment good.
I've put 15k or so on them.
For ~5k I had no complaints. They were a HUGE improvement on the set they replaced.
As miles went by problems started developing. Mainly vibrations most noticeable at interstate speeds, and a lot of road noise. Not just the hum any tire makes, but a cyclical type of noise that doesn't sound right.
I experimented with pressure - no improvement.
I had some subframe issues. Misalignment after A/C shim removal, and left front bushing failure, but replaced the bushing and had it re-aligned before 1k mi passed.
I rotated them, balanced them, nothing improved.
Had the alignment looked at a couple times during this 15k and it was always on the edge, but tech's seemed to think the tires should wear fine. Eventually I drilled the strut towers.
So at this point I'm going on the assumption that these tires just didn't work for this car.
I found a good deal on some Eagle GT's which are now sitting in my basement probably getting installed within the week.
I've always been of the opinion that any reasonable quality tire should run well for 30 or 40k if they're balanced/roatated, suspension/alignment is maintained, and the car's not regularly raced.
Either I'm missing something in the maintenance area, or these tires just suck. Or maybe this car is going to change my opinion on tires in general.
One, just sharing my experience with Sumitomo tires, and two - to see if anyone follows my reasoning on my judgement of them.
About a year ago I put on a set of Sumi HTR A/S P01's. I knew they were inexpensive, but I didn't think they'd be "cheap". I ran a similar set on my old Turbo Tbird and was happy with them (HTR T4's IIRC).
All new front end parts, and alignment good.
I've put 15k or so on them.
For ~5k I had no complaints. They were a HUGE improvement on the set they replaced.
As miles went by problems started developing. Mainly vibrations most noticeable at interstate speeds, and a lot of road noise. Not just the hum any tire makes, but a cyclical type of noise that doesn't sound right.
I experimented with pressure - no improvement.
I had some subframe issues. Misalignment after A/C shim removal, and left front bushing failure, but replaced the bushing and had it re-aligned before 1k mi passed.
I rotated them, balanced them, nothing improved.
Had the alignment looked at a couple times during this 15k and it was always on the edge, but tech's seemed to think the tires should wear fine. Eventually I drilled the strut towers.
So at this point I'm going on the assumption that these tires just didn't work for this car.
I found a good deal on some Eagle GT's which are now sitting in my basement probably getting installed within the week.
I've always been of the opinion that any reasonable quality tire should run well for 30 or 40k if they're balanced/roatated, suspension/alignment is maintained, and the car's not regularly raced.
Either I'm missing something in the maintenance area, or these tires just suck. Or maybe this car is going to change my opinion on tires in general.
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