300M tire replacement?

Hi,

I need to buy some tires for my 300M. I am confused about the different
types of all season tires :

Ultra High Performance All-Season
High Performance All-Season
Performance All-Season
Grand Touring All-Season
Standard Touring All_Season
Passenger All-Season

What I am looking for is Quiet & smooth ride with little noise. I want it
to be as as fortable a ride as I can get.

I am also wondering if I can mount 245's on the stock rims. I currently
have 225/55-17.

Thanks

 

IMO this tire would have the least road noise and comfortable ride.

look inside the drivers front door for recommended tire sizes.

 

Go to Tire Rack (www.tirerack.com) and go to the tire selector and
look at all 225-55-17 tires. Exclude snow and run-flat if you aren't
looking for those types. You might want to exclude "light truck"
tires as well (not sure if there are any in that size).

I don't know how many you'll find. I'm guessing 5 or 6 different
tires. Some will be all season, some will be touring, etc. Usually
the difference between the various types of all season and touring
tires will be the warranty. You pay more for a tire, the better the
warranty. You're really sort-of paying for insurance when you spend
more.

The higher performance tires *might* have different formulations (ie
softer rubber) which grabs better but wears faster. Sometimes the
side-walls are thicker/stronger (or have higher speed rating) on
performance tires (although low-profile tires like 55 series have more
lateral stability anyways vs a 70 series. Higher speed ratings are
smoke and mirrors when you're already dealing with a low profile
design.

I replaced the original Eagle LS's on my 2000 300M after driving on
them for 3 years. Replaced them in the spring of 2003 with Dunlop
Sport SP 5000's. I've been satisfied with them so far. I don't
know if I'll get another summer out of them at this point. I'll
decide that when they come off for the winter (probably in 6
weeks).

I was looking for moderate to max summer performance tire. Doesn't
exist for 17x7" wheel. Had to settle for "ultra-high performance
all season" (which the Dunlop is).

Maybe there are more choices now.

I don't know where you drive, but around where I drive, I can't drive
more than 20 feet without hitting a bump or pothole (or some other
irregularity) during city driving. That sort of makes noise issues
with the tire irrelavant.

I don't do enough highway driving to make noise a criteria for tire
selection. I put way more emphasis on wet and dry traction.

Comfort is subjective and harder to differentiate when we're talking
about low-profile tires. You want more comfort? Let some air out of
the tires.

The 17" x 7" wheels on the 300M won't really handle a wider tire than
225.

 

I do mostly highway driving, roughly 50,000K a year. How much air can I let
out and for it to still be safe?

Thanks,

Steve

 

Tire Rack is a good source. I recommend Goodyear TripleTread tires for a
comfortable and quiet ride. This is an excellent tire for this application.
A wider tire will increase noise and ride with more harshness.

Richard.

 

IMO don't go wider, then you can keep a SAFE air pressure which will
also give you even tread wear.
For quiet highway driving on dry roads I'd go with a summer tread.

 

That's roughly the same as a 200 mile commute (100 miles each way), 5
days a week, 52 weeks a year.

Sell your house - since you obviously live in your car.

If you want a quiet tire solution for such extensive driving then
don't resort to lowering your tire pressure.

You want a tire with a tread pattern that basically looks smooth. The
"knobbier" the tire is, the louder it is.

Problem is, a tire that is smooth looking (even if it has large spaces
between the treads) will not be as good at evacuating water and snow
from the contact patch.

Tire Rack has lots of reviews about tires - and I think ride noise is
rated for most tires.

 

Pretty much. I live 50KM from Ottawa, where I almost go daily. When I am
really busy I need to drive around Ottawa for a few hours as well. I bought
the car wih 26,000 a year ago and it now has just a little under 80,000.

 

If you want smooth and quiet, definitely consider a good touring tire.
No more so-called hi-performance tires for me (noisy, very expensive,
short tread life, warranty coverage non-existent - IOW - *very* poor
value IMO).

You might consider the Cooper Lifeliner Touring SLE. I was amazed at
how quiet my Concorde could be when I got those. Ratings 600/A/B.
Around $80 ea., U.S. Good hydroplaning resistance, and like I said -
*VERY* quiet. However, not sure if it will suit your purposes as far as
use in snow in your location.

Another suggestion - before you order from Tire Rack, once you settle on
a tire model and size, price the same tire at a local shop - and be sure
to do an honest apples-to-apples comparison - i.e., be sure to factor in
paying a shop $10 to $20 each for mounting and balancing a tire
purchased elsewhere, shipping cost, and the value of a local shop giving
you free re-balancing and rotating for the life of the tire.

Also - what happens if there is a problem/warranty claim? If you buy
one place, have installed at another, and get alignments at another, all
you will get is fingerpointing among all the entities (manufacturer,
Tire Rack, installer, aligner) involved. Buy from the same place that
installs, rotates, and does your alignments, and you are likely to get
full cooperation if a problem does develop.

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')

 

I have a 2000 300M and with 106,000 miles on it I'm on my third set of
tires.

First of all, don't go with the 245 tires, they won't fit. If you want
larger tires, change out the wheels. What you make up in performance
(not much really) you'll loose out on gas mileage and the price will
dramatically climb.

At 25,000 miles I was sick and tired of the original Goodyear Eagle
LS's. They had horrible wet traction and loved to hydroplane in the
shallowest of puddles. The only Goodyears I've been moderately
satisfied with have been on my Tacoma 4x4. I've had three sets of
Eagles on new Chryslers I've bought and each one left me far less than
comfortable.

I replaced Eagles on my 300M with the best tires I've ever had:
Michelin Pilot Sport A/S ultra high performance all seasons. They stuck
like glue on dry pavement but more important (to me) was how great they
were in the rain and on the snow: I didn't have any problems in any
condition. Living in Seattle, wet performance is critical and the
Michelins gave me the utmost confidence and unless there was a blizzard
(in which you were required to put on chains) I could run up to the
mountains and ski. The downside? $1000 for a set of four plus hazzard
warranty and they only lasted 30,000 miles.

I currently am riding on Yokohama YK420 tires from Discount Tire and
I'll need to be replacing these before some serious snow hits (I now
live in Minnesota). I'm rather happy that I got over 50,000 miles on
them. They're softer than the Michelins and they don't have as good wet
or snow traction but they're far, far better than the Goodyears. Expect
to spend $500 to $600 for a set of four. They're roughly equivalent in
price to the Goodyears.

After working at a tire store for three years in high school and
college (yes, Discount Tire), I can tell you that I'd never put
Perilli's on. I'd see people bring their tires back after 5,000 miles
with steel belt hanging out the shoulder.

I've run on some Dunlops there were made for Discount Tire (i.e. not
branded as Dunlops but made by them) and they were better than the
Goodyears but they certainly didn't wow me for the savings.

The following is personal opinion and I don't have a personal account
to verify this, but I've never been comfortable with the idea
Bridgestone, BF Goodrich and Firestone tires. Continental I'm abivalent
about. But these opinions were formed over well over 10 years ago and
I'm sure there's been a change since then, for better or worse.

I just checked Discount Tire's website and Michelin now has a touring
tire in our size, the MXV4 plus for ~$150/tire in the Minneapolis area.
It might be more where you are, Grand Rapids, MI has them for $20 more
a tire. A touring is going to be softer than a performance tire
(without threatening the integrity of the tire by letting the air out
-- always maintain the minimal recomended pressure) and quiter than a
performance tire. Even better? it'll last a hell of a lot longer than a
performance tire. Possibly 50,000 to 80,000 miles total.

If these Michelins are less $100 more than the Yokohama's, I'll be
putting them on in the next 2 months. I've had their touring tires on
Dodge Avenger and they didn't have the sportiness an Eagle LS but they
had tremendously better grip in the rain and the dry.

 

*Any* tire will start hydroplaning at lower speeds as the tread wears
down - that's unavoidable.

That was my point earlier: $250 for a tire that lasts only 30,000 miles?
You've got to be crazy. Not good value I don't care how "good" it is
otherwise.

Now you're making sense. And you can get that easliy for well under
$100 per tire. Cooper SLE, and, I'm sure, others.

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')

 

True, but 25,000 on an Eagle LS is only half of it's life. At the time,
two of the tires only had 15,000 miles. My old boss ran 55,000 on the
Eagles that came with her 300M. A tire that starts hydroplaning at only
a quarter to a third of its life is pretty shabby. I'd like to say that
these Goodyears are the "worst tires ever" but my earlier post about
Pirelli's would disprove that notion. So, I'll have to settle with
"Goodyears leave me praying in the rain."

We sold Cooper tires at the Discount Tire store I worked at but I've
never ridden on a pair and what few customers that had couldn't
convince me they're a better tire than a Yokohama for the money.

 

Michelin Energy Mxv4 plus were original equipment in later years of the 300m
with 17 inch wheels. I put them on my 99 after dumping 2 sets of Goodyear
Eagles LS. The fronts lasted about 30k miles. The rears are still on. I
was satisfied enuf to put a new set on the fronts.

 

You only got 30k miles from the MXV4's? That's pretty sad. I love
Michelins and I was hoping to see at least 50k out of the MXV4's since
their touring tires. How often do you rotate them?

 

That's about how many miles we've gotten out of them on our Intrepid
R/T, too.

 

The MXV4 tires on our '02 300M have done 40K miles and look good for
several more K yet.

Perce

 

I don't rotate them at all. The fronts wore evenly but more quickly than
the backs. I probably could have driven them for another 10k miles before
the wear bars made them officially worn out, but I like being able to stop
when I need to.

 

That's what it sounded like from your post. With a front wheel drive
car it's important to rotate your tires since all of the drive power
goes through them and most of the braking is done with the front tires.
That's why you had uneven wear between the fronts and the backs.

Any reasons why you don't?

 

I agree with that. But even more compelling is that tread wear that is
uneven across the width of the tread for a given vehicle corner (tread
edges on the front, and other slight uneveness due to inevitable
alignment imperfections or pressure variations) gets distributed over
the four tires when you properly rotate. You replace tires - not based
on the overall average wear over the tread, but based on the absolute
worst case 'thin' points. Result: By rotating properly and frequently
(every 5000 to 7000 miles) you get more miles out of the set of tires.

Many (most?) tire shops give lifetime rotating and balancing for the
tires you buy from them. In my experience, periodically taking it in
for balancing is necessary, so that lost time is a given - when that is
being done anyway (as it should be), rotating is a zero-cost and
zero-time procedure for the shop and you.

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')

 

I will also add that, by keeping the unavoidable wear anomalies over the
tread surface minimized by rotating, you reduce the possibility of
self-amplifying (resonant) noise problems growing above the level of
perception thus avoiding having to replace a tire way early due to noise
or vibration.

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')