Idea of 245/45/17 tires on the rear of S4
 

I have 9" rims in the rear of my car and have been slightly irritated at the fact that I've gone through 2 sets of Yokohama 255/40/17s through daily driving. Both sets have worn down in about 15,000 miles.

For daily driving, I'm thinking of going back to H-rated tires. The Bridgestone G009s are a great tire that sticks fairly good despite being an H and a 460 treadwear rating. Though the tread is hard, I feel optimistic that they will be great for daily use, however they are almost 3/4" taller than the 255/40/17 and are 1/4" narrower. I'm aware of the change in the rear end ratio, but as far as grip, will 10mm difference in width make this car less grippy with 17" wheels?

I would stay with 255 on the rear, I find that less than that on the 9" rim is just too loose in the rear for me.

Though the size and speed rating has nothing to do with how long the tires last, you need to be looking at the treadwear number, I run between a 400-200 and get if I am lucky 5000km on a set of tires, though I drive harder than most. You will be looking in the 800+ range if you want longevity in mind, though the higher the treadwear number, the less sticky, but more miles you can get on them.

Ive ran them for about 1 year they were a pretty sticky tire not sure what the tread wear was. I didn't really see no difference unless nailing it out of a intersection making a turn.

Lizard, I know that the factory sized 16" wheels used a 245 in the rear, but I didn't think that it'd be such an acute affect on handling with a 9"x17" rear :eek: I'm willing to take the chance since anything is better than the Yokohama ES100. They feel like drift tires!

Andy,

I ran BF Goodrich g-Force KDW2 tires on my 17" wheels for 4 year. Decent
wear numbers, handle very well, but are a little noisey. Also, they're not too
expensive.

Well, I wouldn't mind going with a different tire, but since my family has an account with Firestone, I am limited to using them because of the great value and discounts we get.

I have looked at Fuzion ZRis and a 320 treadwear doesn't seem that bad, but I'm sure they'd wear fast on the 928 due to its weight.

With that in mind, I've chosen H-rated tires to run on and have 2 choices:

Bridgestone G009
Fuzion HRi

I ran the Fuzion ZRi's on my 87 corvette. They are an awesome tire. Especially for the price.

How was the wear? I'm looking for something to last at least 20,000-25,000 miles

I didn't comment on the wear just the handling because I didn't drive it hardly and then I decided to sell it. Jason

You do realize what you're driving right? Most of us would be happy as hell with 15,000 miles out of a set of tires. I rarely got that much out of my 150chp SAAB front tires (Michelin V-rated MXV4s).

Do not buy H-rated tires for your car. Speed rating has nothing to do with grip or life. If is how fast the contact patch reforms to round at a certain speed. H-rated tires have softer carcasses that do not support the car as well and do not reform as fast.

Interesting. I'm going to get a price for the ZRi tires today. I may be going in this weekend for tires as well as my exhaust :)

I had Fusion ZRi tires on my past 88 S4 and they were great tires for the money. I was able to put about 5k miles on them before I sold the car but they were wearing real well and I bet I could get 25-30k out of them.

15K is par for the rear. I'd be worried about traction with a 460 wear rated tire. You might get 20K miles but hit a patch of water and end up sideways.

You don't need to put $200 tires on the rear for good performance. I liked the very inexpensive Yoko ES100s (not much over $100 per rear, less than $100 per front) for a long time and just changed out the rears about twice as often as the fronts. You'd be a lot better off than with some 460 rocks, especially when you join us on our funrides.

I'm going for Fuzion ZRis. Apparently Firestone in San Diego is having a sale on Sunday :jumper:

Hmmm. My rears easily outlast the fronts. Must be too gentle on the loud pedal.


After all the positive posts about the Fuzion ZRi's, I started looking at them to just put on the stock S4 wheels for touring use. You know, the just drive somewhere use that we get to do every once in a while. I also gave some thought to V- or even just H-rated rubbr for that duty. The Pep Boyz ad on sunday shows some z-rated Hankook tire with a 50k mile warranty for about $100/ea., for instance. Then thought about storing them or the current PS2's, having to change them back and forth depending on the purpose of the drive, and pretty much gave up the idea. I get 15-20k out of a set of PS2 tires so it's obvious I'm not taking full-time advantage of the handling. But I do enjoy the ride quality and the low noise all the time, and the great handling every once in a while. For those of us that drive the car all the time, a lot of the fun is taking the occassional advantage of the performance when an unforseen opportunity arises. The rest of the time we'd be as well or maybe even better off driving an old diesel Rabbit. I must be stupid, cuz I could buy a whole beater car with 20k miles left in it for about the same price as a set of PS2's that may or may not make it that far on the 928. But hey, it's only money, and life is too short to be condemned to driving a beater all the time.