Tires?
 

I'm finally close to having money to replace my nearly-corded tires. Hopefully this will be more productive than cody's thread. I never made it to the end, hope he found some haha. I'm looking at some Continental ContiExtremeContacts, but I'm wondering if anyone has experience with them. I'm looking for good snow traction and good dry traction. I've never had great summer tires to compare them to, so the dry traction will probably still impress me no matter what. I don't care too much about noise, but I'd prefer that they're quieter than my buddy's mud terrains ;) Here's the link for the Continentals: http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....Qty=4&i1_Qty=4

:lol:

Here's the post from my thread that's most relavent for you, then.

http://www.seccs.org/forums/showpost...8&postcount=62

Who's Miry?

Dude, free TomTom? Hope you're spending just North of $440.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/specia...i_gps_0609.jsp

Most of us have given up on 4 season tires for this area. Now is the time to pick up some stock rims and plan on putting snows on them in the fall, though there have been a number of deals on those recently and I have seen some on craigslist as well.

Unless your actually out of tread depth, below the wear bars and running slicks, I would not worry about tires until fall, being wary if we have a thunderstorm or such.

No first had knowledge, but as an avid observer... The TR test results for the conti are not bad. They have actually improved the tire since they introduced it years ago from what I can tell.

I have had both the ASXs and HTR+s they outscored in CR tests and beating them now impresses me. If I had to have a 4 season tire, the conti would be high on the list.

Oops, I meant money.

So for those ratings, does it go: black circle, black half circle, empty circle, red half circle, red donut from bad to good?

And the tires I linked are $512 for my 18" gangsta rims. The tomtom was a big draw of those tires too lol

I am out of tread on the inner shoulders of the tires. I've ran the same tires all year long since I've bought the car, and don't wanna spoil myself with great summer tires until I can afford to do it on a regular basis.

The continentals I linked matched or outperformed the 2 you mentioned in every category on the comparison Cody linked, if my assumption of the ranking system is correct

Front and/or rear. A rotate might get you through the summer. Also sounds like you have too much negative camber for the street.

Correct, that was my point. Both the tires I had were pretty good and good bang for your buck, and the Contis appear to be better at a reasonable price.

Oh ok, now I see where you were going with that. So not only are they better, but I get a free TomTom. Haha.

And as for the tread wear: ironically it is both front and rear, but the driver side is worse, because I abuse my tires getting on the freeway from Robb drive :lol: Also, when I got an alignment last, the people at Big O (?) by Safeway on Mae Anne and McCarran said that they can't adjust the rear camber without an alignment kit, which I didn't have money for at the time. I don't remember what the specs of my alignment were at the moment, but it was pretty neg all the way around. The front slightly less than the rear tho. I wanna say -.8ish up front, -1.2 rear? They could check the rear, but not adjust it? Also seems weird that I could mess it up installing springs, but they can't fix it the way I messed it up?

Yep.

Neg. camber, assuming it's not more than -1.5 to -2 degrees isn't an issue regarding tire wear. However, couple it with toe out, and it'll murder the inside edge like you're seeing. I suggest you get a better alignment before your next set of tires, stressing 0 toe and make sure they give you a read-out. I suggest you have Nissan do it and request Cory as the tech. I know you're always saying how broke you are, but this will save you money in the long run.

Taking corners at speed will actually wear the outside shoulder, the inside shoulder, not so much.

You may want to bone up the $16.95 and get these camber bolts for the rear, however, -1.2 in the rear is close to perfect for a daily driver sedan IMO, especially if you get like -1.8 in the front. But if you're lowered, I bet it's more than that (like -2), in which case, I'd get the camber bolts.

EDIT: Damn Cody...

You got it...

Abusing tires on corners wears the outside. Inside wear is too much camber and/or bad toe.

Camber bolts are cheap and a necessity for lowered Imprezas. Pick up a set out at summit for under $20 as I recall.

I disagree on camber. Unless you are autocrossing or tracking, for a street car, in general, you want a total of less than -1.5 degrees of camber when you add the front and rear to allow you to rotate and even out wear.

Stock is probably close to zero to a couple tenths negative front and -1+ rear. While this is less than optimal from a performance perspective, it allows for more even wear as the fronts wear the outside and the rears the.

To optimize performance and keep wear reasonable, you would like to have about -1 front and -.5 rear especially with the lowered front which messes up geometry under cornering even more.

I agree on toe. Zero all around unless you are tracking it and know why you are doing it.

$16.95?? Lol they said like $70 IIRC, that's why I passed on them. I'll head to Nissan sometime. It's like $50 for an alignment right?

Also, I just meant that the drivers side tires are worn more overall

Where else can I get those bolts? They only go up to 2004

I had those on the evo in 235/40/18 and I liked them. I drove them in summer and winter.

Winter I thought they did great in moderate snow of an unplowed street, and did good on ice as well. I have not driven all out snow tires on the evo so I can't compare to that situation.

In summer they were up to par for being what they were, but I wouldn't say they are awesome summer tires.

I do not think these are quiet tires. I have heard some other 18" tires on all wheel drive cars and I would say some of the Falkens were quieter. I think that has some do with suspension setup also. They are loads quieter then an 070 or A046!

They seem to wear well also.

I'll actually be buying these again. I sliced 1 open on the way to work one day. I thought I could buy 1 and shave it down to matach my others but it was just better to buy 3 more after studying the wear better on the tires.

I'm 99% sure that they will work for any Impreza up to, but not including, MY2008.

I hope so. When I searched for some for 2005, they are $33.95 a piece, so just under $70 for the rear...

Are try the same for front and rear?

Thanks Tyson. I think I decided on getting them, I just wanted to make sure no one here had tried them and hated them for whatever reason. We've moved on to my shitty alignment, try to keep up :lol:

4 wheel alignment is $90. Usually $100, but SECCS members get a small discount. Nothing huge obviously, but better than a poke in the eye...

I'll have to look at my budget. Thanks Cory.

Cams are gonna be $400 for all the additional stuff, tires for $550... Cars are expensive :(

That kit I linked includes the two camber bolts and the two nuts, enough for the rear.

The front has OEM camber bolts in the top holes and you should not replace them. They will not yield as much camber adjustment as the aftermarket bolts, but it's simply not safe to use the aftermarket camber bolts to replace the OEM camber bolts, IMHO. However, I do use the same camber bolt kit that I linked in the front and rear of my car.

In the rear, you replace the OEM straight bolt on top with the aftermarket one. In the front, you can do what I've done and replace the lower straight bolt with the aftermaket one. Instruct your alignment guy to do max neg. or max pos. camber (mine's max neg. camber) on the lower aftermarket bolts and then use the top bolts to fine tune the camber.

Some say that using the aftermarket camber bolt in the bottom is not smart as it's likely to slip and screw up your camber settings, but by setting it to max pos. or max neg. camber, the thought is that it's not likely to slip. And in my experience with probably close to 5 alignments with this setup, it has worked flawlessly.

Why are aftermarket bolts more likely to slip than OEM bolts? They're thinner and therefor cannot support the torque that OEM bolts can. IIRC, OEM bolts get 120# and the aftermarket ones can only take up to 80#.

:huh: How do you figure it's any different than using them in the rear?

I think you only need one set for the rear for a street car. The stock one in front is fine for most street circumstances. The -.8 you mentioned is fine in the front. I think a single set in the rear will get you back close enough to -.5 or so.

The top hole in the front strut is not round due to the odd oversize camber bolt, so a smaller head aftermarket bolt will not have the grip/bite that the stock one does. I would agree replacing that one would be sketchy.

The cam on the aftermarket bolts is narrower than the one on the OEM bolts as is the rest of the bolt. It's more likely to slip and wouldn't allow dependable adjustment by the tech, nor would it be secure unless max neg. camber happened to be perfect, but even then...

Dean's right. You should be able to get about -1 in the front with the stock bolts (+-.5) depending on your drop.

Um... aftermarket camber bolts usually come with heavy duty washers... they should actually have more surface area than the stock bolts do on either side of the strut wing. Unless the bolt itself is weak, you should be able to get plenty of clamping force on them to keep the strut from slipping. And even then, a slip results in a bad alignment... not the wheel flying off.

I'm at a loss to how a properly engineered camber bolt is "sketchy" on the front struts yet the same bolt on the rear is just fine.

The top front holes are larger than the lower and both rear holes. at least through one side of the strut and through the knuckle. The other side of the stut has a smaller hole for the narrow part of the OEM bolt.

http://jamalb.net/carsite/pictures/1014061549b.jpg

It seems you've switched to alignment and such but I'm butting in with a comment on tires...
I had the series II conticontacts on my last wrx. They were decent on dry pavement but they were far from anything I'd drive in the snow with, even in a subaru.
Tirerack just did a helpful all season tire test... http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/...y.jsp?ttid=119
I'll probably end up with a set out of that lineup for the winter and keep an extra set of wheels for summer/autox. Some may be a little pricey though.

And a 1.5" grade 8 fender washer 4mm thick is still much bigger than that hole. Are you suggesting that a bolt w/ a big old washer on it that doesn't even see longitudinal load is somehow going to pull through that hole?

Let me put it this way: as long as the camber bolt can properly seat, and is strong enough to generate the necessary clamping force, it's not going to fail any more easily than the OEM bolt. Or more correctly, if it fails it's because you just crashed the car into something hard enough that you're probably going to be more concerned with bent rims, bent control arms, and deployed airbags than your alignment being out a little because the camber bolt slipped.

Besides, you can just put the aftermarket camber bolt in the lower holes for gross adjustment and use the OEM in the upper for fine tuning if you're so worried about that upper hole size.

I'm suggesting that it's an inferior solution to the one I adopted. Can you counter that?

Why would you use a camber bolt in a hole that is larger than that camber bolt was designed for? The cam is just going to spin with little effect on the camber. You want the alignment guy to hold the wheel at the right degree of camber while another tech tightens the bolt that can't support as much torque? It's asinine.

What solution? Doing nothing?

Thanks John. Those conti's are a lil steep, I'll probably stick with the ones I started with. I'll probably try those ones next, if I'm not happy with these.

I am holding one of the Ingalss bolts in my hand and the design just isn't compatible with that bolt position from an engineering perspective IMHO.

This like almost all aftermarket camber bolts make use of a significantly smaller diameter bolt with an ecentric that just barely fits through the standard round hole.

If you installed it per the directions, the adjusting washer would be swimming in the very large hole on the stock upper hole and only a couple of its teeth would actually have any metal to bite into.

I am not suggesting it would have insufficient clamping force, but that it wasn't really designed for that hole IMHO. The washer is nowhere near 4mm and the minimal contact area might well permit the washer to deflect over time and loosen and/or the entire assembly to slide inboard or outboard.

Not saying the wheel is going to fall off, just that I would not use this bolt in that position.

Dean, try better bolts:

http://sagelwwa.fatcow.com/FXTsale5.jpg

I'm not saying you're better off with them in the upper location, just that they should be just as strong as OEM up there.

...and a lot of this confusion came from me reading "you can't use camber bolts at all in the fronts". I went back and re-read Cody's post, and I agree that it would be better to put the bolts in the lower holes and leave the top bolt alone. But that still doesn't change that I think a proper aftermarket bolt up top would be fine.

Those do look nice... I hope there are more washers for both ends not pictured for them though!!! The bolt head is smaller than the hole it is going in. :eek: How much do they add over the stock bolt. Doesn't look like too much. Again, I don't think he needs anything for the front, just one set for the rear should be fine.

Those are the H&R bolts. The washer/collar in the picture are backwards... the flat washer goes on the cam side, the collar goes on the threaded side. In person they seem fine for the job... nothing seems like they're going to pull through anywhere when you torque them.

I don't remember how much adjustment I got out of mine, but it was plenty back in the STX days when I was using them before I had coilovers. My current suspension has adjustable slots in the top of the strut... no camber bolts needed. Macro adjustment comes from flipping over the keys in the slots, micro adjustment comes from the top mounts. 'Course I've got both set to max neg camber (around -3.8 IIRC) and I'd like to be able to get to -4 to -4.5 for the R-compounds. But I'd probably start rubbing the struts if I went that far.

Cute. I only gave one solution to adjusting the front camber beyond OEM limits. I mentioned that it's the one I'm using...

So you're no longer confused right?

Yeah, I just said I had to go back to re-read your post because I had just responded to the whole "it's simply not safe to use the aftermarket camber bolts" comment that I disagreed with. I still contend that proper camber bolts are just fine to use, but I agree that if you're a pussy you can put them in the lower holes instead of putting them in the top holes where god intended for a real man to put them.

:lol:

:lol: :huh: :lol:

Yah, I only have experience with the Ingalls style camber bolts. So you've used the H&R's in the top holes successfully eh? And they're designed for use in the rear holes? Do they have different sized sleeves that go over the cam or did you just ignore the slop when attempting to adjust them? :lol:

I don't remember specifically since it was 7 years ago, but I believe the H&R bolts had different size cams and sleeves depending on the application. And I don't remember if the front bolts fit in the rear struts, but then again I don't know why I would have tried putting front bolts in the rear anyway.

As far as "ignoring slop"... I'm not sure what you're talking about... even if the cam has room to play in the knuckle, the adjustment is made with a gauge on the wheel, so you can get it close by yanking on the wheel then just use the bolt to push the alignment to the correct exact angle, then tighten the bolt. The angle of the wheel is held by the clamping force of the strut on the knuckle, not by the cam in the bolt.

Theoretically, you could just use a skinny bolt, but then you couldn't use the cam as leverage for adjustment. Hell, some struts just have slots in them making fine adjustment a PITA and camber bolts completely useless, but you would use the top mounts on those struts for fine adjustment anyway.

That's what I meant by slop, the cam can play in the moose knuckle.

All of this over a tire recommendation :?: As I believe that is what the thread started as...you guys crack me up
I love it :lol:

I just sit back and watch. An argument between 2 people that know more than me just means I learn a lot :D

Oh my Navigator John Stewart has those snow tires on his WRX. he uses them for Rally cross. their side walls are a bit soft (so comfortable ride !) and they have AWESOME Grip for rallyX / Snow / Dirt. :) they will feel a bit soft on pavement but that's their trade off. Great tread pattern! if you don't wear them down much before winter you'll be set. :)