# E39 tires



## KevinM (May 2, 2003)

I'm new to the forum. I currently drive a sterling grey 2002 530(s) five speed with SP, PP, etc. My previous care was a very similar 1999 528i(s).

After 12,000 miles I have burned through the rear set of OEM Continental ContiSportContacts. While I have no complaint with the tires, I consider this rate of wear excessive. My 528 had Dunlop SP2000E as OEM, and the rear tires lasted until about 24,000 miles.

I'll have to replace all four tires as I do not plan on buying more Continentals. Any suggestions? I have read much about Bridgestone Pole Position S-O3s, and a person from Tire Rack recommended Yokohama AVM 100s (or something to that effect) which are much less expensive.

Anyone have any advice based on their experience? The tires are 235/45-17s all around and I do not rotate them.


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## bmw540i (Mar 30, 2003)

I would either go with Bridgestone or Michellin pilots.:thumbup:


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## Ågent99 (Jan 7, 2002)

Read some of the reviews on tirerack.com for the stock size tire you have.

I am on my second set of OE Michelin Pilot Primacy tires. They work fine for me so I'll stick with them.

Chris


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## mola (Dec 18, 2001)

Kumhos :thumbup:

I have these









and pretty happy with them... also they are only $91 each from Tirerack.

Once I wear out the Kumho 712, I plan on going with the Kumho MX.
about $121 for 235/45-17 so a pretty good price.








:thumbup:

At these prices, it wouldn't hurt as much replacing them


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## Ågent99 (Jan 7, 2002)

Dunno, Mola...Malcolm (roxnadz) says his ears are bleeding from the noise his Kumhos are providing... 

Chris :dunno:


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## BillP (Jan 4, 2002)

If you are disappointed with the lifespan of your Contis, then don't get the SO3. I think I'll be lucky to get 15K out of mine. Killer tire, perhaps the best street performance tire, but not a long lasting one. I have 8-10K on mine and they are still fairly quiet - zero regrets about getting them.

You didn't give us much info about your driving style. Specifically, your priority of noise vs. wear vs. dry performance vs. wet performance vs. price

Agent99's suggestion to check out the Tirerack reviews is a good one. You'll quickly get a sense for what tires you should be looking at. Making the final decision between two or three of them will be tough, but at least you can narrow it down from the current field of 50 or so tires to choose from.


Bill


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## sb540 (Jan 25, 2002)

My Kuhmo 712s (245/18) are suddenly very loud too. Quiet at first, but with maybe 7K miles, really loud. So I am doing more burnouts in an attempt to wear them out.

Next time I think SO3s.


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## vietsb (Apr 8, 2003)

Take a good look at the treadwear on the Pilot Sports. I'm pretty anti-Yoko after going thru 3-4 sets in my lifetime, so I won't even consider them anymore. Another one to look at is the new Goodyears. They wouldn't have even been on my list, but my buddy really likes them on his Jetta and I'm seeing and hearing a few E39 folks trying them and liking them.

As with everyone above, check the tirerack.com comments section for real-world opinions.


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## roxnadz (Jan 10, 2003)

Ågent99 said:


> *Dunno, Mola...Malcolm (roxnadz) says his ears are bleeding from the noise his Kumhos are providing...
> 
> Chris :dunno: *


They are. The tires are really, _really_ bad.

I usually do not complain about these sorts of things, but they've caused me to have my rear wheel bearings checked to ensure that they're okay. Two places have confirmed that it's my tires.

I have 712s all around, put on new ones in the rears around 17K miles ago; the fronts got new ones around 7K miles ago. This is the 2nd pair of Kumhos I've had on this car since I bought it. I replaed the rears because they were howling before, and now they're at it again, big time. So far the fronts are okay, but I start to hear the rears upwards of 30 mph now.

I wonder how the MXs are - if they're any better road-noise wise...


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## Ågent99 (Jan 7, 2002)

sb540 said:


> *My Kuhmo 712s (245/18) are suddenly very loud too. Quiet at first, but with maybe 7K miles, really loud. So I am doing more burnouts in an attempt to wear them out.
> 
> Next time I think SO3s. *


Put 'em on the El Camino...you got posi on that, right? 

Chris :guitar:


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## Montreal Bleu (Apr 23, 2003)

I have Michelin Pilot Sports on. Significant upgrade from the OEM Dunlops I had....

Its been about 5-7K miles and I absolutely love them...Lets hope they stay quiet and continue to perform....

Peter


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## mottati (Apr 15, 2003)

*i'm tire shoping too*

I've been using the bridgestone S03's for nearly a year, and in that time have gone thru 2 sets of rears and one set of fronts. That's in about 16k miles, BUT also maybe 5 weekends on the track. The s03's are imho, the best performance street tire out there. I recently got a set of R compound tires, on used M5 wheels that are for track use, so I'm thinking about something a with a little more lifespan, accepting a little less performance.

Anyone try the contisport contact 2? Better treadwear than the original, and OE on many mbz and porsche leads me to think it may be a good tire.

I'd like some feedback on the eagle F1 too, good reviews on tirerack, but mostly corvette and camaro guys writing the reviews.

There's always the michellin pilot, but it's the most expensive.
Mike


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## wbg94583 (Apr 6, 2003)

*Pilot Sports*

I had Pilot Sports on my 98 528i and as the tread was worn to about 1/2 it's life the tires became fairly noisy. But, they're performence/tracking/turn-in, etc. was really great. Not sure about life as I had the car for only a few months.


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## mola (Dec 18, 2001)

roxnadz said:


> *They are. The tires are really, really bad.
> 
> I usually do not complain about these sorts of things, but they've caused me to have my rear wheel bearings checked to ensure that they're okay. Two places have confirmed that it's my tires.
> 
> ...


JOY,

something to forward to 

Have you tried rotating them? does it help if you've tried?


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## KevinM (May 2, 2003)

Thanks for all the opionions. I'll mainly be driving in the dry (Arizona!) and I dry somewhat aggressively but do value tread life as well...noise is less of an issue for me.

Anyone try to replace ContiSportContacts with SportContact2s? The least expensive option for me would be to buy a set of SportContact2s for the rear and leave the original ContiSportContacts on the front, as they have significant tread life left.

Anyone have any opinions of the feasibility of this?


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## JEM (May 3, 2003)

First off, how did you wear them out so quickly? Okay, if they were S-02s I could understand it, but not OEM Continentals. 

What are you running for tire pressures? How did they wear - have you had your alignment checked?

Why don't you rotate? Your tires would be much happier if you did. In commuter use, the front tires on an E39 will wear the outside edge a little more quickly, the rears will usually wear the inside. Rotating every 6K or so will even this out - and particularly as the tire gets close to the wear limit, a tire worn evenly is IMO much safer than a tire worn smooth at one edge. 

Also, why would you replace two tires if buying Continentals but four otherwise? Unless you bought two R-compound track tires (or two Pep Boys UTQG-treadwear-500 gripless rim-protectors) there's not going to be so much difference in tire behavior as to cause problems; further, there's likely to be as much difference between two different models of Conti (particularly when one end is half-worn and the other's new) as between Contis and, say, a Bridgestone RE750. Remember - if you buy two, the full-tread tires go on the rear. The half-tread tires will actually have a little more grip on dry roads, but the full-tread tires will have better wet-weather water-resistance, so they go on the back so as not to create a tail-happy situation in the wet. 

I've always liked the Dunlop SP8000, it's an older tire design, non-M&S-rated (not that that matters to me in California), good grip, good steering response, good life (typically 28-32K miles/set). It isn't the grippiest tire out there these days but it's got good real-world grip and is comfortable. I've had probably six or seven sets on four different cars with good results. 

Went from the OEM SP2000s to S-02s on the spousal 540i, grip was great but the S-02 is not a particularly civilized tire NVH-wise nor does it last very long, they're now gone and that car's back on SP8000s. 

The M5's on S-03s, much grip and more civlilized than the S-02, I like them a lot but wouldn't buy them for daily-commute-type use as I don't expect them to last long. The OEM Dunlops only went 15K, but that was because I chewed the fronts to bits in a series of track days...the rears would have gone another 10K but by then I would have been bored with them, they didn't have quite enough grip for that car. 

The Yokohama you're referring to is the AVS ES100, I think; I've heard good things about it but haven't yet driven one. 

Also heard good things about the Bridgestone RE750, which replaces the disastrous RE730. The RE730 had good grip and good life but was unbelievably noisy. 

The RE730 had replaced the old RE71 which was originally developed, I think, for the Porsche 959 and years ago was hugely expensive; by the end of its run it was cheap, the absolute grip-per-dollar champion and pretty comfortable but not very long-lived.


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## jvr826 (Apr 22, 2002)

*Former S-02 now S-03 Guy*

I had 2 sets of S-02's on my former 528i and I loved everything about them, except the noise. After about 10k miles they got real noisey. I ran the stock size on the Style-5 wheels, never rotated them.

Now I'm running 18's on the 530, S-03's. I have about 14k on them, I've rotated them once, but due to a shitty wheel repair job, I can't do that again until I get new wheels. I'm seeing wear on the rears that tells me they were overinflated - i ran them at the factory 41psi spec for about 12k of those miles. Fronts have visibly more tread left and even wear, run those about abt 36psi.

I love these tires! Yesterday I took a very spirited drive from San Francisco to Monterey. My route took me down 280 to 92 to 35 to ROUTE 9 to 17, the rest is boring.

Freeway was done in serious downpours, rain like that I have not seen in a long time. No hydroplaning, no wavering, she was arrow straight the whole time.

Next up were the wet roads on 35 and Route 9. Having never pushed the limits of these tires in the wet before I drew on my experience from the S-02 days and pushed it a little. Amazing grip in light rain and wet roads while I was on 35. I had total confidence they could be pushed harder.

I got to Route 9, a delicious ribbon of super smooth asphault that is a favorite of motorcyclists and sporting car drivers alike. I know it like the back of my hand - it plays like a movie in my head as I negotiate every sweet turn. I pushed the 5'er hard on this portion of my trip, all the while staying in the sweet spot of my power band, traction control ON, full on controlled assault down the mountain - the pace was good 55-60mph on the wet roads only slowing for the really tight hairpins. The S-03's never barked, chirped, or gave me any indication they were unhappy with the pace.

My return trip up 9 was even more fun. Now the roads were dryer and I had a clear shot all the way to the top. The I6 was singing and oncoming drivers were shielding themselves from the gleeming of my ear to ear grin as I did it all over again in reverse order.

I gotta get out and play like that more often!

The moral of the story - I'm an S-03 guy and see no reason to switch. Now with the OEM Conti's, I would be nervous backing out of my driveway in the rain. NO THANKS!


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## AK (Jan 19, 2002)

Ågent99 said:


> *Dunno, Mola...Malcolm (roxnadz) says his ears are bleeding from the noise his Kumhos are providing...
> 
> Chris :dunno: *


You sure it isn't from that music he listens to?


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## KevinM (May 2, 2003)

*tire rotation*

So, if I rotate the tires every 6K miles, which tire should be rotated where, especially if two of the tires are older? Is there a set pattern or does the shop determine the rotation from the wear pattern on the tires?


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## sb540 (Jan 25, 2002)

*Re: tire rotation*



KevinM said:


> *So, if I rotate the tires every 6K miles, which tire should be rotated where, especially if two of the tires are older? Is there a set pattern or does the shop determine the rotation from the wear pattern on the tires? *


Rotating means switching tires front to back on the same side of the car. You never move a passenger side tire to the drivers side. All shops know this, so don't worry about it.


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## JEM (May 3, 2003)

You can move a tire across the car, but doing so reverses the direction of rotation of the tire. 

Once upon a time, back when the domestic carmakers were new to radial tires and they ordered up really soft, cheaply made radials, reversing the direction of rotation was almost 100% guaranteed to cause belt-slip. You'd get all kinds of lumps and puckers in the tire and eventually they'd start to come apart. So cross-rotation was considered to be a Really Bad Thing To Do. 

A lot of those '70s/'80s US radials would develop belt slip at the slightest hint of hard use even if they weren't cross-rotated, so avoiding changing the direction of rotation was almost more of a treating-the-symptom-not-the-cause situation anyway.

Nowadays, I don't know of any problems in doing it but I'm not a tire engineer. I've cross-rotated tires that see track use with no ill effects, but it's not necessary to equalize wear on a road car, and if you have directional tires it's obviously not going to have things spinning in the right direction for water shedding (which is usually what directionality is all about) so it's probably not something you want to do anyway except with a specific reason.

Just move the front tire to the rear, and the rear to the front, on each side.


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