How good are Falken ZE-512's?

saitrix

saitrix

saitrix

Soldato
Joined
2 Jun 2003
Posts
8,950
Location
Nottingham
Hi,

Only just found out that my tyres are useless in the wet. It is too bad, even for me. I get steering squirm when slowing down at a normal pace from like 40. So I am looking at maybe getting some new tyres. I am also going to go down in sidewall size, it don't matter as I don't use my speedo anyways.

So I am looking at 185/60 r13's ideally. Standard for the car is 175/70 r13's. So I have found Falken ZE-512's I can get in the size I want. Opinions on them?

Others in the size are :-

Toyo CF1's
Kumho KH15's
Uniroyal Rallye 340's

Yoko A048's and Toyo R888's :p
 
I would say not very. I have Falken 452's on the front and 512's on the back.

Wet weather confidence is not overwhelming at either end of the vehicle. If I so much as fart at a junction, the tyres light up. I was looking for a cheap alternative for the Eagle F1. I didn't get it.

Pretty Tyre pattern though.
 
Last edited:
Got some on the back of my mr2 turbo. Not bad at all, especially for the price. Better than yoko a022 in the wet, and they're the tyre of choice for Toyota and cost about £110 each. The falkens were £75. Dry... good grip, but the sidewalls flex a bit which is un-nerving at first.

Also got some on the front of my focus, not bad on there either. That's why I tried them on my mr2, which is not to be messed with when it comes to tyres. Overall... happy.
 
Last edited:
Hmm, mixed reactions. As you see I don't have that big choice when it comes to tyres due to the old size. It is silly right now, other day it was wet and I was in 3rd gear doing ~30 and put on like 40% throttle to accelerate and the rear end came out. Not the nicest near the inner ring road junctions. :p

See I could go larger width but I'd have to go up to 205 wide, which is too wide really and not too keen going back down to the standard 175.

Suggestions for more tyre places? Tried camskill and mytyres so far.
 
At the risk of sounding like a smart arse, if they're good enough for the back end of an mr2 turbo... what does that say?

Also completely transformed the turn-in and general grip on my focus compared to the admittedly budget tyres that were on there. They are good tyres at a decent price.

For the guy above to say they are the worst tyres he's ever had, well I can't argue with personal experience but I am shocked.

On the mr2, they are better in the wet than the manufacturer recommended yokohamas and in the dry I'd say they are almost as good (the yoko's are awesome) but with more sidewall flex, which isn't a problem, just takes a bit of getting used to. Thats on 225/50/15s

the other tyre place i can think of is blackcircles, or if you do get the falkens: http://www.falkentyres.co.uk/
 
Last edited:
I hope the ZE512's are significantly better than the ZE502's. On the front of my MR2 it handled literaly like a shopping trolley (i.e. straight on only) at the merest hint of damp.

FK451's on the back were superb tyres.
 
monkeyspank, That's true there. I suppose they will be better than the Uniroyal's I have on there at the moment. I get major sidewall flex too, partly to having 185/70's. So I doubt the ZE512's would be any worse with sidewall flex, especially with me looking at 185/60's. Plus the ZE512's at £36 each arn't exactly expencive which is useful.
 
My old 728i munched its rear Falken 452's in under 8000 miles, and there was me thinking Potenzas were crap for lasting a mere 13,000 miles!!! :(
 
Hmm, not a great tyre, these were fitted the day before we left for the Ring trip in my company Astra, yes i know they took a beating but were vague and generally not very good...

DSCF4372.jpg


I think they lasted less than 3k, (including the ring laps :p )
 
451s are meant to be better than 512s but it depends what size you can get them in.

I like to explore the limits of grip, especially in the wet. Personally I think you could do better by spending quite a lot more, but also much much worse. If I could get F1s in my size I would, but between these, Yokos (at £110 ea + fitting) and toyo T1s, it's the falkens every time.
 
Did anyone else who've used 512's find that the cornering grip was excellent, grip when accelerating was also good but straight line braking they were pretty poor, and worse in the wet?

Or was that just me :o
 
It is hard to know how it compares to what I have. I do have an old design tyre though on it so that won't help for a start.

Monkeyspank, This is as expencive as I can go for tyres for the Dolomite! If you look at the mytyres page for my tyre size you will see how little is available for it. They never made any of the modern performance tyres for 13" rim size. Plus I cannot get 451's in 13" too, only Falken in 13" is the 512's. I would spend more on tyres if I could but the only more expencive ones available are Yoko A048's or Toyo R888's which arnt sensible.

I am looking into whether 205/60's will fit under my arch though.
 
Got a pair of 512 on the front of the pug, brilliant grip. I can push it hard enough for the back tyres to tell me they aren't up to it. Great in the wet too.

And dirt cheap too :)
 
Hmmmm, might have to do some tyre rotation at the weekend. I'll stick the 512's on the front and see how they fare.

I think my problem is that I used to have Eagle F1 GSD-3's and they really have set the bar.

Just could not get them to let go in any weather.

However, the Falken's are on a slightly larger footprint 16X7 than the 15X? (Not sure what it was, but less than 7), so I'd expect that to make up for it a bit, which it does not.
 
I'd be interested to hear how you get on Gaijin. You see last winter I was use to T1-R's that were 195 wide. Little different to what I have now!

I am guessing your old wheels would be 15x6.5.
 
saitrix said:
I'd be interested to hear how you get on Gaijin. You see last winter I was use to T1-R's that were 195 wide. Little different to what I have now!

I am guessing your old wheels would be 15x6.5.
Click to expand...

Will let you know mate - I did think they were 15X6.5 as the tyre size was 195/55/15.

I'm now on 205/45/16 I think.

Will probably do this on saturday.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom