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Suggest tyres on an E46?

Mr_Sukebe

Mr_Sukebe

Mr_Sukebe

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I'll be replacing the 255/35/18 rears on my E46 shortly and seem to have read three key recommended tyres:
- Michelin Pilot Sport 2. Apparently std fit and liked by a lot of BM drivers on the PH forums
- Goodyear Eagle GSD3s. As liked by many here
- Falken 452s. Potential darkhorse. I've read of a few people who rather like this tyre and rate it as being at least on par with the GSD3s.

Any thoughts or suggestions?
 
I like the Michelin PS2's, atlhough I can only rate them against Dunlop SP9000's on an E46. The PS2's have excellent grip and control, wet or dry. Expensive though.
 
I've just bought some PS2's for mine. They are replacing PS1s - rears lasted about 23k with a couple of track days & 2 trips to the Ring. Fronts probably good for 30k.

PS2s seem very highly rated by e46 owners, they're not cheap though.
 
PS2's longevity is made irrelevent by the fact they cost an absolute fortune. Eagle F1's were comprehensively better than PS1's but I've yet to see an independant test of the PS2's.
 
After 8000 miles, period 19th January to date, my PS2's are at 5mm on the front and 3mm on the rear.

Driving style is not condusive to low tyre wear :p
 
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I had PS2 (worn) which I replaced with FK452s (new) on the front of my mondeo and I found the FK452s gave me much more confidence but that might of been because of the wear on the PS2s.

I can't comment on other tyres and the FK452s wear rate as I only had the car for another 3 months once I had them fitted.
 
PS2's get my vote.

Watch out for them when their brand new though, they can be quite slippery and take a while to wear in.
 
I wouldn't replace the rears only if I was changing brands, if you look on bmwland a lot of people have had handling problems when they had different tyres on the rear to the front - PS on the front and PS2 on the rear especially.
 
I have PS2's on my Subaru, they are incredible in the dry but I dont rate their wet road performance too highly. They are seriously expensive though, my 225/40/18's cost about £130 each fitted, and thats from a place round here who are v v cheap. I had SP9000's on my 330Ci and really liked them.
 
Im currently considering the Falken 452 for the 200. Since I fitted a LSD I find the rear grips like a very grippy thing but find the GDS3s too soft and get quite a bit of bounce in the tyre even with a little extra pressure in them.

From everything on the sxoc about those two tyres it would seem the Falkens are pretty much on par with the F1s in the dry and do not delaminate when driven really hard but the F1s are definately better in the wet.

Camskill seem to be cheapest for the Falkens if you are going to go down that route.

Im also considering the GY Eagle Asymetrics
 
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My Brother just put a set of Falken 452's onto the 530i sport (bigfoot edition).

They get the thumbs up & he's picky about tyres.
 
Thanks for the feedback.
I've just ordered a pair of 452s, and will let you know how I get on with them. As they're a good 1/3rd cheaper than the SP2s, I'm curious to see how I get on. At present I have Dunlop SP9000s, but have read that they're quite noisy when compared to alternatives.
At the end of the day, if the 452s are really rubbish, it's not that much money down the pan to have them replaced.
 
What's the load rating on the 452's?

Do you get the option of standard & XL?

If you do - take time to think whether you want a softer or harder ride & therefore sloppier or pin sharp turn in.

XL option (if there is one) will firm up the ride but provide more steering repsonse.

As a yardstick - the load rating of the standard 452 is slightly lower than the load rating of the non-XL GS-D3's.
 
merlin said:
As a yardstick - the load rating of the standard 452 is slightly lower than the load rating of the non-XL GS-D3's.
Click to expand...

So the Falkens are more squishy than the F1s or does that just mean they can handle more weight, are they completely linked or not ? :confused:

If I were to guess, I would say the XL ones had more strength in the sidewalls making them stiffer but thats just a guess.
 
Yeah the XL's have re-inforced sidewalls hence you should find a difference in the load rating between vanilla and XL.

With your car though I'd imagine you're running very low profiles, so the effect of a squishy sidewall on a wafer thin profile will be mitigated. But on a taller profile (BMW 330) - you'll certainly feel it.

Depends of course what you're used to.

I think the load rating on my mid range/almost budget tyres on the 330 was 91, which is poor.
 
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