Question to anyone who has these Sport A/S tires... Has anyone noticed that these tires visually look narrower (width of the whole time) than the regular stock tires?

Last week I replaced my stock tires with the Sport A/S tires and even went with 235/45's and they look narrower than the 225's that were there before. When I got my Pilot Sport XGT-Z4's in 235's on my '00 Maxima, they looked noticably wider and nicer.

The Sport A/S tires drive great, just disappointed with the visual appearance...

 

I notice the same thing. I have 17x7.5 wheels and just replaced 235/45R17 with Sport A/S 245/45R17. They do look narrower, but who cares they perform MUCH better.

 

Stiffer sidewall maybe? Not sinking down quite as much? I have them too, but hadn't really thought about it.

 

Yeah, I haven't noticed. They are THE best tires for Maxima's. Hands down.

 

Both my Sport XGT-Z4's and these A/S tires are Z-rated (stiffness of the sidewall) so that cannot be the issue. I am thinking they might be a bit narrower because the A/S tires are meant to be good in 'all seasons'. Narrower is better in snow...that is a given.

I have noticed that with 235/45 tires, the 235 is not always 235mm in width.

 

Hmmmmm. Do me a favor, carguyrob. Go out and measure the width of your tires in millimeters. Let me know what you find out. Thanks.

 

I am at work now... I can do it in a couple hours.

 

Kul! I'll stay tuned!

 

sears still sell the pilot xgt-z4s but michelin's web site say they no longer are being manufactured. The pilot a/s are to be the replacements for the xgt-z4s.

anyway i would love to get a set of them a/s's.... shiet...yesterday i kept spinning tires everywhere and it was dry as heck... i was just at 3k rpms at most too.... must have been the shell gas i got on saturday...

i also heard that them a/s's were on back order at many places...

 

I know of a GREAT place in the Chicago burbs that can get the A/S's quickly (3 days for me) and prices them very competitively with Tire Zone via the mail. In addition you get free rotation for life and the ability to talk to a real person face-to-face should you ever run into a problem! That in itself makes it all worthwhile.

If anyone in the area needs more info, send me an e-mail.

 

I have noticed they visually look slightly less wide. That may be due to the tread pattern with the grooves in the middle of the tire.

I have noticed a slight increase in dry traction, but the most increase in traction is wet weather. I literally feel 95% as safe in the wet as I do in the dry.

 

Well, it is not just visual.... my 235/45ZR17 Pilot Sport A/S's are 210mm wide. That is about a full inch narrowing than they should be. I know that the width being in milimeters is supposed to be a guideline, but I do find this really disappointing.

When I had my XGT-Z4's, they gave the same visual effect that you get when you look at a 330Ci with the sport package...very cool looking.

 

I just got back from a quick visit to my tire salesman to ask why he thinks the A/S's are narrower than other tires. He couldn't imagine that would be the case. We parked my car right next to his (a Saab 9-5 Aero) and he also has 235/34ZR17's, but Pilot Sports (high performance, NOT all season) on his car. They look night and day different. His tires look wide and aggressive...not like something you would find on a Lumina.

He called his Michelin distributor and is trying to get an answer why there is literally over a full inch difference between our two tires. He said he will get back to me in the next day.

He also said he will switch out my tires for any others at no extra charge (possibly a credit). If they offered the XGT-Z4's, I would consider going with those, but he confirmed that they are discontinued and not replaced the A/S model.

We will see...

 

I'm sure it is a direct attempt to improve the all-season traction on the Pilot Sport A/S. Less rubber on the road = less rubber to slip by the pavement.

 

Tirerack web sites kinda dispel this theory...according to the web sites & specs the Pilot A/S should be a bit wider than the Potenzas -at least on the section width...unfortunately, cant get the data for the tread width itself as Michelin does not provide that in their specs. Details follow; all tires mounted on 7" rims:
Potenza RE92:
Section width: 8.9"
Tread width: 6.7"
Diameter: 25.9

As a comparison, the Michelin A/S have
Section width: 9.0
Tread width: N/A
Diameter 26.1

The Michelin MXM4s I ordered for my car measure:
Section width 9.6
Tread width: N/A
Diameter: 25.9

I keep saying those MXM4's are gonna be a great tire....cant wait for them to get here...

Galo 'son of Y2KSEV'

 

what's up w/ the mxm4's, and why the over the p.sport a/s?

 

Holy **** !!!

That's just wrong. And I'm not buying for one second that the tire should be narrower for better wet traction. 235 mm either is or it isn't!

I can't wait to hear what the Michelin rep has to say . . .

 

than the A/S...quieter, softer riding at the expense of less aggressive performance. Also like 20 bucks cheaper per tire.

I was looking to soften my ride a bit & reduce some of the loud road noise the Maxes are famous for -something I dont think the rather aggressive tread pattern on the Pilot A/S would have delivered. Plus, with Eibachs, Tokicos, light rims, etc. my Max is already capable of scandalously ilegal cornering speeds so...why pursue more of that at the expense of over-the-road comfort?

IMHO, ultimate performance you use only 2% of the time and the other 98% of the time that desire for ultimate performance is costing you in noise, harshness, etc. I've made that mistake before, this time this time I did not wanna go there.

 

One thing I did notice is that the MXM4s have a lower UTQG rating than the Pilot Sport A/Ss. The MXM4s are rated 300/A/A while the Pilot Sport A/Ss are rated 400/AA/A. I guess you have to ask yourself whether the additional tread life and traction is worth an extra $20.00 per tire. Either way, you can't go wrong.

Let us know what you think of the MXM4s when you get them installed, Galo.

 

I just ordered some Michelin AS Pilot Sports 235/50/17s. My local tire shop should get them in by Thursday or Friday. I got a decent price for them at $215 each and free mounting and balance. I'm not sure if the road hazzard I bought for these tires ($10 per tire for the life of the tire) is a good deal or not but I decided to get it. All things considered it does come out to a better deal than tirerack's price which includes shipping and then having to pay a shop to mount them ($10-$20 per tire)

Now about this bad news of these tires being narrower than the 225s. If this is true, then that would totally suck. I already feel as thought the 225s are just a tad too thin or skinny looking. This is why I opted for the 235s. I'm going to the tire shop early tomorrow morning and talk to the owner. If these Michelins are indeed narrower than 225s, then I don't want them. I'll just get the Pirellis or the Michelin MXM4s in 235/50/17. Damn, I would really like to see some pics of how these AS Pilot Sports tires look. At any rate, I'd be happy to post my findings of these particular tires when I get them in a few days.

Don

 

Funny thing, they make the stock RE92 in two different size 225s. Ours is the smaller - narrower. When I got my pilots (225) they were noticably WIDER than the re92s.

The master of all things rubber doesn't know this?

Seriously, not all 225s (for ex) are exactly the same size - don't know why but it is true. Even if they were the same, there are some reasons that once installed they will vary even more. For example, rim size. Put 225s on a 7 inch rim and they will be narrower than on a 7.5 inch rim because of the way they seat.

As for the saab example, it may be an optical illusion. I have a friend with a viggen. It's low stance and body shape gives an optical illusion that his tires are far wider than mine. We both have the exact same tires and they measure the same width.

 

That's true, Max_Gator. But in the case of carguyrob 235s, I don't believe the difference in width should be 25mm. Do you?

Maybe someone with another make of 235/45R17 tires mounted on their OEM rims would be willing to measure the width of their tires for us. How about it, guys. Wanna give us a hand?

 

From my experience looking at my car with the new tires 235/50/17
I can't justify that the width of 235/50/17 is smaller that 225/50/17.

when I did compare it tire to tire before they mounted on the wheels
235/50/17 indeed look wider than the potenza 225/50.

EU

 

210mm wide...where?? Tread or sidewall to sidewall? If tread, so be it. The only measurement that needs to be 235 for a 235 tire is the sidewall to sidewall dimension.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/general/size.htm

 

That is correct, jjs. Did you measure from sidewall to sidewall, carguyrob?

 

I held a screwdriver flush against the sidewall and used a mm ruler to measure the exact width. 210mm on my Pilot Sport A/S'. The actual treadwidth is quite a bit narrower than that.

I used that same process to measure the Pilot Sports on the Saab 9-5 (7.5" rims) and the car measured in at 235mm for 235/45 series tires.

So no, it is not an optical illusion...the ruler doesn't lie.

I have still not heard back from my tire salesman about feedback from Michelin. And my tire contact is not challenging me at all...he also thought they looked very narrow...

 

All right then. Please keep us posted.

 

I don't know the answer, but . . .

that may not be the relevant measure. I think there is a difference between the section width and the tread width. I don't know which is which AND I don't know which is measured to get the 225 (for ex).

I recall there being a site somewhere that dealth with this issue but don't recall what site it is.

 

Go up five posts . . .

 

DOH!

Guess I hadn't been keeping up.

Anyway, I read it again.

I'm not certain you can measure the tire when it is on the car, though. The weight, inflation and rim size vary the width substantially. We are already comparing a 7" rim against a 7.5" rim, right on the Saab, right? Seems that difference alone would account for around 1/2 an inch.

Especially if he's running tires that are "too wide" for the rims!

 

Hmmmmm. Interesting point. I suspect that the tire is measured on the rim when the rim is OFF the vehicle, but I'm not sure. Anyway, here's Dunlop's writeup on Tire Width:

"To accurately measure the width of a tire, the tire must be mounted on a rim. Since a tire's section width is larger if the tire is mounted on a wide rim, and smaller if it is mounted on a narrow rim, each tire is measured on a specific rim width."

"For example: For tires with aspect ratios from 80 to 50, the measuring rim, also called the design rim, is specified to be 70% of the section width. For tires with aspect ratio less than 50, the measuring rim is 85% of the section width."

Source: http://www.dunloptire.com/tiretech/?...tire_width.txt

 

Still doesn't explain why my Pilot XGT-Z4's on my '00 Max (same 7.0 rim) were 235mm wide (and looked it), but the Pilot A/S's on my '02 Max are 210mm wide (and also look it).

As for the Saab having 1/2" wider rims, the difference isn't subtle. It looks like my car has 205's and he has 235's on his car...drastic difference. (and those numbers I provided are pretty close to the actual difference between our two cars) A 1/2" difference in rims will make a difference, but a full 25mm (1" difference).

Still waiting for my answer from Michelin...

 

I have to get my fronts replaced, so I have a Michelin choice at my local Costco:


$136 215/55 16 MXV4 + standard size

$141 225/50 16 Pilot Sport A/S


How will 225/50 16 work on a Max? The Pilot Sports would seem to be a better deal