Hi everyone,

I recently bought myself a set of Avon 550's for front and rear.
My car is a 2k2 GLE and it went 67k miles on stock turanzas before I finally gave in and bought these new tires.
I thought i'd share my initial impressions which might not seem worthwhile to those who want >10k mile reviews of this tire, but I thought I would share for those who are kinda hesitant about this new(to me at least) tire company.
Before I start my initial impression, I should say that I am pretty biased since I have NO recollection of how my OEM turanzas performed back when I first bought the max so take my comparison with a grain of salt.

Anyways, driving away from the installer on the streets, I didnt really notice much of anything in terms of comfort, noise, or performance differences. It honestly felt the same as the 67k mile old turanzas.
Then I went home and had to hit the highway and things were okay all the way up to when I hit 50 mph. At >= 50 mph, my steering wheel vibrated, and I could feel some sort of vibration in the floorboard. I couldnt tell if this was the road, my new tires, or an out of whack steering alignment.
Then I found the following thread where a fellow max member reported the same problem:
http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....highlight=avon

I havent had this problem corrected yet, but then again, its only been 50 miles and 24 hours. For those of you who are going to buy this tire, make DAMN SURE the person who mounts and balances your tires knows what he/she is doing and spends more than an hour and a half on the mounting/balancing of your Avons.

IMO, road grip in terms of 0-60 is much improved over the turanzas because every morning I reach a freeway onramp that has no merge area and necessitates a 0 to 60 throttle mash to merge with traffic that is already going 55 mph. Where the turanzas would have minor wheel slip as I start my acceleration, the Avons hook up immediately and with no shimmying to the left and right in the fight for traction.

I also think that handling is also much improved at the limits because of a downhill jug handle I have to take on the way home everyday. I can now coast through the entire jug handle at about 35-40 mph and the max feels alot more stable with slightly less body roll all the way through. On the turanzas, that same jug handle at 35-40 mph brought on a pretty good amount of body roll with less stability(maybe more understeer?).

I cant speak to wet traction, or tread life yet, but there will be more to come.
Anyone else from the Max community have any other things to mention about the Avons?

 

I love mine. I have never experience any signs of them being unbalanced.

 

I have used 3/32" of tread under passive/normal driving in just 2 months which put the tires out of warranty. (I believe that this excessive wear was from the unreasonable weights used to balance the tires)

I have been back 3x to get them to balance and even then they still required stacked weights (which TR does NOT endorse). The tires are okay for about a week and then I get vibration between 50 to 70 MPH.

After calmly taking to a TR CSR and trying to resolve the balancing issue in a sane manner I was 'offered' a 50% discount if I wanted 2 new tires. I simply told them this was not acceptable and that I would pursue other venues for a remedy that was more equitable.

After the call to TR I had my Visa company begin chargeback proceeding, contacted my state AG office and gathered together paperwork to initiate a breach of implied warranty of merchantability claim.

Yesterday I received a pleasant call from TR saying they would send out 2 new tires in exchange for my 2 fronts so they can try to figure out the root of the problem.

Monday we will try two new front tires balanced with Hunter Road Force equipment.

Currently I think the wet traction is better than the stock Potenzas, tread life seems to be slightly inflated (or as I said it could be weight related),and balancing seems to be difficult. While the tires are great to look at they seem heavier than the oems. Sidewalls seem softer than the Potenzas so cornering is a little less precise.

TR service was horrible but has redeemed itself (at least for the Avons since ONLY TR sells them)

 

NOOOOOOOO!

Y'know, RKS, I was kinda hoping that your Avon experience was resolved without removing the tires.
Boy this is kinda discouraging. I hate battling these companies over the phone.
Good thing i've only gone <200 miles on the tires in the last 4 days.
I goto the shop on Tuesday so that they can take a stab at balancing things again. Or do you think I should just say screw it and go back to the turanzas?

Thanks again for the update RKS. Please let us know how Monday works out.
Any feedback from other .org members are appreciated.

 

"Thanks for all the good info about the Avon 550's. It seems like I will most likely purchase the Toyo Proxes 4 over the 550's. It seems Maxima owners are having more problems than the reviews on Tirerack state. The small size difference is no problem and I have seen a pic of them on a 5th gen and the wheel gap looks the same as stock oem tires. The difference in weight is also a big factor and the Proxes 4 weigh less than the oem tires."

 

Hopefully I just ran into a bad batch. BTW if anyone in an 02/03 has the Avons, do you have any rubbing on the inner wheel wells when cutting the wheels as far as they can go?

 

Just my $.02 - I've had a set of 225/45 18s on 18X8 rims for about 4 months, 6/7 K miles. Wet/dry traction is great, my balancing was perfect from the start (used a shop that knows what they are doing for mount/balance), handling is much better than OEM. Only complaint I currently have is that the tires appear to be getting noisier as I wear the tread down, especially when coming to stop. Other than that, I'm impressed so far. The PROXES might have been better, but these were $30 - $40 cheaper than the PROXES.

 

I thought I'd post a follow-up impression after getting things done with Hunter Road Force equipment.

It was nice driving with the max again. Pulling up to that same stop sign down the street from the mechanic, the steering wheel felt real smooth and the floorboard was still. Pulling onto the highway, I was ready for the worst, but things were definitely okay. 50+ mph is semi-smooth in the steering wheel again and the floor board no longer vibrates. I think the Hunter Road Force stuff did the trick.
Well, for now at least.... let's see how long it stays this way.
It's funny though. Either I was psychologically starting to get used to the vibration, or something was improving(breaking) with the tire/suspension because the steering wheel started to vibrate less this morning when I drove it over to the mechanic. I wonder if something happens within the tires in the interim period from when the tire gets mounted onto your rims to the time that you drive it for about 500 miles?

Bottom line: Get the Avons as they're good bang for the buck performance, but make sure that the installer who mounts your rims has Hunter Road Force Equipment on hand. I cant speak to tire longevity and wear patterns yet, but I'll post on that some time next year. Perhaps someone else can comment on this?

 

Had 2 new Avons installed Monday and I am still having noticable vibration between 55 and 75 mph. These were installed with the Hunter Road Force Equipement. I have contacted TR because I am at a loss on what to do next. Either TR can test/install the tires themselves or I guess I'll have to try a different brand.

Maybe my rims are not round but the car had been fine with OEMs and has not been abused or wrecked and the installer did not say anything about the rims. I update on what TR decides to do next.

 

I still feel that same slight vibration from 60 -70mph too, but I only noticed it coming through the steering wheel. However, I am starting to wonder if the Avons will ever really be "smooth" since they are supposed to be higher performance tires than the turanzas. Does the sporty nature of the Avons preclude the >50mph ride comfort that i've come to expect from the turanzas?

My definition of "smooth" comes from 3 personal criteria on smooth roads:
(1) When I look away from the spedometer and just accelerate down an empty highway, the road feel thru the steering wheel doesnt prompt me to look at how fast I am going.
(2) When I look at my hands on the steering wheel while going straight, I dont see them vibrating.
(3) Little to no vibration in the floorboard.

For the moment, the Avons' ride quality is improved after the Hunter Road stuff, but it's definitely not the OEM turanza comfy at >50mph. At the same time however, I am starting to think that this is the trade-off I might have to accept from this "ultra high performance tire". I guess I will also talk it over with TR and see what kind of feedback they can offer me.

I'm also wondering what is going to happen to the ride comfort as the miles roll by. I noticed earlier this morning that the vibration at 65mph was less severe so I'm also wondering if things will smooth out eventually.

This might also sound paranoid, but is it possible we just happened to get a bad batch. I know TR was sold out of Avon stuff for a short period of time so maybe this new batch that recently came in might just be sub-par too?

I would appreciate more feedback from other max owners who also have Avons because its starting to look like only me and RKS are the ones who are hitting a snag here.

 

I decided to go with the Proxes 4 instead of Avon 550's and ordered from Treadepot.com (for $432 no shipping fees because they had a promotion till end of August) this Tuesday and recieved them yesterday!! Really happy with shipping. I would recommend them. Will try to take pics and review the tire after I have them mounted most likely on Friday. Thanks again for the valuable info.

 

All 6 of my Avons are going back Tuesday. I guess I will take a look at the Toyos.

 

I have a Honda Valkyrie motorcycle with Avon Venom-R tires. Although I have no problems with mine, MANY riders have experienced the exact same high speed vibration with the bike tires that some of you are having with the Max tires.

The bike tires (and perhaps the car too?) did NOT have any place notated (e.g. a colored dot on the tire) as where to mount it in relation to the valve stem. Thus, the installer, not knowing any better, places the tire on the rim wherever. Thus, if they place the tire incorrectly (not knowing it of course), they have to weight the HELL out of them to get them to balance.

The solution (at least on the bike tires) was to mark the valve stem location of the offending tire, remove and then reinstall the tire 90 degrees off of where it started (thus a quarter turn of rotation). Then rebalance. Keep messing with it until the weight ends up as little as possible. Takes time of course and sometimes of course, the installer won’t take the time figuring the weight will fix any tire.

This of course assumes that the tire itself isn’t defective to being with.

Again, this is what Avons need for successful installation of their bike tires. Not all tires of course, but it’s what has worked for Valkyrie riders. Not sure if it's the same for the Max, but might be a place to start?

By all means, correct me if I'm wrong and they do have the valve stem dot.

 

the Hunter Road Force Balance equipment actualy tells the installer where to match the tire to the rim so no valve spot is needed.
Even with this equipment my Avons just wouldn't balance to MY liking. I purchased the Pirelli Zero Neros for a few bucks more and while there still is a vibration it is not as bad as the Avons. The installer was actualy surprised since in his opinion the Pirellis are not easy to balance at all.
I actually liked the tread pattern of the Avons as well as the width but I am okay for now with the 235-45-17 Pirellis.

 

I guess I am lucky, 8k miles of smooth ride execpt road noise, I got 225/45/18, just some local small shop which fix flat tire and sell some use tires

 

I thought it would be a good time to update on the Avons now that i've hit 78000 miles on my 2k2 GLE. One word: bittersweet.

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The sweet:
(1).
I love the wet traction the Avons get in the rain. Now, I like calmly plowing through puddles that used to cause a mini startle-response/adrenaline-surge/palm-sweat with the OEM turanzas.
(2).
I am satisfied/pleased by the dry traction, but then again, I accelerate like an elderly person so I cant comment on it like you kids who chirp tires on green lights and turn on street corners at 40 mph.
(3).
Tread wear appears fairly satisfactory, but I have no scientific way of really measuring how much has been shaved off by the roads(accepting ideas if you have any)
(4).
Road noise is quite comparable to my turanzas, but in both cases they were drowned out by my stereo or the wind rushing through the windows.
(5).
Good speeding deterrent(see #1 below)

The bitter:

(1).
Frickin vibrations in the floorboard and steering wheel at >65mph. Hunter Road force stuff from 9 months ago was only so helpful. Im guessing that as time went by and pot holes were rolled over, the calibrations/weights initially used in the Hunter Road balancing just came apart. Pretty lame.
I'm also starting to wonder what rotating the tires is going to do for the vibrations I feel in the steering wheel and floor board(i'm trying to fool myself into thinking that the two front tires are asymmetric).
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I had originally hoped that the vibrations would go away after the subsequent Hunter Road calibrations, but I think I was in denial and simply didnt want to give up on them. In hindsight, I should have done what a previous poster did and returned them.

Do aftermarket tires in general just suck in terms of quality control? Reason I ask is because my very first car had the same sort of problem after replacing its tires, but I had always chalked it up to a cruddy Mazda 626 suspension that wasnt designed to drive at 75 mph smoothly. Now it seems that I probably should not have dismissed the 626 so quickly.

Does anyone have any other ideas what might be wrong with the car that is bone stock except for the tires, powerslot rotors, and hawk pads?
(One of my friends was suggesting that the vibration could even be drive train related)