Anyone riding on falken ZE-912/ZE-512 tires? yes i searched -_-, I think these tires have what Im looking for but I want opinions Options

[enderswift]

hey everyone, I've been doing alot of research on tires lately and I think i've settled on falken ZE-912/ZE-512 tires. According to the interwebs, the falkens are UHP tires that wont kill me when it snows. They seem to offer really good performance (z rated) and tread life but tend to be noisy. I'm a bit suspicious because they sound too good to be true, and their description on falkens website simply gushes about their technical prowess blah blah blah. I've read reviews all over the place BUT i know that most online reviews suck because the reviewers hadn't given the tire any time to break in. Thats why i want to see if anyone here has had these tires for an extended period of time. Do they really grip that well? How much worse do they make our already bad road noise prob? What is snow traction like? Is it true that the sidewall is actually softer (IE handle worse) than on the older 512's?


Im stuck between choosing these falkens a set of toyo proxes or khumo ecstas. I've had the proxes before on a different car and they were AMAMZING even when almost worn out. help me out here

This post has been edited by enderswift: Nov 26, 2008 - 11:54 PM

[richee3]

6strngs, you've got me worried now lol. I know my tires aren't 6 years old by any means, and I know they were discontinued before I ever bought them. I had heard great things about the performance of the 512 vs the 912 though, so I went with the discontinued 512. I was told the 512 was more performance oriented whereas the 912 was more daily driver friendly (still performance oriented though. Hope that little tidbit of information helps somebody out.) Anyway, I just went outside and checked the DOT number on my tires. It wasn't anything like you said, it just said V4H7. There was also the string of numbers and letters that you said, but the 4 digit code was simply V4H7 so I have no idea when they were manufactured.

Oh well, my tires are out of alignment and I've had to skid to a stop a few times, so I need new tires pretty bad anyway

EDIT: Enderswift, I think you'll be fine with the Falkens. Everyone else is saying that theirs didn't last very long. I hardly go flying around any corners as fast as I can, and I doubt if my car could do a burnout if I wanted it to. So my 512's have 18,000 miles and them and have at least that to go. Well, if they wre aligned properly, they would lol. So since you only drive 6,000 miles per year, I think you'd have no problems with 912's. That's just my opinion. In the end, it's your money and you can buy whatever tires you want. Don't buy Falkens just because someone else likes them and told you to.

This post has been edited by richee3: Dec 3, 2008 - 12:59 AM

[6strngs]

6strngs, you've got me worried now lol. I know my tires aren't 6 years old by any means, and I know they were discontinued before I ever bought them. I had heard great things about the performance of the 512 vs the 912 though, so I went with the discontinued 512. I was told the 512 was more performance oriented whereas the 912 was more daily driver friendly (still performance oriented though. Hope that little tidbit of information helps somebody out.) Anyway, I just went outside and checked the DOT number on my tires. It wasn't anything like you said, it just said V4H7. There was also the string of numbers and letters that you said, but the 4 digit code was simply V4H7 so I have no idea when they were manufactured.

Oh well, my tires are out of alignment and I've had to skid to a stop a few times, so I need new tires pretty bad anyway

EDIT: Enderswift, I think you'll be fine with the Falkens. Everyone else is saying that theirs didn't last very long. I hardly go flying around any corners as fast as I can, and I doubt if my car could do a burnout if I wanted it to. So my 512's have 18,000 miles and them and have at least that to go. Well, if they wre aligned properly, they would lol. So since you only drive 6,000 miles per year, I think you'd have no problems with 912's. That's just my opinion. In the end, it's your money and you can buy whatever tires you want. Don't buy Falkens just because someone else likes them and told you to.

yeah, sorry I didn't do a very good job at describing it. it's probably on the other side of the tire. on one side you'll see something like "BJCD AMH" while on the other side, it'll be the same numbers/letters followed by 4 numbers, example: "BJCD AMH 1308" That tirerack link will explain it better, I'm sure.

it's not like you'll die immidiately if your tires are 6 years old, though tire shops will try to tell you that so they can sell you stuff. lol. But, if your tread is seperating, which will look like there is a large air bubble underneath a section of the tread of your tire, it can be dangerous. and older tires are more likely to seperate. Most tire manufacturer's recommend to replace your tires if they are more than 4 years old, except a couple companys, such as michelin, recommend 6 years. When I worked at America's tire/discount tire, we recommended tires after 6 years old, and refuse to touch anything more than 10 years old. honestly, if you take your tires in for a rotation, they should be able to spot if you have any seperation (that is, if you're lucky enough to get somebody who knows what they're doing.) I'm positive though if you took it in for a rotation, and asked them to tell you what year your tires were from, they would do it for you.

one last thing, be sure to check all 4 tire's dates. even if you bought all 4 at the same time, they can still all have different dates on them.