Triple-H

I did.
I still don't buy the idea that more negative camber causes our rear tires to last longer.

frank b

I'm happy with the S02s. I picked up a bolt in the left rear at about 10k miles and decided to replace them. I'm at 15k now, and all four look good. I got the tires through Jim at Tirerack, but nobody around here wants anything to do with mounting tires they didn't sell. A friend of a friend works at a local Mavis and did the job for me. What a hassle! I think I'll give Costo a try next time.

Kyras

That's part of the reason I've never done the Tire Rack routine. But as I said, our Costco won't be selling Bridgestones after Dec 31st. They will only have Michelin and ?(I forgot the other brand). I don't know if it's all Costcos across the country or just in Cali.

raymo19

Triple-H -

If you were to go to 17" wheels would you still prefer Bridgestone (S03)? This is not a hypothetical as I will be getting new wheels soon and would appreciate your input.

mikegarrison

I have crashed my car twice in the rain on S02s (once on the street and once on the racetrack). I have never crashed any other car on any other tires in any other conditions (unless you count snowmobiles, of which I have crashed several). I'm not blaming the tires -- I was the driver who drove the car into those conditions. But new or used, the SO2 does not handle rain well at all. To stay within the safety margin that is appropriate for street use, you have to slow way down -- much more so than with a tire like the SO3.

Not only does the SO2 rubber compound not deal well with the cold and wet, but the rear tires are really hydroplane-prone.

ralper

Bill,

I had 11,500 on my rears when I replaced them. I'm sure I could have gotten another 2,500 miles out of them but with the horror stories that I heard I didn't want to take any chances.

I did notice that the tires seemed to get "harder" as they wore. They didn't feel quite as "grippy" as when they were new. When I put the new rear S0-2s on the car felt much better.

ralper

Just to clarify things a little, I am very happy with my S0-2s. I love the way they feel and drive. Rain isn't an issue because I don't take my S out in the rain, and even though I once in a while get caught in a downpour, I become very, very conservative when the roads get wet.

My only problem with the S0-2s is the wear. They don't seem to last quite as long as I'd like. Still, I'm not ready to trade the handling for a few more miles, and considering that I only put about 5,000 miles on my S per year, the S0s last a few years anyway.

As most of you have suggested, I'm probably going to stick with the S0-2s when it's time to replace my tires.

I have enjoyed this thread, it has been interesting to get the feedback from everyone. Please continue, I've learned some things about alignment and etc that I didn't know.

An aside: For those of you who would buy from Tire Rack but don't know where to get the tires mounted, try the service department at your Honda dealer. Mine mounted my tires. My Acura dealer did my TL's tires (maybe the only thing that the Acura service department ever got right), and my Toyota dealer mounted my 4Runner's tires.

mikegarrison

Yes, this happens to a lot of tires, but it is fairly severe in the S02. Ideally they should be replaced well before the wear bar has been reached.

It is another nice characteristic of the S03 that their grip level over the life of the tire is a flatter curve.

The S02 is an excellent warm-weather dry performance tire, and has very good handling characteristics on the S2000. It is not in the same class as an R-compound track tire, but it still does quite well on the race track. Much better than most street tires would.

As I said way back when this thread began, if you have been happy with it and you don't drive it in the rain, my recommendation would be to just get another set of S02s. Why mess with what you like?

Triple-H

Great question, and biy do I wish I had an answer, but I have never even thought about going up to 17". I guess if I were I would look into the S-03s and I would post in the Tire & Weel Forum and ask people about their experiences. Sorry I could not offer up anything better.

Triple-H

Sorry, we do not agree, and it would be silly for us to think we are going to. I've done well over 100mph in the rain on used S-02s at the track, and the only time I was really surprised by their performance was when I hit VTEC in 3rd and felt the backend wiggle. I will say the S-02 is very prone to ill effects when cold, but getting heat into the tires on the track is not much of a problem when you have such a high brake load track.

On the streets I'm amazed at how in the rain I can let out the clutch and slowly stand on the gas and have those silly things stick right on up to 9 grand. And who knows just how much the weight and structural stiffness I have added to the rear of the car effects this, but there is no question the custom rollbar added ~ 50 to 60 pounds and totally changed the rigidity.