Replaced Yokohama Parada Spec-X with Pirelli Scorpion Zero

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2009 CX-9 Touring AWD
This tire has been great but it is no longer available, got about 55,000 miles out of them. What's the best option to replace these with now?
 
What do you want from your new tires? Many of these attributes are mutually exclusive...you can't get the best traction and the best tread wear in the same tire, for example.
  • Longest tread life
  • Best dry traction
  • Best wet traction
  • Best snow traction
  • Quietest ride
  • Most comfy ride
  • Crispest handling
  • Lowest rolling resistance
  • Lowest price
  • ...gott'a be something else...
From barrystiretech.com....."There are three properties that can be traded off with one another - Tread wear, Traction, and Rolling Resistance. You can maximize one of these properties, but it has to come at the sacrifice of at least one of the others. "
 
Just had these installed. Is this amount and stacked configuration of wheel weights a concern?
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You can watch the stack of weights. If they fly off get them redone better. One way would be to have the shop rotate the tire 180° on the wheel, then rebalance. If they don't fly off, you're good.
 
Neither tires nor wheels are perfectly round and perfectly uniform balance. Many (not all) brands of tires have yellow and/or red dots on the tires from the factory inspection. Some wheels have dimples or other markings at the low point of the wheel's eccentricity.

Tires are measured and marked from the factory indicating their light spot, and for some tires with their high point for their radial runout/radial force variation.
Yellow indicates the lightest spot on the tire.
Red indicates the high point for the radial runout/radial force variation.

The former is a measurement of weight, while the latter is a measurement of roundness.

Yellow dot only: Align to valve stem

Yellow and Red Dot: The red always takes priority if the rim has a white dot or dimple; in such case align red to white. The white dot indicates the low point for radial runout/radial force variation of the rim.

If there is no white dot or dimple forget the red dot and align the yellow dot to the valve stem, then balance the wheel & tire the usual way.
 
It looked odd to me, as each wheel has some variation of these .25 oz weights. There are red and yellow dots on the tires but I didn't see the correlation to these weights. Also looks like the tech didn't clean the rims first before applying the weights.

I never noticed how the weights were configured with the previous set of tires.

It's actually very smooth riding with no vibrations at 75mph (as fast as I managed on a 100 mile round trip).
20200727_133211.jpg
 
Neither tires nor wheels are perfectly round and perfectly uniform balance. Many (not all) brands of tires have yellow and/or red dots on the tires from the factory inspection. Some wheels have dimples or other markings at the low point of the wheel's eccentricity.

Tires are measured and marked from the factory indicating their light spot, and for some tires with their high point for their radial runout/radial force variation.
Yellow indicates the lightest spot on the tire.
Red indicates the high point for the radial runout/radial force variation.

The former is a measurement of weight, while the latter is a measurement of roundness.

Yellow dot only: Align to valve stem

Yellow and Red Dot: The red always takes priority if the rim has a white dot or dimple; in such case align red to white. The white dot indicates the low point for radial runout/radial force variation of the rim.

If there is no white dot or dimple forget the red dot and align the yellow dot to the valve stem, then balance the wheel & tire the usual way.


You'd think being a car guy I'd know this, but I learned something new today.

I just got new tires installed on my Mustang and it had at least one dot, maybe a couple on each tire. Of course I just cleaned the dots off, so I can't check what colors or where they were located. There might be some residue left on one of the tires.....you have me very curious now.
 
I've had little luck getting tire busters to align the dots correctly. Even when I've told the tire sales guy, the guy actually mounting the tires seldom gets it right. I've seen them put the red dot aligned with the valve when they've even tried to do it. Few wheels have the low point marked, and I've seen it more on steel wheels (a dimple pressed into the wheel disc or spoke) than I've seen a marking on an alloy wheel. Unless you can find the dimple or marking, just tell them to position the yellow dot at the valve. I've bought tires where some of the 4 had the dots and some didn't, maybe they were adequately uniform that they didn't need the dots.
 
If you're looking for a set of premium all-season tires, you might want to consider checking out the Toyo Tires Open Country Q/T. I recently bought one for my 2015 Mazda CX-9 Sport. I am impressed by the way it handles, its excellent traction and stability, and best of all, it's really quiet compared to the old A/S season tires that I used to have on my CX-9.
 
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