I had a slow leak in one of my tires since I purchased my XFire about a month ago. If you follow the forums you will notice a post I did about loosing my XFire for the weekend because they had to order the new tire and it wouldn't be in until Monday (today 3/24). Originally they told me they had to replace these tires in pairs, and wanted to charge me for the tires. I told them the leak was there when I purchased the car and I wasn't paying for new tires on a car I had only driven 400 miles since I purchased it.

I called today and they told me the car was ready to go. I drove the loaner back up to the dealer and picked up my XFire. When I got home I decided to check the tires and found out they just replaced the defective tire and left the other one alone. (Brake dust disturbed on replacement tire wheel, and no marks on the other rear wheel). I don't have a problem with that since I wasn't paying. Then I checked the rear tires to compare the two to see if they were the same. Apparently there is a difference as follows:

Original rear tire: Conti Sport Contact 2, 255/35 R19 92W

New rear tire: Conti Sport Contact 3, 255/35 ZR 19 92W

The tread looks the same as far as I can see. The difference is the "ZR" rating compared to the "R" rating, and one tire is a Sport Contact 2 while the other is a Sport Contact 3. I don't want to nit pick with the dealer because we are friends. The service department knows it and I think they may not have even looked closely to see that the replacement tire had a "ZR" rating instead of the "R" rating.

Now the $64,000 question: Should I be concerned about this slight difference between the two rear tires? I'm sure the service department feels they fulfilled their warranty obligation. I really don't want to cough up $350 to have an exact match on the other side. Maybe the Sport Contact 2 wasn't available so they sent the Sport Contact 3 as a replacement.

What do you think? Leave it be or make a stink and be prepared to spend $350 for another tire to matchy perfectly?

Bob M

 

Sounds to me you got an upgrade. Aren't "Z's" a higher rating for speed?

 

I would be okay with it.....as long as the tread pattern is the same.

 

Dan, ...The tread pattern looks the same. I suppose I should feel fortunate that I got the new tire for free. They could have said take it to a Continental Tire Dealer, and try your luck.

Cheap is good but free is better!

Bob

 

Tread pattern only matters cosmetically, more importantly....the sizes are the same.

I'd be more worried about that "r" rated tire. The "z" rating is correct for Crossfires. I wouldn't be doing any 150 MPH runs with tires that aren't rated for those speeds.

"r" rated tires are good up to around 106 mph.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tirete....jsp?techid=35

 

its ashame they didnt get replaced as a pair. maybe you can go compaling about tread difference in thenew tire v. the old tire and they will put on another z rated continental for free... can't gurt to try... other than the no xfire for a few days. which i guess you would since there isnt a leak this time. who knows. worth a shot.

 

Check out the page you linked a bit closer.

The R in the tire size is not the speed rating, it's for radius.

Each of the tires he is looking at on his car are W rated (see the 92W after the size), which means they're good to 168mph (higher than Z). For some reason, some tires put the Z in the tire size too...which means they're Z or better...you have to look at the service description (the 92W in this case, to see if/how much better than Z)...from the tirerack page:

"While a Z-speed rating still often appears in the tire size designation of these tires, such as 225/50ZR16 91W, the Z in the size signifies a maximum speed capability in excess of 149 mph, 240 km/h; the W in the service description indicates the tire's 168 mph, 270 km/h maximum speed."

I'd rather have identical tires, but these are so close to one another that I wouldn't sweat it. (assuming they're both close to new...I wouldn't want one brand new and one at the end of it's treadlife.)

 

Silly me.........I see "mph" after a listing and I assumed it meant Miles per Hour.



Either way......."w"s are good up to 165 MPH and less I think......"z"s are good from 150 and up.

 

Its funny that when the customer is paying, the tires must be replaced in pairs and when the dealership is paying, only one tire is replaced.

I wonder if they just swapped a wheel from another Crossfire? Less work, no cost other than about .25 hours labor. Are there other Crossfire's on the lot? If so, get them to swap another wheel. Was there a sticker on the tread of the "new" tire? Or was there anything else to proove that it was a new tire?

 

well, you're right about an R speed-rated tire being rated for 106mph...it's just that the R would have to be in the service description after the size instead of in the size for it to be an R speed-rated tire. *Every* tire size has an R in it, regardless of speed rating.

 

You guys are a wealth of information! Thank you for all the replies. The tire that was replaced had 6400 miles on it, so the three remaining original tires have plenty of life and more miles left in them. The new tire will blend right in with the others which also look new.

I'm not a hard driver and never hit the triple numbers on the speedometer, so I guess I'll be just fine with the one replacement tire after reading the above replies. Thanks for the advice.

Bob