sotek

Has anyone had experience with Pirelli P4 Four Season tires or the Hankook Optimo 4S tires?
Hankook has a treadlife of 64,000km - Pirelli's have a 135,000 treadlife.

The speed rating is well below the recommended W, however I can't remember the last time I drove faster than 150km/h thereby requiring a high-speed rated tire.

If someone with real knowledge of tires could chime in and give some advice, it'd be much appreciated.
If I use a tire site and select my 2004 545i, I don't get presented with these tires as options, likely due to the lower speed rating... so I searched by size and cross referenced the specs. There also the load range... some are SL and some are B... is the B rating for Light Truck tires and interchangeable with a car requiring the SL load range? I've ensured the Load Index is 94 or greater. Mostly wondering if there's anything else I should look for when 'shopping' for tires and if the speed rating can be lessened that I can't drive that fast legally anyhow.

525iEnjoy

You want to stick with an XL tire because the front end especially is heavy ..engine brakes trans and suspension etc... If you wanna save some money a SL rated tire will be fine just get it close to the oem rating of the tires. Remember on the SL tire you'll run more air pressure because of lower load rating. The XL you run close to MFG specs.

As far as speed rating most All season are W,X,Y,Z just means the tires can handle high speeds and wont tear apart if you happen to do those speeds. These are also more grippy than say a H rated tire. Try to stay away from an H rated. It is a premium car and you need more traction and speed stability...now that being said

Tread rating comes into play. when you see a tread rating like 540AA, 180AA etc...bare in mind the larger the number the longer they last but thats not without some sacrifice of grip. Same goes for the 180 aa the grip will be there but tread life will be sacrificed . Secondly you have cold initial start like the 1st 20 min of driving , a lower number "sticky" tire will need time for it to heat and give you grip during cold times. The high tread rated have grip right off the bat.

my example:
I have PS2 tires and they have a 220aa . They run slippery when its wet,damp or in the 50,60's degrees. but once heat gets in them awesome!

My other set are Conti DWS seasonal tires 540aa..These have grip in all conditions cold wet etc..now when at operating temps not as grippy as PS2 .

hope this helps

sotek

Much appreciated. I'm currently running the Continental ExtremeContact DWS.
I think they're near the end of their life. Can't get grip in 1/4" of snow.
Tried to go through a 4-way intersection of two relatively busy county roads and ended up taking about 5 minutes to get through.... as the OPP (Provincial Police) were setting up a stop check... haven't laughed that hard in a while. Needless to say, they're either shot or just not good in snow... I'm betting they're tired. Looks like about 7/32" left given the guage.. about half way between 6 & 7/32..

What is the diff. between a SL and B rated tire? I'll take your advice, but curious as to the difference.. can't find much by googling that gives a decent explanation. Both seem to support 35psi.. I think I've been running 38psi cold in the Conti's (they're SL rated).
Would a T rated tire like the Pirelli P4 Four Season be appropriate for my 545i (given our speed limits are 100km/h and can't travel much above..)

I've done some searching for tires specific to the 545i and there are other B rated tires being presented by 'major tire sites'

I was hoping to get a new 4 season style tire but I'm now wondering if a new set of Continental DWS's might be the way to go. I find the sidewalls a bit mushy.. I like to go around corners with some precision.. and these Conti's seem very soft in the sidewalls... that or my suspension is done.. but I'm sure it's roll from the sidewalls. I probably need an XL to get the firmness in handling that I desire..

Thanks again for your advice.

525iEnjoy

this might help
Tire Tech Information - How to Read Speed Rating, Load Index & Service Descriptions

sotek

Ya, I've been there - B rated tires seem to have a 35psi spec whereas SL rated tires metric or 'euro-metric' are rated at 35 and 36psi. I see little difference. That's my curiousity, what is the difference aside from B being a Light Truck rating. Several sites such as Tirerack offer B rated tires as specific for my car.

Thinking I'll just go with the Pirelli P4 Four Season... they're SL & T rated (190km/h) with double the treadlife of the Hankook Optimo 4S's (135,000km vs 68,000km) .. I would think the T rating would be sufficient for Canadian roads, pls correct me if I'm wrong.