This morning on the way to work the TPS started to beep and read 0 psi.!! I thought that this was just a mistake due to the cold...16 F. The car was still riding fine and I was a mile or 2 from work so like an idiot I kept going only to notice when I got there that it was in fact flat!! Now the sidewall was compromised due to my stupidity riding on it. I'm still running the Bridgestone RE040 245/45/18's. Question is, should I just replace the one tire on the back or both...with same or different tires...can't afford all 4 right now...any suggestions?...sorry for the long post.

 

sorry to hear about ur misfortunes. i work for a tire manufacturer and the reason you didnt feel anything was due to thin sidewall or aspect ratio off the 040's. you dont need to change all 4 tires, but i do recommend you change the rears. move ur old tires to the front and get new ones for the back. dont get potenzas, as many people including myself think that tire sucks *****, esp in the cold seasons. i prefer falken's, but thats cuz i work here. =o) good luck.

 

Someone mentioned before you couldn't change the rears to the front, because of the different width, correct me if I'm wrong... Otherwise, sorry to hear the bad news, I just got a flat Saturday, I feel your pain

 

When I replaced rears only, I went with the S03 Pole Positions in stock size. Still Potenzas but substantially better than the RE040s.

 

Try one new tire. I can tell you of a 350Z situation where the driver had one new and one old tire on the rear axle. TCS and SLIP was giving him a fit. The reason was that the new and worn tires had different diameters, and TCS thought that one must be spinning. True story.

 

Thanks for your replies. I'm thinking of changing both rears I guess. They are a diff. size than the front, so swapping them to the front won't work. I'm planning on putting it away for the winter so the stock tires should be fine since they are a summer tire and I think they're great for street use...but the TCS, VDC issue is disconcerting if I only purchase the one(cheap way). Is this true??

 

LOL...ur right. since Z's are staggered you cannot switch to the fronts. Replace the rears, and leave the fronts the way they are.

 

you should always replace in pairs so in this case replaceboth the rear tires

 

If I am not mistaken you can actually put the rear tires on the front wheels, not the complete rear wheels and tires. Then buy the rear tires wider.

 

If you have relatively low mileage, you may be able to get away with replacing the one damaged tire with an exact same tire. That would be the lowest cost. If the mileage is high, try replace one tire 1st to see if the TCS give you any trouble. If it does, then replace the other rear.

It is possible to use the rear tires on the front. But there are two issues: 1) the car will handle differently because the front is now wider than stock (245 vs 225). Some people do this on purpose to decrease understeer, in other words increase oversteer. Is this what you want? 2) this does not help you, because then you need to buy 3 or 4 tires.

If you want to use different tires other than the original 040s, you should change all 4 at the same time.

 

I also do not belive my instrument panel. it shows 70 mph and i say now way! it feels slow

 

how can you not feel that your tire is completely flat???

 

Common problem, in fact your going 50. Don't let this fool you though the cop sitting in the median wil beg to differ.

LOL, exactly, im running a 30 series and got a flat (damn nail) and knew it was flat while 10 ft from where i started... Good thing i didn't do a burnout.