Hi - forum newbie. Been an S2000 owner for about 6 months now and LOVE IT!!

Had to replace the rear tires (front are still OEM) and replaced the rear with the Continental Extreme DWS. And now - my handling sucks! At speeds over 70, my rear end feels like it is wallowing or drifting around even when I'm driving straight. In corners, the VSA is kicking in and activating the brakes at very low speeds. For example, an interstate cloverleaf I used to be able to play on at speeds over 65 with the old tires (no squealing or VSA), I now cannot exceed 40 without the VSA kicking on and the car wallowing all over the place.

I've tried playing with the pressures on all four to make sure they are equal. I put them up to max on the tire and it got worse. I put them down to the pressures on the door panel and it got better - but we are back to what I described above.

Any thoughts? I've put about 500 miles on the tires thinking maybe they needed some breaking in - but no improvement. Thanks for the help!

 

Have your alignment checked. I'm willing to bet the rear toe is way off. My car acted the same way once, and that's all it was.

 

all you did was replace the tires and now your handling sucks?

you used to be able to take a ramp at 65 but now cant even do it at 40 without the car freaking out?

i ono what to say.

 

That's all I did! Two tires off, two tires on. Exact same sizes. The wheel balance is perfect - no shaking.

I will get the alignment checked just to be sure. It just seems odd to me that the old tires would be so much better than the new even if the alignment is off.

 

go back to the shop that put them on and have them check the balancing again. I have had shops mess that up big time and caused me to loose control at speeds over 50mph, I went back pissed off and demanded my money back. I went somewhere else and they did a good job.

 

so what pressure have you try?
i always get good results with 36-38 psi on hot.

 

When they mounted, we went with the recomended 32 psi. When I got home and was having all the problems, I rechecked them all and realized that the front ones were at 45 psi (max is 52 according to the tire). I figured I'd try to boost the pressure in the back (and increase the sidewall strength?!), so I put 45 in the rear too.

The problems got worse.

So I lowered everything down to the 35 psi range, give or take a few. Things got a little better on the straight aways, but no improvement thru the turns.

 

It's also partially because those tires suck. Hate to say it but they do. When I had my Sti they came with them already on the car and I wasn't very pleased. They could take some speed and handled OK but for the most part they just felt like mush.

 

Glad somebody finally did! Anybody else have that opinion??? I'm willing to put something else on there, but see people on this forum recommending the Conti DWS all the time. No way I'm driving these 30k miles if I have to put up with this kind of stuff.

I mostly commute and just play a little bit - so don't need racing tires. But I still want to push it when I can and need something to get me there.

 

You're running the RE050 in the front, with the DWS in the rear? That's a big issue in itself right there.