There's a lot of controversy about the OEM S02 tires, and whether to replace with them or something else when they wear out. In this poll, I am asking how many of you have replaced with OEM S02's, how many have replaced with other tires but are dissatisfied, and how many have replaced with other tires and are satisfied. In addition to answering the poll, you comments are very welcome.

 

Replaced with OEM SO2's, They stick great for me in the dry, They suck when worn at displacing H2O. It's a compromise whatever tire you pick. You give up grip for longer tire life.

 

 

I replaced with BFG KDs and was dissatisfied because the BFGs were much narrower than stock.

I have now gone to 18" rims but put S02s on them. Happy now!

Unlike others I haven't had wet weather issues with S02s. Maybe we just don't have as hard a rain in Dallas as some others do. Even worn out and virtually bald they stuck better than they had any right to.

 

David brings up two interesting points.

First, there is no uniformity in tire sizing from brand to brand, or even from model to model. If you by non-S02's in OEM sizes, chances are your fronts will be wider and you rears narrower than OEM. Not a good situation. The solution mentioned in several other threads on this board is to go to 245/45/16 in non-S02's for the rear to maintain the width realationship.

Then there is the matter of whether worn S02's are bad on wet roads. My rears have been pretty worn, but (like David) no problem --- until last Saturday when I encountered MIST and found I was driving a sled! Apparently these tires will do fairly well in the wet with a certain degree of wear and then BOOM -- no traction. They certainly do not ease into the "slippies".

Thanks,
Richard

 

Mist releases the oils in the road without washing them away and therefore is more slippery than a truly wet road so what you experienced would probably have happened no matter what tire you had on the car.

The size issue is one that really bugs me. I bought a set of tires without any clue that the rated size wasn't the real size. Consequentially I destroyed the handling of the car. I got the dreaded understeer that everyone moans about. Now I believe that understeer is probably more a function of the tires and not the car.

Naively I thought all tires rated the same size were the same size. Because I didn't know I wasted several hundred dollars! I hope others will learn much more cheaply than I did and question the tire salesmen, whichever company they work for.

Not one tire professional (and I use that term loosely) mentioned the need to check real sizes, they just tried to sell me tires. Now that I have done the research I understand why, if they had mentioned the size differential it would have become so much more work for them to find a set that matches the stock size stagger and it would severly limit them because very few brands meet the criteria. This means that honesty would make them sell less and make less money because only a few brands have sizes meet the criteria.

 

I'm getting a little confused by this thread. Are we saying that if I went with say a Goodyear or Pirelli in the OEM sizes the differences in contact patch would adversly affect handling? Is the S2K really that sensitive to this? I mean if thats true then EVERY suspension mod including bracing would affect the S2k. Also, I would think you could adjust for the differences with both tire pressure and driving style.

What are some of the differences that have been measured in the OEM size but with different brand tires?

 

If you buy any non-S02 replacement tire in OEM size, you WILL get a wider tread patch in front and a narrower one in the rear than the S02 had. This is because this S02 was developed by a joint effort of Honda and Bridgestone, with the under-wide fronts and the over-wide rears (in terms of labeling size). If we go wider in front, we have to go wider in the rear too. To do that in non OEM tires, we need the 205/55/16 in front and 245/45/16 in rear. Now, both tires will be wider, and therefore somewhat matched for the car. If we installed 225/50/16 in the rear in this application, we would have rears way too narrow, with several handling problems.

For example, I'm goin to try a set of Falken 451's for replacement. Tires are here, just not installed yet. the front 205/55/16's are about 1" wider than the front S02's with the same designation. the 245/455/16's in the new rears are about 1" wider than the OEM 225/50/16 also, preserving the offset.

As to the dreaded understeer (whatever tires you run), I'm told that Honda actually sets its alignment to prevent oversteer and induce understeer that Americans are used to having. I moved away from understeer and in the direction of oversteer by reducing rear toe in to 2mm and front negative camber to -.36.

Hope this helps,
Richard

 

I love my S02s

 

Replaced with OEM SO2's for summer and local driving.

Installed Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3's on 17' Volk CE28n's.

Better wear and better in the wet ... for road trips with extended freeway driving.

225/45/17 front 255/40/17 rear.