Federals were always one of the "Cheap, Nasty" brands, but have recently started to lift their game. After years of bagging them out, I decided to try a set and to be honest I think they have potential as a tyre manufacturer. The 595's I have, although started off a little slippery, have hardened now (After 1000kms or so) and are feeling a lot better. Straight off the bat, it's easy to see why many drifters like the tyres; they have a lot of feel and are very progressive with good control even once they let go. The only thing that disappointed me, and to be honest what can you expect from the base model tyres, is that the level of grip isn't that high to begin with. Coming from KU36's, I'm probably expecting a little much from the Federals, but after today's performance in the wet, at least they don't aqua-plane.
Not a bad tyre, I would suggest getting the Federal 595EVO over the 595 as it's larger shoulder blocks will offer more lateral grip. The 595 has too higher void ratio, leading to the lower levels of absolute grip, but they're still a decent tyre. If you're looking to get a similar tyre to the stock rubber the 595RPM is what you're after, but they probably cost a little more again. 595EVO for me next time, I think.
Cheers for the input guys.
Bob Jane reckons the Maxxis go ok?
MA-Z4S Victra
After your comments about the Toyo's Jeev, giving them the flick..!
Opted for the Haida's that Rino suggested.
For $400 for 4 (plus fitting...) can't be that bad?!
Ok, so after a weekend of pampering with the paint protection kit, and looking absolutely fabulous (will post some pics), Leelmo decided to pick up a screw in the LH rear tyre today. Stopped into Tyres and More out at Coopers Plains and got it checked out, tyre punctured and repaired. They also had some other advice for me that I wanted to get other's opinions on....
Basically my LH rear tyre is illegal, and the other 3 tyres aren't far behind! When purchasing this car, I certainly didn't think I would be up for new tyres at just under 19,000km considering it's an everyday run around with a couple of cruises thrown in here and there and I have rotated the tyres 4 times and had 1 wheel alignment done since I bought it in Dec 08.
The guy at the tyre place was pretty helpful, he said he could tell the car was my pride and joy and that I wanted to hear the info, he said most people that bring their cars in don't give a crap about them. He put the car up on the hoist and took a reading of the alignment for me (attached). He said the car was within the specs, but the range on the specs was massive and I'm sitting at the outside edge of these specs. He said the last place that did my wheel alignment would have just thought, yep, it's within specs so she'll be right, so the inside edge of the tyres has continued to wear. He suggested that if I was intending on keeping the car for a few years yet, to put in a rear camber kit ($550 fitted), so that they could adjust the camber and the wear on the tyres would be more even.
For tyres he suggested:
Continental Sport Contact 2 @ $300/corner
Yokohama Advan Sport @ $365/corner
I guess I'm wondering if anyone else out there has had the same advice with regards to the rear camber kit and whether it's worth doing, whether it will affect the way the car handles? This guy seemed to know what he was talking about but I always like to suss things out fully before committing to anything.
Apologies if I'm hijacking your thread Dan, but I thought it was relevant to the topic and not worth starting a new thread.
Wheel Alignment Specs.pdf
Last edited by Leelu; 28-02-2011 at 05:52 PM.
GENII 2009 MPS VR POV PACK | TIPS THANKS TO MAZDA3MPS (IAN) | KUMHO KU36 235/40/18 TYRES | PRIMA PAINT PROTECTION BY ZAS | LAKIN CUSTOM PLATES | MPS & OZMPSCLUB.COM BRUSHED ALUMINIUM DECALS (THEY COUNT AS MODS RIGHT?)| WISHLIST...60 DURO REAR ENGINE MOUNT | RIMS PAINTED/GT RIMS
This is interesting to me as well, am about to hit 16k which means if the wear is the same I am gonna be up for new tyres.
Scratch2k has put 25k's on his car, wondering if he has put new tyres on yet?
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I'm up to 15000k's on the stock tyres and no signs of uneven wear, when I rotated them the fronts were down to about 50% tread but they were wearing evenly.
GENII 2009 MPS VR POV PACK | TIPS THANKS TO MAZDA3MPS (IAN) | KUMHO KU36 235/40/18 TYRES | PRIMA PAINT PROTECTION BY ZAS | LAKIN CUSTOM PLATES | MPS & OZMPSCLUB.COM BRUSHED ALUMINIUM DECALS (THEY COUNT AS MODS RIGHT?)| WISHLIST...60 DURO REAR ENGINE MOUNT | RIMS PAINTED/GT RIMS
Nah nothing, everything is as it came from the factory.
I had to replace my tyres at 28,000 km, severe wear down to the radial.....eek. Was quoted 637 each for OEM spec, went and got kuhmo ecstas for 130 feach fitted at bob jane.
They were pretty good for 2000km, then went and fitted the good year eagle F1 symmetricals and they are a very good tyre, especially in the wet up here with soo much grip and feel.
Mazda did change the "control blade" rear set up and front mcpherson geometry when they changed from gen 1 to 2 iirc.
And i don't think a camber kit will help unless you are lowering the car, because the camber pivot point is still going to be the same?
TEAM EMO BLISS...When we cut ourselves.. we bleed AWESOME!
I swapped the original Dunlops for some Advan S Drives at about 21,000kms but they easily had another 5,000km's + at least. Wear was even across all the tyres.
Think I will go with Continental Sport Contact 2 for $300/corner and get Tyres and More, the tyre place that brought all this to my attention, to set the wheel alignment up correctly this time......see how I go
Last edited by Leelu; 05-03-2011 at 10:03 AM.
Right choice, Installing a camber kit is so unnecessary. The stock car can be adjusted to fix tyre wear problems, whoever suggested you needed to install a 3rd party mod for that reason should go back to school.
GENII 2009 MPS VR POV PACK | TIPS THANKS TO MAZDA3MPS (IAN) | KUMHO KU36 235/40/18 TYRES | PRIMA PAINT PROTECTION BY ZAS | LAKIN CUSTOM PLATES | MPS & OZMPSCLUB.COM BRUSHED ALUMINIUM DECALS (THEY COUNT AS MODS RIGHT?)| WISHLIST...60 DURO REAR ENGINE MOUNT | RIMS PAINTED/GT RIMS
GENII 2009 MPS VR POV PACK | TIPS THANKS TO MAZDA3MPS (IAN) | KUMHO KU36 235/40/18 TYRES | PRIMA PAINT PROTECTION BY ZAS | LAKIN CUSTOM PLATES | MPS & OZMPSCLUB.COM BRUSHED ALUMINIUM DECALS (THEY COUNT AS MODS RIGHT?)| WISHLIST...60 DURO REAR ENGINE MOUNT | RIMS PAINTED/GT RIMS
It seems a few of us Qld members have been fobbed of by our dealers when bringing up the issue of inside tyre wear.
I've sent an email off to Mazda Australia regarding this issue, a couple of the other guys here are going to do the same.
I shot an email off as well.
The problem needs to be addressed.
20,000km out of a set is crazy.
YouTube - Insane Amount of Camber of a Mercedes
Just on the topic of camber
I believe half the problem is that they fitted Dunlops to the Gen2 and Dunlop Tyres have always been soft and crap grip and crap wear. All you need is the alignment out slightly and they wear badly across tread really quickly, they nearly caused me to take out a fence in my GTHO back in the 70's got them changed and have never bought them or a car with Dunlops as standard tyres ever since.
I run Yokohama Sdrives now and they are unreal in all areas.