Don't go to the dealership since they will rip you off but definitely don't go to America's Tire lol. Look up a mechanic that is familiar with exotic cars. Bay Area has several scattered throughout, the one I'm aware of is GMP Cars.
I had my dealer mount and balance the tires I bought from TireRack- they were Pilot Sport 4S. They charged $350, perfect job. Lake Forest Ferrari.
Ditto. For what it is worth, drop shipping to Boardwalk Ferrari & having them install turned out to be less $$ than having Porsche dealer install and take the tires out of their stock. So, now we have them do all our tires, except the wife's truck which goes to Costco...T
If you are a do it yourself type, this gadget is the best thing since sliced bread. It's a tire lift! Not only can you perfectly, precisely align the wheel so you won't ding your rotors, you'll save your back in the process. I threw my back out years ago lifting a 50lb tire, don't want to ever do tha again. You only get one back. Best $1200 I ever spent! Image Unavailable, Please Login
I just recently had my 458 tires replaced with Michelin PS4S, which I also had on my F430 and have my M3. Fantastic tires and the ones recommended by my local high-end tire shop (Butler Tire in Atlanta) and Ferrari of Atlanta. They both do great tire replacements/road-force balancing on premises and are usually price-competitive with Tirerack if you take everything into consideration. Sent from my iPhone using FerrariChat
which tires did you have on ur 430? i have michelins on almost 2 dozen cars and im strongly tempted to go with the bridgestones for my 430s.
I had Michelin Pilot Super Sports on one set of wheels and PS2’s on another. PS4’s are a noticeable upgrade. Replaced my OEM Continentals on my M3 as well, much better ride and hydroplane resistance. Have only had Bridgestones on our X5’s and older BMW’s, but they were all run-flats. Nice safety tech but horrible ride. Sent from my iPhone using FerrariChat
I worked at a place that sold tires along with repair in the 90’s. From living this for a bit the main thing I would question is the type of machine and balancer they have. Some food for thought.... leaps and bounds in tire machine technology has been made from the Coats 30-30. There are tricks of the trade to mounting low profile tires (rubber bands on a rim) if you don’t have the right machine. We had a normal machine with out any assistance gadgets. We used to use the tire bar and hook it under the rim bead to push the bead of the tire under the rim bead while spinning the rim to allow the tire to go on. On low profiles we would sometimes pull the rim off the machine by prying too much. Even with the right machine there is a lot of maintenance to these. We always had to replace the table bearings as they would get loose and the rim would be able to contact the shoe of the machine. The shoe the machine came with was metal, but we had plastic ones that would not mar but those were expensive, easy to break, and rarely used. My balancer of choice is the road force balancer. This is the one with the big roller that gives the tire a squeeze on the rim. Summed up check out the equipment of the shop and make sure it is tight and not worn out and capable of low profile tires. You can google images of what the machines look like for low profile tires.
I see zero and I do mean ZERO value in using the dealer for tyres, and for several reasons. First thing is the tyre pricing which is usually down right moronic. But then there's all the other stuff. A reputable tyre shop or speed shop does nothing but this stuff all day. Most OE dealers, including Ferrari dealers, don't change tyres for a living. They can do it, but that's usually it. I've yet to see a Ferrari tech who really was into tyre mounting and balance. Are they doing it in a way so that you use minimal tyre weight? Do they now how to do things to that they are 100% sure to the tyre seat properly and true? Seen too much of the opposite, as well as high end dealers who did not even have the best equipment for the job. That is not limited but includes machines that do not properly center the wheel during balancing. Some claim that a Ferrari dealer will take better care of your wheels as they are use to high end stuff. I've seen more scratches and scuffs done by Porsche and Ferrari dealers than I have by a good speed shop or tyre shop. So all in all, no I would not use a Ferrari dealer for tyres and I see absolutely no upside to doing so. A good speed shop who's really into all this stuff is usually what I prefer.
I bought my tires from Tire Rack. I purchased Michelin PS4S and had the Ferrari dealer install them. Worth the cost to avoid any issues or aggravation.
Order the tires from Tire rack and take them to the dealer to install. I’d never order tires through the dealer. As others have mentioned, if you go with a local tire shop, make sure they have experience working on exotics and will take care when working on your car.
Here's a good example of why you have to be careful handing our exotic car over to some clowns at a local tire shop: I remember many years ago, I had a Datsun 510 and no money for new tires. So what I used to do was wait until the local gas station had a large stack of take-off tires, waiting to go to the recycling place. I'd ask them if I could go through the tires, then I'd find a set of tires which still had maybe 40 or 50% tread left on them (which would fit my rims). I'd offer to take the tires off their hands and pay $10 or so dollars to one of the kids in the garage to mount them. Okay, so that worked fine and got me down the road a few more thousand miles usually. However, just before doing this, I noticed that one of my wheel studs had come loose. So this meant you couldn't really torque down one of the lug nuts properly. So I mentioned this to the kid at the garage, who was installing my tires. I told him, "Hey, one of my wheel studs is spinning, so don't torque down that lug nut too hard". He said okay no problem. So I come back to get my car after lunch, with the old tires put on the back. I try down the street and I hear an odd noise coming from the back. I look back there and the rear wheel is about to come off the car. I get out and check and all the lug nuts are loose. This idiot stick just put all the lug nuts down finger tight. So I drive back to the gas station and ask him, "what's the big idea? You didn't tighten any of the lug nuts". He goes, "Well you told me not to!". Jesus. I told him one was stripped and don't over torque it. His pee-brain decided that meant put on a wheel and not tighten any of the lug nuts. Another time, I took my SUV to Costco for tires. I sat and watched the guy try to balance the tire for the right left wheel several times. Then he comes out and tells me, "Sorry sir, we won't be able to install tires for you; I can't get this rear wheel to balance". So I look at it.. the idiot didn't bother to remove about 15 ounces worth of the old wheel weights. So I point to the old wheel weights and say, "Maybe if you remove the original wheel weights from last time, you'll be able to balance it better". He goes, "Oh! Darn, I totally wasn't thinking". He goes and removes the old weights and magically the tire balances just fine. No way in the million years would I hand the keys to my Ferrari over to any of these local tire shops. Generally speaking, you don't find rocket scientists or people with high IQ's working at a tire shop to make their livings. I remember there was some case in Monterey here, many years ago, where someone with some old car (like a 330 or a 275) refused to pay a few extra hundred dollars to a local service shop to change his tires. Instead, he thought he'd be smart and go to Costco or one of the local shops. He saved a couple hundred bucks on installing the tires, but the mechanic couldn't get his car into gear to get it off the rack and ended up breaking some teeth on the gear box. As I remember, that ended up costing him something crazy like $20,000 or something. Maybe someone here knows that story better than I do. Oddly enough, a lot of people dealing with cars these days, don't seem to know how to properly thread a nut onto a bolt and torque it down. Ray
Another reason NOT to go with Porsche's center locks! Owned a bunch of P cars and never had the CL's. Could always switch tires in my garage with simple torque wrench and impact wrench. My tire shop also does my race car tires. Would never take anything of value to Costco.