kumho ecsta ast experiences

[99ECLIPSEGSXDSM]

First off i just want to say that i know that these are all season/performance tires and will not handle well compaird to a tire like a star spec. I'm just wondering if anyone had personal experience with kumho ecsta ast tires. I have them and am not pleased. Are you pleased or not? What psi are/were you running? What are Your experience with them? When I got them I took them for a ride down a back road and the car felt very loose. The back end wanted to kick out with even the slightest movement of the wheel at anything over 30 mph. Got home and tired to mess with the pressure. Found out that the place that mounted my tires that they only put it 26-30 psi in all around. So I thought put more in to stiffen up the sidewalks so I put 40 in all around and there was literally no difference. They are 235/40/18 on a 18x7.5 rim. I had 225/40/18 falken ziex ze512's on before and thought they handle very well and I could push the car and if I pushed it to hard it gave me pretty good room to recover. I'm at the point that I don't want to drive my car anymore. The only change to my setup was the tires so I know everything's good. I took the tires off myself and had the car on stands so I know body would mess with it.

 

[silvreclips]

I used to run those and they were terrible. I never had any issues with them on the street but I tried to autox with them a few times and they were junk. Maybe you have an alignment issue if they make the car feel unsafe to drive, I never had any issues like that with mine.

 

[my dreamt dsm]

Those tires suck balls. Kuhmo is degrading in quality. I remember when they first came out with the first gen ecsta it was legit, meaning quality was good, grip, ride, wear down time. The last ecsta are terrible ( not sure if their still in production)

My brother and brother in law bought the ast. I was keeping tabs on my brothers set on his car 195/50/15. And as 1 year came around that thing was beat up. I mean if your car has camber wear, yeah you can still atleast get 2 years of nice driving out of it and rotating it. But these, its just like the tires fell apart iin the streets within that year.
As for the brother in law, same deal. Camber kit and everything, wore down as quick as my brothers. Switched to nitto and swore never to go back to kuhmos .

---The tires I've used and like so far: Kuhmo ecsta around the early year 2004 ish, firestone viper (no longer made), firestone firehawk oval, bridgestone pontenza re970 (current), bf goodrich t/a, falken ziex, and phaser <---- these are all dd tires

---Tires I've used and dislike: falken rt 615, yoko avid ( first few thousand miles okay but makes a lot of road noise afterwards.

 

[kchaazz]

Try the Hankook Ventus Evo. Nicely balanced in my opinion and definitely among one of the best Ive ran for the money. Another under rated tire was the Federal 595 SS...

 

[19Eclipse90]

I didn't mind them, though I was actually using them for commuting. Had 225/45/17s on my 17x7's, running typically 40 psi all around. Got them back in '06 and didn't change them out until the beginning of this year. At that point, something like 50K on them.

They weren't the best in snow/ice but they did get me around; rain was becoming a bit of a hassle towards the end of their lives. Dry was fine. I can't say they didn't work well at the track as I believe most of my problems there were between the steering wheel and the seat.

Road noise/feel? When you drive around with a 3" exhaust, poly engine mounts, a questionable suspension combination, and no A/C, it's hard to point at the tires for any significant contributions to discomforts in these areas.

All in all, I didn't think it was a bad tire for the price at $75/per back then.

 

[Ghost_92TSi]

I had them and hated them. They wore fast, and any semi hard turn I would take the BACK would slide out on my FWD Spyder! I hated them. bad. Got some yoko's now and so much better!

 

[99ECLIPSEGSXDSM]

I used to run those and they were terrible. I never had any issues with them on the street but I tried to autox with them a few times and they were junk. Maybe you have an alignment issue if they make the car feel unsafe to drive, I never had any issues like that with mine.

I just got an alignment right before the shootout because a shop that did my transmission screwed it up. I did rotate the tires and it seemed to help a little but the back end still wants to kick out.

I really wish I talked to you guys before I bought theses tires.