BFGoodrich G-Force Sport Comp-2

[EnigmaMan]

Has anybody put a set of these on their car?
I have 30,000 miles on the stock wheels and have about 3/32nd left before I get to the tread bars.

Size: 205/55/R16 (2011 Jetta TDI)

URL for Tires on Sams Club Website

These are $116 at Sams Club + a $6/tire service charge for mounting / balancing / lifetime warranty. (~$525 out the door with everything)

Reading up on the BF Goodrich Website, they look like a pretty decent tire but has anybody used this tire before?


Tire Size: 205/55ZR16
Service Description: 91W
Sidewall: Black Sidewall
Material Number or MSPN: 55712
Rim Width (min. to max.): 5.5-7.5
Section Width: 8.4
Overall Diameter: 24.9
Tread Depth (32nds): 10
RPM: 836
Max Load (lbs.): 1356 lbs. @ 51 psi
UTQG Rating
Treadwear: 340
Traction AA
Temperature: A

 

[oilhammer]

Directional. Bad choice. They'll go square.

 

[03Springer]

I have been running Continental DWS 205 55 16 for the last 30K miles and currently have 6/10's left. They are quiet and grip well on dry and wet roads. Have not tried them in snow as of yet. I purchased them through Direct Tires, shipping is free.

 

[Nickmix]

I had them on a mustang cobra I used to have and they were very good tires. Excellent grip and ride. They are directional though.

 

[EnigmaMan]

Directional. Bad choice. They'll go square.

Well that means you arnt doing enough burnouts

I put on about 30,000 miles a year on my car and 95% of my driving is at highway speeds 75-85+mph and in frequent downpours you need excellent traction in rain (Although not at those speeds!!)

It seems dry and wet traction is an advantage of directional tires.

 

[oilhammer]

Good rain traction, correct, which is why you don't want tires that turn into ag treads after 20k:

 

[CurlyDE]

I have an older version of these tires (BFGoodrich G-Force Sport) on my 951. They are good tires for the money ... good ride and dry traction. I have not driven the car in the rain with those tires, so can not comment on the wet traction.

 

[Got Bearings?]

Directional. Bad choice. They'll go square.

Explain

 

[EnigmaMan]

I had them on a mustang cobra I used to have and they were very good tires. Excellent grip and ride. They are directional though.

How did they hold up? Did they go square on you?

 

[oilhammer]

Explain

The tire tread blocks start to cup to one direction, as in my photo above. Only since they are directional, you cannot cross rotate them like normal, to equalize the cup patterns... so it just keeps on getting worse and worse, until the treads resemble a circular saw blade, and make the car sound like it is driving over cobblestone all the time.

Some cars do this more than others, but since most all VAG products run pretty serious negative camber, they are more prone to this than some others. So tire rotations, including cross rotations, are necessary to keep the tires true and round.

There is a reason why none of these cars leave the factory with directional tires. They may be fine with a super low treadlife number on some high performance car that will smoke through the tires in 15k miles anyways, like an SC430 or Corvette or M3. But a Jetta or Golf or Passat? Nope, bad choice.

I see plenty of tires every single day. And no, tire cupping isn't necessarily caused by bad alignment or bad shocks. Common myth.

 

[Got Bearings?]

The tire tread blocks start to cup to one direction, as in my photo above. Only since they are directional, you cannot cross rotate them like normal, to equalize the cup patterns... so it just keeps on getting worse and worse, until the treads resemble a circular saw blade, and make the car sound like it is driving over cobblestone all the time.

Some cars do this more than others, but since most all VAG products run pretty serious negative camber, they are more prone to this than some others. So tire rotations, including cross rotations, are necessary to keep the tires true and round.

There is a reason why none of these cars leave the factory with directional tires. They may be fine with a super low treadlife number on some high performance car that will smoke through the tires in 15k miles anyways, like an SC430 or Corvette or M3. But a Jetta or Golf or Passat? Nope, bad choice.

I see plenty of tires every single day. And no, tire cupping isn't necessarily caused by bad alignment or bad shocks. Common myth.

Thanks for the thorough explanation.

 

[SirSipsAbit]

I run those tires

I have these tires on Sparco Wheels. Buy them for their ability to grip and provide feedback.......more driving pleasure if you like a performance tire. They did nock off 1-2 mpg on my 2012 Jetta TDi. I run the stock wheels and tires on long trips and will this coming winter.

 

[d-man]

Cupping is not normal, I sell 16000 tires a year. I Also rotate tires front to back with no crossing. Trust me cupping is not normal.

 

[oilhammer]

Cupping is not normal, I sell 16000 tires a year. I Also rotate tires front to back with no crossing. Trust me cupping is not normal.

I disagree. I sell plenty of tires too (and do alignments). You put directional tires with big blocky chunks on a Volkswagen they will cup. Every time. Tires like Potenzas are one of the worst. Which is funny, because most every other Bridgestone tire is pretty good.

Now granted, the amount of cupping or sawtoothing may vary and may not be enough that you'd really be concerned too much. A lot of stuff depends on various factors.

 

[Nickmix]

How did they hold up? Did they go square on you?

They never went square one me. I couldn't rotate them though because I was running staggered sizes. I did keep up with the balancing and front end alignments so I am sure that helped alot. I would buy them again for a summer car like my cobra was. They don't do to well in cold weather (below freezing) as is the case with most performance tires, but were excellent in the rain.

 

[EnigmaMan]

Yeah I wish it dropped below freezing and snowed down here in South Florida.. Sucks that it doesn't! During winter when everybody is having snowstorms, I tell everybody down here we are in a snow drought down here just for kicks!

Typically I just need them for Rain and dry traction. Most of my driving is all interstate and I've gotten 30,000 miles out of the stock tires so far..


OilHammer, These tires don't have blocky chunks as shown in your photo above, these are more uniform which *should* help on feathering.

Check out this link...
http://www.procarcare.com/includes/content/resourcecenter/encyclopedia/ch25/25readtirewear.html

Feathering:
The most common cause of feathering is incorrect toe-in setting, which can be cured by having It set correctly. Occasionally toe-in will be set correctly and this wear pattern still occurs. This is usually due to deteriorated bushings in the front suspension, causing the wheel alignment to shift as the car moves down the road.

Cupping:
Cups or scalloped dips appearing around the edge of the tread on one side or the other, almost always indicate worn (sometimes bent) suspension parts. Adjustment of wheel alignment alone will seldom cure the problem. Any worn component that connects the wheel to the car (ball joint, wheel bearing, shock absorber, springs, bushings, etc.) can cause this condition. Worn components should be replaced with new ones. The worn tire should be balanced and possibly moved to a different location on the car. Occasionally, wheels that are out of balance will wear like this, but wheel imbalance usually shows up as bald spots between the outside edges and center of the tread.

As Stated earlier, you are correct in saying that a Correct alignment and good shocks don't necessarily cause feathering / cupping. However, actually due to other suspension components and factors (eg. correctly balanced tire) that keep the tire straight / contacted to the road that cause the feathering / cupping.

 

[oilhammer]

I've just seen too many (thousands) of cars that have goofy tire wear on tires like that with not only no obvious reason (suspension, alignment, etc.) but they totally DON'T have the issue once a different set of tires is installed. My own Odyssey is one such example. When I got it, some 25k miles ago, it had 4 square Goodyears (those ignorant direction asswater tires). I immediately installed a set of Michelin S8s, and they are all perfectly round STILL. Nothing else has changed. Nothing. Still has the same original shocks, alignment is still the same. And I see that same scenerio play out over and over, for 25 years.

Also, keep in mind, your TOE changes all the time on the front axle... because that is the steer axle. That is why you need to rotate the tires. You align a car with the wheels straight ahead, but unless you drive everywhere in a straight line, your toe is always moving about. Driven axles do different things, and live driven axles typically wear tires hardly at all...since they are essentially always at zero toe and zero camber (unless something is bent).

Go walk through a parking lot and look at pickups. You can see quite easily who rotates their tires and who doesn't. The front tires will be cupped. If you think it is just something broke that causes it, then I got news for you: every single car on the road is assembled with broken parts then.

The negative camber that VAG products have will cause more wear on the inside edges of the tire. Not anything you can do will change that. And if you have wider tires with a lower profile, they'll wear the inside edges even faster. SCCA type driving will equalize this some, though .

 

[EnigmaMan]

There are barely any curves on the Florida interstate systems. They are mostly boring straight lines so don't have much of an issue...

There are pro's and cons to every suspension setup! Just have to know how to work with them and set your expectations accordingly.

 

[EnigmaMan]

"The negative camber that VAG products".

What are "VAG" products... I doubt this has to do with female anatomy..

 

[oilhammer]

Volkswagen, AG:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_Group

'AG' is short for a German word "Aktiengesellschaft" that is tough to spell, let alone pronounce .

 

[sirpuddingfoot]

Sloppy wheel bearings won't help cupping either.

My coworker burned through 2 sets of different rear tires in a year on his volvo s40 and paid over 200 in alignments.

I rode in his car 30 seconds before telling him he needed new rear wheel bearings. As predicted, the tire tread was cupping badly too.

 

[thebigarniedog]

I've just seen too many (thousands) of cars that have goofy tire wear on tires like that with not only no obvious reason (suspension, alignment, etc.) but they totally DON'T have the issue once a different set of tires is installed. My own Odyssey is one such example. When I got it, some 25k miles ago, it had 4 square Goodyears (those ignorant direction asswater tires). I immediately installed a set of Michelin S8s, and they are all perfectly round STILL. Nothing else has changed. Nothing. Still has the same original shocks, alignment is still the same. And I see that same scenerio play out over and over, for 25 years.

Also, keep in mind, your TOE changes all the time on the front axle... because that is the steer axle. That is why you need to rotate the tires. You align a car with the wheels straight ahead, but unless you drive everywhere in a straight line, your toe is always moving about. Driven axles do different things, and live driven axles typically wear tires hardly at all...since they are essentially always at zero toe and zero camber (unless something is bent).

Go walk through a parking lot and look at pickups. You can see quite easily who rotates their tires and who doesn't. The front tires will be cupped. If you think it is just something broke that causes it, then I got news for you: every single car on the road is assembled with broken parts then.

The negative camber that VAG products have will cause more wear on the inside edges of the tire. Not anything you can do will change that. And if you have wider tires with a lower profile, they'll wear the inside edges even faster. SCCA type driving will equalize this some, though .

Top five dumb things to do in life:

5. Work for an internet Policing authority:

4. Book your Party in an awkwardly named room:

3. Party with Growler:

2. Buy a VW equipped with teh 01m8u2 tranny:

and the number one dumb arse thing to do in life is:

1. Argue with Oilhammer over anything that is automotive .....

 

[NHgranite]

So is Oilhammer the driver wearing the sideways blue hat??? ;-)

 

[slamhouse]

Sloppy wheel bearings won't help cupping either.

My coworker burned through 2 sets of different rear tires in a year on his volvo s40 and paid over 200 in alignments.

I rode in his car 30 seconds before telling him he needed new rear wheel bearings. As predicted, the tire tread was cupping badly too.

Worn wheel bearings won't last through two sets of tires. Wheel bearings usually eat themselves within 1k miles of first signs.

 

[sirpuddingfoot]

My experience begs to differ. I should take a picture of the tire I spent almost 10k noisy miles on... literally alternating bald spots (I needed a reason to buy new wheels/tires, so I put it off much longer than necessary).

I have a friend who put at least that on a bad rear wheel bearing on a B5 S4.

None of the ones in my experience sounded as bad as the combination of bad bearing/severely cupped tread that my coworker had. The bad bearings literally ate through the tread.

 

[terrydtdi]

Just a suggestion I been using Nitto Neo Gen's, I'm on my second set they grip really well in the dry and wet. I corner my car really hard every chance I get. They are not directional, and wear very evenly. I got 65,000 miles out of my last set.

Here is what the tread pattern looks like.

 

[Ol'Rattler]

Top five dumb things to do in life:

5. Work for an internet Policing authority:

4. Book your Party in an awkwardly named room:

3. Party with Growler:

2. Buy a VW equipped with teh 01m8u2 tranny:

and the number one dumb arse thing to do in life is:

1. Argue with Oilhammer over anything that is automotive .....

Naw. The Oilhammer puts his make-up on like the rest of us. One leg at a time.

Before arguing with him though, I would make absolutely sure of my facts. He is rarely wrong. He is a great asset to the forum.

 

[Stan TDI]

I have an older version of these tires (BFGoodrich G-Force Sport) on my 951. They are good tires for the money ... good ride and dry traction. I have not driven the car in the rain with those tires, so can not comment on the wet traction.

I also have used these older version for years (summer only) on my A3 Jetta. I have no complaints. They ride quiet and grip well in dry and wet. I would not use them in winter. Of course I live in MN and my perception of winter is much different than yours.

 

[Birdman]

Directional. Bad choice. They'll go square.

Why are they going to go square? I had 50,000 miles on my first set of Bridgestone Re 960 with no problems and the second set has 30000 with plenty of good tread left. In fact the only tires I have had in the last 12-13 years have been Directional.