Falken Ziex 914B Ecorun - std on new Corollas

[JoaoM]

On my previous cars I had Bridgestone Potenza RE720 and Turanza ER300, Michelin Primacy 3, all premium manufacturers, all great tyres (except the primacy that from midlife on, lost a lot of their initial grip, getting a "great-" grade). The Yaris came with terrible Michelin Energy Saver that were replaced by much better Goodyear Efficient Grip Performance.

I was surprised with this almost unknown name on all new Corolla models I've seen. Falken even advertised it at their website, very happy to be the OEM tyre provider for the world's best selling car.

But checking it, Falken has a newer tyre, supposedly a replacement/upgrade of the ZE914, the ZE310EC. Or they could have fit the flagship Azenis FK510 that is getting great test results. It looks like Toyota got cheap on Corolla's shoes...

On the road, I wasn't able to test them in the rain yet, but on dry, although happy with the grip, they are noisy, specially noticeable at highway speeds where the engine sound is totally muffled by the tyre noise.

When this set get old I'll probably buy other brand/model. What do you people think and have experienced?

 

[rafletcher]

Certainly find the 18" 225/40's on my Excel HB are pretty noisy, even compared the the 17" I test drove on the Design, although hopefully they'll scrub in a bit.  Falken are I think part of Sumitomo Rubber, so a Japanese brand. Like you' I'll probably switch, either to Michelin Cross-Climate as an all season offering (I do very low mileages now) or just stick on some soft sticky low-noise premium brand summer tyre, as they'll still last me ages!

[Fake_Empire]

Do you have 18" or 17"?
I have 18" tyres and I completely agree with your comment. I would go even further than you and I would replace them completely for 17" which should be more than sufficient, cause I don't think there will be much improvement if you just swap them for different brand.
I've got myself nice 16" Continental Wintercontact TS 860 for winter and I'm expecting noise reduction in order to prove the point.

Sent from my motorola one vision using Tapatalk

[AndrueC]

I bought Michellin Energy Savers for my Jazz and I thought they were very good as did other owners. Excellent grip and lasted a long time. A rare combination. However I do like the way the Falkens 'bulge out' to protect the alloys. What I get to replace these will probably depend on how long they last.

Honda fit Dunlops by default and my first set barely lasted a year. Even though I replace when depth drops below 4mm those probably wouldn't have been legal after two years. The Michellin ES that I replaced with them still had over 5mm left on the front after three years.

Mind you choice was a bit limited with the top spec Jazz. They have a slightly unusual size (I think mine were 185/55/16).

[JoaoM]

27 minutes ago, Fake_Empire said:

Do you have 18" or 17"?
 

17"

12 minutes ago, AndrueC said:

I bought Michellin Energy Savers for my Jazz and I thought they were very good as did other owners. Excellent grip and lasted a long time. A rare combination. However I do like the way the Falkens 'bulge out' to protect the alloys. What I get to replace these will probably depend on how long they last.

 The Michellin ES that I replaced with them still had over 5mm left on the front after three years.

I found that the Michelin ES left the 2009 Yaris 1.0 rear very loose, specially on wet, something completely gone with the Goodyear. Michelin tyres also have an ageing problem as they don't wear to much, looking that they'll last forever, but their surface became very polished and they loose grip. I've got this on both the ES and the Primacy 3 and the tyre shop technician also mentioned that.

The Primacy 3 were very comfortable and quiet, the best I've tried, and a great grip when new, but I didn't like that ageing behaviour.

I don't need winter or all season tyres here, summer ones will be perfect. But I need them to hold on when it rains.

[AndrueC]

40 minutes ago, JoaoM said:

I found that the Michelin ES left the 2009 Yaris 1.0 rear very loose, specially on wet, something completely gone with the Goodyear. Michelin tyres also have an ageing problem as they don't wear to much, looking that they'll last forever, but their surface became very polished and they loose grip. I've got this on both the ES and the Primacy 3 and the tyre shop technician also mentioned that.

The Primacy 3 were very comfortable and quiet, the best I've tried, and a great grip when new, but I didn't like that ageing behaviour.

I don't need winter or all season tyres here, summer ones will be perfect. But I need them to hold on when it rains.

I didn't notice any loss of grip but the long-life and ageing is a consideration. I was going to replace mine about now anyway (at four years old) but of course that's now someone else' problem. I prefer to replace tyres such that I don't go into winter with less than 4mm of tread or tyres that are more than four years old.

[TonyHSD]

The manufacturers are choosing their tyres make and models not for performance but for financial and supplying reasons, probably everyone know that. Falken tyres are well known Japanese brand, but they do specialised in Ultra high performance tyres UHP and those tyres are not of the most comfortable or quietest. The wheel protector rim looks cool but that think gets you a lot of  noise and bad ride quality, comfortable touring tyres has very little lip and soft walls, example are Goodyear Efficient Grip Performance. Anyone looking for a summer tyres that are quite , comfortable and excellent performance in wet look no further, especially in these larger sizes, please note that different tyre sizes within the same make and model have different characteristics. These tyres are also good even worn down to 3-4 mm, they remain quiet plus impressive road holding in dry and wet, only you need to  lower your speeds when driving through deep surface waters which is obvious. 

[JoaoM]

What doesn't make me happy with Toyota's choice is that this Falken model is getting worse than average results in several tests and are an old design, already replaced by the manufacturer. If they had choose Falken Azenis FK510, even if they were noisy, one could be fine as they have good performance both in wet and dry, but this Ziex914 just don't cut it. Yesterday night, trying to have some fun with paddle shifters, the vsc light went on several times and I wasn't that fast, I'm still learning the car (my first automatic transmission car). And we're talking about a smooth dry asphalt road where the tyres couldn't handle the car torque. I'll test it again, paying more attention to the details, but it's a place I've done dozens of times with the Corolla Verso and no trouble.

[JoaoM]

I've done some research and calculation: the Ziex ZE914 Ecorun have a high rolling resistance and replacing them with almost every premium tyre will save fuel between 0.15 and 0.5 l/100km for an average of 15% city, 15% country roads and 70% highway.

Continental PremiumContact 6 are a great candidate, matching great dry and wet handling and breaking distances, resistance to aquaplaning with riding comfort and low rolling resistance (abut 20% less than the Falken's).

[Chattacks]

My Corolla hybrid came with Continental eco contact 6. Yes a "premium" brand but my experience with this brand on previous cars is very poor. They wear out very quickly even if driving very easy on the car (less than 6000 miles on a small engined Ford Focus!!). I also noticed and fed back to dealer and Toyota after I took delivery of the car that brand new they had between 6 and 6.5mm of tread! This tyre and brand scores well in tests but the feedback over long term use is wear rates are horrendous.

When the time comes to change I will probably move to Michelin Primacy 4 (very good tyre with good reviews and Michelin promise it performs right down to 1.6mm) or the Cross Climate+. I've had a summer and winter set on my previous BMW and I am little nervous in trade off on the Cross Climate+. 

[TonyHSD]

Hi, it’s a trend in latest car tyres to come with less tread than we all use to see, it’s difficult to find premium touring tyres with more than 7mm of tread these days and there is a good reason for that. Shortly treaded tyres are producing less tyre noise when driving, so companies try to get the best ratio between- safety, comfort and life of the tyres. Larger water drain canals also contributed for a noisier tyre rides so here we see again a little bit less space between but more canals per tyre. Even all season and winter tyres are following the same trends now. For the tyre longevity, those tyres that roll on forever and seems like they never wears out are the worst tyres and most of the times are the cheapest one on the market, they are simply plastic, I personally wouldn’t use them. 
Regards 

[JoaoM]

2 hours ago, TonyHSD said:

Hi, it’s a trend in latest car tyres to come with less tread than we all use to see, it’s difficult to find premium touring tyres with more than 7mm of tread these days and there is a good reason for that. Shortly treaded tyres are producing less tyre noise when driving, so companies try to get the best ratio between- safety, comfort and life of the tyres. Larger water drain canals also contributed for a noisier tyre rides so here we see again a little bit less space between but more canals per tyre. Even all season and winter tyres are following the same trends now. For the tyre longevity, those tyres that roll on forever and seems like they never wears out are the worst tyres and most of the times are the cheapest one on the market, they are simply plastic, I personally wouldn’t use them. 
Regards 

Michelin Energy Saver are like that! They last forever, low rolling resistance but the worst tyre I had on any of my cars. Conti EcoContact used to be like that also. Never ever again!

5 hours ago, Chattacks said:

My Corolla hybrid came with Continental eco contact 6. Yes a "premium" brand but my experience with this brand on previous cars is very poor. They wear out very quickly even if driving very easy

When the time comes to change I will probably move to Michelin Primacy 4 (very good tyre with good reviews and Michelin promise it performs right down to 1.6mm) or the Cross Climate+. I've had a summer and winter set on my previous BMW and I am little nervous in trade off on the Cross Climate+. 

I hope Primacy 4 are better than 3 that were great new but lost grip with a lot of thread still to go.

Conti Premium Contact 6 has a life expectancy of over 50.000km, matching Michelin and Goodyear on the latest summer test of auto bild on 225/45R17 (my size!) as can be seen here: http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Article/2019-Auto-Bild-Sports-Car-Tyre-Test.htm

A very balanced tyre.

[JoaoM]

So it did happen: when I needed to make an emergency brake (a guy that spun on the wet highway and came to my lane) and all I got was a slip into his fender and front wheel. No grip at all.

The Falkens are going to be swapped as soon as I can. This time for real tyres.

[nielshm]

What tyre is standard on 16" alloys? Also Falken or?? 

[Catlover]

8 hours ago, JoaoM said:

So it did happen: when I needed to make an emergency brake (a guy that spun on the wet highway and came to my lane) and all I got was a slip into his fender and front wheel. No grip at all.

The Falkens are going to be swapped as soon as I can. This time for real tyres.

So what tyres you putting on when replacing.  Some Michelin’s and Continental are getting a bashing on this thread, elsewhere I read some Goodyear not so good.  It seems ALL manufacturers seem to have their weaknesses (as well as strengths).

[JoaoM]

3 hours ago, nielshm said:

What tyre is standard on 16" alloys? Also Falken or?? 

A friend of mine got one TS with 16" and comes with Bridgestone ecopia

[TonyHSD]

Tyres reviews done by journalists and associations like AA RAC and ADAC are very often not true or correct, manufacturers are probably paying them to make a false claims and promote their product. Best to get info about tyres is from car owners, the true reviews are those that have positive and some negative reviews too, no all people like same things. Tyre review guy is doing a good job and has very informative and entertaining videos but very often his comparison is all about performance that almost no one will really ever need in normal day to day driving, but on his website there are some reviews from car owners that may help a lot choosing your next set of tyres. For the Toyota’s Oem Falkens, don’t forget they are summer tyres and in temperatures below 10-7C or less they are loosing a lot of their grip, they can even become dangerous as more summer tyres will.  I have seen them on a New Corolla in the showroom and they where soft on touch but temperature inside building was at least 15+ C. First and most important rule buying a new tyres is to chose the correct tyres according to the season, then anything else. 
Regards 

[JoaoM]

2 hours ago, Catlover said:

So what tyres you putting on when replacing.  Some Michelin’s and Continental are getting a bashing on this thread, elsewhere I read some Goodyear not so good.  It seems ALL manufacturers seem to have their weaknesses (as well as strengths).

Probably Continental premium contact 6 or Goodyear eagle assim 5.

[JoaoM]

40 minutes ago, TonyHSD said:

Tyres reviews done by journalists and associations like AA RAC and ADAC are very often not true or correct, manufacturers are probably paying them to make a false claims and promote their product. Best to get info about tyres is from car owners, the true reviews are those that have positive and some negative reviews too, no all people like same things. Tyre review guy is doing a good job and has very informative and entertaining videos but very often his comparison is all about performance that almost no one will really ever need in normal day to day driving, but on his website there are some reviews from car owners that may help a lot choosing your next set of tyres. For the Toyota’s Oem Falkens, don’t forget they are summer tyres and in temperatures below 10-7C or less they are loosing a lot of their grip, they can even become dangerous as more summer tyres will.  I have seen them on a New Corolla in the showroom and they where soft on touch but temperature inside building was at least 15+ C. First and most important rule buying a new tyres is to chose the correct tyres according to the season, then anything else. 
Regards 

Well temperatures here in Portugal don't get much colder than 7-10 except on the highest mountains. In Lisbon I might get lower than that 5 to 10 days a year. At the time of the accident was around 15 and the tyres were warm from several km on the highway.

I agree with you that tyre tests are almost every time biased, at least because some manufacturer borrowed the test track. On top of that they concentrate too much on handling and cornering when most of us don't take our cars not even close to the limit. On the other hand the wet and dry braking should be the most important characteristic as it is the one we common drivers need in an emergency to avoid an accident. I couldn't have done more than brake (going to my right lane could make me crash with other passing cars), and simply didn't got enough grip.

Another thing that we often miss in the tests is the comparison between tyres of different models from the same manufacturer (eg. Goodyear efficient grip performance Vs eagle assym5, Michelin primacy 4 vs Pilot sport 4)

[rafletcher]

Well I had good experience with Dunlop Sport Maxx on my Audi, as a summer tyre. Winters I had a set of Nokian  WRA3's.  I just need to sell those wheels and tyres now, so I have room to store a spare set for the Corolla. Shed's a bit full at the moment!

[FROSTYBALLS]

35 minutes ago, rafletcher said:

Well I had good experience with Dunlop Sport Maxx on my Audi

Goodyear own the Dunlop brand in Europe.

[JoaoM]

Wet braking results for 225/45R17 tyres (auto bild 2019):

Goodyear Eagle F1 Assymetric 5: 28,8m

Falken Azenis FK510: 29,0m

Michelin Pilot Sport 4: 29,6m

Nokia wetproof: 29,7m

Continental Premium Contact: 29,9m

Bridgestone Turanza T005: 30,9m

Dunlop Sportmax RT2: 31,4m

 

[JoaoM]

After a lot of analysis I've decided to go for the Continental Premium Contact 6. A very well balanced tyre. I'm targeting to change after the summer, when this set will be around 20k km.