Feedback of Ecopia EP422 plus?

I assume you are doing tire change yourself, having winter tires on different set of rims. What do you do with TPMS?

 

Yeah I'm doing the swap myself. Found the simplest method is to half-loosen all lug nuts, then put the whole car on jackstands, with the aid of a floor jack. I use alternate locations for the jackstands, found the proscribed scissor jack locations way too flimsy and unreinforced. They're really just locator notches, and very narrow/unstable.

Just have regular valve stems on the snow tires. Then every spring when the regular tires go back on, TPMS light goes out right away.

It's still legal up here for installers to do this. I would think your best bet in the 'States would be to do this on loose rims.

 

I see, that means all winter long you have TPMS light lit on your dashboard. I happened to have purchased my car two winters ago. I have to have my annual state inspection in Jan. They will not pass with the light on. I was hoping to find a good deal on set of 4 tires from the same local tire shop where I purchased Xice3. They will do winter change over for free for tires purchased from them. Unfortunately, they did not have Conti Truecontact for sale, so I purchased them from Walmart. Walmart's tire change price are not that bad, but will cost me $36 every time.

 

That is frustrating. Is it just me, or is this discouraging people from driving safely?

 

State inspection IMHO is a joke. I am not sure if there is any hard evidence based study out there to prove its effectiveness. I often hear that shop which does inspection actually lose money on doing this, so they will try to "find" serviceable things as people bring their cars for inspection. There are many states in the US that don't have inspection, but I happen to live in the state that requires it annually.

 

Toyota seems to be deaf to some real issues; and this is a good example. People want to use snow tires, and the simplest and most efficient way to do it is on separate rims, especially for the DIY'rs. If it's possible, and they'd had the foresight, maybe Toyota could have come up with a design where a push on the tpms reset button would reset current psi and initialize the different sensors.

 

I've owned only Toyota and Honda cars with TPMS so far, but aren't all the other car makers have the same problem when it comes to changing tires? Honda Civic certainly have the same problem. My understanding is that TPMS is not even required in Japan, so Japanese cars do not have it standard. Our old Toyota Sienna mini van has indirect TPMS system using ABS sensor. I think it doesn't require any TMPS reset nor have problem with installing different set of wheels like direct TPMS system on Prius. Anyway, even if Toyota can come up with one push reset for tires on different rims and TPMS, the cost is certainly an issue.

 

Australia too I think does not have tpms. Our last Honda was an 06, prior to tpms. Yeah maybe reinit by owner just isn't practical, not sure.

 

Your 06 Honda does not have TPMS, yet our 05 Toyota Sienna is equipped with indirect TPMS, and 08 Civic is with direct TPMS. When did it become required by US law? Well, it maybe different in Canada.

 

Sometimes Toyota is ahead of the law. The Prius has had pedestrian noisemakers in the US for years. They are not yet mandatory.

 

We just went through this purchase decision. We bought the 4 groove EP4WAZ Mexico version through Tires Plus. They also have the 3 groove US version, but not the Japanese. They are two separate line items, with the Mexico version $1 more. Initial impression is very positive in terms of ride and feel. Getting 57-58 mpg on our standard commute which seems a couple mpg better than the worn set of EP422 (non-plus) tires they replaced. I have not yet checked air pressure. Tires Plus almost certainly pumped them to standard 35/33 psi. The old tires were at 40/38 psi. Will see about treadwear. Both versions have the same 70k treadwear warranty. We got almost 60k miles from the previous tires. Thanks to all who posted on this thread.

 

If your 422 (non-plus) lasted 60K miles, then Plus version may last even longer. Ecopia EP20 which was OEM tire on my previous Gen3 lasted only 20K. I had two EP422 plus tires (4 groove version) on my Gen3 only for 1 year before switching to new set of 4 Conti tires. But I kept those two EP422Plus (4 groove version from Mexico), and they are now on my sons Civic, with two additional newly purchased EP422 plus. Newly purchased tires are 3 groove version, however they are also from Mexico, not from USA this time. So, you cannot distinguish 3 groove and 4 groove version just by where they are from. Pic below: left are new EP422Plus 3 groove version, and right are 1 year old EP422Plus 4 groove virsion. They are all Made in Mexico.

 

^ What a distinctly different tread pattern. Bridgestone is pretty cavalier, calling these (all three) by the same name.

 

When I was purchaging two additional tires for my son's Civic, I could have purchased the same 4 groove version of EP422plus, but I didn't on purpose. 4 groove version has less tread rating 540 but has 51 max psi whereas 3 groove vrsion has better tread rating at 640 but less 44 max psi. Since the 4 groove version were already worn 1 year, no matter what I purchased, they will not be the same anyway. So I wanted to compare those two versions. The thing is that if they last more than 60K, they will outlast the Civic they are on now. LOL

 

Today (10/19/2018), I finally retired my EP422 Plus tires. Month #36 Final Update:
1) Installed on Nov 2015. Retired on Oct 2018. So, roughly 3 years.
2) Installed at 53Kmi. Retired at 99Kmi. So, roughly 46K miles.
3) Final tire threads: Front 3/32. Rear 4/32.
4) Final MPG: 390mi/8.487g= 45.952 mpg.

Consumer Reports (Nov 2018) conducted tire testing. For All-Season category:
a) Tires with excellent LRR: Kumho Solus TA11, Ecopia EP422 Plus, and Firestone Champion Fuel Fighter.
b) Tires with excellent Noise: Michelin Defender T+H, Kumho Solus TA11, and Ecopia EP422 Plus.

All tires in All-Season category received either Average or Below Average wet braking. Even though Kumho Solus TA11 received below average wet braking, I decided to give it a try, since it's excellent in LRR and Noise.

 

Thanks for the Consumer Reports tip. I will try and find that Oct issue.
Correction: It's the November issue.

 

Hi Starship16, you are correct, it's the November 2018 issue.

 

PSI?????

Also interested in the Kumho results.

BTW last day for the Sam's Club sale on the Pirelli tires. So far they work great on the 2011.

 

I refilled all tires to 38-39PSI. But then I won't refill it again, couple of months later, when it was around 35-36PSI. With very congested commute around Silicon Valley, the PSI doesn't seem to matter too much for the MPG.

BTW, the EP422 got a bit noisier half-way through the tread life. Couple of months ago, I drove 300 miles from Silicon Valley to Santa Barbara, the tire noise was a bit unbearable for the 5-hour trip.

My initial 50 miles on Kumho TA11: It seems to be a bit quieter than the worn out EP422. I will report back the MPG in couple of months.

 

I bet if we had these various brands of tires on a different vehicle, they would seem quieter.

The Prius is just not a quiet car, lacking in sound insulation to save weight & money, and supposedly increase mpg.

My cabin fills up with road noise where it becomes very unpleasant and unbearable at freeway speeds.

I'd gladly give up 5 mpg to have a nice quiet serene ride. Maybe I need a Lexus hybrid.