Vimy101

CC = cruise control

^ Socal gas has a lot of additives so that will impact your mileage. Minimizing turbo use during general purpose puttering about will increase mileage. Refusing to bumper chase in traffic also has a big positive effect. Using CC helps. Anticipating stops is another relativly big one. If you see a tired green light or slowing traffic a half a mile ahead there's really no advantage to powering your way to an eventual use of the brakes that just undoes all the energy you just put in. Coast your way to a stop or slowing situation. You're going to stop/slow anyway so there's no need to hurry up to it when you're just going to stop moving in any event.

Got over 28.5 for a couple of months in mixed driving in Chicagoland this past summer. Red line it everytime out at least once. Winter gas is now taking its toll. Down to 27.9 over the last 6k and no doubt falling as per OEM info system. 67k on the Spec. now and not a single problem.

I was in Naperville today but I was in stealth mode so nobody saw me. Shoulder riding FTW.

+1

Bumping for fresh data.

^ The thing about true snows is that they are designed to work well in either direction, are not meant for high speed, performance driving and will quickly degrade on dry roads. However, as in all things tires, everything involves some amount of compromise. A symetrical design won't perform as well in wet/slush as a directional tire for instance.

Fixored. I did notice that I used "asymetrical" instead of symetrical which is what the thumbnail pictured.

In all honesty, I have never experienced the characteristics you describe. Could be you had a bad tire in your set.

I have never experienced tram lining with my Contis though I do keep them at fairly high pressures. Of course, we don't have the siped freeway surfaces in Chicagoland for the most part. Then again, I wouldn't pick Conti EC for a year round AS in SoCal unless I was in the mountains most of the time. The tread is too aggressive for high temp roads. If you see some snow in your area, only then would Contis be appropriate for year round use, IMHO.

Directional tires are excercises in compromise as are all tire designs. The directional design is primarily to increase gas mileage and wet performance at the expense of tread life. True snows will have an asymetrical design so that grip and is maximized for lateral, accelerative and decelerative forces on snow. They will also be rated H and lower because the tread design is for snow and not high speed. Many winter tires sold now are directional and are advertized as "winter performance" and not "snow tires" despite the performance icon indicator . However, if you look at true snows for light trucks seeing severe duty you'll see tread designs like this:

To the OP: Depress the accelerator 1/3 of the way to the floor. Dollars to donuts your car will start (assuming it is capable of cranking). If it doesn't, hold the accelerator against the firewall. You could have leaky injectors that are creating a flooded condition. Holding the pedal to the floor signals the ECU to try a starting procedure for a flooded engine.

I meant to respond to tantal post but forgot. The Contis are not in the same league as the 050s, for instance, as a dedicated summer "performance" tire. Then again the 050s cannot do what the Contis can. The Contis are an excellent urban winter tire. Z rated and pretty good in the dry but where they absolutely shine is in snow and wet. There are those who even use them to good account in western mountains. I would trust them there too though I would definitely get dedicated snows if i were tooling around in the Rockies on regular basis. If the temp gets into the sunny 70s come springtime, you aren't going to ruin them. If you change them up for summer rubber around Easter (in my neck of the woods), they won't get cooked and lose their cold weather ability. A word of warning is necessary however. The Extremes are an excellent four seaon directional tire. True snows are not directional. The Contis will get you going and keep you going in heavy weather but snow stopping and turning are not their forte. In snow, their directional design works best in forward grip. Turning and stopping in snow is, however, average IMHO. They are fantastic in slush and rain but that doesn't translate to thread clogging snow conditions where true snows will have a definite advantage. Of course, if you use true snows on that warm spring day on the freeway for 4 or 5 hours, you've probably half way ruined them for snow. FWIW

No no no! Say it isn't so!

Where it gets really cold you get a block heater, oil warmer, battery blanket and then throw a sleeping bag over the hood.

The turbo. Quality oil and filters with severe duty OCI and you should be good to go for a long, long time.

You would be perfectly fine using a synthetic 5w30 even in a Minnesota winter.

I've never noticed your stability/wandering issue. They aren't as solid as the OEM 050s but track just fine IMO. What PSI you running? I'm usually close to 40f/38. Picked mine up (in stock) at Discount Tire.

06 paint is "Titanium Gray Metallic" (I think). It does look darker than "silver".

y3s

^ B3auty colour, 3h? Hid3s t3t dirt, 3h? Sw33t.

What year Spec.?

That would've been me then. Honk next time!

^ Yes. The ECU is part of the emmisions system and is covered for 8 years as I understand it.

If the fans are running that means the relay has failed which means that the ECU has almost certainly been damaged.