Bridgestone Potenza | Technical matters | Back Room Forum

Sun 25 Mar 2007 18:41

Bridgestone Potenza - IanJohnson

Just had what is proving to be an expensive day washing cars.

Took a thorn out of SWMBOs offside front tyre and heard air escaping - right on the shoulder so not repairable. No-one open on Sunday's has them!

Now the question: The tyres are Potenza RE050A 235/45 R17 97W

I am told these are now available in either 93W or 83W but are not listed as 97W! Bridgestone's website helpfully only lists the sizes for the RE050, not the RE050A.

I cannot find anything in the manual which states the load rating to be used on the car (EOS 2.0) and obviously VW's service dept is closed. Will call them tomorrow.

I am unwilling to put a tyre on with a lower rating than the one supplied on the car - am I right or is this not too big an issue?

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Sun 25 Mar 2007 19:08

Bridgestone Potenza - IanJohnson

Have found the RE050A size availability page on the Bridgestone web-site

they list
235/45 R17 93W
235/45 R17 94Y
235/45 R17 97W XL

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Sun 25 Mar 2007 19:48

Bridgestone Potenza - IanJohnson

Worked it out now, there is a panel on the tyre which states "Extra Load" so ther are the 97W XL.

Probably explains the price too!

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Sun 25 Mar 2007 20:24

Bridgestone Potenza - PST

No help to your original query but I've got these on an Impreza (although slightly narrower). When it came for replacement the tyre place was adamant that the precise version of these tyres was used at it was almost model specific - obviously not something that I could verify but there do seem to be a number of "sub-types" within the RE050 model, so there may be something in it and worth tracking down an exact replacement.

I understand that these tyres have got a very stiff sidewall but I've generally found them pretty good in both wet and dry conditions if a little on the noisy side (though the Impreza is not the most soundproofed of cars). As a bonus I got 28K miles out of the first set too!

PST

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