Hopping issue with Michelin PS2s

I balanced the wheels a couple of times to eventually find out that one front and one rear tire have bad hop with the front tire being so bad that it's out of the limit of being acceptable for use. I've put on about 500 miles on the total set so far so assuming that the vendor steps up and replaces the two hopping tires, is it safe to run them in this "mixed" manner with two having 500-600 miles on them and the other two being brand spanking new? Or should I be asking for all new tires all around? This is pretty disappointing considering that the fronts cost $300 each, the rears close to $500 each, and for a tire that's so well accepted in the enthusiast community and Porsche as a firm. Best, Ben

What do you mean by "hopping"?

Hopping is a term used when the tire itself has heavy spots. A lot of tires have this, but if it's bad enough, even if the tire/wheel itself is balanced, you'll feel vibrations through the steering wheel at speed. A good wheel balance should fix all that, but my car always felt like the wheels were out of balance no matter how true the balance job. It's not only annoying, but it just doesn't feel safe driving on it. The wheel balancer guy showed me with the two tires spinning around on the machine and you can see the undulations on the tire. It looked pretty **** poor for Michelin QC. I've always been a Bridgestone fan and if they're listening, please make RE050 Pole Position 315/25/19s.

I wouldnt think twice about it, you should be good to go, you are talking thousandths of inch in difference between the pairs.

You should have no issues with new tires being mated with tires that have 500 - 600 miles on them. Anything less that 25% wear should be OK.

That vendor would be me, and yes I'm going to replace them. Unfortunately it happens that tires are out of round from the manufacturer, but I'll get it straightened out right away...... Replacing that at 500 miles does nothing to the car. Only when you have the OD's of the front/rear off by over 4% does it start creating issues.

500 is nothing... I punctured a tire that had 600 miles on the set and replaced it with a new one...no issues!

This is interesting to know. The set that was on my car last week had a pair of fronts that looked fine but had the same feeling. I had the wheels balanced twice and it still came back so I thought that the tires needed to be tossed. Got 4 new PS2s from TR so we will see what happens.

Hey Damon, Do you find more replacements with Michelins verus Pirellis versus any other high performance tires, or all they all about the same? I guess it doesn't really matter when the vendor (such as TR) stands behind it, but it's still a hassle plus all the extra balancing and mounting fees. Michael

Update Damon @ Tirerack was quick to respond and he was more than willing to swap out for new tires, though the fronts are backordered through June. Upon further discussion by the Tirerack team, Damon asked me to remount and rebalance the wheels as sometimes the tire can bunch up causing this issue. Damon was willing to credit me some $ for the labor charge I will incur. Not sure if it'll work, but we shall see, else my last resort is to wait until June to drive the car properly setup.

Kudos to TireRack for stepping up. I've always had good responses when dealing with them.

Per Tirerack's request, I spent $60 + two hours of my time to get two of the affected wheels roadforce balanced, 1 front and 1 rear. Same result. The tires are hopping with the front being the worst of the two. So much for robotic manufacture. If it's not the tires, then it's them brand spanking new OZ 3s I bought from them.

Quick question: Is it totally cool to mix an N1 tire with a non-N1, same size?