Michelin Defender

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What would you do? A guy I work with has a 2009 honda civic l x. He plans on putting for michelin defenders on soon. The OE tires are h-rated. This car has 205/55r16's on it. The defenders are available in t and h rated versions. Which one should he go with and why?
 
Depending on where he buys the tires, he won't have a choice anyway; many shops will not install tires with a lower speed rating than original equipment. Regardless, I would recommend the H-rated tires for two reasons.

1) They're simply better tires. H-rated tires generally have additional cap plies intended to increase tire stability at speed. But a beneficial side effect is that it also adds to tire durability. H-rated tires often have a higher capability to deal with or shed off heat, getting an A rating rather than a B rating that most T-rated tires get.

2) Liability. Lawyers are scrupulous folk, and if you're in a wreck where tires may have played a factor (as in you didn't stop fast enough), a good lawyer may point to your tires and observe that you are running a lower level of equipment than installed at the factory. This is somewhat analagous to overloading your vehicle. In other words, you are reducing your vehicle's capacity on the road, in one way or another.

Recommend the H-rated ones.
 
okay reason number 1 is the type of reasons I was looking for answers for. 1 of the reasons I thought t rated wouldn't be a bad choice was that usually don't tire higher speed rating tires last fewer miles and have a harder rubber that woudnt be as good and rain and snow? I am a big fan of staying with oe on vehicles but honestly I thought h-ratedd wasnt neccesary for a commuter car. Thank you for your answers.
 
I just received a set of the 175/70R13 Defenders, can't wait to have them installed. Tirerack has excellent service, I called for them to be sent on Wednesday the 11th and they arrived today the 13th. They look real good, the tread is symetrical with four bands. Proudly made in....Mexico?
 
do they look like the defender xt since you said they were symetrical and not asymmetrical like the reg defender. When I had my 14 inch harmonies on my old escort they were a 4 rib also.
 
I had the 175/70R13 Defenders put on the car yesterday. WOW, what a difference from the Michelin radial X tires. They are even better than the Harmonys. Very smooth, soaks up bumps, feels like butter.
 
HAHA, I didn't even see this thread and created another one. Put a set of these on my wifes Accord last weekend and they're great tires so far. Quiet and smooth as stated above.
 
I thought i would toss on a pic of the Defender XT's I got from BJ's today. They are on a 2011 Outback. The guy who sold them to me (seemed knowledgeable on the tire) said that this tread pattern is cheaper to cut than the regular defenders and that's why they are cheaper at the wholesale places.

defenderxt.jpg
 
I like the tread pattern of the XTs better than the regular Defenders, because they don't have the aire of directionality that the regular Defenders do.

Good to hear the positive reports about this tire. I hope they age well.
 
I put a set of these on my Villager a couple of thousand miles ago. The tires that came on the van were so bad I didn't even bother trying to balance them (they had 15,000 miles and had worn evenly but were VERY noisy and vibrated badly). The Defenders were a HUGE improvement (especially for noise)...very quiet and smooth riding. I've still had a hint of vibration even with the new tires so I took them in for a road force balance yesterday. According to the dealership that did the roadforce, one of the tires is bad and can't be corrected on the rim. They said it was rare for this to be a problem with a Michelin tire. Tire Rack is shipping a replacement...hope that the new tire cures the vibration issue.
 
We had a set of XT installed in our Town & Country at Costco, the car is used mainly as "highway cruiser" I love them and hate them, they grip very very well in dry or water almost as good as the Hydroedge they replace, very quiet, smooth as silk Did I say quiet already? but...... they vibrate, I have taken them to be rebalanced 4 times already in 4K miles, and every time they find at least one out of balance but even after "balanced" they vibrate, plus they lifted the van of the rocker panels and bent the seams that got me very mad and have been taking the tires to them instead of the whole car. Right now my patience is very low and I think it is time to get nasty and force them to solve the problem once it for all the tires might be out of round or something but I shouldn't be the one who has to set the dial indicator with the rolling tip to find out if it is round or not, this is my first time at Costco for tires, they vibrate and bent the rockers, it is probably my last time too, I choose them over DT and Tire Rack because none of the had the Defenders and they seem to be the perfect match for the car and the use and the old ties were 70% gone, in retrospective I should have waited for Discount Tire to have them.
 
New Defenders on the 2010 Tucson today. Got on the freeway and at one point boosted up to 80mph on the way home and they ride so smooth & quiet and no vibration. They're not even worn in yet.
No more debating.
820 Treadwear
90k Warranty
$70 rebate still going on
I had Fuzion Touring removed (they were on when I bought the SUV a few months ago). No comparison.
 
I can echo. Have had them on our Camry for about 13k now and they are still doing great. Smooth and quiet. I have had the rotated three times now and they always stay very close to balance. Much more so than the Yoko AVID TRZ's I had. The air pressure also stays much consistent. Very happy with them. We did not have a very hard winter this year but I felt they did decent in the snow. Didn't get to do much highway driving in the snow with them, just city, but they did pretty good. Been good in the rain though in my opinion. My dad also put them on his 06 Honda Odyssey and put about 20k on his and they have performed very well on his van too.

FYI, we have the Defenders, not the XT's
 
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Originally Posted By: mene
We had a set of XT installed in our Town & Country at Costco, the car is used mainly as "highway cruiser" I love them and hate them, they grip very very well in dry or water almost as good as the Hydroedge they replace, very quiet, smooth as silk Did I say quiet already? but...... they vibrate, I have taken them to be rebalanced 4 times already in 4K miles, and every time they find at least one out of balance but even after "balanced" they vibrate, plus they lifted the van of the rocker panels and bent the seams that got me very mad and have been taking the tires to them instead of the whole car. Right now my patience is very low and I think it is time to get nasty and force them to solve the problem once it for all the tires might be out of round or something but I shouldn't be the one who has to set the dial indicator with the rolling tip to find out if it is round or not, this is my first time at Costco for tires, they vibrate and bent the rockers, it is probably my last time too, I choose them over DT and Tire Rack because none of the had the Defenders and they seem to be the perfect match for the car and the use and the old ties were 70% gone, in retrospective I should have waited for Discount Tire to have them.


Sounds like one of the wheels may have some excessive run-out. At my work, I can dynamically balance out to 'zero' an assembly that has a bent rim, however, the wheel will still vibrate because of the 'hop' from that section of bent rim (I generally place these assemblies on the rear axle whenever possible with exception in a rotation situation). I'd suggest getting your wheels and tires road-force matched which may help reduce the vibration you are feeling, and hopefully none of your wheels are severely bent or warped.

About the Defenders, out of the many dozens sets I've balanced out, they seem to balance well with little weight needed, even on a re-balance they are usually never more than a half-ounce out, and when watching them spin, there is very little wobble or out of roundness on the tire itself.
 
I have a 2006 Grand Caravan and I am going to have to put in a new set of tires before the end of the year and I have my eyes on these. I used to be a Yokohama guy but am now a Michelin fan. I have MXV4's on my GS400 and absolutely love then!
 
I have about 45k miles on the set of Michelin Defenders on my Golf TDI. I should probably rotate them since it's been about 20k since they went back on this spring. I don't have any complaints. I don't know if I can offer an objective comparison to them vs Michelin MXV4's that I used on several previous occasions. I went with the Defenders because they are supposed to last longer.
 
I drove my parents-in-law's 2011 CR-V this weekend in Virginia; it has a set of Defenders that is about 2,000 miles old. I must say that I'm highly impressed. They grip well, they stop well, are very quiet on this car, and show no signs of wear yet (their old Contis were chopped up bad). The handling is quite good with these tires; very edgy, very tight, very controlled. It's a very good-driving car.

It makes me wish I had bought the Defenders back when they just came out instead of the Latitudes that I did buy.
 
Although I haven't hit 2k on the Defenders yet, I'm pretty happy with them. With a little wear-in, they seem to quiet just a little more and track nice. I had a little highway wander that's now gone.
Can't tell the mpg improved although I am running just a tad above door placard psi.
 
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