tires and wipers

[kimpossible]

any recommendations? Driving conditions are mainly rainy. Are those fancy, expensive wipers much better than the cheap ones?

[mrazntre]

Wipers - i always doubted the more expensive ones, but then I bought a set of bosch wipers (as opposed to the cheapest ones i could find, Anco?) one day and WOW, it made a HUGE difference. nice clean, clear wipe.

Tires - there's always a major drawback to a cheap tire, whether it be limited tread life, poor wet traction, poor dry traction, poor braking, etc. if you go to tirerack.com you can see feedback and such on the tires that they carry. I just take my chances on my stockers while driving "normal speed" in the wet.

[VV o n g B a]

if u wanna conserve on wiping, use rainx. i've heard good and bad about it, but when u can let the windshield wipe itself at around 45mph, u don't really need great wipers.

[Beat180]

The cost of the Bosch, you can get PIAA. Those are silicone based wipers, they last longer than standard rubbers and wipe better. At ~20 a wiper, they're not cheap, but they wipe well and last long.

tire wise it depends. I've had good experiences with Bridgestone Potenzas and Falken Ziex 512's in the rain. Got all 4 Falkens mounted and balanced for 200 locally. Tirerack does have good prices for the tires, but when they get to your house, you'll still need to find a shop to mount and balance the tires. That can get expensive and might leave you in a better situation to just buy tires from a local dealer.

[mrazntre]

actually the bosch will run under 20/set.

where can you purchase the PIAA wipers?

America's Tires will mount and balance your tires for about $10 a tire. I'm not sure if it has gone up since the last time I've been there (~3 years ago).

[Beat180]

http://www.optauto.com/index.htm?parentid=1118&deptid=12159

Price on the Piaa's vary from 15 bucks to 23 bucks.

If you use a 20 or 21" wiper, you can also try
http://www.pdm-racing.com/products/misc_tune.html

they cater to the 240sx community but if you're using the same sized wiper, it's only 17.50 and shipping's way cheap with no tax in CA.

[mrazntre]

damn... my car is 17" and 22"