[Shifted]

   

[amdavid]

I've run several sets on 3 series bmw's and they're a great all weather tire. I just got tires on my piggy and the guys at the tire shop were talking about the DWS....still a great tire, tried an true. They have been around a while and surprisingly are still very popular. I can't comment on their performance in "extreme" cold weather though.

[Shifted]

   

[maddog2020]

Had 4 sidewall failures on 3 different cars with them. Tire rack warranty guy told me they replaced significantly more continental tires under warranty than any other brand. He also told me that continental had thinner sidewalls than most other brands. I’l post a pic of one of my blowouts if I can find it. Current daily driver came with the Dow’s tires and1st thing I did was have them replaced.

[Shifted]

   

[Shifted]

   

[FlatSix]

The original DWS had a softer sidewall, which undoubtedly helped with ride quality. However, the 06 version has much stiffer and stronger sidewalls than the version that people complained about. Including the addition of a 2 ply sidewall insert.

I've run two sets of the 06s on my E55 with very satisfactory performance and no trouble.

[amdavid]

It's true, Continental's do suffer from a thin side wall. This happened to piggy tire on an attempted patch. The tire machine pushed the tire off the rim bead and as you see, it blew open.

[Shifted]

   

[amdavid]

Yeah, not a dws....was pointing out the thin side wall of the Continental tire. I felt the sidewall to tread seam and it did feel thin. Thanks for the info....arg, I hate getting burned, and based on what you just explained, which makes a bunch of sense I did.

That doesn't look like a DWS 06. What model was it?

Having done a lot of tire mounting and dismounting on my own machines, I can't imagine what they did "right" that would cause a sidewall rupture to happen when it didn't rupture on the car. The only two things that I can see causing that are they either didn't deflate the tire before unseating the bead with the pneumatic bead breaker and there was a LOT of pressure in the tire, or they put the lip of the bead breaker scoop in the middle of the sidewall instead of right up against the bead. I haven't done anywhere near the number of tires that a tire shop does, but certainly north of 100 on various sizes from tiny to huge. And that cut has a suspiciously slightly curved shape to it that would match up very nicely with the curved edge of the dish on a pneumatic bead breaker.

[Shifted]

   

[captainOCD]

I'm curious to hear how the dws06s do. I had 3 different sets on my charger a few years ago and they had vibrations. It was an odd size though, (255/50r19) so they were likely all from the same batch.

[Shifted]

   

[maddog2020]

here is my Conti DWS blowout.

[N_Jay]

here is my Conti DWS blowout.

That is not a blow out. You drove at too low a pressure at for too long.

[maddog2020]

it was actually a blow out at triple digits. The warranty person at tire rack confirmed that this is what happens at speed when the conti's blow out. I had a tire pressure monitoring system, and manually checked my tire pressure often on fill ups for fuel along with checking oil.

[Shifted]

   

[amdavid]

Holy chit man, would not liked that sound/feeling driving triple digits.....looks gnarly.

[maddog2020]

Holy chit man, would not liked that sound/feeling driving triple digits.....looks gnarly.

It was a code brown moment for sure. Right rear tire. Seeing the truck that was behind me through the side glass, and then taking up both lanes of a 2 lane highway to get it straight again and stopped on the shoulder. The guy behind me stopped to see if I was ok.. He told me he saw me through my windshield working the wheel. It was in a 2000 SL500. I've been driving since 1983, and only had 3 blow outs. All 3 of them were Conti's. The 4th Conti issue I had was a bubble on the sidewall. never again will I own conti tires. The set of tires on the SL were less than 2 years old and had less than 3K miles on them.

[Scott at Team Harco]

My 996 came with DWS 06 tires. I still have them. The car is on Pirelli winter tires right now. The Contis are ok but, as has been discussed, the sidewall seems weak.

The shot is from the summer of 2019. I hit a pothole about half a mile from home. While I was messing around in the garage, I noticed a problem...

The sidewall was cut by the wheel as a result of the pothole impact.



See the little gash?

[jcnesq]

I am running Conti "Extreme Contact Sports" for the past couple years. Needed them in a hurry and went to a local exotic car place (mainly a wheel place), they highly recommended them. I only checked Tire Rack reviews later and they were excellent, and I am very happy with them so far (though I haven't done any extreme driving). Previously Conti had a bad name in the back of my head and I usually ran Michelins.

[Crumpler]

First of all, I am glad you are still with us.

This was several years ago when I had used Conti Extreme Contact new set for a DE weekend, but by day two they were essentially gone.
I was not setting track records by any stretch of the imagination so that makes me wonder. Not a side wall issue but in comparison I’ve used Pirelli’s for multiple weekends at more aggressive sessions.

[Shifted]

   

[Shifted]

   

[FlatSix]

here is my Conti DWS blowout.

I had that happen to me one time on the freeway at about 85mph; pretty sure I picked up a piece of metal that penetrated the inboard sidewall. Was a matter of a few seconds. Definitely got my attention and VERY glad it was a rear tire.

[Shifted]