IZZYAZ

Reason??? Every mfr. has a set of tires that are garbage. I have only had the Cooper ST and SST truck tires. If they can last 40k miles to my abuse and my brother-in-law works for a quarry and his company truck they run the same type tires and he will get 25k to 30k out of the Coopers. BFG, Goodyear, Firestones all last about 15k to 20k. So if you don't like Cooper tires that's fine, lets just hear why!!!!

I have ran Cooper ST and SST tires on my trucks for the last 6-7 years. They are a great tire, have great traction in every condition and wear evenly and I get about 40k miles out of them. And for the way I treat tires that is a long time. The only problem with Cooper tires, they are in finacial problems from what I hear and the price of their tires are going up, I assume to make up for their cash short fall. Never the less, they are still cheaper then the larger companies and in my opinion for an all-terrain tire the best money can buy. Now back to the subject at hand, Kiese02, I looked at them before I got my Firestones and couldn't find any to fit the stock 18" rim. Do you have the 17" rims? or how/what size are you rrunning?

I ended up getting the Firestone Destination LE. I may not be as happy with them as I would be with the Michelins, but I have a buddy that is a manager at a Firestone dealership and he got me a set for $435 plus $100 cash card. So for basically $80 a tire. The Michelins that I was looking at where twice the price. So the checking account won this time.

I haven't had either one of these problems, but your mpg sounds kind of low. I have an 07 SEL+ that just hit 24k miles. In the winter here in Iowa the mpgs will drop to 18-20 when it's below 0, but most of the time in the winter it stays around the 20-22 mpg range. Summer I have seen 24-29 out of it. Now those are running mostly hiway but some in town. In town alone this thing sucks. I have seen 13s and 14s for a half a tank of all in town use. My 74 F100 with a 390 gets 12 all the time.

You shouldn't get any 'crap' from your service manager. These wheels seem to be a fairly wide spread issue. Plus I don't think anyone has had a problem with the chrome cladding, only with the clear coat coming off of the wheel lip. From what I have seen and heard the problem only exists on the 18" CHROME CLAD wheels. The 18" aluminum wheels I haven't seen or heard of any problems with these. So when someone says they have an issue with their Chrome Clad Wheels, they aren't talking about the chromed plastic hub cap. Also, for a little added insurance and for looks, when I get my rims replaced next month, or so, I am going to have them put the weights on the inside lip and/or glue them to the inner part of the wheel behind the face of the wheel. All the custom wheels I have had this is where the weights have been put on.

Cool, thanks for the leg work ACLazer. I will look into that when I order my new rims in a month or so. That is if this damn snow ever goes away!!!!!

From what I have heard on here and from my dealer is that it is a road salt issue. When you take it in only have them document it for now. Then come spring take it in to get your new rims under warranty. That way you can atleast have the spring, summer and fall with good looking rims.

I haven't seen a picture on line yet, but the 18" rims are an aluminum rim with basically a chromed plastic hub cap attached to it. Where the chrome plastic meets the aluminum rim the clear coat on the rim starts to pit, dis-color, and flake off. So basically the lip between the tire and the chrome plastic goes from a nice aluminum look to having black spots and flaking clear coat. My wife who drives the Edge everyday, but never washes it, never noticed this. But she can notice when I have flipped thru her Victoria Secret catalogue? So weird!!!

ACLazer, As the post I left just above yours they do have a new part number for the wheels as of December 2008. Maybe a little earlier. I was just in the dealership the other day and the parts guy flagged me down and said he had a new set and a old warranted set. So I went into the back and looked them both over. You couldn't tell a difference between the 2 rims, besides the clear coat coming off of one. I am waiting until April or so when the snow and salty roads leave, then I will be getting my new rims. Atleast then they will look good for one year. I am trying to buy or have Ford give me my old rims. I figured then I could have a winter and summer set. But haven't got very far. Parts guy said he would look into it for me, but wasn't very positive on finding a solution besides buying a new set at $800 each :wacko:

I have not had this on the wifes Edge, but it happened to my Superduty a few years back. The brake fluid was just a little low. So I would start there. Otherwise, if you take it to the dealership for service, ask them to look into the problem.

I found this claim un-true. I was told this morning that Ford has a new part number for the 18" chrome clad rims and they would replace my peeling rims with this new part number. I am going to hold off until this spring (that is if Ford can hold on that long) so the winter salt and road grime stays off the new rims for a couple months.

So last spring with almost every other Edge owner in the snow belt, I noticed the rims where peeling around the lips. So the next service I mentioned it to the service guy. He said he was aware of the problem and would replace the rims for me, but they where the same part number as the ones I already had. So he couldn't guarantee that they wouldn't do it again. He also told me that he had been in contact with Ford about the problem and told him they where working on a solution. Now skip ahead 8 months. I took the Edge in for service this morning. Being the pain-in-the-@ss that I am, I asked about the rims (again). He told me that Ford has released a new part number for the rim. He told me there has been no mention of the fix from corporate, but since there is a new part number on the rim he is lead to believe that they have fixed the clear coat problem on the rims. He said he would order the rims for me today and get them on this afternoon. I told that would be great, but hold off until this spring when I am in the clear for salt and road grime that caused the problem in the first place. So in summary, they have a new part number on the rims. So they should have fixed the problem with the old design, but can't be 100% positive yet since Ford hasn't announced it.

I guess if it where me, I would hang onto the supports until the end of your lease, then remove the hitch and other supports and then turn in the Edge. After that try and sell the hitch and related parts. That way your not giving your hitch to the leasing company. Plus scrap metal prices are in the tank right now. You would be better off throwing it in a recycling container and save your time and money for gas.

I haven't ready any where on here what happens if you are driving down the road at 60 mph and drop the tranny in to low. Well, I finally gave it a try the other day to see what would happen. I was in my wifes 07 SEL+ FWD Edge last week, by myself of course, and was coming up to a stop sign in the middle of no where. Since I am use to driving my F150 and down shifting to a stop sign I shifted the Edge into low at 60 mph with out thinking what vehicle I was in. Well, the engine and tranny are still there and working fine. I figured out that it will only rev to about 4k or so rpm and when you let the engine brake you and the rpms drop it will continue to down shift thru the gears. Kind of a nice set up and will have to do this the next time I pull my boat. So it's not the best set up for engine braking, in my opinion, but it is better then just turning off the OD. So all you people that live in the mountains, give it a try and report back on how it works for you.

BBF, I hear what you are saying about the tin foil hats. I just like to get all the research I can and hear as many different opinions as I can before I go blow $500-900 on a set of tires. Like I said in my original post I have only purchased tires for my trucks. The wifes car usually gets traded off before needing tires. I just can't believe that an OE tire today will only last 20k miles. But then again, after looking on Tire Racks web site and compairing other OE tires to the Continentals, I see why we only got 20k out of them. I am leaning towards the Firestore Destination LE or the Michelin LTX . I have always heard good things about Michelins, but not sure if it's worth the extra $200 for a set. I had Firestone Destinations on my last F150 that where OE and they where very good tires. They lasted almost 35k miles, and that is with 30%+ driving on gravel, which eats tires. Now the wifes Edge has never seen gravel, and never will, so that is not an issue. So with that said, I guess what the wifes wants in a tire are something that is round, holds air, and is quite. Myself, I am looking for something that too has those first (3) fine qualities, but I also want decent traction in the snow/ice, as well as dry. I guess I want everything for nothing.