Cyberdave

You're lucky! If it matters Consumer Reports gave the LX25 a lower score than the LX20. I looked at options and decided to go with Falken Ziex CT60 A/S. While they are not rated as highly as the LX25 by CR, in looking at other professional reviews and user reviews it sounded like a great tire. My other cars have used Falken for years and they've always been good. And I'm not giving Continental another dime! It should be noted in my research I found a lot of people complaining about the LX20 and/or Continental in general and trying to get them to replace their tires for breach of warranty for premature wear or other problems. It's worth looking into. I also noticed that the UTQG rating on the LX20 was 680 and the new tires of both are 740. I guess we'll see if that makes a difference. So far I haven't noticed any difference between the LX20 and the Falken's. We recently had snow and they worked fine.

So to follow up (and I posted a longer one in the thread I referenced previously), the LX20's only lasted 34k miles on my car which I am very disappointed with considering what they are supposed to be.

Hey folks, I'm coming back to do a follow up on the review and wear of this tire. I have since put 34k miles on them and had them rotated and aligned. Today when I took the car in for another rotation they said the tread wear was unsafe and I needed new tires. They gave me a quote which included a warranty discount from Continental for not making it to the 60k or 70k guaranteed life. The quote was for the updated LX25. I said I would think about it. I got it home and measured them myself. Am very disappointed in this tire and the tread wear and not even making it through over half of what was supposed to be the life time wear. I figured if I made it to 50k miles that would be fine. But 34k?! F Continental! Why would I buy another set of Continentals that only make it through half the supposed tread life? I have to find something else.

A few years ago I was going to be leaving my car in the driveway for a month as I was going out of town and the driveway was on a little incline. I didn't want a problem while I was gone so I put on the emergency brake. I get back a month later and once I started driving I realized there was a problem with the brakes. I had it looked at and the rear brakes were toast! That was a $700 mistake I will not forget! I had parked the car facing my garage. The guy at the Ford dealer told me I didn't need to use the emergency brake if I parked the other way around, that the "engine brake" or something would lock and keep the car from moving. That's what he told me anyway. At any rate, now I don't use the emergency brake unless there really is a need to and that means almost never. I moved so I don't have that driveway anymore.

This is turning into a really weird story if you want to know. Once I knew what it was (and after looking at a video online), I looked under the car and saw each exhaust had one. I couldn't see the one behind the exhaust but I saw the one in the front. As you can see from this photo it looks different, it's not the same one. I looked under my other car and nope not that one either. The road in front of my house is a busy one and it's bumpy but people don't often realize that. My theory is that someone going too fast over the bump lost theirs and it bounced into my driveway!

I did some googling and it looks like probably the answer is NO!

Ok thanks! Do you think it is OK to drive the car until I can get it put back on?

2013 Edge AWD Since it fell out onto the driveway I assume it probably came from the Brakes, Chassis or Suspension? Or maybe something related? Should I be concerned? Thanks for any info!

I took the car into Ford and they looked into it. They said that the brake light switch was sticking (which is why pressing the brake pedal again would turn the lights back off) and they were able to reproduce the problem even on level ground. They claimed it was not related to the booster/master cylinder work. They replaced it - $30 for the part and $135 for labor.

Yes rear brake lights with spoiler light. Yes only on inclines (other ones I've parked on too) and not on level ground. I dont use cruise control but I could try it. With more testing I found that when I turn the car back on, I just need to press the brake pedal and not put it in gear, then turn it off, in order for pressing the remote to get the car to lock with no brake light on.

This is the weirdest thing. 2013 Edge SEL. The brake booster was replaced (under warranty) along with the master cylinder about 6 weeks ago by a local Ford dealer. Last week I parked in my driveway which is on a slight incline and when pressing the remote to lock the car the rear brake lights stayed on. (I am NOT using the emergency brake. ) I tried using the remote to unlock and relock the car and it didn't work. I got in the car and turned it on and off and that didn't work and finally what worked was turning the car on, putting it in drive, putting it back in park, then turning it off. Then get out and lock with the remote and the brake lights turned off. This happens when the car is parked either front in or backed in. It does not happen when the car is just on the street or in a parking lot on level ground. It is the weirdest damn thing! Does anyone have any idea why this is happening? Could it be related to the brake work that was done? Or something else? I haven't taken it in yet but I'm going to have to. ... Thanks!

When trying to decide what tires to replace for my car I looked at the LX20, Bridgestone 422 ECOPIA, and some kind of hybrid like the Toyo Celsius CUV. I really couldn’t afford to get two sets of tires – all season and winter tires. I needed one set of tires which would be good with snow but also good all around in general. By good with snow I mean not just starting from a stop which is not a problem with AWD but stopping and going around curves. My Michelin Latitudes after they down to about 6/32s would no longer stop properly on snow, the ABS kicked in and the car kept sliding. I did a completely new (google) search for all season tires good on snow and two tires came up. Nokian WR G3 and Toyo Celsius. I had never heard of Nokian before nor about the Celsius. The first thing I looked at was a report by Consumer Reports about these tires being a new inbetween tire – inbetween all season and winter – being called an All Weather tires. In their tests CR said both tires were very good. I began to look into them in more detail. While numerous Nokians were available at Discount Tire near me for my wife’s Subaru Forester, they were not for the Edge. But the Celsius were available from Ford and the Ford site showed them as including not only a generous $140 in rebates but a “No Regrets Trial” period from Toyo – 45 days or 500 miles. I checked the Toyo site and it said the trial was either exchange or refund. Since only the Toyos were available for me, I looked into those and found a number of independent car sites who tested the tires in winter and said the test results were good. I also looked up and found a number of tire sites with consumer reviews from people who would want a tire like that in the northern US states and Canada. The reviews were all mostly positive, people liked the tires and they worked well. There were however a few people who complained that the tires didn’t seem to be able to be balanced properly, that there was noise and vibration. One person complained that when they were going between 60 and 70 mph the car started vibrating. Given the number of other positive reviews and the fact that tires can vary by vehicle and maybe there were install problems with those people, I would probably be OK with getting the tires. So I decided to get them. I was really hoping they would be great because I didn’t want to go through the bother of returning them. I kept my old tires just in case. After installation I checked the tires pressure and tread. The tread depth was uniformly 10/32. I did some driving around. I had read that some people said these tires had more rolling resistance and as a result they would get a couple less mpg. I noticed that on first driving them. They didn’t seem any noisier than the Michelin’s either by listening or by using a sound measuring app on my phone. What did seem more pronounced however was the tires transmitted bumps and other imperfections in the road. It got worse when I went over 45 mph on a less than perfect road and on the highway. On the highway (around here) there is a bump every 50? Feet and so it felt like I was driving over a washboard. I can see now how someone would describe that as increased vibration. The tires were balanced correctly because they worked fine on perfect stretches of road. The problem of course is that where I live there aren’t too many stretches of perfect road. I decided to return them. I have a theory about why the tires were a problem on my CUV but yet why they may be fine on other people’s sedans. I noticed that the tires had a different profile than the Michelin’s. The Michelin’s don’t look like they are inflated all the way whereas these looked like they were overinflated. When I took them back to Ford service the guy checked them because he said they looked over inflated. I am wondering if this is due to a firmer sidewall which makes the tires less flexible and thus more prone to transmitting road vibrations. My car has a firm suspension so it needs a tire that has a more comfortable and flexible ride. A firm suspension coupled with a less flexible tires means more vibrations and noise. So a car, a sedan, with a more cushioned suspension may work just fine with these tires. (I'm sure the rubber formula is a factor also.) Anyway about 5 days later I went back to the dealer to talk to service about returning them. They said I would have to talk to the parts manager and they were out that day so I had to go back a couple days later. I figured there was going to be some red tape and this could take some time. When I went back they had to figure it out but it didn’t end up taking that long. One gotcha though is that while the trial gives you a refund of the cost for mounting and balancing, when you have your own tires put back on, you have to pay for that. So it cost me $80 for a trial of the tires. But at least I got a refund for everything else. I think also I was fortunate that this dealer is customer friendly and oriented. One who goes to a less friendly dealer may end up having more problems returning them. Also note that on Consumer Reports tests, the Celcius rates at 64, the Nokian at 66, and the Conti LX20 at the top at 74. I describe the Conti LX20 which I ended up getting in the post "Anyone have Conti CrossContact LX20 experience?" and that's what I remain with, probably the best bet for the money for me anyway.

As previously mentioned I got the LX20 and at this point that was 8 months ago and about 2k to 3k miles ago. I got them at DT for less than Ford. While the DT site said they were T, the sales rep ended up ordering me H. He showed me on the computer the wholesale site where they order tires and it showed both H and T for the same price and he got H because that's what the car is rated for. The tires do need as mentioned on the Continental site and elsewhere they do need a break in period. Some say 500 to 750 miles. To me it seems like it was about at least 1000. When not broken in they seem harsher, more road issues telegraphing, but over time that evens and smooths out. Now I don't notice anything. (I mean with this car's suspension its a firmer ride anyway so it's not like riding in a Cadillac. ;-D ) No rock or pebble problems! I could tell right away they have low rolling resistance as the car just goes when you press the gas and overall the tires are quiet. They came with a tread depth of 12/32 and I will keep an eye on the wear. DT had inflated the tires to 37 but I took it down to between 32-33 for the break in period and now they are at 35. When we finally had some snow about 1 to 2 inches and I tried them out on an uncleared road. They worked well, better than the worn down Latitudes I had. With the latitudes the problem was pressing the brakes and the ABS would come on right away and the car would keep sliding which is kind of terrifying. With these whether the ABS came on or not the car would slow down and stop. From a stop, starting traction (with AWD) is good.

Hey folks, I just had this problem and detailed it under the post for service bulletin for extended warranty coverage for brake booster:

Last Friday I got in my car and about to back out of my driveway and pressing the brake pedal it felt weird. Kind of spongy and the pedal went down too far. Drove a block to try it out and it went down to the floor and took longer to stop. (My car has only 59k miles) I went home and got online and read this and a couple other related threads and also other online sites like carcomplaints.com (which has a lot regarding this) and found out about the service bulletin. I looked on the label on my car and saw it was built May 2012 but didnt say where. I drove my wife's car to the dealer to talk to a service rep about it and when I could bring it in and was it covered under the SB. I didn't even have to give them my VIN, they had it right there in the computer that it was fortunately covered for brake booster. Reading these posts and others looking at the symptoms I wasn't sure that it was the booster because there was no hissing sound or squealing when I pressed the pedal. Also there was no obvious leak of the brake fluid. Since I couldn't get a hard pedal, it was reduced braking power, so based on what I read it sounded like it could be a master cylinder problem. I took it in and they said yes it was the brake booster and they replaced it. I asked the guy about the master cylinder and he said oh no it's fine. The next day he says that after installing and testing the booster that the brakes were still spongy and that the master cylinder had to be replaced. It would cost $450 which is a lot less than the prices I've seen other people posting for this repair in other parts of the US. They had it for four days. When I went to get it the service rep said that the booster leaked into the master cylinder and contaminated it and thus had to be replaced. This is the opposite of what I've read where people say it sounds like or can be the master cylinder leaking into the booster causing it to go bad. I don't know. But once it was fixed the brakes are working much better, hard pedal, no travel when pressing the pedal to engage the brakes. I think it had been on the way out for some months because last March I had to replace the rear brakes and after that I noticed the pedal went down a little further to engage them and over time it seemed the get worse but not enough to raise concern. At least I wasn't driving it when it went out. The weird thing is I had them change the oil two months ago and presumably they check all the fluids and didn't notice brake fluid decline. Unless they did and just topped it off. Who knows. On another note given the problems I've seen discussed regarding the PTU and although my car is not in the batch affected by that faulty part, they recommended changing the fluid and so I did.