[edevlin]

Hi all, the family is calling me motor-man these days. I had a one day conference in Vermont this weekend and I decided to drive, yikes. I left on Friday from Virginia, 800 miles and 13 hours later I was in Vermont. Did the conference on Saturday, got in the car on Sunday, 13 hours and 800 miles later I was home.... I slept in a little this morning.

All this driving has been eating away an my 2000 2.7L Boxster I got a few months ago. It looks like I am due for rear tires for my 17" factory wheels. I have heard the stories about the tire-eating ability of the car and now the reality of the cost is intimidating. I have Pirelli's on the car now and I like them, but really have nothing to compare them to. I have noticed that they make more noise than I would like, so I am looking for a more quiet tire. Also, I have wanted to try Michelin's (ouch) at least once on the car.

The front tires still have some miles on them, I suspect they were put on at the same time as the rears as a set (I have no records), so I am planning on replacing just the rears. At first I wanted to put Pirelli's on the rear to match the front, but my local Porsche dealer said it would not be a big deal to put Michellin's in the back and keep the Pirelli's on the front and when the front Perilli's wear out, just replace them and I will be running all Michellin's. The dealer says the Michellin's are only 10.00 a tire more than the Pirelli's (290.00 per rear, mounted and balanced for Michellin's).

The other point is allingment, it is clear from looking at the wear pattern from the rear tires, there are allingment issues. Because of the lack of maintenance the car got from the first two owners, I suspect it has never had an allingment done. My local Porsche dealer says it takes them 3-4 hours to do allingment on all wheels, which I would like to get done when I get the new rear tires. So much for the background, here are my questions:

1. Is there a problem with mixing tires, older Pirelli's in the front, till they wear out and new Michellin's in the rear?

2. Why does it take them so long to do the allingment (90.00/hour labor), and can the Porsche dealer do anything in the allingment process that my local "jack-of-cars" local mechanic cannot?


Any addition comments on tires/allingment issues are welcome, thanks,

Ed