Pirellis worn out at 9000 klms!

[ryuujin]

Thanks to all who replied. Yes I fitted the tyres when the original Pirellis were due for replacement. I'm diligent with the pressures as recommended by Porsche ( and pirelli). Both rear tyres are worn evenly across the face of the tyre so I assume the alignments is good .

I've had Pirellis on other vehicles without problem which is one of the reasons I was keen to fit them again. I've written a rather terse email to Mr. Pirelli here in Australia - the reply I received was as expected biased towards my driving technique and conditions. I have since replied with the "dot" information off the tyres as requested in an effort to track the tyres and 'batch' them. I have since spoken at length to the workshop manager of my Porsche Dealer who told me that he had never experienced this sort of premature wear on a car that he knows is not driven hard. He has suggested fitting Continentals (?) I'm still unsure what to go with at this stage.

Pete from OZ

[Mark_T]

I put a set of Michelin Pilot Sport A/S Plus tires on my car last fall. I went with the all seasons so that I could drive later into the fall and start earlier in the spring without fear of getting caught in a surprise snow storm. I have 15K kms on them, I drive hard and corner fast, and there is still loads of tread left.

I like these tires and wouldn't hesitate to recommend them.

[mikefocke]

And that is about a third of what I got with a set of Michelin Ribs (no longer sold) which were summer ultra high performance tires...and they were not down to the wear bars by any means when I replaced them for age of tires reasons. So something is really really wrong if you are getting so little with the driving style you describe. Only time I've ever seen mileage that low was when alignment was seriously wrong and the wear was only on one side of the tire tread.

I don't recall any Pirelli stories as bad as yours though in the US it is no longer a very often used tire from my reading of the forums....expensive as a Michelin and not as commonly available.

Since you don't track or stress the car, why not try a much lower priced tire. Since I'm not on the same continent, so don't know what your available choices would be, but over here Kumho and Sumitomo are commonly used lower priced tires.

[BlitzSRM]

Originally Posted by ryuujin

Thanks to all who replied. Yes I fitted the tyres when the original Pirellis were due for replacement. I'm diligent with the pressures as recommended by Porsche ( and pirelli). Both rear tyres are worn evenly across the face of the tyre so I assume the alignments is good .

I've had Pirellis...

Pete from OZ

Is it normal for the rear tires to wear evenly across the face?

Mine Boxster always wore on the inside. Even my NSX, and S2000 wore on the inside.

Maybe your toe is off. Would that cause even wear???

I had my Boxster aligned after my first set wore out fast. I'm not sure how it will wear this time.

[mikefocke]

at the track...both within specs. Someone who really knows Porsches can set yours up for even wear.

[shlim8]

I've got Pirelli P Zero Rosso 235/40-18 on my other non-P car - VW Scirocco. So far I've driven 30,000km of very hard, high speed highway miles and there's still about 60-70% thread on them.

Admittedly these are on a front wheel drive car and I rotate them every -10,000km. Still 9,000km is surprising, as I was told the P Zero Rosso is fairly wear-resistent for a performance tire.

[eightsandaces]

I've had many sets of both Michelin and Pirelli tires, personally I think Pirelli gets a bad rap on the wear, in fact I'd say they are pretty close, certainly not more than 5K difference. Whenever I read of premature tire wear my first thought is either driving style or car alignment issues, my pilots are wearing perfect across each tire surface.

[ryuujin]

Thanks again to all who replied. I can assure all who suggested alignment problems and driving style that the problem wasn't caused by either. The tyres were worn evenly across the entire face on both sides. I have since fitted 4 Bridgestone Potenza Adrenalins in place of the Pirellis. Yes, I know these are not N series tyres but from the research I have done it would appear that this is not a problem for 'normal' driving.
I had a candid conversation with the manager of my tyre fitter (who works hand in hand with the local Porsche dealer) and he told me of some other horror stories of Pirellis - of note was a Cayman with only 7000 klms on the rear - same Rossos as mine. Still no feedback from Mr Pirelli about the tyre wear, I will not fit Pirelli again (to this car at least). I can't explain why my tyres wore so fast, maybe it was a 'bad batch' of rubber, maybe I was suckered into buying 'parallel imports' that were made/copied in China, who knows - all I know is that I would have expected some sort of feedback from Mr Pirelli about this - I'm afraid he has lost my custom from now, and I will not shy away from telling others about this experience and lack of support from such a large company.

There,that feels better.

Pete from Oz