Pirellis worn out at 9000 klms! - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

ryuujin · 09-08-2010, 09:35 PM

Has anybody else had an experience with Pirelli tyres wearing out prematurely?
Iam running 255/40 ZR17 N3 P Zero Rosso on the rear of my 2001 stock boxster. I drive this like Miss Daisy's driver and usually at weekends - mainly on freeways with some city driving - in 9000 kilometres the tyres are worn down to the indicator level. I never spin the wheels - I'm drive with care (with the occaisional burst when the conditions allow). I know there has been a lot of discussion on this forum about tyres and which are best - but for my money I'll never fit the OEM Pirellis again.

Pete from OZ

fatmike · 09-09-2010, 05:03 AM

I run the Perelli too and I am very disappointed with them. But to have a tire wear out that quickly means something is probably wrong with the alignment of your car.

The Perellis are bad -- but they aren't that bad.

I am getting new shoes for my car tomorrow. Decided to go with the Continental ExtremeContact DW.

ekam · 09-09-2010, 06:01 AM

Do the tires show uneven wear?

I'd make a switch to different set of tires.. there are much better choices of tires out there across the price range.

SoCalKen · 09-09-2010, 06:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fatmike

I run the Perelli too and I am very disappointed with them. But to have a tire wear out that quickly means something is probably wrong with the alignment of your car.

The Perellis are bad -- but they aren't that bad.

I am getting new shoes for my car tomorrow. Decided to go with the Continental ExtremeContact DW.

Oh yes they are, Never got more than 10K from the rear Pirellis. About a 2:1 ratio of how fast the rears go to the fronts. I just put on a set of the Falken 912s. What fiasco that was. The rears were gone so I needed new ones and didn't want to spend money on the Pirellis ever again. So I bought the rears which had to be ordered in (over a month a go). after a week I went in to find out where the rears are. they had a special going, buy 4 tires that weekend and get a $100 back. So I ordered fronts also. 2 weeks go by and still no call. so I go in "you have my tires or what?" they say oh yeah, you want them on right now? didn't have time that day so 2 weeks go by and I finally have time. go in for the install, and cars on the rack rears are dismounted and they tell me they can't find the fronts. Am I interested in 'free upgrade to yokahama s drive"? Do they have the 40k mileage warranty? No, not interested. another week goes by and they finally have the 912s. Installed last week and I am very happy with them. Very predictable and of course the 40K mileage warranty. I paid $175 for the rears 265/35/18 and $128 for the fronts 225/40/18 + tax,install,waste. Almost half the price of the Pirellis. Discount Tire, and they did the road force balancing for no additional cost for the inconvience.
Ken
Ken

ekam · 09-09-2010, 06:16 AM

It's been mentioned already that for any type of mileage warranty to be valid, you need to do 4-tire rotation every 5k which is not possible on staggered tire sizes on our cars. Read the fine print.

Lil bastard · 09-09-2010, 07:14 AM

Yep, rear tire wear on any mid/rear-engine Porsche is about 2:1 vs. the fronts, going all the way back to the 356. That's due to the odd rear camber req'd. to compensate for engine weight. So that shouldn't be a surprise to anyone.

Personally, I've always liked Pirellis. Used them on several past hot cars with good performance and wear. Have a set right now on my '76 2002.

I got over 20k mi. on a set on my former '99 Boxster and still wasn't on the wear indicators (though getting close). The wear on Pirellis, in my experience, is not linear. It appears that significant tread loss occurs at about 10k mi. and then slows down until about 16k mi., picks up again and stays fairly linear until the wear indicators. Pirellis, in my experience, are much more sensitive to proper alignment, balancing and inflation.

That said, 9k Kms. is waay too little service for the P-Zero Rosso. Did you buy them new or did they come with the car already in service? Could you be wrong about the actual service distance? Are you diligent about keeping the proper pressure?

If not, I suspect a defective set, poor alignment or poor inflation discipline, or a right foot in need of adjustment.

I'd contact Pirelli directly.

Cheers!

PS Check the fine print on your tire warranty on those 40k mi. tires. I'm betting that the 'Z' rated ones are excluded. I just got a set of tires for my 964 - non-summer, Z-rated M+S (it's just a cruiser) from Tire Rack. I chose them mostly because of their 40k warranty. Several weeks later, the Tire Warranty paperwork arrived from Tire Rack, and in the fine print, it excluded the Z-rated tire from the warranty. The W and U rated tires were warranted to 40k mi., but not the Z's.

ChrisZang · 09-09-2010, 09:02 PM

as they say: "friends don't let friends buy P-Zero Rosso"

Overdrive · 09-09-2010, 10:10 PM

The way I see it, you're never going to get a ton of mileage out of a strictly summer tire, anyways, or else I figure they'd name them "dry weather tires" rather than naming them for a season, which is probably how long they're typically expected to last.

I plan to drive my car until snow hits the ground, so for me I feel some UHP all-seasons are the ticket, but if you live in a place where you don't get terrible weather often, you get to buy a grippier tire that won't last as long.

While I agree the mileage you've gone is extremely short and probably means there's an issue separate from the tire's type, it is a summer tire, and by its nature it's not going to last long. But until a company creates a tire with summer grip and touring treadlife, resulting in them becoming insanely rich, you'll either be getting a lot of grip and little life, not so much grip and plenty of life, or some compromise in between, and be paying accordingly.

...and for what you're paying, and the driving style and habits you've given us, you're much better off finding yourself something that costs less and will last longer since you don't need grip that's going to give you vertebrae damage

ryuujin · 09-10-2010, 12:01 AM

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 · 09-11-2010, 05:58 AM

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 · 09-11-2010, 06:41 AM

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 · 09-11-2010, 10:19 AM

Quote:

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 · 09-11-2010, 01:17 PM

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

shlim8 · 09-21-2010, 01:39 AM

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 · 09-21-2010, 02:21 AM

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 · 09-21-2010, 01:26 PM

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