Rotating tires
 

I have Bridgestone Potenza S-O2A tires with about 5k miles on them and the insides of the rears are starting to wear, which I understand is normal because of the negative camber in the rear.

Is there any downside to taking the tires off the rims and switching them left to right?

Some owners get 8,000 miles on the rears, while others get 20,000 miles. Are you sure your alignment is good? Tire pressures accurate?

yes - they are directional so they would be rotating the wrong way if left on the rim. remounting them would leave the treadwear on the outside of the tire so i would think they would provide less grip when cornering and more prone to breaking loose...

as an aside, i got around 15k miles on my s02-a. but they were very squirrally in the wet (moreso than normal) towards the end. but i still loved them.

What you are suggesting will work fine. It keeps the tires rotating in the correct direction and extend the life of yoour tires.

You are correct that the insides of the tires will wear more due to the negative camber.

Yes, its fine to swap the tires from wheel to wheel (by dismounting and remounting) in order to "rotate" them to try to get more even wear. No downside except the effort/cost of dismount/remount.

Most street drivers just replace the tires rather than go through the trouble of swapping the tires side-to-side but the track guys do this all of the time.

Thanks Blue and Thestone. Just what I wanted to hear. Previous owner spent like $1300 for the tires (probably overpaid) and with only 5k miles on them, I want to milk them for as long as I can.

Porsche alignment specs
 

give wide latitude to the mechanic. He can set your car up for max grip or even wear and still be in spec. Had both...made a world of difference when I had a guy who knew how to set up Porsches for racing and thus who understand the handling/wear influence of being at one side or the other of the limits set my car up. More than doubled my miles/tire. A set of rears half worn and even at 15k. Never found any downside in normal driving either.

Mike, May I ask where you got this done? I live down in Southern Pines and I'm having a hard time finding a tire shop that I feel comfortable dealing with.
Thanks,
MikeT

I disagree.

My Michelin PS2 tyres indicate that one side faces the outside and 1 faces the inside. If this is true then if I switched the rims, it would make no difference since the same side of the tyre must face the same direction. Outside must face outward no matter what side of the car its on.

If I turned the tire the opposite way, (rotating them), then, while it would wear even, it is against the way Michelin designed them to operate. I am sure they have different compunds on different sides of the tread, as well as different sidewall strengths as well which would be crucial for correct handling.

As a street driver I have never rotated my tyres (on my 987). I always just replace them. They wear slightly inside but not too far from equal. You may need a good alignment.

Other people have done this it seems so correct me if needed. I would guess I have directional tyres and they might not all be the same.

PS2s are not directional, so you're stuck. All you can do is move them side to side on the car, but that won't help wear. Directional tires such as the Bridgestone Potenza S-O2A that the OP has don't have an "outside" wall and can be flipped on the wheel.

Most boxsters dont have an LSD so would you not get some more wear distribution by swapping sides....? I don't think that they (ps2s) are directional....the drive wheel may see more wear

I tend to chirp it even with traction control on

If you chirp the tires every time you start, then I suppose you're right.

But you have to do some serious intraspection and ask yourself, "Why do I feel the need to do this every time?"

I was going to say that you'll replace your clutch more often than others too then. But, you probably don't care about that. I drive pretty hard and never "chirp" the tires - without traction control.

...no not everytime but once in a while and its the drive wheel that probably gets it....so it might wear more

...just pulled the clutch and it was no different than new and put it back in

It's not just with standing starts, the R. Rear tends to spin in 1st ( sometimes 2nd ) gear corners, while turning right.

It's easy to tell if the right tire is wearing more than the left. Measure it. If so, swap them, if not, don't. Mine wore pretty much evenly on my last set of tires. And they had a couple of track days on them.

LOL this forum is brilliant! RE rear tire swap, I was myself convinced that this couldn't be done (directional issues etc). Brain sometimes haha

nice one thx

Yeah, if they're directional you can swap, if asymetric, then no.