Trip to Florida, ruined back treads
 

Well, I drove down to Orlando for some much needed vacation. On the 8 hour drive from Tennessee, my back tires wore down to the metal. So I had a pepboys down here order some new treads, and they are being installed tomorrow. Looks like the alignment is off, becuase they are only worn on the inside. Anyway, 615$ later, 2 brand new Michelin sport pilot 265/35 zr 18's. And also the alignment is being corrected. I guess this would explain why on the way down when I was keeping up with a brand new boxster going 110 there was a lot of road noise and vibration.

Anyway, the tires weren't looking so hot to start with so I am not to bummed. Florida is beautiful, and Epcot was interesting ( I have never been to any of the parks, and the wife insisted I go.)
This is the view right out of our condo door
http://986forum.com/forums/uploads01...1399816785.jpg


And here is the very unsafe tires
http://986forum.com/forums/uploads01...1399816850.jpg

Yes, Florida is beautiful. I had rear tires worn worse than that in the past.

Nice shot, surprised it was only 8 hours.


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More wear on the inside of both the front and rear tires is normal. This is due to the stock alignment which adds a small amount of negative camber (top of the wheel is tilted inward). This improves corner handling at the expense of slightly accelerated wear on the insides of the tires.

The shop can set the camber to around zero to try and even out the tire wear across the tire but this will come at the expense of cornering performance.

Just stay away from the damned Magic Kingdom :D

Pick up one of those sun visors for windshield. Orlando Sun can age an interior quickly. Theres a shop called Maitland Imports in South Orlando. They do a lot of mini cooper track cars. The owner used to race a 996 (was in Grassroots Motorsports) Maybe they can help with the alignment.

You're lowered that much your camber went way out bring your toe with it .
If you want to stay that low you'll need adjustable toe arms .
That is what is scrubbing your tires .
They're around 400 bucks at tarret rennline etc .
If you don't spend it now you'll be spending 600 on new rear tires before fall ....

Or for $279-- Top Speed Auto, in Texas.

I never thought about the lowering messing with it. I think I will put it back to normal height and solve all my problems. Anybody know a good place to get oem springs?

As others said that wear on the inside is normal. I installed those same Michelins on my 2002S last year and have been happy with them so far. I also have a more reasonable expectation of how these cars eat tires when the previous Sport Cups only lasted 3,000 mi. Stuck like glue and fun to drive them if you could afford to replace them that often.

Hey newob, what do you have for lowering springs? I'll trade you my OEM 2000 S springs for em' if you're still looking to return to stock.

Almost as bad as mine got :( rear tire was way out of alignment ..... I guess going a little bit too fast down a hill and catching g some air was a bad ideahttp://986forum.com/forums/uploads01...1408667713.jpg

WOW, you are lucky the tire didn't blowout

How I see it:

1 - Boxters eat rear tires -- that is what Boxsters do. Reset your expectations.

2 - If you lower the car, that completely changes the suspension angles. You need an alignment from a competent shop. That should have been done when you did he suspension work. Your original suspension work was incomplete.

3 - Keep your car lowered. The Boxster should be that low. It's crazy that Porsche puts an SUV suspension on these cars from the factory.

4 - I personally wouldn't let Pep Boys touch my car, or have any expectation that taking the car to Pep Boys would "fix" an alignment issue.


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Having driven many long distance trips, tires have been the biggest issue. Hot weather and a lot of weight in the car (the wife's luggage) make the rear tires wear fast. I take mine to a local Porsche race shop who cranks out some the toe and negative camber to the edge of the factory spec which slows the wear down.

Looks like you've made yourself a nice set of slicks there.
And Pep Boys is just fine. I hear they only let Manny, Moe, and Jack work on the Porsches.