Super Fast Rear Tire Wear
 

Last October I put a set of Bridgestone Potenza tires on the rear of my 2001 Boxster S. I looked at them last week and discovered they are worn down to the wear bars. The wear is even across each rear tire but I got less than 5,000 miles out of them. I usually get between 8 and 10 thousand miles out of a set of rear tires. No track days, drifting lessons or anything but normal street use. Has anyone else experienced this accelerated wear with these tires?

John

No doubt Porsches really eat up rear tires, but usually not quite that quickly. Could it be the tires themselves? I've actually read on a couple of other Porsche forums a complaint post or two about someone mounting Bridgestone Potenzas and getting less than 5,000 miles out of them.

I'm having a similar experience with Hankooks. I'm thinking I may need an alignment.

100% correct ! you need an alignment on rear tires...it happened to me ..my shop told me that basically I was dragging my tires (whatever that means)

Normal is 10k to 15k for the rear tires. I usually get about 12k to 14k. Fronts last twice as long.

An alignment will also make a huge difference in how the car handles.

I got tired of replacing my tires after a season or season and a half, so I went with Continental Extreme Contact DWS tires. Have been running them for a couple of seasons now (6,000 miles) and they still look almost new. I'm happy with the way they handle, (I don't track my car, but I do enjoy hard acceleration). They have the highest wear rating of any all-season tire I could find.
They look and work great and were recommended by my friend that drives a 993 after he got less than 2000 miles on his previous set of rear tires. I waited to buy them until he had two seasons on his tires and they still looked great. He's on his 5th season on a single set of these tires now.

Check them out if you want better tire life. I don't have a tread depth gage but here is what the rear tire tread looks like after 6k miles:

http://i64.tinypic.com/2pobdp4.jpg

http://i64.tinypic.com/jab284.jpg

which Potenza specifically. They make about 20 different versions

Get an alignment. If you don`t track it get it set to factory.

Did you guys read that article in Panorama last year about the Turbo owner who put something like 700k miles on his turbo with tons of cross-country driving?

He got tired of wearing out rear tires in 10-12k miles since he did a lot of straight line driving and had his alignment shop back off on the amount of camber used in the factory settings. Now he gets 20k miles on a set (if I recall the numbers correctly).

I've considered doing this on my boxster since I live in Houston Texas and it's as flat as a pancake here. No twisty roads to navigate, that's for sure!

LOL that is fact!

Isn't the rear suppose to have a bit of Negative camber (Wear on the inside)?
If it's wearing even, that may indicate alignment is off.

I hate to say this, but 5K miles for a set of rear tires isn't highly unusual. I say this because I never got more than 5,000 miles from a set of rear tires.

Tips for longer tire life: Accelerate slowly. Select a high UTGQ tire. Accelerate slowly. Have the alignment checked. And drive slowly.

You guys ever try "flipping" your tires to enhance wear life? (inside out)?

I noticed the inside edges of both my fronts and my rears are getting noticeably more worn than the rest of the tread surface, so am contemplating having them all "flipped". I believe they are non-directional, but if they are directional, I can swap them left/right while flipping.

I already set the alignment up to get the minimum of the negative camber specification range on the rear, and maximum on the range on the front, so at least maybe my fronts and rears will wear a bit more evenly now.

I'm not willing to completely sacrifice good cornering performance only for the sake of extending tread life. (And if I got to that point in my rationale, I figure I would reconsider my car selection choice - one of the best handling cars potentially out there - with 8-10" wide rubber available in factory stock wheel/tire configuration(!) - anyway.)

Just curious if anyone here has had success flipping. Thx!

First HPDE coming up, question on tires
 

Moved my post to a new thread which was my original intent. Sorry!

A neutral alignment with minimal toe-in will help. Conti DWS and other A/S tires with higher TW rating will also help extend tire life... and driving your Boxster like an old lady. :p

Personally I shop for sticky, low treadwear tires and hope they only last 5k miles so then I can go buy a set of some nice fresh ones every season. I know, it a sickness...

Believe they are directional. Looked into flipping my tires to get rid of some feathering - research seemed to suggest because they are directional, water would not channel properly through the tread and lead to potential hydro-planning.

Not sure if that is true, just what I found in my limited search. That being said, I don't drive my Box in the rain....

If his tires are wearing evenly, it couldn't have excessive camber (I don't think). But toe could be off. I believe excessive toe in or out is what's meant by "dragging" tires. Could also be sticky tires (I don't know how sticky the Potenza line is), which wear really quickly.
I can also attest to the Conti DWS. They have been on my weekender Boxster for nearly 8,000 miles and show very little wear.

Just replaced my rear Potenza pole position s04's after 13000 spirited miles. The had very even tread wear. Sounds like you may have too much toe in.

Hello,

don't adjust only one axle. This is a system with 4 wheels. And these 4 wheels work together. If you want a setup for track i also would recommend to ask somebody who knows what he is doing. And also it will be a big plus if you know what the car should do to support your personal driving style. ;)

If you would have to much negative camber, the inner side of the wheels would wear more or your tire profile would get a sawtooth pattern.

I think it's more a toe problem. But be careful when you adjust toe to 0, because you need some toe in the rear to stabilize the car. Also because of the toe differs on how much the suspension is compressed. Maybe it's not that important in the US where you can't drive more than 75 mp/h. But on the german Autobahn you will be very glad to have toe in the rear above 200 Km/h. And don't forget it's a rear wheel driven car with a mid engine. If you have lowered the car lately you should also adjust the alignment values.

Also some tires tend to wear more than other tires. I don't know these Continental DWS tires, because they are not available in Germany. But maybe they have a harder composite gum and so they last longer.

@jakeru: In general modern tires are directional and have a stamped Outside on the flanks. It's not only the profile it's also the tire carcass that won't allow to exchange tires like you suggested.

Regards, Markus

You are talking about swapping wheels and tires side to side, he is talking about taking the tires off the wheels and swapping them so the insides are now on the outside, then swapping side to side. Direction of tire rotation will stay the same.

I have done this once on my old benz. Rears were 345/35/15 and the insides were toast. It got me a couple hundred miles. You definitely won't double the use of the tire.