Super Fast Rear Tire Wear

[imon_2nd]

One more factor in rapid tire wear: worn suspension parts or wheel bearings. I've had this issue in several sports cars over the years. The increase in vibration can be too subtle and increases so gradually that you don't notice. Sometimes, the tire wears evenly across the tread, sometimes not.

[jakeru]

Originally Posted by Smallblock454

@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

I just had my rear tires dismounted and remounted inside-out, as discussed above in this thread, to help even out future tread wear. They are performance all-season style 18" Michelins and although directional, were not asymmetric (so in other words, while there is a proper direction of rotation for water evacuation and hydroplane resistance, there is no "inner" and "outer" side of the tire.)

This "flipping" procedure has the added benefit of also rotating the tires from left-right sides of the car (it's actually necessary while flipping a directional tire to do this to maintain the right rotation direction), which can't otherwise be accomplished.

I feel like it's going to buy some extra life, and driving home they also felt surprisingly great!

[B6T]

Originally Posted by thstone

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

If you're desperate enough to drive slowly, you could save even more money by selling the Porsche and getting a Corolla.

[san rensho]

Too much toe is probably the single most important cause of wear on the inside ofthe tires. And yes rotating will really increase tire life.

[mikefocke]

Originally Posted by RandallNeighbour

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!

It works on a Boxster too. I bought my Boxster with Bridgestones on the car whose rears were not wearing evenly. Aware of the wear issues with Boxsters and having access to a group that set up Porsches for racing and thus knew what settings had what effect, I told them to dial some performance out and set it up for long wear. I replaced the tires with take-offs (PS2s) already mounted on wheels from some well to do guy who wanted bigger flashier wheels. 15k later I replaced those rears due to age, not wear. I know I could have gotten another 5k out of them. The expertise of the person who does the alignment matters greatly.

[thstone]

Originally Posted by B6T

If you're desperate enough to drive slowly, you could save even more money by selling the Porsche and getting a Corolla.

Sorry, mentioning driving slow several times was a poor attempt at sarcasm.

As for me personally, I can't seem to get more than 500 miles from a set of tires. Slowing down is definitely not an option.