I have had the same problem with S03 (225/45-17) on my WRX. I just figured the pressure is too high. The S03 has as stiff or more stiff sidewalls than the RA-1s on my S2000. My guess for your problem is that your air gauge is incorrect, try a different one. BTW, 25 psi cold really is too low.

 

yea....25 psi cold is really low, which is why I was like why is it still wearing in the middle

 

maybe the guy who put your tires on
put your front rim with the smaller width on the back with the wider tire??

ive seen it happen and it would explain the wear

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Shvitz2k
maybe the guy who put your tires on

 

ya it would and you would get that strange wear as a result

 

Unless some genius who had the car before me had an idiot put tires on and they screwed it up.....hmm...but wouldn't that cause the fronts to wear weird too? Fronts never wore weird.

i'll take a measurement tonight when I get home to just be 100% sure that that's not the problem. My friend did buy a BMW hatch with all M series stuff and the wheels were on backwards like that..

 

For some reason, this wear pattern is normal on SO-3's. I had the same thing happen, and I've seen more than one thread about it. As for the cause, I don't think there's been a satisfactory explanation yet. Perhaps the SO-3's are inordinately sensitive to toe settings? I can tell you for certain that it is not due to overly-high tire pressure. The only other thing I could think of is that perhaps the tire is too wide for the rim, so the middle of the tire is bulging out. However, I don't like this explanation either, since I've stacked two 245/45 SO-3's next to two OEM SO-2's, and the SO-2 stack was taller.

Anyway, that wear pattern is normal, and if you find a solution to even out the wear I'd love to hear it.

 

well that just is plain sucky...I love the tires but its horrible to look and see lots of beefy tread on the shoulders and all that middle just gone. There has to be some explanation, I just don't see why the tire would be made this way.

I also checked my rim widths, and they were not flipped by some moron, my backs are on the back. I hate to know there is nothing I can do about this problem since I am about to spend $800 for another set.

 

Yeah I dunno what to tell you dude. I ended up buying some 245/45 BFG Comp T/A's as a last resort since I was driving long-distance through continuous rain on my bald-in-the-middle-with-cord-showing SO-3's. And that after all of 10k miles . I was not happy. I actually stopped at a FORD dealer in desperation b/c I didn't want to die and I saw one from the interstate. The BFG's have actually surprised me with their dry grip, but now they're almost dead at 13k miles, and they are getting scary on even mildly damp roads.

I considered going to the RE750, but since I corner pretty agressively those didn't seem like a really good idea (according to the accounts I've read here). I gave up and just ordered another set of OEM rears this morning from Jim...

 

There has to be a solution. Surely Bridgestone knows about this problem. Thats retarded for a tire to wear like that.