rworne

Checking the wear on the inside of my front S-02's showed me that I should do something about it. So I did what others have suggested, and had the tires remounted so that the meatier outer edge was moved to the inside edge of each wheel.

I am now at 16,800 miles. The fronts are original OEM tires, the rears replaced at 8,500 mi or so due to an unrepairable nail puncture with replacement OEM tires. I drive pretty sedately, since most driving is commuting and do occasional spirited drives with small groups in the twisties. The car has never been tracked.

Wear on the tires as measured tread depth is:

5/32" for both fronts (16,800 miles on them), 7/32" for both rears (8,000 mi on them). I plan on replacing the tires when there is about 25% or so left on the treadlife or driving quality degrades.

So as a guess, I am reasonably sure the fronts will last to 20,000 miles and the rears to 16,000 miles.

My biggest concern is the wear on the fronts. I've seen at least three wearbars of different depths in the tread. The shallowest are on the edges, the next shallowest in slightly further, and the deepest in the center treads.

Before the swap, on the outer edge of both tires, the wearbars on the edge of the tires were just becoming flush with the tread. On the inner edge of the driver's side, there was a bit of wear left before the wear bar, and on the passenger side, it was already nearly flush with the second-deepest wear bar. Looking at the tires show a lot of center tread left.

After the swap, the inner edges now have lots more tread (about even) to wear through now. The outer edges have less, but wear is much slower on the outside.

So, is this normal, or am I in need of an alignment? I am already aware that the nature of the car causes tires to wear faster on the insides, but is the uneven wear something to be concerned about?

Jim@tirerack

I would suggest running less negative camber in the front. It would even out the wear pattern on the tires. If you are below the wear bars now I would suggest changing the tires. You are going to be prone to a road hazzard with the tires being completely worn on one side.
If I can help let me know.

Jim 877-522-8473-364

rworne

I still have tread across the whole tire. My issue is that there are several wearbars of differing heights. In other words, the tread depth on the edges of the tires is not as deep as in the center of the tire. From what I can tell, new tires are this way also.

It is possible what I am looking at is not the wearbars, but a tread feature. I'll try and grab a photo later today.

TrueDrezzer

4mm remaining on the front and 5.5mm remaining on the rear is still a good amount. When you get down to 2mm or 2-3/32'' you need to change them out.

Running less negative camber will give you more tyre life at the expense of potential cornering prowess. Over 20.000 miles is extremely good tyre consumption though.

I think you are running into a tread feature. Some of the grooves aren't as deep as the others and will become flush with the rest of the pattern as time goes on.

///Robin

oakfloor

I had the same thing on my s-2000. If your tires are old I would just have them replaced with the O.E.M. tire. old tires dont have the same grip, they get hard. they get thin,you got 16800 miles good miles out of them. if there not too old just change them from left to right. this worked on mine. I.M.H.O drive safe