I recently swapped the summer tires back on and am noticing uneven tire wear on the rears.

The car was bought new, these tires now have ~13,5K miles on them. The outside's appear to be wearing faster than middle/inside. Don't feel any feathering on the tire surface. Wheels appear straight - albeit not sure I'd see it even if it was off by a degree.

The numbers are as follows; these were made using vernier calipers as I don't have an actual depth gauge here. I doubt doing an alignment now will arrest this wear, but definitely something to correct when new tires are installed.



From the wear/numbers, it seems like a positive camber issue. I suppose anything is possible, but I don't recall reading posts with this type of complaint on stock cars.

The fronts appear to wearing evenly and have quite a bit more tread left than rears. I don't do burn outs or slide around corners, but do take curves at fast speeds.

Thoughts/comments?

 

I'm not saying you don't have some kind of alignment issue going on there, but regardless, I would not expect a set of those crappy RE050's to go much more than 15K anyway (unless you pretty much always drive like granny). My original set that the car came with had worn clear down to the tread bars by 15K and were literally slicks by the time I swapped them out at 20K. I'd just go ahead wear them out and then get an alignment check when you replace them with something better.

.02

 

Check your rear toe. They may be toed in more than they should be. That seems more likely than positive camber.

 

I'll get actual numbers in a few days. Wouldn't toe cause a feather effect? Or not necessarily if it's small enough?

I was hoping to get at least 20K out of the set, especially since the fronts are barely 50% worn. If these last another 4-5K (through the rest of summer/fall) I'll be happy. Was planning on getting new rubber next spring or late fall to get in on some good deals.

@VQ, i'm all too familiar with high performance tires. On the bike they'd get replaced 1-2x a season after typically 7-8K miles. At $400+ a set, they're just as pricey as good car tires.

 

Toe can cause that type of wear as well. Keep us posted on those numbers!

 

Same thing is happening to me..

Neal@tirerack do you have any discount with tirerack.com?

 

Here's the numbers.

Rear

Camber L/R, -.6°/-1.4° spec -1.4° to -.4°, -.90° nominal
Toe L/R, .15°/.05° spec 0.00° to .25°, .12° nominal

So looks like it's a combination of toe and camber misalignment that caused the wear. .8° is quite a difference in camber. Tires have been rotated side to side which probably helped even out the uneven wear

Front was better

Camber L/R > -.3°/-.7° spec -1.08° to .42°, nominal -.30°
Caster L/R > 4.7°/4.4° spec 3.9° to 5.4°, nominal 4.7°
Toe L/R > .00°/00°, spec -.04° to .12°, nominal .04°

The car drives and tracks very well right now. Considering the life left in the tires, it made sense to leave the alignment as is until new tires are installed. Then adjust as best to nominal spec.

I'm in agreement with the tech about making changes now would cause the car to possibly pull or drift. This would drive me nuts and not worth marginal extra tire life.

What I probably should of done was get the car properly aligned when new.

 

That's an interesting wear pattern Jsolo. Did the fronts appear to have a similar wear profile?

I don't see why you shouldn't be able to get 20k miles out of them. Especially if you rotate side to side (dismounting the rear tires to swap side to side). I am probably an outlier in the distribution curve for RE050A wear, but I was able to get 30k miles out of mine. Granted the rears were slicks, but it's possible.

 

Unfortunately no forum discounts, sorry.

 

Interesting... unusual perhaps is a better word

The fronts are wearing relatively even except for outboard wear. That's to be expected given my driving style. Other than that, they're fairly consistent across the tread. I haven't thought about the dismount/remount rotation. I've just been swapping wheels L<--->R. The re050a is an asymmetrical tire. Not sure what type of effect this rotation method will have on handling.

30K is impressive. If I were to keep these tires, I'm sure it'd be more than possible to achieve that on the fronts. Unlikely for the rears. In fact, when I go the pilot SS's, I expect 2 sets for every 1 front set.

 

Ha, yes...interesting was a euphemism for unusual.

When I had my 19's and Michelin A/S Plus, I had more outer wear on the fronts but that was probably driving style as well.

Yes, you can definitely do that type of rotation swapping the entire wheel L to R, but the outside of the RR would still be the outside of the LR, which would continue to wear the outer edge.

If you treat it as a directional tire, the outer edge of the RR would become the inner edge of the LR and vise versa-- possibly enabling a longer mileage on the wear.

Yes, that's about how it goes with the pilot SS's. On my G35 Coupe, I ran through rears (every 15k) at twice the rate of fronts. I had no suspension mods on the car but the problem was the fronts would wear on the inside, enough to make them no good at 15k miles. So I'd have them swapped with the dismount and I was able to get another 15k out of them.

Sub'd to hear what the outcome of your alignment is.

 

Had the alignment done today.

The initial numbers did look a bit different than those from april (esp camber). Two different shops were involved, both with the hunter dsp600 machine. Both ends (front/rear) required just a small tweak. Had to do the toe twice as the steering wheel was slightly off center for my liking. No frozen bolts in the rear. Car still seems to drive straight. Close exam of rears show a good 4-5/32's remaining, so I may put off new tires until late spring or summer next year.

 

I had the same problem with the OE RE-050. I bought front upper and rear camber arms. Total toe on both ends was reduced by half to 5mm. I had the jobber set the car with -2° camber on both ends and after a year, the Potenza S04 Pole Positions are wearing almost evenly with just a tad extra wear on the inside rear. -1-1/2° would probably be perfect. And these tires are so much grippier than the RE-050s. They're good enough I'm no longer sad Dunlop Direzza Star Specs aren't made in our size.

 

^^Those sound like pretty aggressive settings. Why?

Clarify the 5mm? Isn't toe measured in degrees?

 

Some countries use mm of toe instead of degrees. A little bit of math and a reference point can convert between them but I'm okay with millimeters. Stock was 10mm total and my tire wear was a bit excessive on the outside so I had it reduced to 5mm total. The car doesn't have as strong a sense of straight ahead as it used to but I don't even notice it now.

Most posts about camber say the G likes -1.5° and I think that's a good number. I may reduce to that value if further tire wear warrants it.

Other than the camber parts, my sedan suspension is stock. Between the toe change and the negative camber the car wants to turn.