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Are these tires shot or this is normal after an hour of sport driving on concrete?
I noticed these even cracks on both front tires, they're even and only on the outside of the tire. I thought it's just old tire but now not so sure. Tires have DOT5213 (produced on December 2013), they're Pilot Sports 3 I have them since summer 2014. I was told that this is how tires look after driving at a limit on a track day and if they're not chipping it's fine. Can someone who has trackday expierience say if this is wrong. I was driving on and over the limit on few occasions.
No a trackday person but the scrub line goes to the arrow on the sidewall when the pressure is correct. You should add a psi or two for your cars weight, alignment and tire width.
It's always hard to tell from a pic, but they look ok to me. I have a similar pattern on mine from track driving, and it's still there now even though I haven't been to the track in a couple of years. That part of the tire just doesn't get used much normally. Here's a pic of the edge of one of my front tires now:
Bear in mind this is after a fair bit of driving since the last track event so it doesn't look as bad as yours.
Quite seriously, most track rats don't consider their tires to be unusable until the cord is showing. Yours look very similar to some of mine as I recall. And as someone else noted, under hard cornering, you are "rolling over" on a part of the tire that generally doesn't get any use. I have marked tires with white shoe polish to use as a guide to see where the polish is worn off to, as he said, check tire pressures, camber, etc.I think you are fine. And it is good that you are looking at these kind of things. Also keep an eye on your front brake pads until you get a feel as to how fast they wear.
Quite seriously, most track rats don't consider their tires to be unusable until the cord is showing. Yours look very similar to some of mine as I recall. And as someone else noted, under hard cornering, you are "rolling over" on a part of the tire that generally doesn't get any use. I have marked tires with white shoe polish to use as a guide to see where the polish is worn off to, as he said, check tire pressures, camber, etc.I think you are fine. And it is good that you are looking at these kind of things. Also keep an eye on your front brake pads until you get a feel as to how fast they wear.
I guess "most" would be the qualifier.
The drop off after 8-10 heat cycles puts you at a disadvantage when running at the front when actually racing.
We toss tires and move to stickers even when the circumferential grooves are still intact.
If you don't, and the competition does, you are - 1.0/sec just on tire.
Completely normal. I've autocrossed several times on my Pilot Sport AS/3s and have the same sort of wear yours do and they work just fine. I actually had a high spot from actually melting the rubber on the tread block the front left tire that I had to wear off. As others have said, increase the pressure. Start with the factory recommended pressures and work from there if you need to.
On a side note: Tires do age. Make sure you're replacing them every 5 years. Previous owner of my car had 8 year old Dunlops on when I bought it and it was worse than driving on ice. Those should be on their way out.
These Pilot Sport 3 are 4.5 years old, first 2 years they've spent in the garage doing just 1200miles, then added 10000 more miles on them, there is more than plenty of thread left. Should I replace them?
No a trackday person but the scrub line goes to the arrow on the sidewall when the pressure is correct. You should add a psi or two for your cars weight, alignment and tire width.
You do realize those "arrows" are to direct you to where the wear bars are, right?????
Completely normal. I've autocrossed several times on my Pilot Sport AS/3s and have the same sort of wear yours do and they work just fine. I actually had a high spot from actually melting the rubber on the tread block the front left tire that I had to wear off. As others have said, increase the pressure. Start with the factory recommended pressures and work from there if you need to.
On a side note: Tires do age. Make sure you're replacing them every 5 years. Previous owner of my car had 8 year old Dunlops on when I bought it and it was worse than driving on ice. Those should be on their way out.
What is it in the picture that has people recommending he increase pressure, is it how far over the shoulder the roll its showing? Purely curious here as I have not tracked before but may in the future.
When you say factory recommended I take it that is a reference to vehicle mfg, the info on the label in the door frame? It sounds like typically for tracking people usually increase pressure to counter sidewall roll?
I had a vehicle that I used to like to pushing corners with and recall factory recommended was not "comfortable" from a driver's perspective when pushing hard, it literally felt like the tire was about to roll off the wheel. You could really feel the sidewall rolling during spirited driving in extended sweepers and if you went past roll point it really started to push as well. I ended up running around 4-5psi over mfg recommended to counter that issue and it made for a much more predictable experience without the anxiety of rolling the tire.
Always worth checking the date stamp on tires, even "brand new" tires. It's the last 4 digits of the tire serial number on the sidewall -- first two digits are the week of the year made, and the last two are the year, so 2217 means they were made in the 22nd week of 2017. I once had a PPI done on a car and the tech said the tires were 12 years old, which seemed impossible because the car was only about 8 years old at the time. That's when I realized you really need to check the production date even on "new" tires. If they've been sitting on the shelf for years, don't buy them! There's no universal expiration date for tires, but somewhere between 6 and 10 years, most tend to agree the rubber is too old even if you have plenty of tread. Kind of like timing belts.
Looks like normal "scrubbing" of the tire shoulder, produced when a street tire rolls under during hard cornering.
And yes, plenty of tread left, but that can backfire for competitive driving. Tall tread both increases squirm (and precision response) and high temperatures, leading to tread separation.
05-05-2018, 05:50 AM
Are these tires shot or this is normal after an hour of sport driving on concrete?
