911-TOUR

...I have to tell you this is ridiculous. I just replaced the rear tires in November when I changed the oil at 82,500. Now the car has 85,200 miles and the pasenger rear is down past the wear bars, and the drivers rear is almost there. When I had the oil changed, the alignment was checked and found to be perfect. What gives? I got 15K on my RE730 rears, and 8K on my last SO-3s. The only thing that has changed is the drop to Euro Spec height w/ROW M030. Have other's seen increased tire wear when lowering the car? Could this be a bad batch of tires ?

Any *new* thoughts on tires with decent performance and reasonable treadlife ? (SO-3s are supposed to be good, 220 treadwear)

Tirerack is suggesting Kumos.

Arghh...

sean

Bii

Sean,

What size tire are you running on the rear?

Is the wear even across the surface?

Phil

OUCH!!
I went all last year on Mich. pilot sports including 9 or so DEs> I also commute 70 miles a day

911-TOUR

Stock 17"s 255/40, 205/50, I think. The wear is perfectly even across the tire...somewhat uneven in the round (e.g. if the tire is sitting flat, the top of the tire is worn more than the bottom) which makes for some nice vibrations around 60mph.

sean

Carrera Mike

I read in my Paul Frere's Porsche 911 Story that 95 and older 993 have the rear toe in by 1.5 degrees, while the 96 and newer have 1.0 deg. I'm not sure but I think a porsche shop can adjust this and have less wear.
Porsche reduced the toe in on the 96 and newer due to excessive wear. Of course the higher toe in has more stable straight/in line track.

Steve Weiner-Rennsport Systems

Hi Sean:

I must say that your situation is highly unusual.

2700 miles to the wear bars suggests that something is amiss here and I wish I could closely examine your rear tires.

Assuming that these were street not track miles, I'd respectfully suggest that either something is loose in the rear end or the alignment is not quite right. I'd need to see those tires to help determine what parameter is off,.....

I'd also mention that many shop's alignment gear is not always calibrated frequently enough and many (independents) do not have the kinematic tool that is so critical for a properly done job.

Under normal (street) conditions, you oughta get 8K-12K from rear tires unless you are sliding the car a lot,....

911-TOUR

Steve,

All highway miles, in fact. (I've been traveling, a lot) I had the car up today to flush the transmission, which is when I noticed the wear...gave everything a good shake, and checked the torque on all of the important bits. Nothing's loose or out-of-spec as far as I can tell. The weird wear in the round has me puzzled...oh well, I can wait to hear what Mike says when I give him a call Tuesday.

I have some hi-res digital photos of the tires that I took today, if you'd like me to post them....

sean

Terry Adams

Not from lowering. I lowered mine 1.25", and then got 17K miles from the new rear P Zero Assimetricos.

poorb0yw

Hi Sean,
Did you get my pm about the control system stuff a while back? I've been reading a little on various sites and looking at some products from companies that people recommended before but I'm not sure exactly which type of system I need (most of the brand sites I've been to didn't say much about what each version did).

911-TOUR

Princeton, I got your PM...looks like you didn't get mine...Grin. I'll send you another.

sean

Steve Weiner-Rennsport Systems

Sean:

If you can post a hi-res pic of a tire, that might be very helpful,....

chris walrod

I think Sean has been to some Drifting competitions

I thought my worn out tires (4900 miles) was bad, WOW!

One odd thing is that my fronts have generally worn at the same rate as the rears.. This is despite many who state the fronts wear at about half the rate of the rears..

After each DE or AutoX etc., when I have the car on stands for cleaning and maintenance, I do measure and track the wear with a dial caliper. Tires seem to wear pretty evenly side to side as well...

swftiii

Sean,

I would agree with Steve, that something is probably out of alignment, I have over 5-7 k on my SO3s and they are far from worn. I do most of my driving on the highway and the tires look brand new. The SO3s definately have better life than other tires, like the SO2s.

Good luck Sean.

-Skip

stedge

my s03s are also holding up well

DJF1

The shop that Sean did the alignement ( I was present when the alignement was done) is beyond critisism. Mike is race engineer with experience and ethics that not many people in this country have. His alignements are not botch jobs, but take almost an entire day because of the attention to detail that he puts on his work. Sean's car is corner balanced and aligned to perfection as I witnessed first hand.

I have had different wear paterns with the same alignement from the same shop on tires. My SO'3's on the BMW which was aligned at the same shop have now 6K and they have at least as much to go. I had a set of P-Zero's which lasted 1/3 of the amount of miles as the previous P-Zero on my cabrio a year and half ago. I must pressume that it was a bad batch of P-Zeros.