Chart505

My 996 is pretty low- not sure what suspension is on it since I bought it used.
In any case, I had alot of exotic cars, including an NSX that ate rear tires, but this one takes the cake. I am running 19" Toyo Proxes and I get about 5K on a set. Fronts, have put 20K on and they look fine. The rears get totally worn on the inside half, while the outside half of the tread is decent. I cant switch sides because the Toyos are directional. The tire monkeys have said once the car gets that low, there isnt much they can do to get the camber back to spec- is that right? Even my NSX got 8-10K on the rears. And I don't drive the car hard.
Have attached a couple of pics showing the stance.

redridge

totally normal... I get about 7k with DE's.

Chart505

Good to hear (I guess), and what's a DE?

himself

Can't you make the left tire the right one, and still maintain direction? I don't think you can flip them on the rim on the same side, but if you switch sides...

Also, why not raise it up a hair to get rid of some of the negative camber?

-td

Halvin

Having a wore out outer edge on you tires wouldnt help the handling of the car and it would look really great! The short life of the rear tires is the price you pay for a lowered car, so said my aligment guy.

Bob Rouleau

Lowering the car increases the negative camber. it makes your tires hit the ground like this (seen from the back of the car) / -------- \

You can see why the inside edge will wear faster!

LJpete

Depending on the driving you do, it's pretty normal mileage. I got about 7K on my rears with 6 or so autocrosses. The outer part of the trend is toast. I suspect, I'll be able to do a test and tune and another event but that will be it for these tires.

redridge

uhhh... drivers ed

perryinva

Driving Event

himself

I wasn't implying swapping when the innder edge is corded or worn out. Do it earlier to extend the life of the tires. Lots of folks do it. You can almost double the life of the tire this way.

As for the handling issue, I think you miss the point - if you are running on the inside of a tire so bad you are eating it away, then it is clear that the outside of the tire isn't the part of the tire doing the real work (i.e., in contact with the road). That is, you are using the inner 1/2 to 2/3 of the tire more. So swapping sides increases the rubber on the inside (improving grip/handling) and moves the worn part to the outside (which isn't doing the "work" anyway). If you do it early enough, you shouldn't have any aesthetic issue.

And the price you pay for a slammed car isn't just tires. Besides front lips, engine mounts and oil pans (from bottoming out), shocks, and shock mounts, you can actually RUIN your engine from riding too low. You can literally rip apart your crankcase hitting something in the road...

-td

deckman

I think this is not normal. I have a lowered 996 with PSS9's. I just took off a pair of Toyo Proxes TR1's that had 7k miles on them and the tread depth was still 7/32 on the rears. I had the rears dismounted from the wheel and rotated about 2k miles ago, and the wear is almost even inside and out. You can do this because the each side of the tire has the same tread pattern. That said, these tires are 18's. I have just put on 19's and things could be completely different.

Bob Rouleau

Deckman - PSS9 allows for adjusting the alignment whereas the OP indicates that he cannot. Could just be lowering springs in which case camber cannot be corrected to a normal value.

perryinva

Hmmmm..how'd you get 19" tires on them 18" rims?????? JK of course.

deckman

New rims. Champions!

Bob, My ADD kept me from reading the OP's entire post. Thanks for pointing that out!

JimB

Perhaps you're looking at this all wrong. Camber is a wonderful thing. The problem isn't that your rears are wearing too fast, it's that the fronts are last too long!