Buzz911S

I was getting ready to install a fabspeed exhaust system on my 997S. It is a 2005 and I took it to a friend's garage stall to put it on his lift. Before we ever got it on the lift, my son asked me to come look at my rear tires. The car has 8 thousand miles on it. It has been wearing the treads quite nicely.... I THOUGHT!

When I looked under the rear of the car the tread looked like it was good for another thousand or so miles..... But, my son said to look at the inner sidewalls.
There are threads hanging out of them and I just ran this car 160mph a couple of weeks ago. I am attaching pictures of the tire wear. The car has so much negative camber, it has eaten the lower sidewalls off both back tires....not the tread, it's running on the lower sidwalls! I called my dealer and he said that was normal wear. After I composed my self from a good laugh, I told him he was insane. I wanted to make this thread a poll.... but I don't know how.
I am told that none of the Porsche's are checked to see if the rear camber and alignment is with in specs. They check it at the factory in Stutgart and the dealers never check them. I want to know how many of you race your cars.

I seriously question whether these cars need to be set up at the factory with such an aggressive race setup. Most people don't race them and it is just not needed. I've been waging war with my dealer about this and the best I can do is to buy new tires, and they will realign the rear suspension for max treadwear. They want $575 each for a rear tire. I exploded into laughter again and said I would buy my own tires, but certainly not from them. I can get the same tire for $400. They will not realign the rear under warranty.
Personally, I think this is a buch of crap for a $100k car. It isn't the money.... it's the principle of the thing. I was also told never to drive the car until it idled and reached a running temp of 175 degrees. That is absolutely wrong! In the owners manual it says NEVER to let the car idle to warm up. You are supposed to start the car and drive it immediately keeping it under 4k rpm until it reaches operating temp. My "sales representative" <right> .... my care SALESman told me and my family that I could replace all 4 tires on the car for about $1000! I finally realize that Porsche is no better than ford, chevy or Saturn dealers. Their salesmen don't know as much as I do about the car and they will lie their teeth off just to sell you the car. I maintain perfect air pressure in my tires. I am very disappointed in the way these cars are marketed. YOU DO NOT NEED THIS MUCH NEGATIVE CAMBER! I race autocross with mine and it will do just fine if they can get the tire on the ground. I'm posting pictures of what I found. Look at the tread wear.... and then look at the inner side of the lower sidewall. The tread is good.... this much negative camber has shredded my inner sidewalls! You can say what you want, but no car should shred tires like this. Nobody driving on the street or even participating in autocross events should have this much negative camber. You guys can replace your tires every 3 thousand miles if you want to. But, you don't have to do that. Get your dealer to put your tire on the ground. Have you ever followed a 997 at about 80mph?? The rear tires squat out like an old style volkswagen. I'm not taking it any longer. I bought this car to drive. Look what driving your dream car does to your tires. Do you call this "normal wear"? Pics below.

I really do want to find an approximation of how many of you race your cars hard enough to be satisfied with this much negative camber. Porsche claims it is a 20k tire. LOL! Do you t hink I s hould have to pay to h ave the rear aligned correctly? Why isn't it covered under warranty? I was told by the service manager at Orlando Porsche that I had 90 days to get it back in with that kind of problem. Funny, nobody told me that... and who would notice it in 90 days anway. I'm a bit steamed. This kind of tire wear is just not necessary. I was expecting at least 10k. The damned things are a foot wide and they run on about 4 inches of rubber on the inside. Look at the outer tread wear. It's still new. I wonder if the outer tread surface is even touching the ground at times. Thanks for your time.

Buzz

SrfCity

Hmm, well at least now you know. It looks like the factory set up was much too aggressive and your dealer just tried to pass the buck. Seems like you'll just have to see what the dealer will do for you and move on.

Crazy Canuck

I used 2 sets at the track this summer (worn to the cords) and they had about 1500km on each set - about 1100 miles.

My factory alignment was pretty ****ty - very little negative camber. I IMPROVED tire life at the track by having the tech set up a little more negative camber.

Tires aren't cheap but they are worth every penny for the enjoyment I get driving my car. If you like, buy the Continentals (OEM spec Porsche tire avail) if you don't want to pony up for the PS2s.

Holli82

Looks like you got your money's worth.

Michael Russell

Sorry, but that is not outrageous, it is fairly normal. I am sure that is not what you want to hear, but it is what it is.

Michael

cgomez

If you do race/track your car, you don't take the OEM stuff for granted. You do a custom alignment and do it to your specs and then test at the track by measuring temps with a proper pyrometer.
Other than that, you are just playing the lottery. Street specs and variances have a much bigger tolerance than track specs.

If it were just a street car I will complain wildly, but if you track its mostly your fault or lack of diligence.

Sharptt

I agree. Unfortunately even with no track use 8000 miles is about all you can expect to get out of set of rear tires if you drive the 997 like it was meant to be driven. I use to think this was a function of the rear weight bias of the 911s, but my Cayenne turbo does the same thing to its 20" high performance tires. So I think the problem is a function of soft gummy low profile tires and lots of horsepower.

jury_ca

You need to get your car placed on an alignment rack and check the setup against the factory recommended specs to see if it's within spec. If you drive your car aggressively the tires will not last more than 10K miles. Though your inner sidewall is indeed the most worn part of the tire, the rest of the rear tires seems like it's already down to the treadwear indicators.

ECS

8000 miles sounds about right for aggressive driving. With respect to alignment, camber, toe etc. I never trust what I get from the fatory. I have had a 996 C2, GT3, Boxster, and now a 997S. All have had some portions of the alignment out of spec upon delivery. The GT3 was the worst and it really matters on that car. I won't buy a P-car without getting a free alignment and camber job with the purchase. The dealers always say that the PDI takes care of it but they don't.

I recently had as much camber as possible put into my car. I am running -2.2 on the rears and the best they can do on the fronts is about -0.8. I track quite a bit so I will monitor the wear. My 997S is new so I am curious.

By the way, what camber were you running in the rear?

ChipAZ

It's a given that these cars eat tires. I factored that in when I bought mine. I don't know who told that you would get 20k out of them, but that is sheepdip.

1999Porsche911

If you only street drive, you can reduce the negative camber to the low end of specs and you will add an additional 5,000+ miles to a set of tires without sacrificing handling.

PAULSPEED

Hi,

I would like to know how much air you took out of the tires before you
did your Autocross run. I run Time Trials and I will let out between
2 and 4 psi out of each tire. One guy at the track told me to go
buy a heat sensor from Radio Shack for $40 and check the
temperature across the thread. Then you can lower the air pressure
as needed.
I saw a blister from my friends car and it was due to bad qauality of tire or
to little air pressure. To race fast you must make decisions.
I would get my car alingned if I were you. These cars do get pushed around
alot on their delivery.

Paul

kauai_diver

I have an 06 with a little over 7000 miles since June and took my car to the track once for a full day of racing. I don't have the same tire wear as you but there is definitely wear, more along the width of the tires with shallow grooves.

Did you let about 4psi of air out the rears when you did your track event? If not that can explain why your inner walls are shot.

Here are some pics of mine:




Hehe just notice I still have "tire whiskers" on the outside walls.

Chris C.

You definitely had an aggressive alignment - but you wouldn't have gotten much more out of em.

I do get a kick out of many new 911 owners who think 15K on a set of tires is the norm. Yes, some people achieve that but God knows how (bet they're all Conti-sports

If I get 8K on the rears of my Boxster (lots o negative camber) I will consider myself lucky.

Past 911s with track use average 6K miles on the rear, 12Ks on the front.

Just part of the 911 charm, 8-10K on the rears of a 911 is considered normal. Welcome to the rear engine world.

Dealers telling you 20K is possible is laughable -reminds me of a dealer who once told me the car has a special break-in chip that will add 75 hp to it once it's over 1500 miles

Sunshine

Note to self. Have alignment checked at delivery.