Tire wear and recommendations

[Carl1643]

I called the service rep at my Mazda dealer who knows I have been "researching" what I had thought to be a problem but now realize was perhaps not and asked if, during my periodic maintenance visits, they checked, things like shocks, ball joints, etc., and he assured me that they did. Each time I visit, they hand me a check sheet showing me how much brake pad I have left, battery performance, tread depth, etc. The sheet also has a section for recommended services to have done at your next visit.

I've dealt with good mechanics and bad mechanics, good dealerships and bad dealer ships, and I would say these guys get 3.5 start out of 5.

 

[Carl1643]

Another set of Pirelli's

At the risk of seeming rather foolish, I'll start by admitting to buying another pair of Pirelli's, same as were on the car.

I went armed with statistics on four or five other tires, all of which my tire guy knew, and with the feedback folks have given me here and we talked for about 20 minutes.

The upshot of it was that he felt I could pay more for tires if I wanted to but that in his considered opinion (and this guy has had his own shop in the same location for well over 20 years) I was not going to find an all-season tire which would be much better than the Pirellli's nor give me much more mileage. He also said for the Mazdaspeed3, that 25,000 miles with 4/32" of tread left was totally within specs and nothing about which to be concerned.

I will go back to the dealer next week and have my alignment checked and, again, report back here and let anyone who is interested know what they find.

Thanks again so very much for all the input.

 

[uthemang31]

Just based on these comments, the DWS are not good tires for spirited driving around mountains and back roads. I have Pirelli's P Zero A/S talked about previously and really like the handling capabilities, but the noise is killing me. Plus, two of the tires are leaking from previous punctures.

Can some tell me if the inner threads of the tires are wearing down faster then outer? Is the car chamber in from factory?

I am looking from inputs on Bridgestone Potenza RE960 A/s mounted on 2010 MS3 wheels. Any thoughts?

Thanks,

-S

 

[Hapa88]

Just based on these comments, the DWS are not good tires for spirited driving around mountains and back roads. I have Pirelli's P Zero A/S talked about previously and really like the handling capabilities, but the noise is killing me. Plus, two of the tires are leaking from previous punctures.

Can some tell me if the inner threads of the tires are wearing down faster then outer? Is the car chamber in from factory?

I am looking from inputs on Bridgestone Potenza RE960 A/s mounted on 2010 MS3 wheels. Any thoughts?

Thanks,

-S

Read these two test comparison articles:
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/testDisplay.jsp?ttid=124
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/testDisplay.jsp?ttid=134

 

[oaklandopen]

I don't think any car has positive camber, or even 0. And also, every car has some toe-in as well

 

[Carl1643]

I was really surprised to see you note that tire noise was killing you.

My previous two vehicles were a 92 BMW 525 and a 2000 BMW 328. It's not fair to compare a BMW with a Mazdaspeed3 as they were both over twice the price. That said, the Speed3 is, naturally, a noisier car, considerably noisier and with that higher level of ambient noise, I simply am never conscious of any tire noise whatsoever. It's all wind noise and that sweet, sweet exhaust note.

My wife has a Subaru Outback Wagon with aggressive all-season Dunlop tires and the tire noise, at any speed, drives me to absolute distraction.

 

[Russm]

Live in Wisconsin and get plenty of snow, horrible road conditions but with tire rotation every oil change, alignment checks at least once a year (aligned 2 times in 72K), check tire pressure every week, I was able to survive 27K on the stockers and put on the Yoko Avid WS4's which lasted for 43k, 3 winters several 13.5 qtr mile runs, some fun back country driving, numerous snow and rain storms and still weren't at the tread wear marker when I just put on a new set of Yoko Avid Envigors. I had my tow out when I put the new set of tires on and got my 3rd alignment in 4 years. (I hit a really bad pot hole and even bent my right front rim) I found paying attention to tire maintenance and showing some control while driving with the right foot will get you a long way on tire mileage . Granted I could get a tire that would give all around better High Performance traits but even with a systematic tire maintenance the tire wear will diminish while the performance increases.

 

[MSMS3]

The P Zero Nero A/S tires on my car are more noisy than the summer Bridgestones were. But they are very impressive in all handling conditions except for dragstrip launches, where they truly suck. My 60 ft times exploded by a full two tenths of a second. But if you don't care about that, they are a very good tire. I get very little snow/ice on the Mississippi Gulf Coast (lol) but do travel in this car in the winter when I occasionally do encounter those conditions elsewhere.

I do not have an explanation as to why my Nero A/S tires are showing almost no wear at 20,000 miles with me driving the car very aggressively and his are down to the wear strips at 24,000 (was it?) with much more moderate driving style, unless he has an alignment problem or some other chassis/suspension issue going on.

 

[Carl1643]

Wrapping up this thread

To close the loop on this thread, I had the front end realigned yesterday at the dealer and spoke to the tech after he finished. He reports that only the slightest of adjustments were required, so alignment had nothing to do with my tires wearing down to the 4/32" level after 25K miles.

He too commented that 25K on a set of tires is quite respectable for the Speedthrees.

Thanks again for all the interesting and useful input/comments.