uneven tire wear - again

[pasadena_commut]

This is the second set of tires this has happened to, these are Falken Ziex ZE-512, worn down, and now with a nail in one, and they have been on the front of the car for 10K miles without rotation. There are Yokohama S-Drive's on the back, and they are not wearing this way - nor have they ever been on the front of the car. Tomorrow the Falkens will be replaced with a couple more S-Drive's. (The Yokohamas are on the back because one of the original four Falkens picked up a nail through the sidewall, and I could not find any more ZE-512's to replace it.) There is only something like 20K miles on these Falkens, almost all city driving. They wore very fast.

The picture with the bike in the background is the passenger side front tire, both are viewed from the front of the car looking towards the back. Notice that both sides are worn more on the passenger side than on the driver's side. I know the car needs new mounts (passenger side and front at least, not sure about the others) but the alignment is within spec. The car has been driving straight with the tires like this.

Could the bad mounts be doing this? If not, what else should I have my mechanic look at when he's dong the mounts? Thanks.

 

[BoostedPR5]

Tire pressure?
Falken 512's don't wear well as a whole as far as how long they last but I'd say tire pressure.

 

[slavrenz]

How do you know your alignment's in spec? With wear that bad, I would argue that your alignment is very much not in spec. Not rotating your wheels is also a really bad decision when it comes to tire longevity

 

[BoostedPR5]

How do you know your alignment's in spec? With wear that bad, I would argue that your alignment is very much not in spec. Not rotating your wheels is also a really bad decision when it comes to tire longevity

x2 on the rotations.
It looks like it's on both sides though, inside and outside of the tires. Although I just had some weird-ass drops put in my eyes and can't see s*** anyways so who knows haha

 

[BOOSTR]

Looks like a combination of underinflation, lack of rotation and incorrect camber. I rotate my tires every 3K or so and inflate them above the recommended psi on the door sticker. Got 38K on the oem soft compounds and currently have 39K on the replacements.

 

[MaxPower]

The Ziex ZE-512's have a terrible longevity (they get the lowest rating for tire life in Consumer Reports). I got 25k out of mine with mildly spirited driving. In tire reviews, drivers report similar results, but some have significantly lower treadlife. 20k is within reason for the 512's, considering they did their work in the city.

Not rotating them is definitely one reason they wore so quickly. Because they are asymmetric, you can only rotate them from front to back, but even that would definitely have improved tire life.

You can get a device that measures tread depth. You can measure tread depth on the outer side, middle, and inner side of the tire. If you find the numbers are different, a different inflation pressure can help tire life. For instance, if the tire is more worn in the middle than the outsides, a lower tire pressure would help tire life. If the tire is more worn on the outsides, a higher tire pressure would be better for treadwear.

Also, just because the car seems to be driving straight doesn't mean the alignment is ok. Only an alignment check can tell you this.

To summarize: get the alignment checked, rotate those tires, and don't expect a long life from the Falken Ziex family (including the 912).

 

[pasadena_commut]

Not rotating them is definitely one reason they wore so quickly. Because they are asymmetric, you can only rotate them from front to back, but even that would definitely have improved tire life

The alignment was done a couple of months before the new tires were put on, and the tire shop ran a quick check alignment after they went on and said it was still within spec. The alignment was done because the tires before these wore the same way. When 1 of the 4 Falken's was ruined by a nail through the sidewall and I could not get identical replacements the Yokohamas were put on the back. Since my impression was that the uneven wear was only taking place when the tires were on the front, I left the remaining Falkens there and put the Yokohamas on the back. The back tires are wearing evenly, the front, you can see for yourself. When it was all Falkens the tires were rotated at regular intervals. I check the inflation usually every two weeks, as the Falkens were always a little leaky, and after inflating them to 33 psi they were rarely down as low as 31 psi when next checked, 32 or 31.5 was more typical. The tire gauge used is electronic, and presumably accurate.

On the other hand, this car apparently has a big target painted on it. It has been hit once on the drivers side front fender (supposedly at low speed, but this was before I owned it), rear ended (right after I bought it), and scraped all along one side in a garage hit and run. After the rear ender the body shop said the frame was straight, but who knows how carefully they checked. The alignment is within spec on an alignment machine, but I am far from 100% certain the car is completely straight.

 

[phishstik]

This is exactly what happened to new Kumho tires I got after 10k. I even had alignment checked to see wtf was wrong, but they just have poor treadlife and should have been rotated way more often.

So I just put them on the back rims (drive)

Hopefully theres still enough rubber to be safe ! The original Dunlop tires sure did last a long time in comparison.

 

[pasadena_commut]

Hopefully there's still enough rubber to be safe!

There wasn't, and there was a nail in one. So they were replaced yesterday with a pair of Yokohama S Drives. Nice to have 4 of the same type tires on the car again.