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Tires - How Long do They Last?

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Old Aug 1, 2008 | 07:52 PM
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Default Tires - How Long do They Last?

How many miles does a Vette get out of a pair of run flats? Do people rotate the tires on a Vette?

Do Vettes tend to cup the inside of the front tires? It seems like the tires lean to the inside quite a bit.

Thanks for the help - trying to get my bearings with the new car.

Oh, and how often do people do alignments on these cars?
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Old Aug 1, 2008 | 07:58 PM
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25k on my runflats...hated every mile of them, now on non-runflats. You never rotate, the fronts and rears are different diameters. No cupping here...that is a good sign that you need an alignment.

Last edited by flyzlow; Aug 1, 2008 at 08:00 PM.
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Old Aug 1, 2008 | 08:05 PM
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Originally Posted by flyzlow
25k on my runflats...hated every mile of them, now on non-runflats. You never rotate, the fronts and rears are different diameters. No cupping here...that is a good sign that you need an alignment.
Hmm that sucks. The car doesn't drive like it needs one, but I guess that probably doesn't mean much.
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Old Aug 1, 2008 | 08:14 PM
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18,000 miles on my OEM run-flats and counting. Still look brand new. Getting noisy so I might change over to Michelin run-flats in the near future.
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Old Aug 1, 2008 | 08:15 PM
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Originally Posted by flyzlow
You never rotate, the fronts and rears are different diameters. No cupping here...that is a good sign that you need an alignment.
You can't even switch them side to side since the tires are directional. Well, you could, but you would have to dismount the tires and switch them to the opposite wheel side.

I got 22,000 miles from my original Goodyear EMT's. Could have probably went another few thousand but they were 6 1/2 years old and had gotten very hard. Went with new Goodyear EMT's and it rides like new again.

As for the cupping, I agree with the alignment advice. The C5 tires are very wide and just a small amount of alignment change can affect the wear.
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Old Aug 1, 2008 | 08:15 PM
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Your car can run fine down the road and be prematurely wearing out your tires with a bad alignment, if they are visibly angled out as you stated I would be concerned.
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Old Aug 1, 2008 | 08:19 PM
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My OEM run flats had 32,000. Just got new run flats this summer.
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Old Aug 1, 2008 | 08:20 PM
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Well probably my best alignment option is the dealer. How much are they going to nail me for?

Also, doing a search, I found a lot of people saying the inside of the front is what wears out faster since they are aligned from the factory for cornering rather than mostly straight ahead driving. Not sure if that holds water or not.
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Old Aug 1, 2008 | 08:33 PM
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The life of the tires depends on how you drive and how well maintained you keep the car (air, alignment, etc.). I got about 15K miles out of the rear EMTs on mine and the rears still had good tread when I changed them.
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Old Aug 1, 2008 | 11:43 PM
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I got 27,000 on my '02 and only 17,000 on my '04 and I hated them. I now have Michelin runflats and they are great.
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Old Aug 2, 2008 | 12:47 AM
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Just go ahead and get rid of the OEM runflats and get some real performance tires along with a membership to AAA...Just in case.
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Old Aug 2, 2008 | 12:54 AM
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four real good burnouts
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Old Aug 2, 2008 | 06:39 AM
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The front tires will wear on the inside with alignment in specs. Factory settings call for negative camber. If your car is on the high side of the range, you will definitely wear tires and still be in specs. Have the camber set as close to zero as possible and still be in specs. The average driver probably drives straight 95+% of the time, no need for negative camber!

And yes, more than one person has had their front tires swapped on the rims from side to side to get more life out of the tires.

RonJ ...
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Old Aug 2, 2008 | 07:31 AM
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Originally Posted by Skeld
Well probably my best alignment option is the dealer. How much are they going to nail me for?

Also, doing a search, I found a lot of people saying the inside of the front is what wears out faster since they are aligned from the factory for cornering rather than mostly straight ahead driving. Not sure if that holds water or not.
Just had an alignment done on my old C4 in April. At the GM dealer, alignment and balance 4 tires was just under $100.
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Old Aug 2, 2008 | 08:00 AM
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Originally Posted by RonJ
The front tires will wear on the inside with alignment in specs. Factory settings call for negative camber. If your car is on the high side of the range, you will definitely wear tires and still be in specs. Have the camber set as close to zero as possible and still be in specs. The average driver probably drives straight 95+% of the time, no need for negative camber!

And yes, more than one person has had their front tires swapped on the rims from side to side to get more life out of the tires.

RonJ ...
Exactly
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Old Aug 2, 2008 | 08:42 AM
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If you want to corner well, you need an alignment that promotes inside wear.
If you bought the car for looks & prestige not performance change the alignment to even out the wear.
Runfalts are insurance not performance.
The best runflats for the C5 are the Firestone FireHawk SZ50. Some are wating for the Michelin PS2 ZP due later this month.

For Performance TIRES, I have run both GoodYear GS-D3 and Michelin PS2 on my '01 both are great tires. the PS2 is a bit quiter while the GS-D3 is a better wet road tire.
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Old Aug 2, 2008 | 09:09 AM
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Well, I bought the car for performance for sure - but let's face it you're still going to drive around like an average person most of the time. Dismounting the fronts and switching sides seems like a pretty good idea, I might try that when the time comes.

My car has repro C6 Z06 wheels on it, and measuring them with a tape measure shows me that they are 9.5 front and 10.5 rear. But, they have 245 and 275 tires on them. How is that going to affect tire wear?

I'm guessing the owner wanted to put the Goodyear run flats on but they don't have 265 and 295 sizes?
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Old Aug 2, 2008 | 10:13 AM
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How long do tires last? How long does it take to drink a cold beer? This all depends on many factors--right
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Old Aug 2, 2008 | 10:52 AM
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I have had my front tires dis mounted and mounted on the oter side to get more miles out of them.
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Old Aug 2, 2008 | 11:11 AM
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30k out of mine.
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