poor mileage on front tires? Bought the 08 base coupe in June 2011 with 15K miles on the odo. Front tires had 6.5/32" of tread left on the OEM GoodYear runflats. 3 months later, the amount of tread left was down to 4.5/32". Now, it's down to 2/32" of tread. Have only put 6K miles on them, mostly on the interstate at 75-77 mph.

I did have the Chevy dealer do a 4-wheel alignment in June, right after I got the car. Here's what I had them set:
Front camber = -0.8, caster = 8.0, toe = 0
Rear camber = -0.5, toe = 0

Been running the standard 30# in all 4 tires, except about 2 extra # in the winter in case of 20° to 30° temps.

(No Z51 option on car).

 

Jim,

Is the tread wear even across the tire or are you seeing uneven wear or edge wear? Generally, rapid, even wear across the fronts is from taking turns at higher speeds and scrubbing some material off the face of the tread.

The '05 service manual lists the alignment specs as follows:

Suspension
Front

Camber
-0.45° ± 0.60°

Camber Cross Tolerance
± 0.60°

Caster
7.90° ± 0.60°

Caster Cross Tolerance
± 0.60°

Total Toe
+0.10° ± 0.20°

Steering Wheel Angle
0° ± 3.50°

Thrust Angle
--

 

Tread wear is even across the tire on both front tires.

 

Well you got 21,000 out of the GYs. That is pretty good. Always seems to wear faster at the end of the tire's life. I guess they spin easier.

 

You need to stop pulling those 1+ g's on the on ramps.

 

I got 32K out of the OEM GoodYears on my 06 coupe.

Several 40 mph streets in Tullahoma, but most are 30 mph. I don't drive or turn that fast in town. Interstate route that I drive has 5 or 6 long sweeping turns of about 30° to 60° in 50 miles.

However, I do have a pretty sharp turn in my back yard, going into my carport. Have to make a 90° turn in about 30', then similar turn when backing out and turning to go forward out the driveway. But I had that with the 06 coupe.

The alignment I had the dealer set was what Pfadt recommended for 100% street use.

 

Forgot about those - just one going and one coming back, but I'm doing 70-75 by the time I get to the interstate pavement.

The ramps don't have must of a turn to them, though, so I doubt if I ever see more than 0.25 to 0.3 G.

 

21K sounds about right....you really lucked out with 32K on your other set

 

I had my 05 aligned at 10K and by 17K the inside front edges were shot. I have 900 miles on my new one and I can feel a slight feathering on the outside edges starting. As soon as it comes out of storage it's headed for an alignment. It seems like it is just one of those wide tire things.

 

My 05 still has the original tires as far as I know and it has 26,000+ on it. They should last for a while yet.

 

I have not much to add, but that first 15K miles before you got the car may have been at the bare min recommended inflation, or alignment. This might cause the tires to run soft and wear more. I assume these are not the runflat Supercar tires that don't last long (but do last 20K, depending on who's driving them).

 

I believe driving habits play a major role in the front tire's premature wear. A friend that has a 2010 GS with identical tires as the OE tires on my Z06, wore his out in half the mileage as I did and his tires wore evenly across the tires. Nothing wrong with his alignment. I lightly use my brakes. If I'm coming up on a red light and I'm still a block away I let off the gas and let my car coast down, using the brakes only at the very end. You don't have to be locking up the brakes in order to wear the tire down. Anytime you are braking, the car wants to keep going at it's previous speed(inertia) and the faster you try and deaccelerate the more the front tires will wear, even though they are not sliding. Also the quicker the deacceleration, the more weight transfer to the front tires thus more load on the front tires. If I'm driving in traffic, I keep a larger distance between me and the car in front of me then I see with others. If the car in front of me shows brake lights, I can normally just let off the gas and coast down, not using my brakes, thus minimizing the wear on my front tires. Not only am I getting maximum life out of my tires, I'm also getting maximum life out of my brake pads.

Also, even at low speeds, the front wheels will have more scrubbing while turning because of their width(as opposed to the narrow tires found on your DD). I try and make more sweeping corners then tight turns when possible, to lessen the scrubbing.

I've been driving like that for 5 decades and it's second nature.

 

Jim-

I could be funny and say the tire wear is your car's way of saying you are having too much fun. But you probably wouldn't laugh.

More seriously-
If the tread wear is even, that usually means alignment and inflation are correct. And we know you took those issues out of the picture. The roads you drive on probably have the same surface as before, or pretty close.

It does seem that some people experience abnormal tire wear for reasons we never can discover. I have begun to suspect that there is some tire-to-tire, or at least year-to-year, variation in the life of the tires.

I'd chalk it up to the X-factor. Decide what kind of replacement tire you want, then just get 'em and get back to enjoying the car.

 

I probably do a little harder breaking than you do, but not much. If I'm on one of our 40 mph streets and I see the traffic light a block away is red, I'll let off the gas a little, but then I start braking about half a block away.

Also, as I indicated above, I do have to make a slow sharp turn to get under my carport, which I do about 10-12 times a week.

Around town, I have heard a little more road noise than usual, almost like more and more of the streets in our town have rougher pavement than they used to.

Maybe a combination of those things, slow tight turns (although I had them before), slightly harder braking, and rougher pavement is causing it.

Thanks for the responses.

It's my DD, it's my 6th Vette, and I'm a Vette nut, so I'll buy more tires and put up with it.

 

I got about 9K out of my GY fronts, rears still have 8/32. All have even wear. Its a DD with a lot of stop / start. I chalk it up to that. Replacing them with Michelin Pilot A/S.

 

For a non Z51 base car you should get at least 30,000 miles out of the tires, if driven sensibly. On my '05 I got 42,000 miles and still was not down to the wear bars on stock Good Years. I replaced them with the Michelins PS2/AS. They have a 45,000 mile wear rating.

 

It also depends on the type of driving you do, city / highway and pavement types. I drive "sensibly" in city traffic everyday Sounds like you got a good set of GYs. I think there's a direct correlation between brake pad and tire wear ...

 

I hate you ........................ If I lived where you do in TN I'd prolly get about 0 miles of wear. Damn, that's just not fair. Living as close to Deals Gap as you do ...........................

 

Good question. I had to replace the front GY's on my 08 at 13k miles. The rear tires still had a few thousand miles left on them but I decided to replace all four.

 

I agree with Gearhead Jim….sometimes there’s no rhyme or reason why you get less tire mileage than expected. You can be doing everything right…. using the recommended alignment specs, maintaining proper tire pressures and driving conservatively and your tires still wear rapidly. I don’t know if you’re getting enough heat in the tires for this to work but you could try to measure surface temps across the face of the tires (using a pyrometer) to see how your tire pressure is working. Obviously, get or borrow a pyrometer. Immediately after a spirited drive stop, turn your front wheels for easy access and then measure temps across the face of the tire. Do it quickly or have a friend waiting to measure tire temps when you stop. Your temps should not vary more than 5-10 degrees from side to middle to side. If there’s a greater variance adjusting tire pressure may be in order.

I could be wrong but I suspect the tire compound can sometimes vary (perhaps due to poor quality control at the factory). At one track I run on there’s one particular off-camber curve (with an abrasive surface) that’s hard on tires. One weekend I destroyed a virtually new set of front track tires….the rubber peeled-away damn near cording the tires. Other weekends, using the same make tires there’s no problem.

Good luck.