I have a 2004 touring w/ 17500 miles. While performing a brake inspection I noticed both rear tires were already at the wear bar. The wear is evenly distributed and is the same on both left and right tires. They are the stock Potenzas and I regularly maintain/monitor my tire pressure (rear 38 psi @~75 F/front 38 psi). I also do regularly scheduled alignments (2 alignments done) and make sure the guys have the specs inline w/ the service manual.

Both of the front tires have normal wear and no feathering.

Does anyone have any insight to why my rears are wearing so much faster than than the fronts? I do 70% city/30% freeway and I'm somewhat conservative in driving, maybe semi aggressive at most.

Per many posts, it seems the stock Potenzas are crap and many other brands will have much more tread life.

Thanks much!

 

Being a rear wheel drive car, its normal for the rears to wear out first. It all comes down to how you drive too.

 

i ran mine at the factory spec and mine wore in the middle like crazy. i'm guessing it's probably ok to run a little less pressure on the rear than what the factory says you should.

 

The drive wheels always wear more than the non drive wheels and without being able to do a true full rotation it will be more apparant.

 

That's normal milage. I don't burn out, nothing, and mine were gone at 15,000. Chalk it up to being a high performance car and the Potenza's are not known for their long life.

 

Thanks guys for the insight. After doing some more research and making some calls it sounds like there is nothing wrong w/ the tires at all- it is just the nature of the car and the class of tire.

In fact, looks like I'm on the high end to be able to squeeze 18k out of em. This is my first sports car so I'm am used to getting 45-55k. Obviously, this problem is compounded because they can't be rotated. Since only my rears are affected dismounting them and swapping them on the axle is a moot point.

One guy said the Yokohamas ES100 have some pretty bad roaring at about 10k. I thought about getting the Michelin Pilots, but that would mix All Season (rears) with Summer (fronts) which might create problems with the dramatic change in tread type.

Final decision, sticking with the Potenza RE040's and shooting for another 18k.

Thanks again.

 

You may get lucky and your next set last longer. I still have my rear stock potenzas on with 26,000 miles. By the looks of it, I can get 35,000 miles or so out of them. They are still in great shape...very minimal wear.

 

I have 27K on my stock RE040's and my rears are just starting to get run down. I run lower pressure all around though. About 34 in the fronts and 32 in the rears. Just enough to keep the PSI light off, . I could probably make it through the winter (cuz I can't drive it any ways, ) and then I'll have to get new tires and I do burn them sometimes. Even practiced "drifting" in some parking lots a few times on dry pavement and they're still ok.

 

I changed mine at ~17K (if i remember right). I do burn rubber occasionally