Hello everyone. At the begining of November, I bought a brand new set of Continental Extreme Contact DW tires for my z. They are rated pretty well for summer tires and the tread life was rated excellent. I drive my car a lot so I need a decent tire that performs well yet lasts a decent amount of time. So, I've had them on about a month now and have put a little over 1000 miles on them. The last week or so, its been getting really cold in Jersey, so tonight, I decided to switch to my winter tires. When I pulled off the rear tires they looked pretty worn down. I thought this was odd cus I haven't ran the car hard since its been cold and I've only had them a month. So I then switch the fronts out and they look almost as good as the day I got them. So, to confirm my findings I break out the metric guage. My front tires have a tread depth of 6mm but the rears only have a depth of 4mm. That's a big difference to begin with, not to mention that the rears had deeper tread to begin with since they are slightly larger. What could have caused this? I don't do burnouts or launch from lights or anything like that. I drive my car conservitively shifting around 2500-3000rpms all the time. The ONLY thing I can think of is that when it started getting colder they hardened up and the rubber started "chipping away". Does that even happen to summer tires in the winter? I thought they just got hard and started slipping. This is my first new set of tires for the z so maybe this is common, so I appologize if this is a known problem. But, any input is appreciated, thanks.

 

even wear or just on the "insides" of the tires? could be a camber thing.

 

Alignment, when was your last one?

 

Tires on the rear are more worn than tires on the front? Of course. The rear is the drive axle. It drives the car.

 

No camber wear, my car is on stock suspension. The wear is even across the whole tire. I understand they are the drive wheels but the wear is so significant after a short period. Plus, I've had fwd cars in the past and didn't notice more wear on the front tires til after at least 5k miles. guess the z eats rear tires? I don't wanna spend $400 a year on damn tires

 

I would get an alignment and check for toe. Too much and you may be scrubbing the rear tires excessively.

 

That's what I was thinking....I travel a lot of crappy roads during my daily commutes so maybe the alignment was knocked out. My winter tires look to be on their last season so I won't worry about it too much now, but I'll get an alignment before my summer tires go back on in the spring.

 

could be the camber could be the toe or it could be the fact its a rwd car and the rears will go faster then the fronts. The car stock sits around -1.2 camber in the rear as well, Im not sure about the fronts.

how about some quick pics?

 

Its gotta be the toe setting, or you are much harder on tires than you're leading on. The Z will clearly wear the rears at a faster rate but 2mm in 1000 miles of easy driving seems like too much. My last set of 300 tread wear tires last 16K in the rear and about 20K+ in the front (with a few track days). As for the alignments, a lot of shops don't understand how to adjust the toe on the car so its possible the last time it was done it was wrong. I also suggest watching the tech do the alignments. On a stock car, there are TWO adjustments in the rear (camber and toe separately). Some shops notice and think because the camber bolt adjusts both (it does) it must be the only one they use and that makes for a garbage alignment filled with compromises.

 

Deffinately not camber wear. The wear is even across each tire. I completely understand that the rears will go faster than the front but this is a bit ridiculous. I'm thinkin my toe bight be a bit off as that's the only thing that makes sense.

The only time I am hard on my car is at the track which these tires have not seen. I average 24.5-25mpg on every tank of gas. I really drive like a grandma on the street But anyway, I agree completely with what you said. I know of a reputable shop that does alginments and suspension work on performance cars. I'll take it to them in the spring unless i notice significant wear on my winter tires.

 

Is it possible to see an improper toe alignment from looking down the side of the car? I don't think it is but I thought I may add that if I look at the side of the car from the rear, the rear tires look pointed in towards the center of the car when compared with the front. Maybe this is just an illusion due to the body. Just thought I'd add that.

 

I noticed mine was too aggressive by looking at it, but that takes a good idea of what it should look like. You could use the string method and some calipers/ruler. If you guys have a Just Tires in the area they may offer free alignment checks.

 

It's your toe. Toe wears 4x faster then camber wear. Check it. You need to get the toe to Zero as possible. This happens normally happen 2-3 years. The toe and camber are prone to slipping but that goes for every car. If you want to prevent slippage I would recommend you to purchase the eccentric lock out bolts to prevent bolts from your camber and toe to slipping. But also you could adjust your toe and camber yourself to save you $! The toe you could do it by eye but it's difficult. Lmk if you got more questions

 

Stock alignment range is -1.1 to -2.1 in the rear. Mine was aligned at -1.8 when i got it, most have around -1.8 from the factory.

 

Sounds like its toe. My last set of tires wore really quick but I thought it was cus they were the crappy stock ones. But now that these are wearing prematurely and due to all of the explanations I'm thinkin its toe. Gonna go friday to get it checked.

 

Toe isnt really adjustable in the rear though. i think it's very limited

 

There is plenty of range to adjust to get into trouble. I think the stock cam bolt can go +\- two or three times the suggested amount of toe. My Z is lowered and the bolt allowed at least +0.11 to -0.33 (suggested is in the range of 0.00-0.08 toe in I believe)

 

buddy you need to jack up your car and check.

 

on toe. I killed a set of tires by being stupid and putting off an alignment for 6 months since I dont DD the car. 2k miles and brand new tires were half gone I learned my lesson. I realized it was REALLY bad when I was caught in a rainstorm once and the rear would hop every so often since the toe was out... lol

Get an alignment and you should be good to go I wouldnt wait till spring if I was you.

 

I'm gonna go on friday. Here's another weird thing. I got into an accident in the middle of september and about a month after I got it back from the shop I noticed my stock tires were bald. Again I thought this was just coincidence and was do to the tires being crappy. So, I got my new tires and now this happened. I hope its just toe and my chassis isn't tweaked.