flipping tires w/ camber wear
 

I checked out my tires the other day and noticed some camber wear. I don't have pictures but I would say it looked similar to this on the front tires (with more tread on the outer):

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/my350z....693175996d.jpg

Clearly my alignment is off.. I have heard of people flipping their tires. Is this a good idea when the tires look like this or is there too much wear?

It's way too late


If your running that expensive set of tires I'm sure your not worrying about the money. Next set make sure to rotate/flip them here and there. To get the full life out your expensive tires

Those tires are too far gone to consider flipping them. If yours are that worn, just replace them and get a full alignment at the same time.

^^^ This. Wear is wear, no matter where it is on the tahr. Would hate to get into a rainy turn with high outside load then find out that that newly flipped tire is just a tad too worn to handle a little moisture.

I've had tires showing chords and flipped them with NO issues. I drove it through a summer, parked it in the winter, moved it a couple times, then sold those wheels WITH the tires. THEN, they went on a V8 powered S14 before making their way onto a Q45. That's when it got new tires. That 2nd turnover was maybe 3 weeks though. I'm not recommending you do that. But, what I am saying is that it's been done with success in MUCH worse conditions. I was being cheap. I don't normally do that. But, I don't have any regrets.

It's easy to give bad advise, but driving on tires that have cord showing just doesn't make any sense. While we've all done stupid stuff just to save a few bucks, it is irresponsible to advise others to do the same.

If a badly worn tire blows and there's an accident, it won't take a rocket scientist to figure out who'd be liable.

the outside of your tire looks pretty good, given you are either running too much camber and/or toe I would say to break the tires off the rims and remount on the other side. Most of the contact is on the inside of your tire, so it should be safe enough (as long as the chords aren't showing through).

Either way I would not drive on wet roads with that type of tire and i would not ride on the tires if chords were showing through lol

those arent pics of his tires.... so they could be better or worse

It's a good thing rocket scientists don't practice nor enforce the law

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/my350z....a20c063a67.gif

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/my350z....4e32e01659.gif

Hmm.. yes I seem to have confused people here. Those are not my tires.

The inner part of my tire looks like that.
The outer part has much more meat than the above picture. I would say at least 60% tread left.

I live in california so driving in wet condition is pretty rare as you all know.. but I suppose it isnt worth the risk of flipping them. Guess I'll bite the bullet, buy new tires, and fix my alignment issues

I would flip them and keep running them. I also live in a dry climate and can easily get away with it.

I'm interested in what kinds of mileage people get out of their tires. Zs are known to be hard on tires.

My OEM Bridgestones went 30,000 miles. But just barely. They seemed to be wearing fine with a bit of feathering on the edges of the fronts. Then, one day when the wheels were off for brake work, I noticed that a strip of about 1/8" wide around the entire inside edge of the tire from the front passenger side was gone, as though someone had shaved it with a knife!

The backs were worse. Passenger side was fine. Driver's side had these serious patches of bald spots about the size of a silver dollar, all around the inside edge. Cord was starting to show.

I had planned a different, more thoughtful replacement. But this was emergency so, off to COSTCO I went. Ended up with Pilot Sport A/S 3. Not what I would have chosen, but what they had/could get in a day or two. Replaced the TPMS sensors with after markets at the same time. Plus, the PS' could be rotated side to side.

I had it four wheel aligned at a first class alignment/brake shop right away. Everything was spec except the front passenger corner which they corrected. (And yes, torque control bushings in front have been replaced.)

The TPMS worked great. Until the weather cooled down. Then I noticed, whenever it was below 60 the TPMS couldn't get a reading from one or more wheels. Wierd! I was just living with it as I'm in Northern California where temps 60 and below during the daytime are rare.

The PS' have been wearing well and I've monitored pressure and wear religiously. I found the rears to be wearing in the center excessively at OEM 35 lbs and the fronts to be wearing both inside and outside edges at OEM 35. So, I started adjusting pressures accordingly and continued to track.

Then yesterday, shock of shocks, I pulled the wheels for a brake inspection and found the rear passenger to have hit the wear bars in the center. The rear passenger was more worn than fronts but still serviceable.

The fronts are fine with more wear at the edges. They should be good for 10,000 more miles.

So, after only 23,000 miles, I need new tires again. At least that rear passenger side. The PS 3s have a 45,000 mile manufacturer's warranty.

Is this the kind of tire life I should expect on a Z? 25 to 30 thousand miles?

Depending on the type of tire you're on and the kind of driving, I'd say most of us have gotten similar mileage out of our tires. My Z is on its fourth set (different brands and models) at 95K.

Yeah. 25-30k is pretty stellar from what I've seen. My G is extremely low so I get a bit less than that. But, between a bunch of my friends with similar cars and varying heights, that's about what I've seen.

25 to 30k a set is pretty good. That's what I got from mine when it was a daily. I went thru 5 sets of tires in the 120k worth of daily miles I put on mine.

Well. Thanks all for the mileage metrics. I guess I don't feel so bad if 25,000 to 30,000 is all I can expect in street driving because that's just the way it is. I was wondering if it was just me.

For reference, I just realized that my post doesn't have the vehicle standards. It's a 2005R GT. Stock 18? x 8.5" 30MM offset wheels all around.