[KJIsaacson]

I am stunned about tire wear, and need some advice on a good tire for my 2017 Boxster S.

I bought it in May 2018, with only 258 miles on it. Came with Pirelli P-Zeros front and back. In late September, at 5,600 miles, my rear passenger tire was completely run down, with thread showing. The other rear tire was almost there as well. I do *not* drive aggressively. Mostly local street driving and highway driving. No track. On the highway, I rarely exceed 80-85 MPH.

I replaced the two rears with Bridgestone Potenza S001. Now, after just 3 months and 3,400 miles, the tread is down to about 2/32's. I'm like "WTF???"

This is my first Porsche, and I didn't expect to have to replace tires twice a year (or more).

Immediate question: What kind of tire will give me, shall we say, "a bit more mileage"? (FWIW, I live in Florida, so winter weather is not a factor.)

What's a reasonable expectation of tire life here? Like I say, my driving is tame.

Suggestions on tire type would be greatly appreciated. Insight into realistic expectations would help too.

Right now, I can't drive the car, because I picked up a nail/screw. Tech wouldn't repair it because of the low tread.... So I'm kinda in a hurry.

Thanks. And Happy New Year!

 

[GTS]

Have you had the alignment checked? Any signs of wear from improper inflation (cupping)? That sounds like excessive, uneven wear, even for a sports car. I've read of many members here getting 10k miles or so from modest driving.

 

[KJIsaacson]

Have not had alignment checked (to my knowledge), which I will do when I zero in on a tire choice.

Do you have a suggestion on what tire I should be looking at?

Many thanks!

 

[Gee-money]

I've got Pirelli p zeros on mine from new and ive done 8000 miles, including a few hot laps round the Nurburgring, still got plenty of tread left on them. There must be another issue going on to cause such severe tyre wear i.e. alignment like someone else said. My next tyre will be Michelin Pilot Sport 4.

 

[GTS]

I have Goodyear Eagle F1's and will switch to Michelin Pilot Sport 4's when the time comes.

 

[Nosmo]

Have not had alignment checked (to my knowledge), which I will do when I zero in on a tire choice.

Do you have a suggestion on what tire I should be looking at?

Many thanks!

Sorry to hear about your woes. That sounds excessive wear. As @GTS says, get your alignment checked before you put the new tyres on, or immediately after the swap.

There are some good tyre comparisons on YouTube. This is one I found quickly https://youtu.be/aMv64liOqIE. I for one will swap the OEM delivered Pirelli P0s as soon as possible for some Michelins. For some balance, you might have been very unlucky with your tyre wear and might have already driven the best tyre for your daily use of the car. Don't let the wear (if it's caused by extraneous factors) lead you to exclude the tyres you've already had.

Good luck

 

[RussellHodgson]

Michelin Pilot Sport 4S. Best tire by far IMO.

 

[aeronca65tl]

Something is wrong with your car. I have the Goodyear F1s on my car for almost 8000 miles and there is plenty of life left in them. I would project another 10,000 miles left on my tires before needing replacement.

 

[Gtipirelli]

As has already been said, you have an issue with either the tyre pressures or the wheel alignment

I still have near enough 5mm on all 4 tyres and the mileage is near 10k on Pirelli PZeros and I think they wear fast. I also do not drive the car hard and mainly do commuting and motorway mileage. I expect to get about 15k miles before replacement. My car is a 718 Cayman S

Can you let us know if the excessive wear is on the inner or outer or across the whole of the tyre as that may help diagnosis

 

[Rob G]

I have a 17 Cayman S PDK. Factors that determine wear are: 1. pressure (under, over, proper) 2. Alignment - caster, camber, toe in 3. Rotation - limited on 718's due to the fact that the front and rear tires are different sizes and cannot be rotated/cross rotated. I have Michelin PS4S (one series wider than stock) on the front/rear and am running Nitrogen. Nitro stays more stable throughout the year with temperature variations and the molecule doesn't "leak out over time" as much as regular air. The above factors combined can determine premature tire wear. I run 30-31 PSI cold and check them regularly. I ran Nitro in my Vette for 2yrs and tracked the stability of the tire pressure. All of these variable must be synchronized or you will experience premature tire wear. I know the Michelin tire guy who has a Cayman and he can run any tire he wants and he said he will be switching to the PS4S tires when it comes time to replace his. There are many good tires on the market - do your research, talk to a lot of owners who have the same car as you and choose accordingly. CHECK your tires regularly particularly when there are significant temperature changes and you should find you will get as much tread life as is possible. Take pics and post them. What pressure are/were you running? The harder you drive the tires the faster they will wear out - that's reality. I hope this helps you to find the tire you are looking for.... OH I almost forgot - if you have suspension issues that too could effect tire wear. I hope this helps!

 

[Semitone]

Michelin Pilot Sport 4S. Best tire by far IMO.

I agree... these are great tires ...but until you find out what is causing your abnormal tire wear it would be a waste of money. Clearly you have an issue with something that needs to be addressed before you throw your money away. I'd bring it to your dealer and say "WTF?" It's still a new car under warranty. This isn't normal wear and tear.

 

[GregW]

I have 22,000 km on my 18" PZeros, with some tread (one or two mm) left before the wear bars. Fronts and rears about the same--and most of my driving is on twisty roads for fun.

IMO Pirellis do wear faster than Michelin, but it's not by much in the tests (Tyre Reviews UK) and the Pirelli does get noted once or twice for being the most responsive tyre in the class.

With these super performance summer tyres wear is always high--remember the Formula 1 cars routinely get 1 or 2 hundred kms per set of PZeros.:laugh:

You can of course drop down in performance categories to get better wear but then you get lesser performance. Whether that matters to you is a valid consideration.

The website above has a summary that showed the top 6 summer performance tyres differed by about 3%. They didn't test Porsche homologated tyres which are reported to be better than non-homologated, especially in wet conditions, but it's amazing how much quality is out there.

 

[Cinnamon]

My '17 Cayman S has the Goodyear Eagle tires... when ready for a change I plan to go with the OEM Michelins, mostly for the reported lower noise level. And I'm getting close. I’m concerned not to run them down to the cords! On a service visit to the dealer last June they recommended new tires "soon" but checked the tires OK in the Multi-Point Inspection in October when in for the air grill recall.

So, with the ODO at 14,500 miles I just measured the tread depth with the dedicated tool, all grooves. Both fronts are in the 7 and 8 range in 32nds of an inch. The rears are a mix of 5 and 6 with the right slightly more worn than the left. I guess that makes sense given the way the roads are crowned.

I have been surprised to read here about tires worn out at much lower mileage... And I drive about like OP describes.

As a side note, in Dec 2017 with ~6000mi on the Goodyears, I unexpectedly got caught several hours from home in very icy conditions. I was super cautious of course but was very surprised at how steady the car felt on these inappropriate tires, no sense of slipperiness.

 

[KJIsaacson]

Thanks to all who responded. Someone who looked at the car told me it definitely needs an alignment, and that the excessive wear is most probably due to that.

I intend to follow up with the dealer where I bought the car, which is where I also got the replacement tires. As someone who's not that tuned in to sports cars, is it reasonable for me to expect that a new car, on delivery, has wheels that are properly aligned. And... when replacing tires with only 5,600 miles on them, wouldn't you expect the dealer to say "Hey, this could be because of an alignment issue?"

All in all, I feel the dealer's at fault for both sets of tires. Am I missing something here?

Thanks again to all.

 

[aeronca65tl]

………...All in all, I feel the dealer's at fault for both sets of tires. Am I missing something here?

Thanks again to all.

You are correct in my opinion. The dealer let you down. If they can't make good on this, you should reach out to Porsche Corporate and lodge a complaint.

1-800-PORSCHE (1-800-767-7243)

 

[GregW]

<snip>
All in all, I feel the dealer's at fault for both sets of tires. Am I missing something here?

They certainly should have checked the alignment as part of their delivery process, and my dealer specifies an alignment at new tyre time.

It sure sounds like they weren't doing their work properly, and I wouldn't be happy for them to make extra profit from me for slack performance.

 

[KJIsaacson]

Following up on my experience, and seeking your opinions:

Yesterday, I brought the car to the dealer for an alignment. When I picked it up, the service advisor told me "It did need an alignment, but it wasn't that much out of spec to have caused that much wear on the tires." She, of course, tried to attribute the wear to "aggressive driving." I reject the excuse of aggressive driving.

I'm attaching the printout she gave me, which shows before and after measurements. Any thoughts on what the "before" measurements reveal would be appreciated.

Many thanks!
Ken

 

[aeronca65tl]

Doing a very rough trig of the numbers on the rear, it appears the reset rear toe changed things by a total of about 1/8 inches.

If my numbers are right, that's not a real lot of change. Feel free to double check me.

 

[autobahn]

I would have honestly brought the car to an indie alignment shop for a measurement first. Who knows if the dealer is lying or not, since any repairs for this would be out of pocket vs warranty on their behalf.

I don't trust dealers much, period.

 

[Optical TDI]

Driving style can have a big impact on the rear tires. For those of us that like to wiggle the rear end coming out or corners, they will be gone fast. I went through Kumho PS91 rear tires in 3k miles. I was shocked because the lasted a lot longer on my Audi TTS.