bald tires

[zhead240]

in 5 years i've put on 11K miles. i noticed my back tires are almost bald. the passenger ( i presume to be the drive wheel) tire is the worst. the front tires look ok. i believe not more than 1K miles were put on them before me. shouldn't tires last 50 to 60K miles under normal driving conditions?

the make are

vredestein sprint

175R14 radial

dot 0103

[Arne]

I'm not sure that I'd call the Vredestein a long life tire. So 50-60k might be a bit of a stretch. But I'd certainly expect 30-40k, so you may have a problem.

Can you post a clear picture of the wear pattern on the rears? Might be best to post the better of the two, easier to diagnose from one with a little left rather than one that's way bald.

[five&dime]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I believe R rated to be the softest tires you can get. Only H rated tires will last that long. of course much of it has to do with how you drive and how well your car is aligned.

I have R's on my BMW and I go through rear tires about every 4-6 months Of course I have a bit of negative camber as my car is so low and I also drive it like I stole it .

[Arne]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I believe R rated to be the softest tires you can get. Only H rated tires will last that long. of course much of it has to do with how you drive and how well your car is aligned.

I have R's on my BMW and I go through rear tires about every 4-6 months Of course I have a bit of negative camber as my car is so low and I also drive it like I stole it .

Different R. The Vreds aren't even H rated (130 MPH, 210 KPH), they are only S rated (112 MPH, 180 KPH).

The R in a typical tire size merely indicates Radial. What you are using on the 5er are "R Compound" tires. Race rubber, more or less. Different thing entirely.

[John Coffey]

shouldn't tires last 50 to 60K miles under normal driving conditions?

No and you're not driving a normal car anyway.

[five&dime]

ahh. Thanks for clarifying Arne

[zhead240]

hey arne, what does the dot # tell u, made in 2003?

[Arne]

hey arne, what does the dot # tell u, made in 2003?

Yeah, 0103 = first week (01) of 2003 (03).

[26th-Z]

shouldn't tires last 50 to 60K miles under normal driving conditions?

No...

[zhead240]

OK, maybe not 50K but a hell af a lot more than 11K!

my daily driver has 60 kilometers over 3 years which is about 36K miles and they still have good tread left.

[zhead240]

pics of tires

two rear and one front

[Arne]

No obvious wear patterns there. Front looks better, but might show a bit of toe-out, looking at the wear on the inside shoulder. I'd probably have the alignment checked just because, but it doesn't look terrible.

Looks like you never rotated the tires, which would have tended to equalize the wear some. But that only means that the rears would be a bit better and the fronts a bit worse. Not a deal breaker either way.

Larger issue is your expectations. While I have no personal experience with them, those Vreds are not known as being a particularly long lasting tire. I would not have expected to get more than 30-35k miles out of tires like those, at the very most. Add to that the fact that you are driving a light-weight sports/GT car, and maybe 20k might be all they'll reasonably go.

Light cars are hard on tires. Too much slippage due to light weight. Same problem that causes a rear touring motorcycle tire to wear out in 4-6k miles. I actually got much better rear tire mileage on the bikes when riding two-up. Even though my wife only weighs ~125 lbs., it's really noticeable on tire wear.

I know that Vreds are about the only true 175-14 tires left these days, but your experience doesn't make it look as if they are very durable. Probably no incentive for them to be better since they are about the only game in town. If longer lasting tires are a priority for you, consider looking into P185/75-14 as replacements. Much larger selection to choose from, a touch wider, but still narrow enough to fit comfortably on stock steel wheels. If your car has 14x5.0 wheels you could also consider 195/70-14, but pinching them down to fit a 5" wheel isn't going to help either the handling or the mileage.