I bought my 2011 MCS R56 6 manual with 22.5k miles on the clock, and she still had the Conti run-flats, unknown if they were originals, but the date on the tires seems to indicate so. Tread was ok at the time, but disappeared quickly. So, I bought a new set of 4 Cooper CS5 Ultra-Tourings 205/50/16, with a treadwear rating of 620, far better than the runflat Conti's of 400, right? 60k treadwear warranty. I know this is not an indication of how long a tire will last, but it should give some reference. The ride is much better, and the Coopers seem to actually corner better. Well, after only about 3,000 miles of use, the front tires have lost 4/32 of their original 11/32! Pretty evenly, across the tire. I do drive my Mini hard, and I commute the twisties every day, and temps are high here most times. I know the road surface is not exactly smooth here either. But, REALLY? I am not tracking this car, and I do not do smoky burnouts! The rears have only lost about 1/32. Is this just normal for a Mini that is driven pretty aggressively? Has anyone found a tire that will actually handle well, and last more than 10-12,000 miles? Also, do you guys rotate, or just wear out the fronts and replace them?

 

have you checked front end alignment?

if the toe is off the tires can wear very quickly

i am running michelin pilot super sports treadwear 300 and it looks like i will get 10k-12k aggressive miles out of them in my all4

i rotate every 4k when i change oil/flter

 

"I do drive my Mini hard, and I commute the twisties every day, and temps are high here most times. I know the road surface is not exactly smooth here either."

Tread disappeared quickly from OEM Continentals and now from 87H Coopers. You don't need to "track a car" to scrub the tread off of the tires. Maybe try pushing the throttle less when it is understeering?

 

I noticed the Bridgestones I have on now went through the first 3/32nds very fast. The next 1-2 was much slower.

I managed to get 48k out of Conti DWS tires.

I do rotate every 5-6k miles and try to keep the wear even as I like to replace all 4 tires at once.

 

Sounds like my 2013 Justa with run flats. I don't drive hard and the front tire wear much faster than the rear tires.
At 5k miles I noticed the fronts were showing more wear, the wear was even hust as yours so I rotated front to back and will have to do this quite often. I currently have 6k on the car.
It is my understanding that this is just how these Mini' are, the fronts wear faster.
Don't like it but I guess that's just another quirk that Mini's have.

 

I really can't say that I push it as far as actual understeer. But, yeah, less throttle would help. Just really hard to do...

And I can honestly say that the Coopers are wearing much more evenly across the tread than the Conti's did.

 

Concur, I get ~12K out of the fronts before the tread is almost gone. I guess going easy in the corners and less throttle would help, but then why buy a MINI?

 

Slow corners in a Mini? Have you gone completely mad? LOL. I was thinking that maybe a stiffer rear sway bar would help, but that would just make the rear tires wear faster, right? Oversteer and all...

I am having the alignment checked tomorrow. I guess I will just have to rotate, and buy 4 tires when needed. And slow down in the turns. Just kidding on that last one!

 

If you try to accelerate when it is understeering it will just plow. You scrub the tires which retards your progress. It can be subtle but it is very hard on tires and you're actually exiting the corner slower.

This is one of the reasons I love autocross so much. You can push conditions until they are obvious in a safe, friendly, low-cost environment. Invoke enough understeer and it is just like hydroplaning in that you can't turn the car at all. The more you turn the wheel the worse it gets. The only solution is less throttle and less steering input. The car will slow and then start turning when the tires regain grip.

Another solution is to buy performance tires like the Michelin Pilot Sport AS 3. More grip, less understeer, more fun. A 620 treadwear tire isn't meant to be driven aggressively. The ContiProContacts that came on my roadster seriously limit the speed at which it can enter and exit corners. They same tires in the non-runflat version do the same thing to our VW Jetta Hybrid.

My current challenge in autocrossing with Hankook R-S3 tires is to avoid spinning the front tires. Same problem: too much throttle and too much slip angle too early in the corner exit. It is a constant, delicately balanced dance of wheel/throttle/brake to use as much of the available tire grip without trying to use more than the tire can provide.

 

If you are having the alignment done, there is a 'free camber mod' on the mini. In the strut towers, forward of the strut itself, is a plastic pin. This limits the amount of camber that you can get with the car. Remove the plastic pin with pliers and you will be able to go from about .7 degrees negative to 1-1.3. This will aid the front traction of the car in corners. Doing this will require adjustment of the toe, which is going to be done anyway.

If you were putting highway miles on, then this change could increase wear on the inside edge of the tire, but the twisty drive (and even wear) lead me to recommend this change.

Have fun,
Mike

 

A lot of guys are rotating at 5K, me as well. I just replaced all four corners and the old ones still showed uneven wear. Just for fun, I'm going to try rotating at 3K intervals and see does that spread out the destruction more evenly.