Hi everyone, my mini, Windy, and I just went over 6,000 miles and I noticed that my front tires are almost bald!!! the rear tires have plenty of tread left, over half-a-penny, but the fronts are scary-bald. When I purchased Windy, I had the dealership install JCW 18s and I assumed they did an alignment, but it appears that the alignment was not done. Do I have any recourse? I don't go around squealing my tires nor do i take corners too fast...I just don't understand the excessive wear. Windy is wearing the run-flats...HELP...these tires are a bit pricy...

Windrider
http://homepage.mac.com/bc69/windy/PhotoAlbum11.html

 

Are the front tires worn on the inside treads? or wearing flat...?

If wearing flat, then it sounds like normal wear, just you driving
a bit faster than most. Which tire (brand model) are you using?

If wearing on the inside, then the toe is probably pointing outward
too much.

 

Hi, thanks for the reply, they are dunlop run flats...they are wearing pretty flat although there is more wear on the inside...most all my driving is on the highway, just can't believe they would wear out this fast...should the dealership have checked alignment as part of the installation of the jcw 18s? if so, i just got an email from the MA that sold me the car that an alignment was not done...

windrider...

 

No need to align the wheels/tires unless you dramatically changed ride height or changed toe settings for your particular driving needs and wanted to revert back to stock.

I think you just have some normal wear then. I see quite a few people selling
their SP9000's in the Market Place from time to time, so you might want to check there for some great deals. :smile:

 

The 18" SP9000? I see 17's all the time never the 18".

Patrick

 

My Dunlops (16") were dangerously dead by 30K... Normal wear.

 

Hey windrider, since your rear tires have a more then a half penny of tread depth left, you'll be able to just get a pair of new tires for the front and get into the habit of rotating them every 6000 miles or so. Went thru the same thing back in the day.

 

I'll be happy if I can get out 30K-35K miles out of my 16" Dunlop SP5000 runflats (currently have 12.8K miles on them)

The 15" Continental Radials in my wife's '02 Cooper CVT are holding fairly well at 25K miles but I think those will need to be replaced by 30K miles.

No wear problems noted on either car, so far.

 

yeah, i guess i may have to change them very soon...i guess i really expected them to at least go 15k miles, but to be almost bald at 6500...man...i heard these 18in dunlops are almost 300 dollars...that bites...

windrider

 

The only person I know locally that has JCW 18's with the Dunlop 205/40-18's, wear exceptionally fast even with moderate driving. Best bet is to rotate and burn 'em off and then go get a real tire like the Kumho MX in 215-35-18.

 

Holy crud people get 30k from tires? On my BMW I'm lucky if I can get 18k... then again soft tires, a supercharger, and no rotating due to different size F/R's and I guess that's what I get.

Patrick

 

oops! I was thinking 17's. sorry!

 

Ryephile, I want to stick with the 16" tire and rim size (As soon as I wear down the factory SP5000s) because I am not really interested in bigger/lower profile tires.

What rubber in 16" size do you recommend with a 50-55 profile?

 

i had the pirelli's for 20k, then bought the ventus HRII, there not bad for regular daily driving ($78 a piece).

 

Sounds like normal wear plus the need to rotate earlier like every 3000 miles
See
http://www.tirerack.com/a.jsp?a=EZ3&...rk=1&x=19&y=13
for the runflat Dunlop SP Sport 01 DSST in 205/40-18 for $255 each plus shipping.

You may replace just two and rotate them or switch two wheels to non runflat but it would be hard to find the right size. Generally the better tires go on the rear.
If you replace all four with non runflats then 215/35-18 is good size.

Cooper4us,
You can confirm with Alex@tirerack that 205/55-16 would be good for the Dunlop SP 5000. If you went with non runflats you could choose 195/55-16 or 205/50-16.

 

thanks for the advice everyone, went to rotate the wheels today and was advised not to bother that the fronts are pretty bad...soooo, looks like i'm in the market for new tires...

I checked out the Kumho MXs, the BF Goodrich g-force TA KDW 2, and the Yokohama Parada spec 2...looking for something that will not only handle nicely but also L A S T a bit longer than 6500miles...I'm still tripping that these front tires are already bald...honestly, i drive pretty moderately...anyway, any advice on the tires from you all would be greatly appreciated...also, if there are any others that you advise...i am looking for the size that was recommeded earlier in the thread... 215-35-18....OR, if anyone has 2 dunlop runflat 18s for sale...contact me.. I guess i should smile over the whole thing and be greatful that i am driving a great car...just the front tirewear sucks...

thanks all...

windrider

 

I got 10k miles out of my first set of Yokohama ES100's... with 3 autocrosses.

I'm expecting to get a bit more out of the second set, since I now have a set of dedicated track wheels (with Falken Azenis). But, I'm still not expecting more than 12-15K miles out of the new ES100's.

Any good, sticky performance tire isn't going to last much longer if you drive the car fairly hard... Especially not those you mentioned... The only thing that kept me from getting the BFG KDW2's this time around is that they get kinda loud as they wear - the ones on my buddy's Dinan3 sound like BFG Muds now that they have about 8k miles on them!

FWIW, I still think the ES100's have the best price/performance ratio of any UHP tire...