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Rear tires are worn twice as fast as fronts. Normal?

12K views 30 replies 23 participants last post by  darkfires102  
#1 · (Edited)
Rear are bald.
Front are fine.
Is this normal?

Why would rear wear so much faster?
It's not like I've ever done a burn out.
 
#7 ·
To that, I would add "lack of proper tire rotation". The reason the rears wear is they are experiencing torque from the engine's power. Torque causes the rear tires to slip slightly against the pavement and wears out the tires. In the total absence of about 15 questions I would ask, having to do with the type of tire, the type of transmission you have, the driving style, etc, that is about all that can be said.
 
#11 ·
Wheel alignment time.

Alignments are in my opinion one of the most important maintenance items for any car nowadays. Not only should a shop be checking the wear items with the suspension & steering (gets eyes on wear components) but a great alignment makes the car so much better to drive and enjoyable.
Not to mention increased tire life. IMO one of the biggest bang for the buck insofar as enjoyment of driving a BMW.

More and more rear tires are becoming sacrificial lambs as automakers try to make any car handle better. By far one of the best examples is the E53 X5, especially ones with the V8 & 19" or 20" rear tires.

Just get behind one for a moment or two while driving down the road. Take a look at the egregious amounts of camber dialed in. Worse yet is they wear out upper rear arms & lower rear ball joints, left unattended. Now we're seeing some 2.5-3.25° of negative camber.

Most get in here and the steel cords are showing on the inside edge (customer never sees.) and the outer edges still have ~20,000 miles left.

I digress.
 
#13 ·
More and more rear tires are becoming sacrificial lambs as automakers try to make any car handle better.
This, as much as anything- rears going at about twice the rate as the front seems about right to me, too.

So, imagine you're a manufacturer who likes to make sporting cars, not Camrys.

You want the thing to handle nicely, and you build the chassis to do so. But, turns out, if you've done your
suspension right, the 'sports car' has some tendencies that make it a bit harder to predict than the 1968 Chrysler New Yorkah.
All of a sudden, you're in trouble because the thing doesn't always slide off the outside of the road 'like it's supposed to'
when the driver runs out of talent.

So you have to 'fix' it by messing it all up but you can't bring yourself to degrade it to the level of a Hyundai Snotta- Car.
Thus, staggered tire sizes, less front static camber, more rear static camber, and, especially, reduced camber gain curves, because
they lull the inattentive into spins (I've done it, most of us have) that get blamed on the car, not the driver.
'trailing throttle oversteer' is to be avoided at all costs.

So the rear tires take the brunt of it, practically speaking.

On a track car, all 4 do!

I don't move my tires around anymore. If I'm feeling poor, and have
access to a machine, I might swap rears side- to- side... or just do a
couple of track days, because there's nothing like a day at the track to
even up your rear tire wear! (and grind the outside edges off the fronts, but, see above re; understeer)

t
rotates his tires daily
 
#14 ·
What does "wear" mean? What kind of wear, just on the edges of the tires, or on the entire surface? Inside edge, outside edge, one tire, both tires? My tires wear out very evenly, and I do not rotate. Wearing the rear tires first would indicate enthusiastic applications of the little pedal, or rear alignment issues, or a combination thereof. It does not take burnouts, it only takes jackrabbit starts.
 
#17 · (Edited)
On my 2004 325xi Touring, I replaced the broken rear springs with the "Suplex Heavy Duty Touring" ones (ES#: 2915121) from ECS Tuning. Despite the supposed nature of the replacement springs, the rear end sat lower than before (even worse with a trailer hooked up), and the rear tire wear was severe due to excess negative camber that could not be corrected by standard adjustments. I installed Superior RideEFFEX 2" Bolt-in Spring Boosters and that raised the rear end back up and solved the camber issue.
 
#20 ·
My fronts would wear about 2/3rds of my rears...one of the reasons why I'd buy crappy tires and replace them every 2 years. All your acceleration starts in the rear; all the fronts have to do is steer. Since we're technically not supposed to rotate the tires, and I never did, I'd just enjoy steering as much as I'd like.

You may very well need an alignment. Post pics of your tires maybe...but if the inside rears are worn, that's as they should be. How many miles you get on your tires and how many were they rated for? Perhaps there's still some $ in their warranty for you?
 
#21 ·
Rear Tire wear

really?:thumbsup:
rear wheel drive, traction control - the rear tires can be brought to their traction limit every time you accelerate. You don't always realize / feel this, since the traction control light doesn't always light up - only when over done. enjoy the ride - sounds like your car is acting 100% correct for a RWD BMW - buy and M and you'd be lucky to get 10K out of you tires

cheers!!
 
#23 · (Edited)
this is accurate. Happened to my E46 for YEARS. Now with my M5 it's even worse LOL.

It's called rear wheel drive, and the front wheels literally do nothing but steer. So it's just tearing up the rear rubber constantly while the front just hangs out and rolls, unless you're tracking the car and cornering hard all day long.

Here's some advice, when Discount tire direct gives you those $80 off 4 new tires, buy 4 rears. The fronts will likely last as long as 2 sets of rears, so by the time both sets of rears are done, you will then need a new set of 4 all around. BEUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM