ok, i went today to america's tire co to get a new pair of tires for my fronts. I also rotated my rear tires (BFG KDW 245/45/17) to the fronts. When they took it off, they guy suggested that i change my tires becuase the rears were almost completely bald. The problem here is that I had just bought those tires 5,302 miles before. It was barely time for a rotation and the mother f*#^%s were bald already.

I mean, i know that the rears wear faster than the front, but holy crap, in 5K?

on another note, my fronts were still the stock Goodyear GS-D's and they told me 5K miles ago that I had only 1K left to go on them, but they lasted me over 5K and i think they still coulda held up a bit longer.

(i did go to irwindale drag strip once, but i only got 3 runs and that only an 1/8 mile.)

 

Sounds like you could use an alignment check.

 

KDW2 or old tread design?

I have the Smartire system. It gives me a visual display of tire temp and pressure in near realtime. I dont know about other tires, but having hear that KDWs 'overheat', I started watching the temps. Depending on the crown of the road, one side can be 10-15 or even 20 degrees hotter than the others. I can hang a corner and watch the KDW2s temp just soar. Appearently they will wear pretty quickly when really hot. This is all just an observation because I've never run the Smartire on other tires to compare. Just know that track peeps say they can kill KDWs in a day (or a few runs).

My guess is some sort of slight alignment issue that kept them overly warm. So they would wear somewhat normally looking, but really quickly.

 

Treadwear rating is 300, so it's not too bad for this type of tire. I'd vote for alignment too......something is definitely wrong.

http://www.bfgoodrichtires.com/asset...rce_ta_kdw.pdf

 

yeah, im going in for an alignment soon. gonna do my sway bar at the same time.

any idea what specs i should get my SEDAN aligned to?

 

factory spec?

 

factory spec? even if im lowered on 350z suspension?

 

well ... there you have it. If you're lowered on 350Z suspension and you haven't performed a re-alignment since, that was inevitable. Going back to the factory spec (if you can) will be just fine.

 

Did your car wander around going over bumps and bumpy manhole lids?
If so, you had some toe-out. the sus toes-out when you lower it.

i would target something like 0.08 front / 0.29 rear total toe-in.

 

When I went with the 350Z suspension on my car I asked GSedan35 what was a good alignment spec for a more agressive than factory spec but at the same time won't kill my tires. He said go with the coupe specs.

Here's my specs. I ran a little over 10K miles including one track day with these specs on my GSD tires and they wore pretty much evenly. I measured all 4 tires and have 7/32" tread depth left.

Front Camber: -.9/-1.3
Front Caster: 8.7/9.4
Front Toe: .02/.02

Rear Camber: -1.3/-1.3
Rear Toe: .05/.04

 

actually, i did have it aligned after i installed the new suspension. i adjust the toe and everything, but the bastard at the shop aligned it to an I35 spec. that dumbass. i told him it was different, but he insisted...so that may be the cuase yes?

 

Wow ... that is pathetic. I35 is a Front-Wheel drive setup. You bet the alignment spec is going to be different.

 

wat's was your actual measurement? that will determine if they f-ked up
or not.

dklau33- looks like you can use a bit more toe-in on the rear.

 

i dont know my actual specs, but is there any chance of me going back there and getting the place that did the alignment to pay for my tire wear for f#$*ing up my specs?

 

I had the same problem with my rear Kumho MX's, which lasted 7K, had nothing to do with alignment, I was doing too many full throttle 1st gear run's with the VDC off. I blamed the tires, honestly though, it was my right foot that was to blame.

Rear toe in amount's are a double edged sword. Dial in too much and you accelerate rear tire wear and increase understeer. Don't dial in some and you will experience toe out as you load the suspension with G forces. These car's have way too much bushing compliance that allow's this, especially in the rear. I run just enough rear toe in as to not have drop throttle oversteer and allow a decent amount of rear negitve camber. I continue to look for camber and radius arm replacement's that are cost effective and use spirical bushings, the bushing compliance issue need's to go.