Suspension settings and camber - Saving rubber

[Merrill]

Agree

 

[darthvdr]

Wish I read this sooner. Changed out tires due to steel showing through at 13k miles. Camber bolts were replaced and alignment was performed, but SC did not provide a breakdown on the alignment. We paid $450 per tire + balancing + alignment.

 

[JohnnyMac]

For what it's worth, with spirited driving, my 21 inch Continentals have made it to 14,000 miles with fairly uneven wear. The inside is a mm or so away from the wear bars but the outside still has over half the tread remaining. I have been very diligent about the tires - check pressure regularly, have had the car aligned two times, and had the camber bolts installed as soon as they came out. All that considered, the car still has a lot of inside camber wear both in the front and rear regardless of rotating the tires as recommended every 4-6k miles. I really wish I had done this sooner, but I just took @lola's advice (perhaps it was really more of a suggestion than advice) and had my tire shop dismount and remount all four tires and am now running them with the inside on the outside and vice versa. I feel I'll easily get another 5 to 6k miles on these by the end of summer. I won't push it once winter arrives and will go with new rubber all around but will be happy if I can get 18-20k out of these. Even with the current uneven wear pattern, the car drives the same as it did before remounting. It does not pull or exhibit any unusual noise or handling characteristics whatsoever. On my next set of tires, I will definitely be doing the same thing and running them inside out but will probably make that change earlier perhaps when it gets to 9-10k miles and the tread wear is still a bit more even. I really feel that this is the only way to get any even and reasonable wear out of the 21s. By the way, my tire shop had no issues mounting the tires this way and the asymmetrical tread is so similar on each side that there was really no concern. And if you look at a new Continental DW extreme, the outside labeled side appears to have a bit thicker shoulder tread which would be better suited to run on the inside of the MS. The only possible concern we discussed is that in heavy rain, the tread pattern could displace more rainwater to the underside of the car than to the outside of the car, but honestly, the pattern is so similar and summer oriented that I doubt even this would be an issue. Just sharing my experience so far. Your mileage may vary.

 

[jerry33]

Even with the current uneven wear pattern, the car drives the same as it did before remounting. It does not pull or exhibit any unusual noise or handling characteristics whatsoever.

This is normal. The idea with asymmetrical tires is that the outside is built up more to take the stress of cornering and provide better tire life. This assumes a more normal alignment setting. As long as you do all four tires, no problem. (As an aside, be sure the toe is not toe-out.)

The only possible concern we discussed is that in heavy rain, the tread pattern could displace more rainwater to the underside of the car than to the outside of the car

When we were out of DOT rain race tires, we just mounted the asymmetrical tires with the outside facing in so that water evacuation was better.

 

[BFCobra]

PS2 Tires

I was doing some looking around at the PS2 tires this morning and found this interesting:

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires...l S With Staggered Tires&autoModClar=P85 Plus

I made a comment before that the tire should have 2 different compounds to address the negative chamber that is dialed into Model S. Guess I had not done my research, they already do. Higher Silica in the inner section of the PS2 tire.