Fifth Ring

Now that I am running equal size tires, I'm trying to wear them down evenly by rotating front to back. I'm surprised, though, to see more wear occuring on the fronts than the rears! And yes, I use the noise pedal liberally! From what I saw on the used car/wheel market, the rears seemed to be fried first, but that's not been my experience. Maybe I need to do more drag racing.

I'm hoping that two track days in April will fry the set. I'm considering either Goodyear GSDs (high end stuff) or Hankook Z212s (slummin').

Best/worst news is that I'm giving up on my plans to buy a Miata to become my dedicated track car, which means more toys for the Benz. The Miata is an amazing value. You can pick one up for $5,000, invest another $3,000 on seats, roll bar, suspension and tires, and you have a track monster. Several problems though - I'm a little tall and would need a dropped seat and a tall roll cage which makes wifey use impossible.

Nationsfinest

I just took off my stock wheels and they definately had more wear on the rear wheels than on the front wheels. It makes sense since they are the drive wheels. Just leave your fronts on the back for double the miles before switching back. That might even them up a little bit. You could do your required burnout per week to help out too... LOL.

msheredy

Your front tires do most of the work. They have a heavy load on them (engine and transmission) plus they steer the car. When the brakes are applied the fronts grab first and with more pressure which makes the tires work harder. Yea the rears are moving the car but unless you are doing burnouts everytime you leave at stop light I would have to say that the fronts would wear faster.

Harry Madan

i always ware the rear tires more then then fronts, but if u want to keep ur tire ware even and u have all 4 same size tires, then u should consider swapping them from left to right. for example swap the front driver tire with the rear passenger tire and that can help u ware your tires evenly. but keep in mind to do this u need to take the rubber off the wheel and then swap it around.

dchao

My rear tires goes out faster too. C32 is not a heavy car by any standard.

03c32AMG

I have never worn out the fronts first on any rear wheel drive vehicle I have ever owned. This might be my driving style...

newton22

Cure: Turn ESP off.

smgC32

track this car hard and your fronts will only last a day. I worn out a new Corsa in 30 minutes! do a search to see pic!

Moviela

Please don't try this with radial tires. If you rotate your tires for even wear, move them from front to back on the same side of the car. Never run them in the opposite direction. This is what makes buying a used tire so dangerous, you don't know which direction it has been run. Now, if you do dismount and mount opposite you could switch sides, but why?

If you intend to track your car, and drive it at speed, you are allowed four races. Then the tires must be discarded. When racing, the tires get very hot, then cool down after the race. After four cycles they are done. I mark my tires after each race near the bead with a yellow crayon. Four hash marks mean a trip to the Yoko van for new shoes.

Harry Madan

i know u must take the rubber off the wheel to swap them from left to right, in other words dismount and remount on the other side.... and i said that in my msg earler too [Quote] "but keep in mind to do this u need to take the rubber off the wheel and then swap it around." [Quote] i was not referring to ppl on the track, i was referring to ppl with local drives and want more use out of there tires, this may be another method they can use to get a little longer life out of there tires.
i personally cant do that with my car because i have different sizes front to back.

Fifth Ring

The only time I leave ESP on is in the rain or snow. Otherwise, every time I drive, I turn off ESP.

smgC32

You can run the tires in any direction on any side. The disadvantage is water evacuation as the tread design is rotated. In dry conditions, this does not matter. And forget about the seam delaminating. Never seen it happen or experienced it with new technology tires. You can even run asymetrical tread tread tires inside out! Just look at the picture of the Nitto fronts in the other thread. They are bare and equal across the tread so it doesn't matter. As a tire goes through a heat cycle, it looses some of its grip as the molecular structure of the rubber changes. At some point in time, the tire's rubber gets brittle or hard and no longer grips well. You can still run on this tire in this condition, but it grip is significanlty reduced. We usually run out of tread before the heat cycle problem occurs. On the last outing with the Nitto's, it took 7.5 hours of track driving before the fronts gave out and our times were reduced by several seconds. We also ran through 75% of the tread.