Quote:
Originally Posted by Mrfurious214
Hey guys, I am about to put my 3rd set of tires on the front on my X5 and I'm pretty confused/annoyed. My front tires are wearing (since we bought the truck 4.5 years ago) on the outside edge WAY quicker than the inside. I'm literally bald on the outside edge and 6/32 on the inside edge. My rear tires are wearing evenly and are at 6/32 throughout. I currently have Bridgestone Dueler H/P's on all 4.
Is it ok if I only replaced the front tires with a different set of tires? I'm considering getting Continental ExtremeContact DWS 06 for the front since they are all-season and have a much higher wear rating. But is this possible or will it cause problems for me? I saw someone post ( http://www.xbimmers.com/forums/showt...9#post20044059) in June that it should be fine but just wanted to confirm. |
If you do a search you should be able to find several different old threads discussing this type of front tire wear. As I recall the issue seems to be isolated to those of us that have 20 inch wheels, although I can't say I'm sure about that.
I've had alignments done more than once, and the alignment has been barely out of spec and did not solve the problem. I've seen the same wear problem with my winter tires.
The solution that seems to be working for me is to run the front tires at 42 lbs of pressure. It seems to be pushing the wear back out over the entire face of the tire.
Yes, the extra pressure does make the X5 ride harder, but I'm now running non RFT tires all year round on the front axle, and everything else being equal the non RFT's provide a softer ride, and I don't find running the non RFT's at 42 lbs to be any more objectionable versus the original RFT's at the factory specified pressure.
My speculation is that the reason many of us are seeing wear like this is a combination of a the higher center of gravity of an SUV, and a very good handling vehicle that encourages drivers to take turns and curves faster than they would in a more typical SUV. And perhaps owners with the optional 20 inch wheels tend to drive more aggressively, again just speculation.
Also, interesting that you did not mention the rear tires wearing on the inner edges. Myself and others have experienced that, and I've been running my rears at 38 lbs to offset that, similarly to the fronts. You might want to take a close look at the inner edges of your rear tires, you may be surprised. On a previous set of rear tires, cord was showing through on the inner edges before I noticed the problem!
As to mixing summer tires with all season tires on different axles and mixing
RFT's with non RFT's on different axles, for sure it's not optimal. But like you, my rear RFT's were not worn out, so during the warmer months I've run the setup you are contemplating (DWS front, Dueler RFT's rear) and pushed the car VERY hard to see if I could detect any handling issues, and I could not. Is it possible that this setup could negatively effect the handling of the X5 at the limit, sure, but I'm comfortable with it after doing the testing I indicated. And I did not seem to have any issue with running brand new DWS's on the front at the same time as well worn Dueler RFT's on the rear.
I recently took my summer set up off the car, and put on my winter tires. The rear Dueler RFT's are now shot, and I'll be replacing them with DWS's on the rear axle in the spring.
One thing I would point out is that I think you are taking a terrible risk running any summer tires year round in our part of the country. Not only are summer tires literally dangerous when the roads are snowy and icy, they progressively lose grip even on dry roads as temps drop further and further below 40 degrees. I have two sports cars that always have summer rubber, and I've seen what happens as temps drop further and further below 40. Furthermore, I would never ever drive on summer tires below 20 degrees as they can be damaged as the summer rubber gets very hard.
The DWS's are a decent all season tire, and seem to provide better winter traction than the average all season tire. I've had them on two different vehicles, and I've noted that Tire Rack has made similar comments.
But I should also point out that they are not the best handling all season tire as they have fairly soft sidewalls. When you push them really hard in turns you can feel the sidewalls start to fold. But for normal and not high performance driving, I don't see anyone having an issue, and the soft sidewalls help provide a pleasant ride (and probably help offset the 42 pounds of pressure).
Although I know most people don't bother, I do choose to run winter tires during the colder months, especially because we take ski trips to New England and upstate NY. It's not just because they will hopefully keep us from getting stuck. Winter tires have far better braking ability on the snow and ice, and I've long thought that if the hassle of changing over the tires twice a year keeps us out of just one accident it was worth it.