2012 X5 20" Tires

[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.

[rithvikrao]

Get those ties, they are awesome. I replaced my RFT's with the DWS06's. The OEM tires are not nearly as nice for the North East climate/roads as the DWS06's.

[mitch808]

When was your last alignment? Toe can kill tires pretty quickly. Being the outside, I would think you're in a toe-in situation.

Camber can do it too, if you're greater than -2.0 degrees. Camber up front is technically not adjustable, but can be made so pretty inexpensively via a camber bolt. 14mm I think?

Outside of an alignment, yes the DWS06 is a great tire overall. But cannot fix a mechanical issue you may have (e.g. alignment)

[Flying Ace]

IMO, you'll be fine for now, but I would get new rears soon. Tire rack says manufacturers have a certain maximum aspect ratio between front and rear tread depth for AWD cars. New DWS 06 are 10/32nds. So you're within 40%, which should be okay for now. There's no firm figure from BMW, but I would be weary of anything less than 30% or 4/32nds difference.

http://www.tirerack.com/winter/tech/....jsp?techid=18

Your bigger issue is mixing all-seasons with summer tires. Your power on traction will be delivered in the rear in which you have on summer tires. Braking, likely you'll be ok as emergency braking utilizes front brakes/tires a lot. But overall, you should switch at least to the same compound, obviously ideally the same tire.

BTW, you need to get your alignment checked based on what you wrote.

[shark715]

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.

[CntryClub007]

I run the Conti DW (Not the S) 275 and 315's and so far I like them. My HP Dueler's wore on the outside as well, but I got an alignment to hopefully help fix that.

When was your last alignment? I like the feel of the Conti, they are non run-flat, so not incredibly stiff.

[JMD]

Get the Conti's! I had a set on my '05 X5 4.8is!,...best decision ever made regarding X5 tires. The Hp's road well,...but have a weak sidewall,...had a blowout in Tampa on a Road trip. I like the Conti's so well,...I plan to install them on my '13 X5M,...especially since ut has a spare tire. So, no need for runflats IMO.

Go Conti's!

[shark715]

Originally Posted by CntryClub007

I run the Conti DW (Not the S) 275 and 315's and so far I like them. My HP Dueler's wore on the outside as well, but I got an alignment to hopefully help fix that.

When was your last alignment? I like the feel of the Conti, they are non run-flat, so not incredibly stiff.

How many miles do you have on your DW's, and how are they wearing?

Yeah, going from RFT's to non RFT's so dramatically improves the ride, doesn't it?

[CntryClub007]

Originally Posted by shark715

How many miles do you have on your DW's, and how are they wearing?

Yeah, going from RFT's to non RFT's so dramatically improves the ride, doesn't it?

I've got about 2K on them, when I swapped over to my winter rubber, I could notice they were a bit uneven. I think I will do the PSI adjustment mentioned above.

Oh, most definitely improves. I still believe the sport suspension on these cars, matched to non-RFT is the best of both worlds, comfort is great. Happy with this combo in the E70 and F30.