Measured my tire wear (20,000+ miles at elevated pressure - 44 PSI)

[moorecomp]

I bought my ZX2 over a year ago with these tires on it. I am not sure how many miles they have total, but I have been running my Michelin Rain Force MX4 tires for over a year now (20,000+ miles) at elevated pressures (38 initially now 44). The other day I was working on a noisy brake and decided to measure the tread depths of the tires to see how even the wear is. I measured each of the three grooves in the front and rear of the tire using a depth caliper and averaged the readings. Here is what I found:

LF:
Inner-.207
Middle-.220
Outer-.197

RF:
Inner-.217
Middle:.230
Outer-.215

LR:
Inner-.225
Middle-.235
Outer-.220

RR:
Inner-.205
Middle-.215
Outer-.195

Interesting how even at the elevated pressure, the middle still has the most tread remaining and the outers wear slightly more than the inners. Maybe if I raise the pressure a little more, the wear will even out to the middle?

Thought? Any one else measure theirs and post results.

FYI: New, these tires had .320 tread depth.

[dcb]

I always thought they just expanded to the diameter of the steel belts, so that they don't bulge in the middle like a balloon with additional pressure.

So wearing on the edges is normal as they are the "front line" when cornering.

[brucepick]

I measured a couple new sets when I got them and found they had deeper tread in the center when new. So in my own use I'm not aiming for even tread across the width. I do suspect that higher pressure won't cause (much) reduction in center tread depth.

Mine are rated 44 psi; I'm running them at 50. Still have deeper tread in the middle after about 25K miles put on the tires which I bought new.

[taco]

that is really good,
i wore out my current set from 1-16-09 to now pose to get a new set this week in just 20000 miles. but i had some suspension problems. slack in inner tir rod, rotted out rack bushing, no allignment in 5 years, worn out shocks and coils.

all new now, new rack and pinion, new poly sway bar bushings, new bilstein 5100 shocks , new coils, new new poly rack bushings. all new for the front.


i would love to get 40k out of a set.

[euromodder]

Originally Posted by moorecomp

Interesting how even at the elevated pressure, the middle still has the most tread remaining and the outers wear slightly more than the inners. Maybe if I raise the pressure a little more, the wear will even out to the middle?

Thought? Any one else measure theirs and post results.

Have you since tried to increase the pressure further to get more even tyre wear ?

It worked for me

[redpoint5]

I have increased my pressure from 32 to 45 psi in the hopes of getting better mpg and getting more even wear on my tires. It may help even the wear slightly, but I still expect the outsides to go first. My understanding is that modern radials don't change wear patterns as much as tires of the past.