How many miles on a set of rear tires

I put new tires ContiSport 2's N-2 all around last spring. With about 3,800 miles the fronts are at 7/32" and the rears are at 3/32". I expected 8-10K from the rears, looks more like 5-6K. How many miles are other people seeing in rear tires?

How you drive makes a big difference in these cars. When we lived in Indiana, my tires lasted much longer. Now that I live in the mountains and have some curvy roads, they don't last as long. 8 - 10K is about right though for normal driving.

I don't think I"m very aggressive but the dealer implied that that is why the wear so quick.

If i'm only going to get 5-6K I'm sure I will not be replacing them with N rated rubber.

You might need to get a proper four wheel alignment to help with wear. Some tires wear faster than others too. Typically N-spec tires are quite soft, and they wear quickly compared to some of the other options on the market.

Maybe your alignment is leaning more to track use as opposed to road use?

Usually you end up having to buy 2 sets of rears for every set of fronts. I'm running a cheap tire on my C4S now, the Sumitomo HTR-ZIII. I thought they were a good bargain when I bought them, but now that they are approaching the end of their life, I don't like them. They are noisy and I don't like the way they handle. It's the first set of non N-spec tires I've ever had on the car. I'm trying to decide now between going back to N-spec tires or perhaps trying the new Michelin Super Sports.

Are the rears wearing evenly across the tire or is the inside worn down and the outside ok?

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I know this will be blasphemous in some circles..... However. the stock camber is pretty aggressive and really not necessary for regular every day driving. Set it at "neutral" and you will get 20k+ miles out of rear tires...

Hey Gretch, you said it much better than my post.

My hankooks lasted 8900 mi and they were on the cords on the inside. There was 2/32 left on the outside.

My Hankooks V12's are getting replaced next week as soon as new ones arrive. But I got about 14k miles -1.4 rear camber same as above poster the inner side is gone but I still have tread on outside.

Check the toe setting on your alignment. You can run plenty of camber with only moderate impact on your wear. If the toe is off by much you'll chew through tires like there's no tomorrow.

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That's exactly my point from my question above. Toe kills more than camber.

+1 on toe. IMHO, Porsche sets their alignment specs more for lawsuit avoidance than for handling and tire life. I increased rear tire life by well over 50%--to 8000+ miles--by having a good rear alignment done to the minimum factory spec values (least toe, least camber). Any shop should do that for you. You may have to search for a shop that will set specs outside of factory ranges (they're into lawsuit avoidance also). Good luck.

Alignment has a lot to do with it. I'm at 8 k on my PS2's and my rears aren't even at the wear indicators yet. I push it when I can, but don't push it all the time.

I have over 15K on my sumitomos. And I have loads of negative camber. Not sure why everyone else is seeing 5-6K. Mine may have another 5-6 in them now... -td

I have 19,000 miles on my Pirellis and there's still room left before I hit the wear bars. My car is lowered so I had the alignment checked when I had the tires installed. Wear is even - I keep to factory specs - 36/44

On Pirellis (OEM): 12.5k on the rears and 25k on the fronts. The rears were extremely noisy and had lousy handling as they approached end of life. On Michelin PS2s: 15k on rears and 30k on fronts. More consistent wear than the Pirellis; increased noise level at end of life, but handling doesn't go away as dramatically.

Was getting 6-8000 miles on the rears and was not really wearing out fronts -- just replacing each 2nd set of rears, was using N rated Pirelli, put new Yokahamas on (not N rated) and told the dealer I wanted the tyres to last and to do wheel alignment accordingly, now I get 15-18000 out of the rears and still replace the fronts each second set of rears, on my 4th set of rear Yokos, car has 100,000 mls. Cannot tell the difference with the handling but I'm not an agressive driver. And -- most importantly -- run the rear tyres at 37psi -- never higher (18 inch wheels) because I found that if you run them higher the middle wears out (dealer tech told me to do that). Roads around here are pretty good so not too worried with the lower pressures. Before the alignment the inside of the rears would wear out too early, now with the lower rear pressures the rear tyres wear very even across the width.

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Be prepared to be shocked at N-rated tire prices... I just had the 2 rear tires on my 03 Turbo replaced (Bridgestones). Cost was $1000 and change. And I bought these tires months ago. The dealer parts manager told me prices since then have gone up $50/tire. I have considered trying non N-rated tires the next time but the N-rated tires are noisy enough as they wear. I couldn't stand running a tire that was noisier at the end of its life. Pirelli tires based on my experience are the noisiest of the N-rated tires at the end of their life and I had to stop using Pirelli because of this. Sincerely, Macster.

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With my 02 Boxster and 03 Turbo the rear tires can see 20K miles and more before the tires are down to the wear bars. Tire wear side to side and across the tread face is even. The key is a proper alignment coupled with maintaining proper tire inflation pressure. Check the pressures cold -- after the car sits overnight -- and remember when the ambient temp warms up or cools down, like it is doing now in many parts of the country, the tires if inflated correctly for warmer temps may be underinflated when temps drop and stay down. Just had the rear tires on my Turbo replaced before I headed out on the road. The tires had easily over 20K miles on them and by several K miles and could have gone another maybe 2K miles but this road trip covers nearly 5K miles I didn't want to push running nearly worn out tires. I'm especially glad I have good rubber all around since it looks like I'm going to be in the rain shortly. Anyhow, get that alignment checked and set up properly. I elect to have the techs apply the factory settings and both cars handle just fine around town or on the highway or mountain road and as I said about tire life is about as good as it can be given the other factors that affect tire life. Sincerely, Macster.

I will get about 15K out of my Continental Extreme Contact DWs with a X-74 suspension and alignment for about 5k of the miles. I will reducing the rear camber on the next set to get more even wear. Could easily get 20K+ miles out of with less aggressive camber in the rear.

You probably need an alignment if you don't track the car. I religiously used those tires prior to buying Michelins and routinely got about 10,000-12,000 miles on the rears and I drive the car really hard. I don't do burnouts or drive like a jerk, but I do push the car on highway ramps and accelerate and brake hard.

I burned through these bridgestones pretty fast I would say less than 8000 miles. But I really like jack rabbits starts and do them A LOT.

18m miles on Pirelli P zero nero, 34 in front on same tire. 90% city/neighborhood driving. Not very aggressive.

Had the alignment done when the Conti's were put on, <4K miles ago at the dealer. The wear was even over the tire the tech said it did not look like an alignment issue. I did ask if he thought wearn struts or springs could being causing the problem. He said everything on my car is fine and didn't recommend replacing anything. I one thing I just remembered was this summer they repaved the road I drove on to work and it was rough for weeks. I wounder it that may have added to the excess wear..... except the fronts are still at 7/32". I did pick up two new rears from a local tire dealer and put them in my garage for the winter. At least I don't have to replace all 4 next spring. I'm dissapointed in the wear of the conti2's but they are great tires and if they keep making them i'd probably keep buying them. I'm torn on the N-rated tire issue. It seems to me that in another 5 years there will be no N rated tire in my size. The tire that are available now are all old tires, PS2 probably the newest. I think PS2 are probably great tires from what I read about them. But for me they are overkill and expensive.

I got about 22K miles out of the original rears Michelin Pilot Sport Ribs, and on Monday at 31K miles just replaced the original fronts. After 8 yrs of ownership since new... I'd say that's a pretty good deal!...

I had a 996 Coupe 2 which I kept for 118k miles and after the first O.E. pirellis wore out at 12k, I switch to PS2 michelins, non-N rated. The rears consistently lasted for 27k miles. This I did for 3 more cycles, with the fronts only changed once at 110k. Can't beat that. The new supersports may, don't know if they are made in sizes for the 996 yet.