When I had only had my S2000 for about 5000 miles, I noticed that the inside of the front tires had worn down to the wear bars already. I went ahead and drove it like that until I had 11,000 miles and all four tires were pretty well worn out, then I got a new set of S-02 tires for it.

So now, with 20,000 miles on the car, I'm noticing that the insides of the front tires are down to the wear bars again (9000 miles on the tires) but the rest of the tread on the fronts and the full rears still have plenty of tread left. The car has been aligned twice by the local Honda dealer and should still be within spec. I keep the tire pressure at 32 psi.

The majority of my driving is on twisty roads at fairly high speeds, so I'm assuming that it is my driving style that causes the inside fronts to wear and that I just need to accept it.

Are there steering geometry changes that could be made to get more even wear without destroying the handling of the car?

Would it be worthwhile to have the front tires swapped left for right by taking them off of the rims and switching them?

Any other ideas?

 

I do this regularly to squeeze a couple more thousand miles before replacing the set. Should cost a mere $20 or so; I think it is worthwhile.

 

It's not your driving style. It's called negative camber, and it's proper to have it.

Here you can see the top of the rear tire leaning into the car (OEM suspension setup):



If you get an aggressive street or race alignment, you'll get even more!

You should rotate the tires at regular intervals to keep the wear relatively even. That's why it's a good idea not to get side-specific tires for the S.

-Pete

 

gotta love -camber

 

Negative camber helps handling but it will wear the tires faster. You can have an alignment done on the car and tell them you want less negative camber in the front and less toe in in the rear and the tires will wear better.
If I can help with the tires let me know.

Jim 877-522-8473-364

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Jim@tirerack
If I can help with the tires let me know.

 

Ya, I have 20,000 miles on the front tires and I noticed this too. I just assumed it was from spiritited driving, but I guess not. My rear SO-2s didn't do that, they actually had an even tread wear. I need new fronts, and I will go in today to get an alignment done with new tires. This is regular for the S2000 to happen to the front tires?

 

Yup, it's normal.

If you get 20,000 miles out of your fronts, you should probably rotate them at least every 5,000 miles.

-Pete

 

You can't though, right? Because the SO-2s are unidirectional and different sizes from the rear.

 

right you can't change the tires from front to rear. but you can swap them from left to right and visa versa. you have them put the left tire on the right rim and the right tire on the left rim. you can do this for the front and back