Continental Extreme Contact summer tires with 25k miles on them (BOTH REAR). it seems the center of the tire is worn but the sides are fine as you'll see in the photos. the center seems to have hit the mark but the sides still have some thread on them. its the same on both rear tires.










a tire shop said this might be because of over inflation but i never had more than 35psi(warmed up), now i just keep it 34 which i think is a good tire pressure for the occasional spirited drive.

would that be enough to cause this wear?

i did 4-5 smoking donuts on garage like surface which is not that harsh on tires i guess. still.. i would expect the edges of the tires to take a beating not the center. i tracked the car once.

i had an alignment done when i bought the car one year ago and shortly after i put these tires on. same suspension settings and tire size so i figured i dont need to do it again because of the new rubber. the previous set of tires did not have this wear on them but then again i only ran them for a couple of thousand miles.

getting ready to put new tires on it and was wondering if anyone has any suggestions as to why this happens so i can maybe prevent this on my new set of tires.

thanks in advance!

 

keep it around 32 unless you're doing an event and you should alleviate it. Unless you're on something with really mushy sidewalls, 32 cold should be enough pressure for most types of driving.

 

Always measure tire pressure cold. 32 cold is fine.

The DW has an extremely flimsy sidewall by performance-tire standards. I have them on my daily Accord and have worn the shoulders down far faster than the middle, and that's at 40 psi cold. That you haven't worn the shoulders off yet at your reasonable tire pressure simply indicates to me that you just don't use that big round thing in front of the driver's seat very much. Nothing to worry about, but I'm guessing you're missing out on the car's best selling point.

 

32 cold? but that would put me around 35 warm which might be why i got this wear.

well the Continental DW is not a performance tire but it doesnt hold too bad around the corners.
its true i dont get enough fun around the corners, i live in FLAT Florida and this crap is all straights and highways.. boooring as hell!
i can only escape a couple of times a year to the north and tear up some twisties in North Carolina or Tennessee. i always feel like i own a puppy that doesnt have a back yard to play in.. Florida is not fair to my S.

 

Are the tires pinched on the rim? What width are the rims and size tires? Tire pressure is obviously still a factor as mentioned. our set up.

 

they look fine besides the wear i cant see anything wrong with the tires. what would the tires being pinched on the rim indicate?
they are stock P245/40ZR17 on the stock ap2v1 wheels.

my money is still on tire pressure.

 

It is going to vary with tire, track, ambient, and driving but I used to start at 28psi and come in after two laps and reduce pressure as it would reach 40.

 

The wear shown is not what I'd call abnormal. I definitely wouldn't mess around with pressures to try to "correct" anything. 25k miles out of Max Perf Summer tires is very good life, anyway. That the center channels got to 2/32" tread depth while the outer channels are still at 3-4/32 is not a big deal. If you lower pressures to try to even out wear, you would more than likely get reduced tire life and sub-par handling as well.

Long/short, don't worry, run spec pressures, and if you want to maximize tire life run minimal toe-in.

 

good point.. would you say 32psi measured cold is a good pressure for regular driving?

 

Yes, I'm pretty sure that's the spec pressure. I usually run 33psi cold to have a little margin for pressure loss.