[mousefarmer]

So I was driving around the other day and saw a black E90 328i in front of me at a stop light and noticed that the rear left tread pattern was different than the right one.

This is not the first time I've seen this sort of thing. Actually both of E90s that I have had the same thing when bought. Is it that the owners are too broke to buy the rears in a set or something else?

[Tunafish]

You have to be rich to keep rears on a BMW.. Considering the price and how the chamber eats them. But they do eat them usually at the same rate.. So far i have went thru the set of rears that were on the car and new set that i put on and havent changed the fronts...

[mousefarmer]

Yes, but if one of the rears wears out, its likely the other is wore too so why not buy them together as a pair? Its like $130 for each one I think as I remember plus installation.

[Damaskus325]

It may be that the owner simply ran over some object in the road and only one tire needed to be replaced. If a tire has good tread and is in safe working order, it would be foolish to replace it just to match the other one that was damaged. Why you equate that with, "being broke", is interesting.

[mousefarmer]

Originally Posted by Damaskus325

It may be that the owner simply ran over some object in the road and only one tire needed to be replaced. If a tire has good tread and is in safe working order, it would be foolish to replace it just to match the other one that was damaged. Why you equate that with, "being broke", is interesting.

Yes, but more than likely I think its not running over something. How many times have you had a flat tire? Here it isn't very common. I can only think of maybe one time over last 20 years. As I recall I was much younger and tire was already nearing end of life already.

Maybe its a demographic thing. In Las Vegas we have lots of hispanics owning these cars and they are younger and make less income. In Kentucky maybe its different.

Mismatched tires and poor maintenance seems likely. Its attention to detail and taking care of things. I even looked at one of these cars for sale where the hispanic guy was using drywall screws to hold on the fender liner. Of course the tires were mismatched.

[marvinstockman]

Mousefarmer, stop digging yourself a hole that you won't be able to get out of.

Twenty years ago, I had neighbors with plenty of money, who I sent to a tire dealer for new tires. They came back with three new tires and decided to use the 'brand new' spare as the fourth tire.

I asked them when they came home, why they did it. They said they wanted to save the cost of a fourth tire. I tried to explain that when a car is new, it comes with four matched tires, but that was like pissing in the wind.

All that being said, with new safety equipment, like ABS and traction control, isn't as important as it once was, but .........

[Damaskus325]

Originally Posted by marvinstockman

Mousefarmer, stop digging yourself a hole that you won't be able to get out of.

Twenty years ago, I had neighbors with plenty of money, who I sent to a tire dealer for new tires. They came back with three new tires and decided to use the 'brand new' spare as the fourth tire.

I asked them when they came home, why they did it. They said they wanted to save the cost of a fourth tire. I tried to explain that when a car is new, it comes with four matched tires, but that was like pissing in the wind.

All that being said, with new safety equipment, like ABS and traction control, isn't as important as it once was, but .........

I agree. Come to think of it, I have a spare wheel in my trunk. I bought a spare wheel as these cars didn't come with one. Anyways, I purchased a nearly new tire (9/32nds) from a reputable online dealer, to put on it. Why didn't I put a brand new tire that was matched to my others on it you may ask? The reason is because it is a spare. I don't intend on using it and if I do, it will be for a short time. Only until I can order or locally purchase a new tire for the affected wheel. With that being said, I'm sure there are some owners that neglect proper maintenance and buy crappy tires and the like. I can afford to buy a brand new tire any time I need. Others may not be able to do that right now. I mean, my job could be gone tomorrow which would change my circumstances. Everyone doesn't have the same stability right now. None of us started where we are now brotha. We had to come up at some point. Some of us are still in the 'come up' stage. I would consider that. Anyways, rant over. I got love for all of you knuckleheads.

[Welcome to NBA Jam]

I haven't seen this often. I've driven a car like that when I was 16 and didn't know any better. Knew nothing of car maintenance. The thing had bald, mismatched tires that I discovered make for a very dangerous day driving in the rain.

[mousefarmer]

Originally Posted by Welcome to NBA Jam

I haven't seen this often. I've driven a car like that when I was 16 and didn't know any better. Knew nothing of car maintenance. The thing had bald, mismatched tires that I discovered make for a very dangerous day driving in the rain.

Yes, or I would suspect if one side of the car has worn or different tires than the other than it would pull to one side more than the other or when braking also.

Rear I would suspect that gas it hard and will pull a little to one side.

Tires and brakes one of the easiest safety things to not mess around with. One of these cars I have has different brand front and rears but always have matching left and right tires or pairs. Car always goes straight when accelerating, rolling or hard braking.

[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by Tunafish

You have to be rich to keep rears on a BMW.. Considering the price and how the chamber eats them. But they do eat them usually at the same rate.. So far i have went thru the set of rears that were on the car and new set that i put on and havent changed the fronts...

All three of my dailys have staggered set ups. All of them go through 2 sets of rears for every one set of fronts.

From 22,000 to 326,000 I ran a 18" square set on my E90 and could get between 35,000 to 40,000 on a set of 4 tires, rotating in cross pattern every 5,000 miles. I still get 35,000 out of the fronts and 17,500 out of rears.

BMW tax.

[Jesda]

These are cheap old used cars. Why would you expect matching tires at this point?

While I was living in Detroit I went through tires so often due to the poor condition of the roads that I started telling the shop to just throw on whatever was cheap.

Now that I'm back in the south they all match. Ditching the runflats also significantly reduced the replacement cost.

[JonOhh]

Left to right? Never.
Front to back? Always.

For the rear, the tires being mismatched would make the car absolutely miserable, at least for how I use mine. Lots of track days, autocrosses, and they regularly get their limits of grip exceeded on the street ( in a legal, safe, and non reckless fashion, all in mexico ). Having mismatched tires with different limits of grip and characteristics would make the rear an absolute nightmare to work with, especially with our lovely open diffs.

Front to back however, is completely understandable to mix and match, as long as the front axle is also matched left to right. The front and rear axle of a car do very different things, and operate under very different slip angles and conditions in a corner, so it makes sense that some tires are better suited to one axle than the other.

In my case, and on my budget, the Hankook V12s do a great job up front, especially in the dry, and for the back, the Indy 500s are doing very well. This setup allows me to get the car to turn in quickly, and rotate easier, something important and difficult on the track I spend a lot of time on.

We have Indy's on the front of our 235i, and honestly, not a huge fan of how they feel on the front axle. They just don't dig in the way the V12 or PSS (which is an unfair comparison) did.

Now, this is from someone who uses most of the cars stock potential quite often. If you just putt around on the street and don't care about turn in, rotation, or anything performance related for that matter... tire selection matters much less.

[213e90n51]

Yeah thats kinda ghetto. Its more expensive to to have tires like that then a proper set on all 4s. It can cause accidents or make you loose grip in a weird way.

[213e90n51]

Originally Posted by JonOhh

Left to right? Never.
Front to back? Always.

For the rear, the tires being mismatched would make the car absolutely miserable, at least for how I use mine. Lots of track days, autocrosses, and they regularly get their limits of grip exceeded on the street ( in a legal, safe, and non reckless fashion, all in mexico ). Having mismatched tires with different limits of grip and characteristics would make the rear an absolute nightmare to work with, especially with our lovely open diffs.

Front to back however, is completely understandable to mix and match, as long as the front axle is also matched left to right. The front and rear axle of a car do very different things, and operate under very different slip angles and conditions in a corner, so it makes sense that some tires are better suited to one axle than the other.

In my case, and on my budget, the Hankook V12s do a great job up front, especially in the dry, and for the back, the Indy 500s are doing very well. This setup allows me to get the car to turn in quickly, and rotate easier, something important and difficult on the track I spend a lot of time on.

We have Indy's on the front of our 235i, and honestly, not a huge fan of how they feel on the front axle. They just don't dig in the way the V12 or PSS (which is an unfair comparison) did.

Now, this is from someone who uses most of the cars stock potential quite often. If you just putt around on the street and don't care about turn in, rotation, or anything performance related for that matter... tire selection matters much less.

Your right about the V12s I had two sets and did countless canyon driving with them. One set for every year LOL. They didnt wear as nicely as the Michelin pilot sport as3+. Both had same levels of grip and the Michelins saw countless autoX days. V12 Evo2 did not. Hows the wear for the V12 for you? I want to get them again cuz they are such a good price. I have RS4s right now.

[JonOhh]

Originally Posted by 213e90n51

Your right about the V12s I had two sets and did countless canyon driving with them. One set for every year LOL. They didnt wear as nicely as the Michelin pilot sport as3+. Both had same levels of grip and the Michelins saw countless autoX days. V12 Evo2 did not. Hows the wear for the V12 for you? I want to get them again cuz they are such a good price. I have RS4s right now.

I remember talking to you about them a long time ago- since then, they've begun to show some wear on the edges, bit I think it's very justified for how I use them and how long they've been on the car. I'll look at the mileage at some point to figure out how long they've been on there.

Plenty of tread though, nowhere near the wear bars yet. I've increased the front cold pressure to 38 to slow down the wear near the edges, and hopefully get it to wear the center of the tire instead.

Seems these cars just run so much front caster that the (inside and outside) edges of the tires get eaten up.

[E93_Savage]

Alignment was off might still be off but definitely not as bad....

[John 070]

It's never happened to me personally, but to friends with AWD cars. One tire is damaged, all 4 are replaced, or, the new tire is supposed to be shaved. How many people do that is a good question. It's not about being rich, it's about having common sense. We all lose it sometimes. When I got my used Lexus, the new car dealer slapped on 4 "Engineered in Europe, made in China" tires. People on the Lexus forum tend to grow money on trees, I got comments such as, "I would not risk the health and safety of my family as you are doing" type of BS comments. So I said to my wife, I'm thinking of tossing those tires and getting 4 new Pilot Sport A/S 3+'s. She goes didn't you just get snow tires for that car? I don't think it's a good idea to throw away 4 brand new tires like that. Here it is 5 years later and those tires are still on the car and they were fine in rain, dry, etc.

Long story short mismatched is likely cost/practicality.

p.s. the BMW and my wife's GM SUV are the first vehicles I've owned where rear brake pads wear faster than fronts....defies common sense/physics lol (I suspect traction control does it)

[MightyMouseTech]

Originally Posted by Damaskus325

It may be that the owner simply ran over some object in the road and only one tire needed to be replaced. If a tire has good tread and is in safe working order, it would be foolish to replace it just to match the other one that was damaged. Why you equate that with, "being broke", is interesting.

If one tire is damaged, you absolutely should replace both if changing to a different tire, or if there will be more than a 2mm difference in tread depth.

[MightyMouseTech]

Originally Posted by Tunafish

You have to be rich to keep rears on a BMW.. Considering the price and how the chamber eats them. But they do eat them usually at the same rate.. So far i have went thru the set of rears that were on the car and new set that i put on and havent changed the fronts...

If you think you have to be "rich" to keep proper tires on a car, maybe they should not be driving a car they can't afford to maintain properly. I suggest trading in for a Corolla.

And it is toe that wears out tires, not camber.

[Smgs1992]

Mismatching front and rear i can kinda get. However left vs right. Unless someone is in a pinch i dont see any reasoning for it. Besides someone being unable to afford these cars properly.

[Tunafish]

Who said i wasnt rich?? And have you priced 255 30 19 tires lately.. Cheapest all season on tire rack.. $240 a pop.. You know how much a shops going to charge you!! You do get rich spending money on tires..

And while you are right about toe.. You are wrong about chamber.. BMW rear inner tire wear is caused by chamber.

[MightyMouseTech]

Originally Posted by Tunafish

Who said i wasnt rich?? And have you priced 255 30 19 tires lately.. Cheapest all season on tire rack.. $240 a pop.. You know how much a shops going to charge you!! You do get rich spending money on tires..

And while you are right about toe.. You are wrong about chamber.. BMW rear inner tire wear is caused by chamber.

I know how much they are, I never buy cheap tires. I go though a set of Michelin Pilots every year.

Just FYI, I think I know what causes tire wear, I am a BMW tech, and specifically the head alignment tech at my dealer.

And at least spell "camber" right.