Toymota

Thanks for the info. I think you're comparing to the Bridgestone Potenza RE050, which along with the Michelin PSS are both out of my price range I was looking around $150 per tire so I replaced my fronts with Dunlop Sport Maxx TT. My originals were Bridgestone Turanza ER33 and they lasted 32,500 miles on the front. Rears are still going, hopefully until 60,000 miles.

Toymota

I should add in this thread that my fronts were worn on both the insides and outsides. I meticulously keep my tire pressures at 35psi, even adjusting for temperature variations, so the wear should not be due to under inflation.

The alignment performed after I replaced the fronts showed 0.20deg and 0.14deg toe-in before, which could explain the outside edge wear. I'm starting to think that the inside edge wear is caused by a dynamic toe-out when braking. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

Sango

iTrader: (10)

If you want to maximize the tire life, try putting the pressure up to more like what I have. Lower pressure makes the tire work harder, therefore lower life however you gain performance which is most likely why Lexus recommends the slightly lower value.

Toymota

Any higher and the ride becomes too harsh for me. It already rises from 35 to 39psi once warmed up, here in Florida.

Road Rage

The IS does not come with a way to adjust Camber in the front. This was stupid imo but done to give good cornering ability to the car. I see dozens of these and install front tires often because of this. I'm a Lexus tech btw.

For the record, you adjust in the following order: Caster, Camber, Toe. Because alignment settings are affected in that order. Hardly anyone touches Caster unless the car has been in a collision. Any camber more than .5 will wear the shoulder of the tire prematurely.

When the tech shows you your alignment print out with everything within specs, just remember those are aggressive specs. But there's nothing he/she can do about the camber. It's a fixed position.

Don't feel too bad as Corvette owners have the same problems from the factory, only Corvettes have a Camber adjustment where the IS doesn't. Most of our customers get tires with a higher tread wear rating to prolong the inevitable. You sacrifice a bit of traction going this route but most IS owners I see have no idea what performance driving is since Daddy bought them the "cute" car on the lot.

Keep some coin handy for those front rotors to be replaced when it comes time for brakes as well.

Sango

iTrader: (10)

It can probably go up to 40 psi just fine during warm. Make sure you're using those good tire guages, not those cheap ones which you can find like at Wallmart (not reliable) that pushes that plastic stick out.

You probably noticed in my pics at the first page of the thread that the tech put my peassures up and I'm fine of the way it performs.

lobuxracer

iTrader: (2)

I run -1.5 on all four corners of my Supra and have no wear issues as long as the toe is good. 0.5 degrees of camber is nothing. Camber wear starts to be a problem around -2.5 on street tires. The alignment on the 2IS is far from aggressive.

I think there is a pretty significant toe change under braking, and finding the optimum setting for toe is pretty difficult - in one direction you're good for straight line, but not good under braking, and the other you're good for braking, but bad for straight line. All of my experimentation with toe on my F tends to bear this out.

VF84

that's interesting.. i've got it completely opposite. i just recently replaced the oem er33 because the outside of the front tires were worn down pretty bad, while the inside/middle still had decent tread. toe alignment was 0.06 for both sides. (rears were wearing evenly).

just replaced them with pilot sport 3.

Toymota

Thanks for the info. I'm going to experiment with toe as well. I do mostly highway driving, and I'm a very light braker in the city anyway. So I had my toe set to zero and I'll see how it goes.