arentz07

I pay close attention to how my car drives, and I had no idea my passenger-side rear wheel was out of spec. It tracked straight.

no1SomeGuy

Wrong...alignment is more than just the vehicle driving straight. I could align a vehicle that would go dead straight down the road but destroy your tires within a week (lots of negative camber and toe in).

IS1911

Hi everyone,

Sorry I haven't updated this thread I've been extremely busy. First, to answer the question above. The condition of the front tires was that the inside edges of both were completely smooth - no tread left at all but no exposed belts (thank goodness). The tread was almost fully worn down to the replacement level on the rest of the front tires. The rear tires were evenly worn but again, almost down to replacement level. The dealer gave me the sheet with the numbers but I don't have it with me as I'm responding to this thread - my apology for that. So here's how things turned out: I had all four tires replaced with another set of Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3+'s and an alignment performed. As I suspected the alignment was still quite good. The service rep said there was a slight toe-in adjustment needed on the left rear wheel but everything else was good. This is interesting since the front inside edges of the front tires were gone. Then again, I have googled this issue and others have reported the same. BTW, the dealer cut the price of the alignment in half without me asking - which was nice. After all, they didn't have to do very much.

In regards to the fuel economy issue the dealer had nothing for me other than asking me what kind of fuel I use. Since day one I have only used Shell "V-Power" and I only buy it from 2 stations (I rarely leave the area anymore due to a medical issue). There was a suggestion above to put it in eco mode and keep it there for two weeks. I have been in eco mode since the new tires were put on last week. I did a reset and at first it "settled" around 17.1 mpg but now it's down to 15.9 mpg. I have a feeling it will be back to 14.9 before too long.

The handing is amazing with the new set of tires and there is no pulling or vibration (though there wasn't before either). The dealer did a nice job mounting and balancing the new set of tires and with no damage to the rims or any other part of the car.

arentz07

You could try looking at the fuel economy "After Reset" to see how it's improving. I find this more useful than the lifetime average, since that number doesn't change nearly as much as the car gets on in miles.

Htony

Did OP get this car brand as fist owner? If alignment and new tires do the same thing, it is remotely possible body of the car geometry is off by some reason. Meaning
whole car is not rectangular.

IS1911

Thanks for your post. I am the original owner - purchased brand new with 12 miles on the clock.

trinhtd

our cars fun with a slight negative camber if i was you id get rear camber arm and zero it in and "city driving" will cause your tires to wear faster with the stopping and go if that what you you are doing. and im not sure the specs of your tires those could play a roll also

600rr

Your MPG, tire wear, and your described driving style seems to indicate the problem to...YOU.
I have kids and I drive like a grandma. My MPG is 22mpg combined and my original tires are on 22k miles.
You have an aggressive driving habit.

1Louder

Back in the early 2000's I drove one of the early hybrids (Civic) and got really into high MPG driving. The biggest lesson I learned is your driving style can make a HUGE difference all by itself. If you drive aggressive - like accelerate fast all the time, brake hard all the time, drive fast when you can, you will get well below manufacturer MPG in any car. The sad truth is you actually have to work pretty hard and drive conservatively to have much hope of even getting manufacturer MPG. If you drive where it's cold a lot and they use winter gas more often that matters too.

But to give you an example, I get 27 combined MPG in my 16 200t, and my wife will get 22 traveling the same routes. And she doesn't even drive aggressively. She's just a bit harder on the acceleration than I am and it can make that much difference.

If you really want to see if it's you or the car, try accelerating as moderately as you can without being a hazard, don't speed too much, and when you see a stop coming (and again you aren't a hazard), just coast and come to as gradual a stop as you can. Other big tip is try to maintain a constant speed when you are "at speed" and use just enough accelerator to hold speed. Using the real-time MGP meter helps. Just do it for a commute or two and see what you get.

387

+1


When I got my car at just under 40k miles (or 60k kms), the stock fronts had 4mm worth of tread up front and 6mm of tread in the rear. The previous owner had winter tires, which I opted not to use. I replaced them and ran all seasons thru the winter. I made it thru ok....

I got about 10k miles (or about 16k kms) out of my last set of tires. They were Michelin A/S 3+. When I replaced them a few weeks ago with another set of A/S 3+ (I could not do DWS 06, because I was concerned I would wear our the "S" "snow" layer before next winter) the front tires were showing the steel belt on the insides, with a lot of tread on the outer part of the front tires, perhaps at least 6mm. The rears were beyond the wear bars... which makes sense because the car is RWD biased and is 3800 lbs.

I'm planning to get aftermarket poly front LCA bushings from figs or RR racing up front so I can get my current front to last as long as my next set of rears.

I am currently getting 16.2 litres per 100 kms, which works out to 14.52 mpg.

A few weeks ago when it was a lot colder and before I replaced the tires, I was seeing 18L per 100 kms, which works out to about 13.07 mpg.

I do about 95% city, not downtown, but midtown enough I am getting sh!##y mileage.

My car is stock aside from coilovers and tires, I will admit I drive aggressively or spiritedly when it comes to taking corners, highway on ramps and U turns and have accepted this car eats tires.

So yeah, I have an aggressive driving habit as well as the OP.

rune403186

I would call the tire manufacturer and your dealer both tires should last at least 20k sometimes service writer are not willing to help you to call the tire manufacturer because they are to damn lazy or just plain stupid....Call tire manufacturer for assistance..