Expected tyre life? How many miles?

[Peroni]

I put 4 Nokian All Weather tyres on my 2010 2.0 litre X petrol, manual Forester last September.  Looking at the front tyres I see that both are approaching the wear indicators on the outside shoulder, over about 30-40mm of the tyre.

Is this a normal wear pattern?  Tyres have done about 10,000 miles. The rear tyres show very little sign of wear. I have moved the front tyres to the back, just to prevent the fronts wearing further while I investigate.

The tracking was checked when the tyres were new as I'd just had front, lower wishbones fitted on both sides. The garage told me the tracking was spot on after the new suspension parts were fitted. They had recently installed a new, fancy laser tracking machine. 

I am disappointed to see such wear after only 10k miles. I was hoping for a longer life span. Is the Forester known to be hard on front tyre shoulders? I don't drive aggressively but I don't slow down unduly for corners either. Maybe this level of tyre wear is normal in a heavy SUV?  If only one front tyre had been wearing I'd suspect dodgy tracking but both tyres are showing identical wear pattern. Maybe Forester runs with a lot of "toe-in" as standard?

Does anyone know what life span to expect from front tyres on a Forester? 

[Paul_JJ]

Hi. Yes, unfortunately my NOKIAN didn't last much either, front is 3mm barely 1 year FFS.... Rear 5MM. Try Toyo Snowpoxes (they're fine in the summer as well, unless it's 30+ C) - SOOO MUCH better for wear - used them for 4 years and over 35K miles. These Nokian - WetProof in my case will barely last me 18-20K miles... (if rotated in time).

[Paul_JJ]

Forester is VERY good on tyres -) compared to an average FWD, I used to change my front tyres on my Glaza V every year... Civic is no better. Just get another tyres manufacturer, some tyres wear out VERY FAST, the other will last longer.

[Peroni]

Thank you for your reply Paul.  The Nokians do grip very well, even in the wet. I guess that is coming at a price. You said "Toyo Snowpoxes"? Is that a pun on the actual tyre name?

I would like my next tyres to have a bit more grip on wet mud. I'm often collecting timber from a woodland and driving on mud and grass. I would like something with a bit more off-road ability but still OK for 90% road use. Would also need to be something that kept my insurance co. happy.

 

[savage bulldogs]

Did they just check the tracking or do a full 4 wheel alignment? As camber and caister can affect wear just as much as toe 😉

If the cars geo is fine maybe go for a harder compound tyre to lessen "round about scrub" 

[Peroni]

3 hours ago, savage bulldogs said:

Did they just check the tracking or do a full 4 wheel alignment? As camber and caister can affect wear just as much as toe 😉

If the cars geo is fine maybe go for a harder compound tyre to lessen "round about scrub" 

Yes, they checked full 4 wheel set up. Or they told me they did. I just a bit wary because it was a brand-new, laser alignment machine they had and a bit of me wonders if they may not have been fully up to speed on setting it up. ( No reason to doubt their skills, just me being a control freak). 

Perhaps I do go round corners too fast, maybe because the Nokians are so grippy and stable. ( I'm an ex-motorcyclist, so cornering is something I enjoy if I have no passengers in the car) Hmmmm.

[Judd]

Nokian winters wear well, but i found summer Nokians wore rapidly on the previous Outback, prone to punctures too, they did grip very well but i'd have had just as good grip from Uniroyals at probably 2/3rds or maybe even 1/2 the cost, Unis don't last long in my experience but are cheap enough not to worry about.

Running a set of Falken 914 on the present Forester for summer, daughter put me onto them due to excellent grip and wearing well on her hard driven Civic, so far very pleased with them considering how cheap they were (at the time), removed a set of Fulda Sports which gripped like hell and showed no signs of wearing but the noise and harsh ride became unbearable.

Tyre choices are always a set of trade offs, you can't get everything.

[Paul_JJ]

23 hours ago, Wulbert said:

Thank you for your reply Paul.  The Nokians do grip very well, even in the wet. I guess that is coming at a price. You said "Toyo Snowpoxes"? Is that a pun on the actual tyre name?

I would like my next tyres to have a bit more grip on wet mud. I'm often collecting timber from a woodland and driving on mud and grass. I would like something with a bit more off-road ability but still OK for 90% road use. Would also need to be something that kept my insurance co. happy.

 

No I have Nokian WeProof now and will NOT be getting them again. I used Toyo Snowpoxes before and the wear is very good, wet grip is very good, but they're amazing in snow and off-road. So definitely give them a try if you need for the mud... They're made in Japan by the way, not China, good quality tyres for all year round, unless you live in Spain.

[Paul_JJ]

1 hour ago, Judd said:

Nokian winters wear well, but i found summer Nokians wore rapidly on the previous Outback, prone to punctures too, they did grip very well but i'd have had just as good grip from Uniroyals at probably 2/3rds or maybe even 1/2 the cost, Unis don't last long in my experience but are cheap enough not to worry about.

Running a set of Falken 914 on the present Forester for summer, daughter put me onto them due to excellent grip and wearing well on her hard driven Civic, so far very pleased with them considering how cheap they were (at the time), removed a set of Fulda Sports which gripped like hell and showed no signs of wearing but the noise and harsh ride became unbearable.

Tyre choices are always a set of trade offs, you can't get everything.

Yes, I have a summer Nokian - WETPROOF - the compound is too soft, and I would be lucky to get 2 years of life with them, the front ones are already 3mm... I've just rotated them, the rear ones were about 5mm. And Yes I had a puncture already -) I totally agree with your comments, I really liked Dunlop Sport Fast Reponse in the past for the summer tyres, because the wet grip was amazing and they didn't wear as fast as Nokian or Toyo (summer). But defeinitely look for Toyo Snowproxes if you're looking for an all year round tyre.

[Mr B]

The Nokian All Weather should do 20K+ easily if geometry correct and rotation done.

Foresters are good on tyres when suspension in good order .

Tyre pressures important too and can be good run extra 2-3psi on the fronts in better weather seasons .

If wearing bad on outer edge camber/toe likely wrong, you got camber bolts on front strut lower flange top bolt which make adjustment easy but also easy mess up when people do suspension work and don't know it a camber bolt and make no reference mark before undoing it .

If get any alignment always get a print out of settings, too many shops just do a 5 minute toe and go.

Other issue you got is while equipment maybe best on market if not used 100% correctly the vehicle will leave with wrong settings and many times worse than when went in ... These machines need very fastidious operators get good results

 

[Paul_JJ]

Well that's the problem, my tyres VERY soft, it's a SUMMER tyre - called WETPROOF. And I think i've done at least 10K miles in about a year, but  I was expecting much better life. I have even wear, my suspension is basically like new from Impreza Sti 2005, all the bushes are brand new, everything suspension related is in very very good condition with new camber bolts and professional 4 wheel tracking with good camber as well and I even have the rear camber bots and -1.3 degree camber - which makes the handling even better. So no, in my case it's NOT the suspension issues, or the tracking - it's simply the tyres which don't last long, just like Yokohama or Toyo summer tyres. And you are right, forester is very good when it comes to tyres, indeed, simply because my previous tyres last WAAAAAY longer - in fact for 4 years!!!!! And I think it was about 36K miles ish - down to 2mm thread all 4, when I replaced them. I will be buying them again, good all year tyre for the UK climate, amazing in snow/ice/off-road as well - here is an example for you - Mind you I have electronic TORQUE distribution, which can send the torque to the rear/front or 50/50, or save on petrol during the motorway drive with 90% FWD and on top of that - rear LSD - here is the result, where I was driving slow on purpose, to make it much harder and more realistic (I had the standard suspension back then) - 

 

[Paul_JJ]

The same tyres here as well - and it's an off-road actually ( a road in the forest) - there is a SAND and Ice under the snow - it's basically 4x4 only road and I'm talking about big guys like disco, etc.. The video is not great, but in reality not many cars will make it up hill in snow, if you pay attention you will notice the torque distribution, even LSD had kick in to make it up hill as there are 2 areas where you literally have all the weight on a single rear tyre (driver side in my case) - good luck driving there with the open diffs -)

 

[Mr B]

No idea on your wetproof as I never used them, being a summer tyre they should wear better than compound of the all weather model all season tyre .

10K is poor for tyres on a forester with good suspension setup. Get better than that from budget asian winter and all season tyres .

[Paul_JJ]

Well I suppose it would get to 20K - as 2 front tyres about 2.6-3 MM now, so I swapped them with the rear ones this Friday and I would expect it to last at least 20K - by then I would definitely need to get new tyres. They're good tyres, don't get me wrong, very good grip in wet, but I'm not buying them again -))))) Some tyres just wear out very fast, Summer Toyo or Yokohama for example, they grip well, but don't last long.