What the heck is up with my tires?

[vibe-04]

Look at the tread wear!! I know Continentals are known to be poor or is this from my "occasional" 2,000 RPM dropping of the clutch at a stop light?The tire on the left is my front passenger and the right is the rear. I bought the car in Aug 04 and have winter tires on last season. With 25 K (roughly 15,500 miles) that puts the summer tires at about 15,000 K (9,400 miles). Is this normal? The other front tire is not as bad at all and the winter tires look new!

[mcgusto82]

i don't know, but it looks like the front tire has flat spots.

[scherry2]

did you rotate them? or have them in the same place for 15,000.looks like alot of burnouts to me. I have 30,000 on my goodyears and they are starting to look like the one on the left.

[Vibe]

The problem-is they are Continental tires ............PERIOD ....They are junk tires and I hated mine on my Vibe. Get a set of Goodyears or B F Goodrich, your Vibe will ride and preform much better. I speak from experience!..........James (Vibe)

[vibe-04]

I have occasional wheel spin and they are rotated annually. Can one tire spin more frequently than another, such as a car without a locking rear differential?BTW: there is a huge difference in height between the two. I'll do a outside diameter check tonight.

[Pick]

Quote, originally posted by vibe-04 »Can one tire spin more frequently than another, such as a car without a locking rear differential?.Yes, we have an open differential and one will spin more than the other, ie getting on it when turning your inside tire usually spins while the outer front tire won't. So typically your right front tire will wear more than any other tire because it spins more frequently because you're accelerating while making harder (making the body lean more taking weight off the tire allowing it to spin) right hand turns than left hand turns.

[Raven]

You should be happy. My front tires looked worse than that after 9,000 km. I got them replaced under warranty but it was a major battle. I then traded all four in for some Falken FK451s.

[mcgusto82]

well, if you are going to do burnout... dude your tires are going to look like crap. it's not really on how many times. but on what type of road.if you are going to be attempting to get them changed from the dealer, leave that little detail from your argument.

[vibe-04]

No burnouts here just wheel spin off line of which I try to avoid The roads are regular pavement but the real odd thing is that it's one tire. I'm planning to get new tires next year so I'll swap the front to the rear and look for a sale. I doubt I can go to the dealer on this and frankly, I think it is just wear from lots of hard city driving. I've just never seen tires wear so fast before. I've had Michelin's, Coopers, Goodyears and they all gone over 40K -- this is just unbeliveable.Andrew

[Mavrik]

Well on my Vibe, the right front tire breaks free first/spins the most so if there was to be uneven wear from the front tires, it should be more on the right front. Now unless of course the alignment is off. But the fronts will always wear out faster then the rear tires on front wheel drive vehicles. And as others have stated, Conti tires are simply crap. I sold mine off my car with 3000km on them. Already they showed some signs of wear and sucked in the snow and ice. Its hard to tell from your pics as well but I'd say that tire took a beating from how worn down it looks. Get them replaced with something better.

[Man of Steel]

I know what the owners manual says but I'm telling you, this is strong argument for going with a front to rear, criss cross to back tire rotation.

[northvibe]

My vibe came with the Eagle tires and they look EXACTLY the same. I bought my car used with 26k miles on it. I just rotated them for winter as the backs looked almost new, they even had the little pointy rubber things on them, the fronts looked just like yours did. Im not sure if they were ever rotated but it seems like there were not. they had to cut costs some place, although they used the eagles on the cavy also so it sorta makes sense

[vibe-04]

I've rotated them with the winter tire swap. The rears look great so next year I'll run them on the front then new summer rubber all round in june/july. This way I'll have a chance to shop around and since one of my tires has a plug from a nail puncture and I don't feel comfortable. I've analyzed my driving habits and everyday I make a sharp u-turn to enter my company's driveway and the trafic is always thick so I hit the gas hard. I get spin and lean on the side with the tire wear. This in combination of the Conti "suckiness" could be the culprit.Thanks all for the input.Andrew

[vibe-04]

This is a quick note to close the loop on my tire problem. What a pain!After much haggling, griping about lack of tire rotation schedule, the dealer agreed to replace two Continentials. It took 1 1/2 months to get them which was not a problem cause I had my snow tires. I went to swap winter for summer and here's what I found:1) Valve stem was not seated one one rim and would leak air if touched,2) Two small (1/4" dia) diviots out of one rim,3) Neither tires were balanced - 3 oz out.I wasted a lot of time and energy to get two tires. Next time I wouldn't bother.Should I say something to the dealer? What's the point, cause I'm not going back.A

[vibe-04]

I spoke too soon on my last post.I had the new tires rebalanced again and I still had a shimmy at highyway speed.I took it back to the dealer and...They rebalance, test drove- still shimmy, rebalance and rotated now no shimmy but the new tires are on the back and the old one the front. Shimmy gone untill I rotate. That's balanced four times!!!!Sigh!I just going to buy new tires this fall!Bottom line : Contentals suck.CheersAndrew

[Sputnik]

I have my contis from when we got our Vibe in August 02. I think this is their last year with the Vibe.

[Luckylindy]

Not sure why this isn't mentioned. http://forums.genvibe.com/zerothread?id=20739I printed a copy of the TSB and took it with me to the dealer. He hymmed and hawed about the tires then I threw the TSB on the counter. He about crapped his pants and demanded to know where I got it from. Told him the internet. He said he would have to call GM and see about it. Within an hour he called back and said GM would pay for 2 new RSA's. I said that was fair since I already had 26,000 miles on them. Told him I would like to upgrade to Tripletreads and pay the difference. The dealer cost for them minus what GM was going to pitch in was more than what I could buy them outright myself. Going to see if GM will just write me a check and call it even since I have a copy of the smoking gun in my hand.

[Vibe_dude]

Get use to bald tires on the front of these cars....u can run what ever u want...this car will kill front tires.i just put brand new falkans on my ride.....4000 kms......i can already see the wear......and i dont abuse or drive my car hard.......its the nature of the car set up.

[kep427]

Hey Lucky-you hail from my hometown (26 years removed). I still get there every now and then to visit the relatives.Way to stick with it on getting some satisfaction. You've probably noted that the Conti's really do suck. I have managed to eek 34,000 miles out of 'em; but my wear bars are showing. Getting me some Goodyears later today.

[PopeyeFAFL]

Yesterday I went for my 55000 km inspection (one more, and I'm out the 60000 km warranty period, so far, no problem).Now, the dealer told me that my front tires have 3/32 thread left (basically finish), the rear ones have 6/32 left.I did permutation as per the guide book.I kept a log on my tires change (winter - summer) and my original tires (Continental, I believe) have 36000 km on them.Is that normal ?I'm about to change them for my winter tires.Should I put the front tires, in rear position for the next summer, and finish them all out (probably adding another 13000 km), or buy (qty 2) tires ? before the other ones wear out.Thanks in advance.

[kep427]

If you do a search around the web site you will see that the Conti tires are garbage and last maybe 35k (US) miles before they are smooth. I just replaced mine at 35K (US) but shoulda done it many miles ago. Others have complained that they had to replace them as early as 20K mi.I'm not a tire expert, but I always hear that you should replace all 4 tires when you do a replacement (unless you are real short of cash). If you only do 2, then the ride will be affected and some claim that it could do long-term damage to other car components.Good luck

[WaveAction]

from experiance..Falken or even Nankangs are good tires depending on if they're low profiles or just all seasons

[vibe04]

I have Bridgestone Potenza's on my vibe and they are great! Excellent handling in any condition, and great grip when flying around a corner!

[Raivis]

looks like over inflation to melack/improper rotationi have the kumho 711's on the front of my GT they are great tires for real cheap from tirerack.com

[pingber]

Mine came with Eagles ... roated them religiously every oil change (convenience) ... they had feathering on the inside/outside edges on all four ... got rid of them at 30,000. Got a set of Bridgestone Turanzas ... 26,000 miles later, same problem, feathering ... and the alignment is dead-on. I think its just an AWD issue ... many cars with AWD go through tires.

[WaveAction]

i just rotated my tires yesterday and they dont seem to be to bad for now, although i do some burnouts in the winter/wet weather cause the tires just have such ridiculously bad grip.once these tires go im getting summer tires/rims and save the steelies for the winters..but these tires are just garbage in my opinion, may even get rid of them before they're even have 15,000 km on them

[09Red_Se]

tires out of round. have had this twice. fortunately dealers see this often enough they are aware, and haven't jerked me around.new tire and A-ok

[09Red_Se]

Mt VW Jetta had a similar tire wear issue. I never rotated'em.Rear of car is light, and rear tires were like new when the fronts were nearly worn out.Add wheel spin and - well I'll bet they'd look a lot like in the photo.I tried swapping more often, but never got the timing right to have even wear. Always left on set on the front way longer. Just my bad is all.Re previous post - I was referring to vibration that balancing didn't fix.

[BLargal]

Mine came with Goodyear eagle GT tires very nice tires, a bit stiff for city driving and I fear the pot holes on grand river rd but they are holding up pretty good so far. I just got the car but I don't trust dealerships so i'm having my brother who works at discount tire rotate, balance, and do an allignment on my car for free

[tks09trix]

My car chews through rear tires constantly. Rear alignment was out from factory. I have to get a shim kit put in and adjust the camber. Oddly enough, since dropping the car, the rear camber is closer to where I want it then it was stock.