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Tire Wear - How Are Your PSS Holding Up?

13K views 45 replies 15 participants last post by  rebelde azul 
#1 ·
Hello all,

I recently had my tires rotated and asked for a current tread depth measurement. Reading came back as 7/32". I only have 5100 miles on the tires and I wouldn't consider my driving excessively spirited. I am still getting a fairly decent 20.5 MPG to 21MPG on average for the entire 5100 miles. (That's top off to top off / dash says 21.8MPG) I know that the tires are softer than others and they are performance so I expect some accelerated wear compared to an all season. This seems just a little on the high side of wear. I didn't measure the tread depth when the car was brand new but I found the original depth should be 10/32". Found here:

http://www.michelin.ca/tire-selector/category/ultra-high-performance-sport/pilot-super-sport/tire-details

They come with a 30,000 tread life warranty but at this rate they wouldn't last 15,000 before needing replacement. Right? Replacement at tread depth of 2/32" only leaves me with 5/32" to go and I've already used 3/32". Also, the Michelin tread life warranty doesn't like that I live in Vegas. According to the link below I needed to prove I removed the summer tires over the winter, but it's Vegas. Winter barely exists as is so I never felt the need to switch to winter tires.

https://media.michelinman.com/content/dam/master/Michelin/pdf/limited_mileage_warranties.pdf

MICHELIN
®
Winter tires require documentation of the timing of the installation and removal of the tires each winter to maintain coverage under the limited warranty for treadwear. Winter months is defined as the period beginning on or after September 1 of a given year, and ending no later than April 30 of the following year.


I suppose at my current rate, I'd be replacing the entire set every year. Is this normal? Has anyone else worn their tires down as much in such a short time?
 
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#2 ·
The winter tires disclaimer appears to apply to winter tires. If you want to witness unbelievably rapid wear, use a winter tire in a Vegas summer! Because wear on winter tires is exponential in warm temps, they are asking for proof that you removed them for summer and only had them in place when appropriate. Still interesting for me, as I can swap my own wheels in a matter of minutes, and I'm not feeling having to go to a tire shop to produce a paper trail/evidence of tire swaps. I can start a scrap book for each season :)

Regarding your PSS, I've had a few sets, and I think your new tire tread depth baseline might be closer to 9/32nds than what Michelin claims. My tires measured as such with less than a couple hundred miles on them. There are so many variables that go into wear, it is really hard to give guidance on what to expect. It may not even be linear (i.e. initial wear greater than what you'll see the remainder of the way), so forecasting expected longevity is tricky. If you are rotating, ensuring proper inflation, etc, you are doing all you can. PSSs are known to provide far more resistance to wear than comparable performance tires (I used this term loosely, as I don't think they have a peer!). So stay the course, enjoy, and it will be interesting to see at what mileage you are legally bald (2/32nds)....worth trying for a prorated replacement at that point if you fall short of 30k.
 
#7 ·
The winter tires disclaimer appears to apply to winter tires.
Ha ha oops. :facepalm: Yeah my mind glossed over the winter tires point.

To be clear, I love the tires. Wasn't really complaining as much as I was surprised at the initial wear so far.
It'll be interesting to see how long the tires go to 2/32 if any of them make it there. Already had one of the tires replaced due to a screw through the edge of the sidewall. I expect the others will run into a few more screws around these streets these days. It feels like playing Frogger going through the streets sometimes. Have to remember where the potholes are in each lane on my daily drive and switch back and forth between lanes at the right time to avoid them.
 
#9 ·
Reality is they will only last 15k to 20k max. The other reality is what pro-rata we can get. I'm guessing little to none, and honestly anything over zero will be surprising. At $2k a set, anything counts. I've run summers on a bunch of sports cars and 15k is pretty much the norm I've seen, particularly with staggered setups where the rears go quick, even with gentle action.
 
#10 ·
It looks like I am going to need new Michelin PSS after this summer and only 15'000 km / 9500 miles... but only on the front. The nose heavy car combined with 8 laps on the ring and a few mountain passes pay tribute. The tire wear on the front is huge! No magic of the Ohlins there...
 
#11 ·
The PSS ist very soft, the heavy car and our twisty roads, that's it. Without the Ohlins and the Polelstar AWD Calibration there would be more under steer and more tire wear.
For a powerful car like the P it's not bad at all. Had the V40 T5 before the P, front tires (Michelin PS3) made 1 1/2 Saisons, means ~17000 km. A VW Scirocco, I owned a couple years a go, ruined the 235/45R17 front tires (Conti SC2) within 9500km, this was the 1.4 160 HP Twincharger...
 
#12 ·
I am at almost 9,000 miles, drive very aggressively, drive a lot of twisty canyon roads and still have a 6/32 reading as of 3 weeks ago. As far as the tread warranty, it does not apply to the original set of tires. When you replace these tires, you should get them from a "large" tire shop (i.e America's Tire) and it will absolutely apply. The guy who did the work on my car owns a number of shops, but always get his tires through "Large" tire shops because of the treadwear warranty. He goes through sets of PSS in 10k-15k miles and then gets his next set pro-rata. You need to have your tires rotated at a certified place every 6k-8k miles to maintain the Michelin warranty. Since our tires are not a staggered size, we get the full benefit of the warranty.
 
#18 ·
How many times have you been to the track? That's similar wear to me with less than half the mileage. My car gets worked hard on the street but has never seen the track so I am guessing that is where the extra wear is from.
 
#27 ·
At that time I didn't drive the car on the track yet. Included was a trip to Sweden and halfway back when a rear tire went flat. This is when we measured the thread depth.
Yes I push the car but I do not consider it to be extreme.
 
#26 ·
Screeching can be a sign of hot tires. But the best sign is understeer. Best noticable on thight corners / switchback while driving downwards. Did you experience the brake pedal getting longer / different feeling? This is the point where the brakes (fluid) gets really hot.

My experience is you cant get one without the other. If you have squealing tires and understeer there is also a longer and indifferent pedal feel.
 
#28 ·
Since I am not running laps, it is hard to judge relative understeer. I feel understeer plenty of times during my drives, but I don't know if that is a matter of tires being hot or just carrying too much speed into a turn. Since I am only taking each turn once during these drives, it's hard to judge what the cause really is. At the end of my run right before getting my car wrapped, I was pushing extra hard as I had a Subaru WRX behind me on some switchbacks and my tires were screaming a lot of the way down the hill. By the bottom of the pass, I could smell my brakes. Possible this had something to due with the defective pads in the rear falling apart.

We do have pretty well maintained roads here which should help with tire wear. I think this may also be why I do not consider the ride harsh like others describe it. Although one of my friends did recently comment how you feel every bump in my car and said it brought them back to our days in the Tesla Roadster(not a good thing as far as ride comfort).
 
#29 ·
Yes of course, if you have too much speed entering the turn, there will be understeer as well. But with (too) hot tires there is also understeer at the exit of the turn when accelerating out of it hard. The car just slides with the front tires because they can not build enough grip...
I dont think this has anything to do with good or bad roads.

I drove SanBernardino pass last week and it was about 30 -35 degrees Celsius (95 Fahrenheit) and I experienced both especially on the downhill. Every hairpin downwards was accompanied by squealing tires and understeer. Plus the brakepedal got longer and the pressure point was inconsistent. The car is just too heavy for this kind of excessive driving (in high temperatures). Nonetheless its still a great sporty dailydriver.
 
#32 ·
Temperature may play a part as well. Things have stayed pretty cool until recently here. Temps are usually in the high 50's to high 70's F when I go for drives early in the mornings. It will get into the 80's later in the day, but I'm not doing my drives then because the roads get cluttered.
 
#31 ·
He had to catch up first, which he couldn't do. Plus it is a single lane mountain road with no passing zones or pull offs. We had both been caught behind a Mazda2 doing 35 in a 50 for the last 10+miles before turning onto that road, so we both may have been wanting to take a little steam off. It was my last drive before not having the car for a week, so I was having a lot of fun as well.
 
#33 ·
So that problem from drivers like that is not limited to Suffolk county Long Island, and most of Vermont? Haha, and ugh . ... I don't have that problem anywhere in the NYC and most of the north NJ roads otherwise.
 
#34 ·
Nassau County(born and raised) is just as bad as Suffolk with left lane hogs. What I don't miss are the NY area roads. They are too narrow and not well maintained at all. They are constantly working on them but can never keep up with the weather and traffic. It was so nice showing up to CA with nice wide, smooth highways. The mountain and coast roads with no guard rails are a little hair raising but that just gets the adrenaline pumping.
 
#36 ·
I run 38psi. That's what Volvo sets it to and I have had no reason to adjust it. My wear seems to be very good relative to others and the ride feels great, so I will keep it as is.
 
#37 · (Edited)
Bad news... I just realized, that I ran 5660km on wintertires first before putting on the 20" PSS...

So right now, I have exactly 8000km (5000 miles) run with the Michelin PSS and I just measured all tires (they all have a bit more wear on the inside then they have on the outside) and I am left with (average):

front tires:

bit more than 3mm , so that means 4/32 on the front

back tires:

4.5 mm, that means almost 6/32 on the back

These are the measurements of today and 5000 miles in total on the PSS. This includes 8 laps of Nordschleife (160 km), and a few mountain passes plus spirited everyday driving.

I am shocked how soft these tires are... So It fits probably Johanns tire wear experience / driving style the most, he didn't track his Polestar but has a few miles less on them.

What about you m80? You have tracked your car as well... Would be interesting to know your tire wear
 
#39 ·
I tracked my car this past weekend also, and the wear is pretty bad... the inside tread grooves are no longer straight-edged (they have some breakup, I'll post pics later)...and the treads themselves have suffered some, especially at the front.
It was a short track with a lot of braking and hard turns so the sidewalls got eaten up pretty bad too.. the wear comes right out to the first small line above the words "Michelin" (will post pics later..)

Hoping that they will last at least until next summer because I have winter tires that will go on in the fall.

Overall 19,000km on the car, I'd say 11,000km on Summer tires.

They were a hell of a lot of fun though, really can't say I've had better tires when it comes to the combination of comfort and handling...

There are other options from Bridgestone and Hankook that could save us about $200-250 a set, but I don't know if it is worth it...
 
#45 ·
For the US crowd, Hankook Ventus V12 evo2 tires have a rebate again and will be $557 before shipping from the Tire Rack. Dirt cheap for a set of 4. I've had experience with it's predecessor on an M3, and it is a solid tire. For me, I'm sticking with PSS all day long, but the value proposition of the Hankook can be very compelling.
 
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