Mercedes rear wheel drive, do your rear tires wear out pretty fast?

[holden j caufield]

A relative of mine who has had basically front wheel drive cars has been complaining to me about this. They don't know much about cars so I figure I'd help get to the bottom of this. And they drive normal from what I've seen.

 

[Zenmervolt]

RWD vehicles will typically wear out the rear tires faster than the fronts. This is why it is important to rotate the tires at regular intervals.

ZV

 

[holden j caufield]

on their benz the fronts and rears are different widths. I would expect faster wear but 15k miles on 1 set of rears seems lowish for normal driving

 

[RGUN]

Mercedes with higher torque will probably have a lower treadwear rating and wear out quicker. This is more a function of the tire compound then the configuration of the drivetrain. Front wheel drive vehicles should wear the front wheels much faster than rear wheel drive, because the traction requirement is split between 4 tires as opposed to 2.

 

[halik]

I went thru a set of shitty 245s (General tire) in a period of 8 months / 6000 miles on a V8 CLK

 

[Zenmervolt]

Originally posted by: holden j caufield
on their benz the fronts and rears are different widths. I would expect faster wear but 15k miles on 1 set of rears seems lowish for normal driving

Ah, yeah. Staggered widths/sizes make rotation impossible unfortunately. In that case the only thing you can do is ensure that the car receives regular alignments and check your tire type. On many German cars, if you order the "sport" suspension you also get tires that are stickier (and therefore softer and shorter-lasting) which can really screw up tire life. 15,000-25,000 is about average for a set of high-performance tires.

Check alignment, and try to get tires with a treadwear rating in UTQG that is above 300.

ZV

 

[fstime]

Staggered setup means you can't rotate the tires, thus limiting your tires lifespan. Most sport RWD cars have a staggered setup, combine that with Summer performance tires and you won't get much out of a set of rears.

Assuming its not some AMG benz or your friend isn't about taking corners as fast as he can, you can probably just go with one tire size all around. Find out what the non-sport version of his benz uses all around and go with that tire size in a tire with a good threadwear rating.. Like I said, if he is willing to sacrifice the performance.

The fronts should be pretty good though...

 

[rh71]

Staggered setup does allow rotation between the two sides, so long as the tires are symmetrical (interior side and exterior side the same). If it is unidirectional, you'll have to take the tire off the rim and then swap. I just ordered my staggered Toyo Proxes S/T 20s today which should be symmetrical.

 

[Apex]

Originally posted by: holden j caufield
on their benz the fronts and rears are different widths. I would expect faster wear but 15k miles on 1 set of rears seems lowish for normal driving

Wow, 15k sounds like a dream.

 

[DivideBYZero]

Originally posted by: Zenmervolt
RWD vehicles will typically wear out the rear tires faster than the fronts. This is why it is important to rotate the tires at regular intervals.

ZV

Unless they are staggered.

EDIT: I need to read threads.