[igneous]

I know it's been covered endlessly, but my 2013 volt, with almost 17k miles, has worn the front tires down. I lazily never rotated them, but the shoulder are almost down to the belts. I try to keep them inflated to around 42 psi or so, but sometimes it dips between there and 38, especially in winter. I realize the lack of rotating is the reason the fronts wore down so much, but isn't this even quicker than normal? I saw in another thread someone said they inflated theirs in the mid to upper 40s to keep the shoulders from wearing as much, should I do that from now on?
Since the rears still have a ton of tread Im probably just going to grab a couple new goodyears, I kind of hate these tires but with only 16-17k miles I can't bring myself to replace 4.

 

[Mister Dave]

I saw in another thread someone said they inflated theirs in the mid to upper 40s to keep the shoulders from wearing as much, should I do that from now on?

No.

Since the rears still have a ton of tread Im probably just going to grab a couple new goodyears....

Put the new ones on the back.

 

[TheBlueFlash]

I'm more surprised you have a 2013 with only 17k miles. Mine is approaching 50! AAAAhHHHH! I DRIVE TOO MUCH!

 

[TheBlueFlash]

But seriously, pitch those Goodyears. Lurk some more on this site and read about the Goodyears. It appears they wear quicker unless you run high the psi in the high 40's which is great for efficiency, but lousy for the ride. Get yourself some Michelin Energy Savers or Bridgestone Ecopias or Pirelli P7's. You'll get longer tread life out of those without having to run sky high psi levels.

 

[jbakerjonathan]

Please don't think that I am throwing stones, but, could your driving style have contributed to the shoulder wear? Going around corners at speed will naturally wear the edges - the wheels lean when turned. Mister Dave gives good advice: put the new ones on the rear. The theory is that the rear tends to lose adhesion in curves faster than the fronts in a FWD car.

May I suggest that you also consider Continental True Contact w/Eco Plus:
http://gm-volt.com/forum/showthread...-True-Contact-w-Eco-Plus-Running-review/page5

I'm sure that Ilninja will explain why you shouldn't beat yourself up over not having rotated your tires.

 

[mvanzanten]

I rotated my OEM Goodyear tires every 7500 miles, and at 30,000 miles, my front tires started "chunking". Chunking is just like it sounds, chunks of rubber started to come off the tires. This happened on the outside of the front tires. The tire shop asked if I drove down a lot of gravel roads, which I do not. I believe the culprit was the extremely rough pavement on our freeways here in Portland (OR).

I bought 4 new Michelin Premier A/S and I love them. I did loose about 4 miles of range, but they are quieter and handle better.

 

[emartin00]

I wasn't great about rotating my OEM tires, but I did it probably every 10k or so. They only lasted me about 35k miles. They're a cheap OEM tire.
I replaced them with Continental TrueContacts, and after 20k miles, they still look practically new. They have a great snow rating, and I haven't noticed any decrease in range.

 

[Dutch]

This is THE classic video explaining why you always ALWAYS put your best tires on the REAR of the car....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdSf0KJie_E

 

[llninja]

I'm more surprised you have a 2013 with only 17k miles. Mine is approaching 50! AAAAhHHHH! I DRIVE TOO MUCH!

I found out the hard way that my gen1 volt came with two different styles of Goodyear Assurance tires. 3 were 7.x inches of tread width, 1 was 8.x inches wide. So at 36k miles, the 7.x inch wide goodyears were toast, where the 8.x inch wide oneslooked like they could have easily made 50k miles. I have since switched cold turkey to 18" wheels and a set of Yokohama Avid Ascends which are rated for something like 70K miles. I'm at 78k miles right now on the odometer (42k on the tires) with no tire rotations, and the fronts are definitely wearing faster than the rears, but I definitely have 20-30k miles of remaining tread life, though I typically change my tires much sooner as safety is important to me and my family.

 

[rmay635703]

My oem Goodyears have 45k on them and still look fine.

They were rotated once (against my wishes) my hope was the fronts would be worn enough by 50k to swap on my spare pair of Goodyears

Ah well, probably be 60k before they are down to the bars

 

[llninja]

My oem Goodyears have 45k on them and still look fine.

They were rotated once (against my wishes) my hope was the fronts would be worn enough by 50k to swap on my spare pair of Goodyears

Ah well, probably be 60k before they are down to the bars

I don't mess around and just replace the tires far in advance of seeing the wear bars. Those are the minimum to be legal, not the minimum to be safe.

Because if this video, I'm not willing to milk the last $50-100 worth of tread when I know I need to spend about $600 for a new set of tires anyway, why risk your family's health and well-being for $50-100. Even paying $600 per year for new tires every year is worth it to me. I even went so far as to spend $1300 for new rims and a set of snow and ice tires. That's going to be chump change compared to possible medical bills and body shop bill's while trying to eek out that last $50-100 in tire wear.

https://youtu.be/zA6MUlVNkLM

 

[Dutch]

Because if this video, I'm not willing to milk the last $50-100 worth of tread >---snip----< https://youtu.be/zA6MUlVNkLM

I'm with you man. Everything depends on four patches the size of the palm of your hand... I want the best patches I can get!

On a related note, I learned years ago that if my Jeep starts spinning the "push" rear tire on wet pavement when starting on even a modest hill, it's time for new tires. It's been amazingly consistent in that the tires almost always measure 5/32 when this starts happening. New tires and it handles like a dream (for a Jeep of course).

 

[viking79]

What I have noticed with many tires is just like marriage they have a honeymoon period, they have good traction tread that gives great driveability for the first half of the life, then ultra hard low traction compound that handles terribly but makes the tire last its warranty period for the last part of its life. I tend to replace my tires before hitting the wear bars as well for this reason.

The Volt does wear front tires quick, I will just replace those and rotate them to the rear as well.