I have having a time with the rears on my car. I have done about 35K on my 05 rx8 and am about to put my 4th set of tires on the car. None of the tires i have put on the car have lasted longer than 8K and the tires i am using are 300 tread wear All season Toyos. I don't drive very aggressively in the car and only commute to and from work and school. I maintain proper pressure in the tires and the wear patters on the rears appears to be quite even. I am at a loss here. I even have an alignment done every 5k when i get the oil changed. I just don't understand why these rear tires are going so fast. Any suggestions?

 

hate to say it Mech Head but you're definitely doing something wrong here.
My stock bridgestones lasted 17,000, my 220 rated Kumho MX's went for almost 20k, and I've got 13,000 on my Toyo T1R's and they're holding up quite nicely.

alignment ever 5k?! why so often?
Who did your alignement?
do you have pics of the tires?

do you go to the track? What PSI do you run?

 

holy crap....damn and i thought i go through tires fast...im on my second pair, wouldve lasted me longer but never rotated them and i put at least 15k on my rear without a rotation....

 

You didn't mention rotating the tires... that'll get you another couple thousand miles out of them. I rotate my tires every 4k miles.

 

Yeah i figured out i was doing something wrong awhile ago and now i am tiring to determine just what.
I get an alignment rotation every 5k because the place i bought the tires from also changes my oil and if you buy tires through them you get almost free alignments. Place that does them is not a chain local business that's been around a long time. Every one it my family has done all their work with this place so i do not think that they are trying to screw me over.
I have never been to the track with any of the tires. I did do an autocross once. But i drive very conservatively for some one with an 8 as evidenced by my average gas millage which stays at 20 or slightly better.
I run all the tires at 33 PSI.

Can't figure out whats wrong.

I just today called my local Mazda dealer and asked for the stock alignment specs. They are suppose to call me back.

 

the stock mazda specs are pretty broad. I think they're posted on this forum somewhere, I'll see if I can find them with the search function.

Any suspension upgrades on your car? Stock wheels?
the tires get aligned AND rotated every 5k? If they truly are getting rotated, your tires should be lasting you much longer.

The AutoCross would have eaten away some rubber since you're on All Season but that still doesn't explain your other 2 sets of tires.

 

The only thing not bone stock is the K and N drop in and a voodoo shift ****. I doubt either one is effecting the tread life. I would add that the autocross was a rather short course only about 40 sec and i only did 6 runs so i do not think that is an issue. I am at the point where i have considered taking the car in to the dealer to be looked at but i don't know what to tell them to look for.

 

If you have any toe in/out on your rear tires it will reduce tire life. I would have them check your toe on the rears and make sure it's on 00.00

 

Would toe in cause the tires to wear evenly? I know that excessive camber causes the inside or outside to go quicker. Neither seems to be the case from what i am seeing. The tires wear evenly just very very fast.

 

Even with my camber setup (1.6 up front and 1.8 in the rear) I've gotten 26k out of my last set of tires which were Falken 451's, this current set of Riken Raptors has lasted me nearly 20k so far and I just had the tires dismounted and mounted with the interior tread to the outside. I've done some track days and a few autocrosses too. Don't know what to tell you.

 

One more question. What is your tread depth when you consider them worn out? Just trying to make sure what you consider worn is actually worn.

 

i doubt you are getting an alignment every 5K miles, but only a tire rotation.

 

On your tires there should be a bar across the tread....the low one is 2/32. You could do the newly discovered quarter trick with the head faced down in the tread, that's 5/32 and when you should start to consider new tires. The penny trick is obsolete if anyone still does it because it tells you the same as the wear bar and your just about done with the tires also (slicks lol). Look at things like the tread rating (soft or hard rubber) and the temperature and such. It's on your tire's sidewall, I figure for the RX8 its going to be softer compared to others for better handling grip. Hope that helps and correct anything I said in case its helpful for anyone.

 

They're telling you that you need new tires, even when you don't. Its the only reasonable answer. Even tearing the **** out of them, they should last you longer. You're being hosed.

 

No i the tries are really gone. Barely any tread depth at all. I could not give you any specific number but it barely covers Lincoln's hair on a penny. I was sliding all over the road Friday of last week when it rained. After some review i think the tires have way to much toe in but i will not know until i get it checked out by a decent tire place. Unless any of you know how to measure the toe without any tools.

 

Take pictures and label which tire and I could tell you what the problem is lol....I do this all day at work on customers cars....part of that gazillion point inspection Toyota wants you to do lol.

 

When i get some time i will try to put some up.

 

i drag race and generally drive pretty hard. my toyo t1rs have 12k miles on them and i'll get another year out of them. i got 26k out of my stock tires. and that included a 2 day HPDE at VIR grand east. which is a huge 4.2 mile course and 6-8 passes at a drag strip including a mini-burnout for each run.

something is off. what tires are you running? michelin pilot sport cups?