Another day, another set of tires for our 2009 Nissan GT-R. This round we bought two fronts and paid $907.96, mounting and balancing included. Also in this total was a fee to patch a puncture located center-tread in the left-rear tire.
The last time we replaced the front tires was at 16,000 miles. We blame the aggressive suspension setting and extended freeway driving for the short tire life. But we knew what to expect. To date we've spent $2,700 on tires and accumulated 27,000 miles on the GT-R.
Mike Schmidt, Vehicle Testing Manager @ 27,780 miles
super_ongoy says:
07:51 AM, 10/12/09
I thought I had it bad. Last month I spent around 1500 bucks for 4 tires after riding on a same set for over 2 years. I wonder if the GT-R uses different size tires for the front and rear like a bimmer. I find this very annoying as you can't really rotate the tires properly.
eswalls says:
08:01 AM, 10/12/09
What's the running maintenance total on the GT-R so far?
dakota03 says:
08:08 AM, 10/12/09
I thought you were supposed to replace tires in sets of 4 on an AWD vehicle to keep the circumference of the tires the same?
eswalls says:
08:32 AM, 10/12/09
@dakota03: brakes don't stop a car, tires do. And the coefficients of friction behind stopping and going don't change because the car is AWD, so you're never going to have equal wear on your tires. If the rears are still good, why replace them?
brn says:
08:39 AM, 10/12/09
"We blame the aggressive suspension setting and extended freeway driving for the short tire life. "
How does extended freeway driving shorten tire life? Heat?
church123 says:
08:49 AM, 10/12/09
If you run an aggressive (read high negative camber) alignment, then in a straight line you are concentrating more of the tire loading on the inside edge of the tire. Ideally, the additional camber would reduce excessive wear on the outside of the tire in hard cornering, while also increasing grip. But the Edmunds drivers are clearly not using the maximum capacity of the GTR very often. Since the car sees almost no racetrack use and most of the drivers are probably incapable of, or unwilling to test the limits on public roads, the chosen alignment is kind of a waste of tires (aggressive alignments will also reduce fuel economy, increase tramlining, etc.).
church123 says:
08:49 AM, 10/12/09
If you run an aggressive (read high negative camber) alignment, then in a straight line you are concentrating more of the tire loading on the inside edge of the tire. Ideally, the additional camber would reduce excessive wear on the outside of the tire in hard cornering, while also increasing grip. But the Edmunds drivers are clearly not using the maximum capacity of the GTR very often. Since the car sees almost no racetrack use and most of the drivers are probably incapable of, or unwilling to test the limits on public roads, the chosen alignment is kind of a waste of tires (aggressive alignments will also reduce fuel economy, increase tramlining, etc.).
church123 says:
08:51 AM, 10/12/09
Sorry for the double post. The system told me the first one didn't go through. I hate this new format.
p.s. - the heavier a car, the worse the effects of a high camber setup on tire wear.
e10rice says:
09:48 AM, 10/12/09
Why dont you guys have Nissan adjust the camber for the normal driving setting cause your obviously not using the aggressive setting to its full potential. Then track test it again for us, i think you be faster in a straight line due to the better contact patch, but slower in the slalom. Plus we could get a comparison of the two setting and the difference it has on tire life.
roadburner says:
09:55 AM, 10/12/09
"If the rears are still good, why replace them?"
It all depends on the AWD system and its operating parameters. If the OD of the tires vary to a significant extent most AWD system will interpret the difference as wheel slippage and attempt to correct the problem.
aerodax says:
10:13 AM, 10/12/09
Factoring in the amount of driving I do...if I owned this car it would cost me $100 over my monthly payment just for tires. That's just plain sad. This car is a nightmare.
bankerdanny says:
10:49 AM, 10/12/09
aerodax, as mentioned above, if your car would spend substantiually all of its time on the street (which is likely the case for most GT-R's) a simple (although probably not cheap) adjustment of suspension settings would im prove tire life substantially at the expense of some speed at the track. Probably a worthwhile tradeoff for most owners.
brn says:
11:03 AM, 10/12/09
Thanks Church123. I learned something today.
hybris says:
11:06 AM, 10/12/09
Get the GTR tuned for street driving you guys are just burning money with this setup.
bankerdanny says:
12:05 PM, 10/12/09
I used to see a similar wear pattern to the rear tires on my '85 BMW E28 535. The rear suspension was factiry set for some negative camber, apparently for better high spead stability on the Autobahn. Unfortunately this was generally wasted on American highways and only caused quicker wear of the tires.
saxdogg says:
12:54 PM, 10/12/09
I second that suggestion above. Try the "normal" settings and report back the differences you find. If you're truly testing these for informative posts for your readers, this would be the obvious smart idea.
JP
dakota03 says:
01:44 PM, 10/12/09
@ eswalls: I realize that your tires will never wear at the exact same rate, but if you have rear tires at, say, 2/32 and brand new front tires then do you not run the risk of putting excess stress on your viscous coupler due to the fact that the rear tires have to spin at a different speed then the front tires to make one full rotation?
hondacura4 says:
03:46 PM, 10/12/09
"Thanks Church123. I learned something today."
Brn, Church123 certainly knows his stuff as he makes a living off of building and tuning cars and race cars.
bodyblue says:
03:51 PM, 10/12/09
You would think the tire wear would not be too bad considering all of the time spent behind a tow truck.
billt9 says:
05:46 PM, 10/12/09
even a Lexus IS350 has a Toyota manufacturer claimed v-rated (149 mph) tire life of 20,000 max.
With a real sports car, you'd expect less. 1 track day, or 5,000-10,000 normal driving.
So what were you expecting from ZR-rated (>186 mph) sports car tires?
Are you too used to owning a personal Ford Focus or something with T-rated tires?
ikeydoc says:
02:22 PM, 10/18/09
I have a 2009 Nissan GT-R bought in August 2008. I took it on the track at Sebring in October 2008. The dealer set the alignment for track use as recommended by Nissan. Bridgestone Potenza RE070R RFT tires. After about 3 hours on the track, my front tires looked like the tires featured above. I still have the original rear tires after 14 months and 15000 miles. I currently have the alignment set for street use. My take is that the Nissan recommended track settings are way too aggressive and I would not recommend that anyone use them unless they have deep pockets! At that time, each front tire was $350 now $379 at Tire Rack.