BMW tire question...
 

I'm trying to help out my brother-in-law. He has an 08 M3 and he has already needed to replace two set or rear tires and one set of front tires. Is it normal for this car to get only 10,000 miles on a rear set of Michelin tires? That is what the dealer is telling him and if that is the case he is looking at selling the car. Most of his driving takes place on the highway and he isn't the type to be doing burnouts. I posted this on the BMW forum but the M3 section is pretty dead.

Thanks,

I think it has to do with camber (front) and the power (rear). Does he mostly drive straight and fast? :)

Don't know about the M3 but my wife has a '06 325i with the sport suspension and it needs rears about every 25,00- to 30,000 miles. We don't run the POS run flats that came with the car those were done at about the first 15,000. I assume the M3 doesn't have run flats, if so that may be the issue they are crap. M3 is a great car though.

I think the E46 M3 has normal tires. I believe M cars just now started getting run-flats. Not sure about E92. Maybe just 2010 models on.

A friend emailed me that he got 25,000 out of the original tires on his M3...it's an '08 as well. Ill email a link.
He may or may not choose to weigh in.

A lot depends on what kind of driving you do.

My wife's 08 3 series with 17 inch factory Michelins were burned out in around 12K miles (rear). The fronts last a bit longer, maybe 20K. She does a lot of city driving and has a heavy foot.

They are nice tires, but seem very soft.

Both of my BMW's an older E36 325i and an '03 330i sport pkg came stock with plenty of negative camber in the rear and also some rear toe-in to compensate for the extreme camber.

On my old E36 which I use purely as a "drive to work" car (80 miles round trip), I eventually adjusted the suspension to nearly zero camber front and rear (adjusted rear and slotted upper shock towers in front).... Tires last MUCH longer now with rears still wearing out a bit faster if I forget to rotate them. The car still handles great, but surely skid pad numbers would suffer.

On the 330, I just decided to go non staggered as I have two sets of identical stock 17" wheels. The snow tires are now mounted to the two sets of front 7.5" wide wheels (225/45/17) and I will use the four 8.5" wide wheels (245/40/17) at all four corners with summer tires. This will allow me to rotate them to get better wear patterns year round and will lengthen the time between buying rear tires every 15-20k miles.

It is not unheard of....the michelins that come are very soft...if he isn't driving the car terribly hard, he might want to sacrifice a miniscule amount of performance for a longer lasting tire (continentals)

It is hard to judge a tire by it treadlife alone. Every tire is a compromise and the ones that generally come on sports cars like the M3 have very low treadwear ratings for maximum performance that the buyer of the car wants. Having owned BMW's, I would go to sites like the TireRack, research your tire size, read all the reviews of the tires, and then call and go over it with someone at sales. Tirerack use to be great, but I have talked to salesman as of late that gave you the feeling you were "wasting their time" with your questions. The last one I asked him to switch me to someone with a better attitude. That being said, you most likely can find a tire that may not give you all the potential of the OE tires but will compromise by giving you a higher life. An 08 M3 is a pretting high end car. Using up tires with these cars comes with the price of ownership. Be glad he's doesnt own a Veyron:

http://www.tyrepress.com/News/business_area/27/18526.html

IF he switches to snow tires, that may help.

Well, somebody had to say it!

Ok - I would advise him to switch to a tire with a higher treadwear rating, and check the alignment and tire pressures. Do you know if tire wear is even, or on one edge or another?

-Z-man.

Certainly not great tires.

Has the alignment been checked? Called a couple of large dealers?

It may be tire compound... We have a guy in the PCA here that is happy to 7k on a set of tires on his 928... Of course they are starspec direzzas and he drives the snot out of the car.....

I think Car and Driver found the same wear rate on their long-term M3. Those Michelins are pretty soft anmd grippy. It's likely worth investigating other options if tire wear is a concern. Ultimately you will give up some grip and performance, but everything requres trade-offs.

I'd happily trade my E36 M3 for the E92 M3 if so desired. I am getting reasonable tire wear, and the size is smaller and cheaper :)