Ford tire wear issues?

[Redright9]

Hello,

My wife's old car was a '13 Fusion. The tires on that car would not last past about 25K miles no matter what brand of tire I put on. The cars alignment was checked and good, the car was not driven aggressively, I checked and adjusted tire pressures constantly (an OCD thing of mine), they were also rotated properly. Now her new car a '18 Flex seems to be experiencing the same type of accelerated wear. The car has 15k on it and the tires are looking like they will need replacing at about the 25k mark. Since it is my wife's car and she drive our children around I pay the tires a lot of attention since they are a major safety device for them on the road. I replace the tires once the reach the wear bars if not a smidge sooner.

My question is this, is this a Ford thing? Is it a Ford in a desert thing? Anyone else have experience with cars that have good alignments, proper air pressure, frequent rotations and just wear tires?

 

[28oz]

My Nissan Quest is the same way. They wear perfectly even, but no matter the brand or "mileage warranty" they come with, they're all done by 25K-ish miles. My 300ZX tires, however, are going on 4 years and 30K miles and doing just fine.

 

[knerml]

What kind of wear are you experiencing?

Could road surfaces be an issue?

 

[dogememe]

I'm at over 30K miles on a set of Hankook DYNAPRO HTs on my Escape. I do severe service use, ranging from little roads with many potholes to driving 90+ for long periods of time.

The tires still have lots of life left and are wearing evenly. Oh, and I never have rotated them or aligned it since buying it.

 

[Redright9]

The tires are all wearing very evenly all across the tire surface. The roads could possibly be an issue, out in the California desert, our roads aren't known for being luxurious!

 

[SirTanon]

I would not consider this a "Ford issue" so much as a "car issue" or even an issue related to either the tires you're buying, the way it's being driven, and/or the surfaces you're driving on.

For comparison, my 2010 Fusion has a set of Cooper RS3-A tires on it, that were put on in mid 2016 and now have a little over 55,000 miles on them. The tires came with a 40,000 mile treadwear warranty, and are UTQG rated 500AAA. 55,000 miles on a single set of 40,000 mile-rated tires, and they still have roughly 5/32" all the way around, which means they should last at least another 5,000 miles, if not more. All this in Phoenix summer heat and sun.

If your tires are never making it past 25,000 miles, you've got some other issue(s) at work. What tires are you buying and what kind of driving do you do?

 

[WyrTwister]

What tire pressure are you running ?

For close to 50 years , I have tried to run my tires at the max stamped on the tire . Makes them last longer , especially in hot weather and if the vehicle is heavily loaded . As long as the " center " of the tread is not wearing prematurely , it is not over inflated .

It does make them ride stiffer . I can stand that if it saves me $$$ .

 

[SirTanon]

Originally Posted by WyrTwister
What tire pressure are you running ?

For close to 50 years , I have tried to run my tires at the max stamped on the tire . Makes them last longer , especially in hot weather and if the vehicle is heavily loaded . As long as the " center " of the tread is not wearing prematurely , it is not over inflated .

It does make them ride stiffer . I can stand that if it saves me $$$ .


... so... one hot day, and you're exceeding the pressure before you even get on the road? I would never do this. You're just asking for tire failure.

 

[ssamaroo01]

I have a Fusion too and I've never had an issue with tires wearing out too soon. The original tires were ContiProContacts that were UTQG rated 400. I got 45k out of those tires before I changed them at 4/32nd. My second set was Pirelli P7 Cinturato All Season. Those tires were UTQG rated 500. I got about 40k out of them before two were out of round at 6/32nd. Replaced those with Pirelli P7 Cinturato All Season PLUS and they have been great. They are UTQG rated for 700 and have 8/32nd left after 30k.

 

[Redright9]

Remember, this is two different vehicles, a Fusion and Flex. The driving the cars get is around town (kids to school, local market, and such) but also freeway driving. I live in a small desert town so we frequently drive to the "big city". So I think the cars get a good mix of driving. As far as tire pressures, I start with what the door label says and adjust from there. My daily seems to drive better and wear tires better at 2psi above the sticker. Both the Fusion and Flex seem to like about the same, 1 - 2 PSI over the door sticker. The brand of tires has been a couple sets of Goodyear, a set of Michelin, and a set of Hankook. The Flex has Hankook as the factory installed tire at the moment.

 

[SirTanon]

Not sure what to say. My Fusion gets 100% of its driving in the greater Phoenix area, and sees about 90% highway driving at 70+ MPH, including 115+ degree summer heat. Given where you're located, I'd say your climate is probably similar.

Guessing that since you go to the big city often, you get up into the mountains frequently, so maybe that's a factor. Also, in the big city, I expect you see a lot of stop-n-go traffic, so that might impact the tire life too.

 

[SatinSilver]

My guess would be she's romping on it a bit. Giving it a fair amount of gas, hard braking, hard cornering, etc.... Driving it like a rental car which is usually when rental companies replace tires on a unit, right at the 25k mark. Usually a cheap set of tires goes on them. I really don't notice a particular make requiring tire replacement more often than comparable models.

 

[Redright9]

HAHAHAHA! You mean my wife has been hiding from me she's a race car driver!! She does say I drive like an old man, you may be on to something!!

 

[lyle]

NOBODY has reported good tire wear with the factory Hancrap's on a Flex. Most are being replaced by 25k so I think you are completely average. It doesn't seem to matter if it came stock with 18's, 19's, or 20's, most are gone by 25k. My factory Goodyear 20's lasted about 35k, and a set of Yokohama's installed after that also got about 35k. I'm on my second set of Yoko's and I think these will go to about the same. I have no issues with alignment either as all tires wear nice and even across the tread surface. Remember this beast weighs 2-1/2 tons on relatively small tires, so I wouldn't expect stellar mileage out of anything.

 

[Chris142]

You need to ride along with her driving.

 

[Rand]

Originally Posted by SirTanon
Originally Posted by WyrTwister
What tire pressure are you running ?

For close to 50 years , I have tried to run my tires at the max stamped on the tire . Makes them last longer , especially in hot weather and if the vehicle is heavily loaded . As long as the " center " of the tread is not wearing prematurely , it is not over inflated .

It does make them ride stiffer . I can stand that if it saves me $$$ .


... so... one hot day, and you're exceeding the pressure before you even get on the road? I would never do this. You're just asking for tire failure.


Tires dont really fail from over-inflation. Also the tire sidewall lists "max cold inflation pressure" It nowhere says not to exceed that in use.

So if your door sticker says 32psi, the tire says 44psi.. and you inflate it to 36psi.. you arent taking any "chances"
you could theoretically inflate them to 44psi.. its not going to explode if the temperature rises 20f and you drive on the highway at 90mph for 3 hours.

I wouldnt because they ride like concrete tires but it wont cause tire failure.. traction could suffer due to the smaller contact patch and some other undesirable characteristics...

 

[bullwinkle]

Originally Posted by SirTanon
Originally Posted by WyrTwister
What tire pressure are you running ?

For close to 50 years , I have tried to run my tires at the max stamped on the tire . Makes them last longer , especially in hot weather and if the vehicle is heavily loaded . As long as the " center " of the tread is not wearing prematurely , it is not over inflated .

It does make them ride stiffer . I can stand that if it saves me $$$ .


... so... one hot day, and you're exceeding the pressure before you even get on the road? I would never do this. You're just asking for tire failure.
High pressure (within reason) doesn't cause failures, it's under inflation, with associated sidewall flex and heat, that kills tires & causes blowouts. Just like the Ford Exploder Explorer Firestone tire fiasco.

 

[mrsilv04]

Originally Posted by bullwinkle
High pressure (within reason) doesn't cause failures, it's under inflation, with associated sidewall flex and heat, that kills tires & causes blowouts. Just like the Ford Exploder Explorer Firestone tire fiasco.


Underinflation wasn't the true underlying cause. Contributing factor? Yes.

 

[bullwinkle]

Originally Posted by mrsilv04
Originally Posted by bullwinkle
High pressure (within reason) doesn't cause failures, it's under inflation, with associated sidewall flex and heat, that kills tires & causes blowouts. Just like the Ford Exploder Explorer Firestone tire fiasco.


Underinflation wasn't the true underlying cause. Contributing factor? Yes.
Ford design, top heavy 4WD vehicle, junky tires, not enough air pressure. At least in my blowout experience (more trailer tires than anything else), under inflation is a BIG factor, along with damaged or Chinese tires-but I've had a few Firestone truck tires self-destruct with little or no warning (Steeltex ones, mostly).

 

[HangFire]

Originally Posted by Redright9
My wife's old car was a '13 Fusion. The tires on that car would not last past about 25K miles no matter what brand of tire I put on. The cars alignment was checked and good, the car was not driven aggressively, I checked and adjusted tire pressures constantly (an OCD thing of mine), they were also rotated properly. Now her new car a '18 Flex seems to be experiencing the same type of accelerated wear. The car has 15k on it and the tires are looking like they will need replacing at about the 25k mark. Since it is my wife's car and she drive our children around I pay the tires a lot of attention since they are a major safety device for them on the road. I replace the tires once the reach the wear bars if not a smidge sooner.

My question is this, is this a Ford thing? Is it a Ford in a desert thing? Anyone else have experience with cars that have good alignments, proper air pressure, frequent rotations and just wear tires?
Do you always get them aligned at the same place?

I could conceive of a situation where wrong toe-in wear wears out the inner tread evenly (no feathering), and camber wear wears out the outer tread evenly. With frequent rotations that might even occur on different ends of the vehicle. Also frequent rotations could prevent visual diagnosis, as you might only be losing 1.5/32 per rotation.

What tires were on each vehicle, and the wear ratings for them?

Abrasive roads and soft (under 500) rated tires might be a more plausible explanation.