Which tires wear faster?

[paul e]

I remember when I had front wheel drive cars, it was always the fronts which wore the tread faster than the rears. The fronts would wear both from being the drive wheels, AND from being the wheels that turned.

On the M3s though, where the fronts turn, but the rears power, which tires tend to wear faster? I seem to recall that it was the rears back when I was measuring these things. Can you guys recall if your rears wore faster than the fronts too?

[franka]

I remember when I had front wheel drive cars, it was always the fronts which wore the tread faster than the rears. The fronts would wear both from being the drive wheels, AND from being the wheels that turned.

On the M3s though, where the fronts turn, but the rears power, which tires tend to wear faster? I seem to recall that it was the rears back when I was measuring these things. Can you guys recall if your rears wore faster than the fronts too?

A significant portion of the wear on the fronts is due to stopping, more so than turning. Weight is transfered to the front when stopping so the front disks are larger than the rears.

Most of us wear the rears out faster than the fronts due to heavy and frequent use of the loud pedal.

Non-staggerd set-ups, like mine and others, allow easy front to rear rotation to balance the wear. Even L to R and cross rotation if your tread pattern allows that.

[jr1966]

In my experience, I cannot really say on my rear drive cars due to a lot of different factors (underinflation, overinflation, tire damage, suspension misalignment, etc). However, with my previous rear-biased all-wheel drive X5, from the time I bought it brand new until I sold it which ran a period of 5 years of constant usage and no rotation of tires at all, the front wore out faster. I replaced the front without replacing the rears before I sold it.

[s_ribs]

My front tires wear out much quicker than my rears. But, thats due to not having enough camber up front in my case. Not the same for everyone though. Driving style will dictate a lot of which tires wear quicker.