Does tire wear rate change with time?

[NissanMaxima]

Hi all:
I bought a new set of Continental TrueContact 215 45 17 V about a year ago for our 2015 Corolla. The car was aligned at time of install and it almost due for the second 5k rotation (so almost 10k on the tire now). Driving is about 60/40 mix of city/highway and driving style is very conservative (no hard braking, no sudden stops, no hard cornering,, etc.) Tire inflation checked routinely.

When new, I measured the tread depth at close to 11/32. It is already down to about 8.5/32. About 2.5/32 in about 10k miles seems kind of excessive unless tires wear faster initially. I tried to google some studies to no avail. At this rate, and if I assume replacement at 3/32, these tires project to last 50k miles. Manufacturer tread life states 80k.

Thoughts?

 

[SirTanon]

Typically speaking, tires wear more slowly as they age.

 

[danez_yoda]

yes, many factors contribute. rubber is soft when new. the taller rubber thread moves more so more rubber rub off during turns, sipping (little cuts in the rubber to increase traction) don't go the full tread depth so you get more rubber supports the load once the tires wear down about half way.

near the end they get hard (compacted and dried out) and the sips are gone and you only have treads sheding water. They wear quite a while at this state but the ride quality deteriorates. noisier, and less traction near the end of life.

 

[CapriRacer]

Ah ..... You've got a FWD and the front tires wear 2 1/2 times faster than the rears. So if you only measured the fronts, you're only looking at half the picture.

 

[nap]

I wouldn’t want to ride all seasons tires past 4/32 (or 6/32 for winters). At that point the tire performance and comfort are noticeably degraded vs new tires.

 

[NissanMaxima]

Thanks all.

@CapriRacer - tires are at about 8.5/32 both front and rear.

I'll check the tread depth more regularly and post back at some point. At this rate, I project I will get about 30k miles or so on the tires when it hits the 4/32" point which is disappointing but perhaps the rate will (has) slowed down. The tires have the D, W, and S marks (dry, wet and snow) so will monitor those as well.

 

[fdcg27]

FWIW, I put a set of Pure Contacts on the '09 Forester and they're pretty well gone after 50K.
These tires were quite comfortable and quiet when new and remain so and cornering is good, in all respects a step above the OEM Yokohamas, but not nearly as long-lived as I thought they would be.