Rear tires wearing the same as fronts

[Klutch9]

On my Focus, I've noticed that the rear tires are wearing at exactly the same rate as the fronts. As you'd imagine, on every FWD car I've owned, the rears wear slower than the fronts. The front wheels turn and drive the car, whilst the rear wheels simply ride along. When I had these tires put on 2 years ago, I also had a 4-wheel alignment done. The car still drives straight as an arrow, no shimmies or pulls whatsoever. So I'm assuming the alignment is still good. Yet, the rear tires are wearing down the same as the fronts. No odd wear is happening either, i.e. in the middle, shoulders, feathering, etc. Any ideas?

 

[spasm3]

I take it you have not rotated them ? Every fwd car i've owned, had almost no wear on the rear.

 

[hisilver]

The front wheels turn and the rear wheels "drag" when turning, evening the wear?

 

[Quattro Pete]

How many miles on the tires and which tire model?

 

[randomhero439]

Are you just eyeballing the tread, or using a depth gauge. Have you kept them rotated on a regular basis? If so, then whats the issue? Sounds like some nice even wear to me!

 

[Klutch9]

The tires have been on for 27,000 miles now. They are Fierce Instinct VR tires (rebranded Dunlops. Or, a division of Dunlop, depending on who you ask). They are all-season tires, with semi-aggressive tread. I rotated them about 6,000 miles into their life, and haven't touched them since. I know this isn't good practice, but I've never rotated tires until some noticeable wear has occurred on the front/back, then I swap them. I always get very good, long life out of my tires, so that's not the issue. But ever since I've had these tires, the backs and fronts have worn evenly, even though they stayed in the same place for almost the entire duration so far.

As for measuring, I'm not using a depth gauge; I'm just eyeballing it based on the wear bars. They're very visible, so my judge of how much tread is left on each tire makes it quite easy to compare them.

 

[Kuato]

If you are driving mostly highway miles that would explain the even wear.

 

[heynow]

Could also say that your front tires are lasting as long as your rear tires. Which sounds like a good thing!

 

[bvance554]

Probably just something to do with the dynamics of the vehicle. I would continue to rotate them as normal as I imagine the wear and cupping will show eventually.

 

[jorton]

You are lucky because you're not here posting a complaint. I've had bad luck with my 05 focus rear suspension and tires. At one point handling in rain was unsafe. The shop was not able to allign the rears until after I replaced rear upper control arms with adjustable aftermarket parts. It sounds like you're in good shape but your tires will last longest if you rotate them on schedule.

 

[Klutch9]

Originally Posted By: jorton
You are lucky because you're not here posting a complaint. I've had bad luck with my 05 focus rear suspension and tires. At one point handling in rain was unsafe. The shop was not able to allign the rears until after I replaced rear upper control arms with adjustable aftermarket parts. It sounds like you're in good shape but your tires will last longest if you rotate them on schedule.


I'm sorry to hear of your troubles. My experience has been the exact opposite in the two years I've owned this car. Handling is great in all driving conditions. I'll probably rotate the tires this spring, as PM. It can't hurt.

 

[bigjl]

My V50, essentially a Focus wagon of the same vintage as yours, wears the tyres fairly even all round. I run the fronts at ECO pressure (36psi from memory) any less and there is slight shoulder wear on my winter tyres.

I rotated them with nearly 20k on them and there was only just over 1mm difference back to front.

This chassis has a lot of bushes that wear that affect handling and they are fairly sensitive to alignment though not bad, they just feel a little twitchy at speed.

A Very good chassis, shared with the S40, C30 and C70 aswell. Pity it wasn't a little more spacious!

 

[Hokiefyd]

Despite being FWD-based (with little power going to the rears under normal conditions), our two cars wear the front and rear tires at the same rate also. Exactly 6,400 miles for every 1/32" on both cars. Hondas have what I'd call a "moderately aggressive" rear alignment in terms of toe and camber for good chassis behavior, and the Focus/Volvo chassis is likely the same, accounting for consistent wear on the front and rear axles.

 

[rslifkin]

It depends on the handling balance of the car. If it's not set up to understeer horrifically, has semi-decent weight balance, you avoid spinning the front tires and don't tend to take corners under heavy throttle, it's perfectly possible to get even tire wear. Honestly, if the car is using the most grip from each end, that should be what happens (and if they were evenly enough, you probably don't even need to rotate them).

 

[SteveSRT8]

While I am always surprised that a FWD vehicle has evenly wearing tires I will tell you that not all cars require rotation.

If wear patterns are good then there is no need...

 

[mechtech2]

Very unusual.
Some are better. and some worse, but all wear differently.
I'll bet if I took my own careful measurements, I'd find differences.