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[OceanView18]

Greetings,

I love this forum cause you guys give fantastic advice - but right now I'm at Herb Chambers BMW here in Sudbury, MA and was just told that my two rear tires, Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3s are extremely worn in the rear, and the fronts are ok.

Rear - 3 mm left on both rears
Front - 6 mm on one, 7 mm on the other

I have a 2011 328i Xdrive, and bought the tires 1 year ago, and have put about 14,000 miles on them. Car has 37,000 miles total. I realize the car has a rear biased AWD system, resulting in more wear on the rears than the fronts. Yes we had a rough winter here in New England, but there's still no reason the wear should be this extreme.

I bought these tires at Costco, and costco is telling me this should have been rotated at least once which would have allowed them to wear more evenly. BMW on the other hand is saying that they don't usually rotate tires, or not very frequently and I don't understand their logic, they also claim that the wear isn't that premature and is somewhat expected, though at the lower end of the range.

If the wear on these tires is on the inner or outer parts of the tread, my research tells me its an alignment issue. The car pulls very slightly to one side, but its barely perceptible, and BMW told me months ago the car doesn't need an alignment. Long story short, what do I do in the short term, should I rotate? should I have bought other tires? Michelin might have been able to cut me slack and have given me new tires but Costco says because I didn't rotate them, I won't be able to make a case with Michelin for new ones...

Thanks everyone...

[Meeni]

14k miles on AS3 is not normal. The tires are rated for 45k miles -if you rotate them-.

If you do not rotate them, the rears should be dead around 20-25k miles (this is normal).

If you have 225 45 17 all around like most 328 do, I strongly advice you do rotate the tires every 10k miles, as instructed by Michelin.

[h1t35t]

Do you have a staggered or square setup?

[hankolerd]

The Pilot Sport A/S 3 is NOT directional, so whether you have squared or staggered set-up I would recommend rotating twice a year, every ~5000-8000 miles. Criss-Cross pattern if you are running squared (swap corner-to-corner on odd numbered swaps, side-to-side on even numbered swaps), side-to-side if you are running a staggered set-up.
I run these tires on my non-xdrive 328i wagon, I haven't measured them yet, but on visual inspection they look like they are wearing pretty well. I have ~5000 miles on them.

If your alignment is out of whack it will cause your tires to scrub more then necessary, causing pre-mature wear. If you think it needs an alignment I would highly recommend it. As your car gets up their in mileage the bushings will wear to the point that the car cannot be aligned correctly, so eventually you need to refresh the bushings to keep it properly aligned. If the roads around you are rough you will need to replace bushings sooner than "normal". A $100 alignment is cheap insurance to making sure your tires last as long as possible. Keep in mind that if you do replace suspension bushings or do any suspension work you should get an alignment as soon as possible afterwards, so if you are planning suspension work in the near future you may want to wait for the alignment. Also double check that your tires are properly inflated, as under/over inflation can cause premature wear.

[OceanView18]

tires are square, 17s all around.

Thanks guys - what you're saying makes sense, but why BMW officially won't rotate them is odd - the answer they gave me was this, the rear tires wear in the middle, the front tires wear on the sides. If they rotate, and do the criss-cross, etc. bring rears to the fronts, it's even more "dangerous" as I'll have front tires that are worn in the middle.

My next steps are - check if the car needs an alignment - and 2, take this to an independent shop and see if they'll do a rotation. 3, check the bushings.

Does it make sense to have them rotate now, or is it too late? thanks...

[hankolerd]

That is up to you really, depends on how safe you feel in them. I would think you can get another 3 months out of them with a rotation before the snow starts flying. Plan on getting at least 2 new tires, if not all 4, in the spring though. I trust you aren't running these tires in the winter? I ran these tires one day in snowy conditions, and bought some Michelin X-Ice xi3's before my snow next trip, they were slippery as hell.

From what your dealer told you you would think their logic would be making an argument for rotating, not sure why they would say that and then recommend against it? That said, there is a higher chance of hydro-planing when when your front tires have less tread, so maybe that was their concern.

[OceanView18]

thanks - so I'll take it to Costco then and get a rotation done, the AS/3 do well IF you have an X-drive, otherwise, they're definitely not meant for rear wheel cars as a snow tire. There were a few times where I felt them slipping in turns under snow and ice, and knew that if they were more of a dedicated snow tire it wouldn't happen, but to me, it was well worth it since I can run them year round, they handle great in the dry, and are some of the highest rated tires in rain. But definitely not a tire to use in the winter if you don't have all wheel drive.

[Meeni]

Originally Posted by OceanView18

tires are square, 17s all around.

Thanks guys - what you're saying makes sense, but why BMW officially won't rotate them is odd - the answer they gave me was this, the rear tires wear in the middle, the front tires wear on the sides. If they rotate, and do the criss-cross, etc. bring rears to the fronts, it's even more "dangerous" as I'll have front tires that are worn in the middle.

My next steps are - check if the car needs an alignment - and 2, take this to an independent shop and see if they'll do a rotation. 3, check the bushings.

Does it make sense to have them rotate now, or is it too late? thanks...

To clarify;
1. You should have rotated these tires. They would have lasted their rated life that way.
2. Now that the rear are shot, it can be dangerous to swap them in the front. You'll now if the car behaves weird. I did have a bad experience with a 20k rotation one time. The dealer is actually making sense.