I've had my goat sinse febuary and have about 8000 miles on her. (Does anyone think this is alot by the way?) I took her in to have my tires rotated and was realativly surprised when they told me they wouldn't do it do to the fact I was already down to the wear bar on my rears..I was kind of shocked. I have had my fun with her. Spinning the tires on a couple of occasions and indulging in a few races but nothing that should have put that much wear on the tires so quickly. I thought the stock tires were kind of a performance/practical tire and could stand up to a bit more abuse..apperantly I was wrong. the salesman told me how soft the tires were and blah blah blah...botton line I need my back two replaced at 8000 miles and I am wondering if anyone else has run into this and if this is what is considered normal for the tires (replaced every 7 months while being driven under a little harder than average conditions)

That seems extreme. I drive my car very hard 100% of the time and 8 years and a hundred thousand miles later, I am only on my 4th set of tires. Which means they lasted about 25,000 miles per set or 12,500 miles per two. You went through two in 8,000 miles so... I guess the Goat doesn't just eat the competition.

I've got 10,000 miles on mine (bought it in January) and I don't think I'm worn that far down. I'll go and check them (since I need to rotate them anyway) and let you know if they're ready for replacement.

Go look at the tires up close yourself. It could have been a [censored] dealer trying to con you into buying tires when you don't need to replace them.

Check the rears yourself. Sounds like someones trying to get you to buy tires when you don't need them yet. Check the wear indicator bars yourself, or do the old penny trick. Stick a penny down in the tread and if you can see the tip of Lincoln's head then you have 1/8 inch or left of tread left and they should be replaced.

Or conversely, rotate them yourself and tell the people who told you they wouldn't do it to $crew off. Run them for 8 K more miles then get a set of 4 new ones.

I need to check the wear rating number on our tires too. 8K miles of moderate use still sounds too little. Now if your roasting the hides all the time I would understand.

Go and take a look at them. :)

I have 15k on my T/A and blister the rears everytime I am out.. still got 40% tread

Originally posted by Orbit Orange@Aug 8 2004, 04:15 AM
Check the rears yourself. Sounds like someones trying to get you to buy tires when you don't need them yet. Check the wear indicator bars yourself, or do the old penny trick. Stick a penny down in the tread and if you can see the tip of Lincoln's head then you have 1/8 inch or left of tread left and they should be replaced.

Or conversely, rotate them yourself and tell the people who told you they wouldn't do it to $crew off. Run them for 8 K more miles then get a set of 4 new ones.

I need to check the wear rating number on our tires too. 8K miles of moderate use still sounds too little. Now if your roasting the hides all the time I would understand.

Go and take a look at them. :)
The dealer showed me the tires and the wear bar when they had it up in the air. I believe in what they are telling me. I'm just trying to figure out how they got there so fast..I'm sure I haven't been all that hard on them. I've spun them yes but not all that much....thanks for the input guys..
p.s Lafontaine in White Lake Michigan will put the exact tires on. Cost less than 360.00 balanced and out the door for two tires. Thought that was good enough price to mention to you Michigan folks

What is the brand and model of the tires? I was under the impression that they were all season tires (or something close), not performance tires. I can check into it for you if you can tell me what they are.

I guess "all season" isn't the right word. Basically, people will be driving this car in the winter, so performance tires aren't a good idea.

BF Goodrich g-force t/a kdws 245/45zr17.
I was under that same impression.

You were right. TireRack (http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=BFGoodrich&tireModel=g-Force+T%2FA+KDWS&vehicleSearch=true&partnum=445WR7GFTAKDWS&fromCompare1=yes) categorieses these tires as "Ultra High Performance All-Season". Didn't realize they made such a thing... :) If you click the link, you'll find some info on the tire itself.

Also, if you read the reviews, you'll see a lot of mixed reviews on that tire. It might be worth paying attention to before you buy your next set. No one else has had the same problem as you, but they've had other problems such as bad ride after awhile.

Goatfarmer,
I just had to buy 2 for the back of my car a couple weeks ago. I'm at 10,884 right now so it was around 10,500 or so which I thought was :bs:
I was as surprised as you are but they had me take a look and sure enough they were down to the wear bands. :huh:
The middle of mine were really worn to nothing and that really got me because I don't remember spinning them hard enough to kill the middle of the tread that's normally from spinning really fast like smoking them in a automatic car and mine is a m6. :unsure:

I gave 164.00 each for mine. :angry:
Did you get a better deal and did you stay with the BFGs?
Mine are BFG G-Force T/A KDWS 245\45\ZR17
The tire guy said the KDWS was --- dry wet & snow I can't remember what the K was for is that true????? :unsure:

If there are any tireologist out there please help.
What should I put on her next time she spins way to much? ;)

I'm also glad to hear that I'm not the only one out there that's racking up the miles on a GTO. B)

FYI
Guys the lug nut covers pull straight off they are not threaded on like other GM cars.
I have one that is now held on with some electrical tape placed inside to take up the play from the tire store spinning it with an impact gun.
They had to order a set from Pontiac and there is no telling when they'll make the trip across the big pond.

I just looked the treadwear rating on our stock tires is 400!!!

In comparison the stock set of Goodyear Eagle RSA's I had on my GTP had a treadwear rating of 340 and they lasted me 60,000 miles!!! I didn't exactly baby those things either, there were several small burnouts and some real hard driving on them.

I would also suggest that you always check the tire pressures. Incorrect tire pressure, either too high or too low is the premature killer of tires. I check mine once a month at the longest. I did religiously with the Grand Prix that I got 60K miles out of and they still weren't down to the wear bars. I also rotated them myself every 10K miles.

I know our Goats are going to be harder on tires but 8K miles just seems too soon. I guess I'll have to wait and see since I've only got 850 or so miles right now.

Also I got to looking at our tires and I hope the "tire experts" weren't mistaking the little "tabs" for lack of a better term in the side grooves and not the actual wear bars in the grooves.

Oh well, stranger things have happened. I just hate seeing people get ripped off into buying something they don't need yet if they really don't need it yet. :)

Good point on the pressures OO - I was going to say the same thing.
I just rotated mine at 6k miles. On the car I really couldn't tell the difference between the fronts and rears - but I definitely have more wear in the rears. ;)
Dan

Good point on the pressures OO - I was going to say the same thing.

It is a simple thing to do yet so few people actually do it.

The first thing I did when I got my GTO home from the dealer was to get the pressure guage out and check the tires.

Low and behold 3 were at the 35 psi as recommended but there in the left front the tire was at 45 psi. The dealer had failed to check this tire. Someone in the service department probably just forgot or got busy or yada yada yada.

Drive around on a tire 10 psi over for 10 K miles and it will wear significantly different than the rest. Actually that is near the max pressure and on a hot day or under severe use it could have blown out.

Check your tire pressures folks. It's very easy maintenance that can save you money or your life if you'd happen to have a blowout. :)

Yep - in addition to all of your points - I can't believe in a lot of cases people can't feel tires that aren't properly inflated. I can't count the number of times I've driven somebodies car - gotten out and told them they needed to check their tire pressures - and they ask how I knew. Especially if it's one tire you get pulling. Excessive air gives you a jittery / bumpy ride and not enough feels mushy - like a Buick lol.
Now, in addition to all of that - we know that the GTO's in many cases were shipped w/ up to 60 psi in the tires. I wonder if this overinflation (max recommended is 45 on the sidewall) could have caused damage to the tires that causes some of the 'flatspotting' while the car is sitting in addition to possible wear issues???
Dan

Good points Dan!

Even a simple visual inspection is all it takes. I see peoples tires all the time that I know are dangerously underinflated. You can see the sidewalls bulging out and it's obvious they are probably down to 10 psi or less!

Lastly though, with our sidewall aspect ratio being 45's it is a little tougher to judge if our tires are underinflated. In fact I got to looking at the 16 inch 60 series tires on our GTP and it's easy for me to tell if they are underinflated. Kinda funny too but as I look at those tires they remind me of "off road truck" tires in comparison to the 17, 45 series on our Goats. :lol:

Good to see someone else appreciates the importance of tire pressures and maintenance as they truly are what puts you on the road and should be an important safety and performance point on ALL vehicles. :)

18,500 miles and 4 rotations later the rears are toast and the fronts might be worth holding onto for emergency reasons. All but 500 of those miles are balls to the wall. Even with the limited slip in the rear the left rear wore out a little more than the right.

Originally posted by ronhall512@Aug 8 2004, 01:50 PM
FYI
Guys the lug nut covers pull straight off they are not threaded on like other GM cars.
I have one that is now held on with some electrical tape placed inside to take up the play from the tire store spinning it with an impact gun.
They had to order a set from Pontiac and there is no telling when they'll make the trip across the big pond.
Even the pontiac dealers have missed that fact.

I had the dealer break 3 covers when doing a ballance recently. Then they didn't even have the guts to tell me about their mistake. Just put them back on and hoped that I wouldn't notice them.

Hey Darkitec,
Did they give you a ETA on the new ones.

OOPS Sorry

I put a . when I needed a ?

-1 very poor grammer on my behalf

Finger fast brain slow :type: :hysterical:

Originally posted by Skie@Aug 8 2004, 06:25 PM
You were right. TireRack (http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=BFGoodrich&tireModel=g-Force+T%2FA+KDWS&vehicleSearch=true&partnum=445WR7GFTAKDWS&fromCompare1=yes) categorieses these tires as "Ultra High Performance All-Season". Didn't realize they made such a thing... :) If you click the link, you'll find some info on the tire itself.

Also, if you read the reviews, you'll see a lot of mixed reviews on that tire. It might be worth paying attention to before you buy your next set. No one else has had the same problem as you, but they've had other problems such as bad ride after awhile.
appreciate you looking into that Skie. thanks for you help

thanks alot guys :D