Hi.
Been driving the x type estate for five years now and I love it but it don't half eat tyres at an alarming rate !! I've never bought this many in all my years of motoring.

Is there a recommended alternative to the Pirellis which might last a bit longer ?

 

Try alignment and then try adjustable rear upper control arms

 

JagAlan, like was mentioned, if the alignment is even out a little bit, it will chew on the tires and spit them out. Ironically, you may find that the rear is going to chew on the tires a bit more than the fronts based on the age of your car. I would recommend spending about $400 (USD) on new lower/front control arms for the rear of the car and then the adjustable upper control arms that we talk about here. Get those installed and a set of new tires. Then lets see how your car likes the tires. I think you will find that the tires will last a lot longer as you will have gotten the alignment back to what the factory set it to.

 

I purchased "70,000" mile Michelin Primacy elite royal deluxe GT pro's (a little joke) and they lasted 35,000 miles, and are down to the steel belts.

My dad gave me the car in his will. I do recall that he went through tires like crazy too. Even when the car was first purchased (low miles used) .

I now have 133K on the odo, and it looks like the car has seen 7 sets of tires since new, according to the paperwork. Some sets of tires did not even make 20K. So the Michelin Primacy's did very well by comparison.

I've been trying to determine whether the front or rear wear out faster, and it's a toss up. The LR and RF seem to wear fastest. I rotate about every 5K.

And, yes the inside of the tire wears fastest.

 

cujet, when you get an alignment, what does the alignment look like for the rear tires? I bet you will find that the camber is out on the rear, leading to the rear tire inside edge wear. If you look around, there is a fix for the rear tire camber. In short, you get an adjustable upper arm from a Volvo S40 and it fits near perfect into our cars.

As for the front, if the toe is off by even a little bit (ie, the tires point towards the center of the front or rear bumper at the same time), you will notice increased tire wear and I have found that my steering wheel will begin to shake as I am in the 60-70 mph range.

that should give you a start. part of it also depends on how fast you like to round the corners. You like to take the aggressively, that will wear the inside edge a lot faster too.

 

Thermo, I've been following the threads on the adjustable rear link. Very cool indeed!

I just went out and measured the camber. -3/4 degree on both fronts. -2 degrees RR and -1 3/4 LR.

Did not bother to measure toe. But, by feel, it's not too bad.

I should probably install the links, replace my blown out front lower arms and align properly. But, I've been thinking that I'd find another car I like and would replace the Jag. Hence the delay. And, FYI, it's hard to find something reasonably priced that matches the little Jag in overall feel, looks, driving dynamics and comfort.

 

Just having -2 degrees will chew up your tires really bad. I had about 2.5 and did a set of tires in 18000 miles.