My dealer is advising that my 2013 XK with 19,000 miles needs new front tires ( tires approaching wear bars) and the rears have limited tread life. The recommendation is to replace all 4 tires. I was surprised that the tires have worn so quickly. I lease all of my vehicles for three years and 12,000 miles per year and have never had to replace my tires before lease expiration. My last vehicle was a BMW 6 series that had plenty of tire life at the end of the lease. Is this normal wear for the original factory tires?
What recommendations do you have for replacement tires? Thanks for your help.

 

It appears that the performance summer tires as supplied as OEM don't seem to wear to well. I just turned 10K miles on my 2012 and the wear bars on the rear will maybe make it through the summer but that would be it. So , I'll maybe get 12-14K on them. They are the Dunlops as are the fronts but they look like they could last another 10K miles. So 20K seems to be it for the fronts but the rears will be lucky to make 15K. As for a recommendation I am in the same predicament and will see what the form says.

 

I have the stock Pirelli P-Zeros on mine (not sure why we get Pirellis in the UK but the US gets Dunlops - climate?). Based on a bunch of threads on the forum, I'll be moving to Michelin Pilot Super Sports when I need new boots. But my focus is performance rather than price or longevity, within reason. Your perspective and driving style may be different.

You'll pick up a whole bunch of different suggestions if you search for 'tires' on the forum - there are some widely different opinions.

 

Michelin Pilot Super Sports all the way around. The rear tires tend to wear out faster than the fronts. my 12 Vert fronts lasted about 35k and the rears only 17k miles. The Michelin's (rear) have plenty of miles left on them. Also, I drive fairly aggressively.

 

I got about 10K out tires on this car and it never saw the track.

 

The XKR-S and XKR w/dynamic pack come stock with 255 and 295 Pirelli and have wider rims. I sure you know this, but I thought I'd mention it. When my rear tires wear out I will replace with stock Pirelli to get more usage out of the front tires. When the front wear out, and by that time the rears should be almost gone too, I'll switch to Michelin PSS and go with 305's for the rear.

 

All of my Jags have had Pirellis as the stock tyre; I assumed (probably wrongly) that all UK XKs had Pirelli as standard.

Yeah, I'll move up to 305 rears; may even go 265 fronts, too, though that will have to wait a while.

 

The tire wear of the OP is actually better than my average for the Pirellis. I usually replace two sets of rears for each set of fronts. 10-15k miles per set on rears/ 20-30k miles per set on fronts on my prior car.

Often road damage took the Pirellis out early - potholes,etc. They seem to be wearing a little better in the F-Type probably due to the Xl rating.

 

My XK had Dunlops ($$$) as OEM and the VDP had Conti's as OEM.

 

Same here on my XK... And love every sticky, grippy, cornering minute of them.
Worth every penny to have good summer tires, and I really dont care how long they last, just as long as they do their job exceptionally well.

As I've said before, replacing good quality tires more frequently is no more annoying that having to put premium gas in my car.... It just goes with the turf of having my car do what I demand of it.

2cents

 

So we are correct in saying the 265 front and 305 rear Micehlon PSS's will fit well. What are the ramifications to getting these wider tires?? apart from better grip from more tire what are the drawbacks?

 

I'm basing it on what XKR-S owners have reported, i.e. other owners of cars with the 10.5" rear wheels. There was a thread about it; I can't recall who said they had fitted 305/265 and had no clearance issues, but I made a note of the conclusion. I would not consider 305s if I had the standard XKR wheels - I'd go up to 295s.

Basically, the tyres will stick out an extra 5mm; possibly slightly more, as I believe the MPSS has a slightly larger 'lip' close to the rim. It will give about 3.4% more contact area rear and 3.9% front, and also give a bit more kerb protection to the rim. The effect on rolling radius is minimal - about 0.9% increase, so my speedo will read 0.6 mph lower at 70. Since it currently reads about 2 mph high according to GPS, that's not a problem.

I don't think there will be significant effect on any of the the car's systems. Anything that relies on rolling radius has to be able to deal with the natural variation between new & fully worn tyres, over- & under-inflated tyres and possibly even manufacturer differences. The only drawbacks I can think of are:

• A small increase in steering effort at parking speeds
• Slight increase in wear on steering components
• The larger contact patch may slightly increase the tendency to aquaplane in the wet (same weight over more area)
• Ditto the tendency to break traction in the wet.

So, basically the car will be slightly better in the dry, slightly worse in the wet. Of course, that doesn't account for any intrinsic difference between the stock P-Zeros and the MPSS.