New Ls430 Break In Time And Tire Wear

[ROSS]

I AM PICKING UP A NEW 2003 LS430 NEXT WEEK AND

WAS WONDERING IF ANY KNEW WHAT THE BREAK IN SCHEDULE WOULD BE. (I'VE NEVER BOUGHT A NEW

CAR BEFORE)

ALSO I JUST NOTICE IN THE BROCHURE THAT THERE

IS A STATEMENT THAT SAYS" TIRES FITTED WITH

17 X 7.5 INCH WHEELS ARE EXPECTED TO EXPERIENCE

GREATER WEAR THAN CONVENTIONAL TIRES. TIRES

LIFE MAY BE SUBSTANTIALLY LESS THAN 20,000 MILES. MY QUESTION IS WHY AND CAN I DO

ANYTHING ABOUT IT?

[VBdenny]

Apparently, the tire compounds used on low profile tires is fairly soft. This gives the car a smoother ride and makes it sticky in corners. The trade off is increased tire wear. Look at the sideway of the tire and it will give a TREADWEAR TEMP and TRACTION rating. For example my Michelin's say TREADWEAR 680 TRACTION A TEMP B. A rating of 100 is suppose to be about 18,000 miles but in reality, it's probably about 15,000. The low profile tires on my daughter's car were worn out enough after 20,000 miles that they needed replacing, but my wife spun it on the Interstate when it was iced up, and totaled the car before I changed them.

Tire wear also depends on how you drive. I go fairly slow around Interstate exit/enter ramps. Whipping around them (as my wife does) puts excessive wear on your tires. In NASCAR they only get about 200 miles to a set of tire.

Congrats on the new car, I hope you post a picture of it.

[VMF]

my Gfs mom got a new loaded camry less then a year ago and she has 24k on it. all 4 tires are worn and 2 front ones are worn completely. they are simply bold. this is really strange. i did 30k last year on my ls and i have a very slight wear on the tires.

[SW03ES]

It all depends on the brand of tires, how you care for them, and how you drive.

The LS is hard on tires generally, its a heavy car. The 17s are much more prone to tire wear, and they're quite expensive to replace. Basically there isn't anything you can do except rotate them regularly, keep the tire pressure right, drive slowly...

The break in isn't nearly as important as some think it is. Nowadays these engines are so tight, setting the rings and such isn't as much of a concern. Lexus says its 1000 miles, then they'll have you come in for the 1000 mile/30 day check and they'll do an oil change etc.

The salesman will go over all of that when you take delivery of the car.

[VMF]

i had cheapest good years and i can say that i'm really hard on tires. aggressive driving and a lot of acceleration hard turns and brakin and those tires lasted until i got a big hole on the road. i bough car with em and i did 30k on those tires. they were still good when i replaced them. oh and they were H rated:)

[SW03ES]

A lot of times cheap tires will actually last longer, harder rubber and such. The good smooth quiet tires are the ones that will wear quick...

[wrd]

I have Michelin MXV4+'s on my 97 with 72,800 miles on them. If I were to rotate them, I could probably get 20 to 30,000 more miles out of them, but I have two slow leakers on the back. (nail punctures). Keep air pressure at 33/34 #'s, and keep it aligned and good tires will last. By the way, the ONLY good tire is Michelin.

[SW03ES]

Thats not true at all...

There are plenty of other tires out there that are excellent.

[TXLS430]

In my experience with Michelin MXV4s they don't wear out - they just get hard. I had them on a Mercedes S500 and replaced them at around 60,000 miles because they were just hard, but the tread was still fine. They are a great touring tire.

As far as low profile tires go Steve is right - it depends on the car, the brand and how you drive. I had a '96 Volvo 850R that had 205/45-17 Pirelli P-Zero tires fitted from the factory. They lasted all of 8,000 miles. I replaced them with Dunlops that were the same size same speed rating and they were good for close to 20K. Things have probably increased in quality since then and there should be plenty of 17" tires that aren't "speedy" tires on the market now (especially since things like Dodge trucks have 20s on them now!).

My advice is take care of the tires that it comes with until they need to be replaced. At that time evaluate how well they performed for you and purchase new tires accordingly. Just remember that the old addage "You get what you pay for" isn't especially true for tires.

Just my $0.02