I meant to post this awhile back, but the Yokohama dB2 is probably the first tire I have loved that I didn't re-purchase.

The reason: The RX-8's crappy allignment.

Here is a photo of my last set of 245 dB2's that were taken after 45,000 miles. Yes 45,000 miles (and I don't drive slow):



You'll notice the heavy inside tire wear and if you look closely you can even see the serious "cupping" as well. The cupping was the ultimate reason I had to get rid of these tires. They just got too damn noisey (they were super-quiet when I first bought them).

For vehicles with agressive camber like the 8, the dual rain channel design is probably not the best idea. The outer tread blocks get over burdened and bear a large amount of the weight. With good allignment, this tire could have given me 50,000 miles easy.

The performance was also top-notch especially in the rain. While wider tires typically have poor rain performance, with all the open area in the tread design, this tire had no problem. Compared to stock performance (RE040), this tire was a little better dry and a lot better in the wet. But the real deal maker was the ridiculous longevity of these tires.

I now have the Avon M500's. Much different tire, and I think the tread pattern is better suited to the RX-8's allignment. Overall, I would say the Yokohamas are a better tire but the Avon's are better for the 8.

-Mr. Wigggles

 

45K miles on an RX-8 and a high performance tire. Not sure what you're complaining about.

 

did you ever get your tired rotated at all? over 45K miles you should have gone thru 5 rotations!

 

Let me understand...you have a problem with the alignment on the 8 that causes wear on the inside of the tires.....after 45K miles....

Did you ever get an alignment?? The stock alignments are all over the map..

I align mine 4-5 times a year....and on track they wear on the outsides...and on the street they wear on the insides. If I didn't track the car it would be easy to align it to have even wear. there is lots of camber, caster and toe adjustment to get almost anything that you want........

I would check the toe in, and camber with wear like that...

 

I thought I made it clear I liked the tire. I guess my point was a little too complicated.

-Mr. Wigggles

 

I mentioned in another thread that I have a staggered set-up and it made rotations basically impossible.

https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-wheels-tires-brakes-suspension-55/tire-wear-99712/

But rotating wouldn't have helped anyway. My RX-8 and many others have negative camber on all four corners of the car. That means it doesn't matter where you rotate the tire to, you are still going to get inner tire wear. The only way to help mediate it is to get the car alligned (I've done that), but you will likely still have some negative camber left over (especially in the rear) so the problem will not be totally removed.

The only way to effectively rotate tires on the RX-8 is to remount them every so often to put the inner portion on the outside.

-Mr. Wigggles

 

No the inner wear starts at mile number 1. I have a problem with the 8 seriously reducing the life span of the tires that go on it. I feel like I am posting in the Asia forum because something seems to be lost in the translation.

I should have gotten at least 50,000 miles out of those tires probably 65,000 if the RX-8s allignment had been better. The RE040's that came with the car were pretty much shot after 10,000 miles - once again because of serious inner tire wear.

Do you have a print out for your results. The tech max'ed out my rear camber adjustment and I still have -.7 degrees of camber and I still get a more wear on the inner portion of the tire - (not as bad as before but the problem is still not fixed.) Maybe, Mazda reduced the problem with the '05s and '06s

-Mr. Wigggles

 

seriously that is a lot of miles out of that sort of tire in the first place. I wouldn't be complaining and I would have bought them again.

 

Don't blame this on RX8's. This is only a problem with your car. If it had a proper alignment to begin with, you would not have had a problem. The factory alignment is quite mild. Someone must have thought they were doing you a favor in giving you a little more camber. If you got 45,000 miles on a set of tires, it must have only been slightly out of alignment.

 

Let's do this again...

Check out this chart (from the link I posted):



Look at the "before" and "actual" (i.e. "after") numbers for the rear. The technician used the full range of the adjustment and my 8 still has -0.7 degrees of negative camber left over. That's too much.

My car has stock suspension and has never been in a wreck yet there is no way to set it up so that I get even tire wire. That is a problem with MY RX-8.

Now do a search for "noisey tires" or "uneven tire wear" or "crappy factory tires" and you will find people who have the same problem (as in the link I posted) with THEIR RX-8. It is the allignment not the tires that are creating the problems.

Look, I really wanted this to be an information thread about my experiences with the AVS dB2s and why I don't think they are well suited for the RX-8, but are in general a great tire.

I really didn't expect these comments.

-Mr. Wigggles

 

The last 10K miles the tires were noisey as hell, but I could have driven them even further if I wanted to. If you look at the very bottom-right, you can see that I have just gotten to the wear indicator on the bad side of the tire. If you look at the left side, I'm still a long way from the wear indicator.

-Mr. Wigggles

 

OK, the car wasn't in an accident and the alignment won't get near O deg, camber in the rear. I would say that your rear springs are weak. Too much squat in the rear will increase the camber. I have 26K mi. on my car and I haven't noticed this problem. I got rid of the RE040's after 8k mi. due to hydroplaning problems. I have burned through a set of RT-615's and presently have Pirelli AS tires w/o any problems. I am installing a new set of aftermarket springs, that will lower the car, and will have to have a alignment done after that.

 

You can rotate your tires, but you have to spend $10ea to have them swap them off the rims and onto the other side... even just once a year is ok. $10 is a very cheap way to get a few more thousand mi out of the tires.

 

iridearocket,

I mentioned that in post #6. The only issue I have in my case is that everytime I remount my tires they usually have to change out the the rubber seals for the TPMS sensors. That's another $15 or so plus trip to fix it.

The seals on the TPMS sensors are really touchy. They get old and are very torque sensitive. Slow leaks are common so once I get a tire mounted correctly, I like to leave it that way.

Ideally I would remount the tires every 6 months to get the most life out of them, but it is a pain.

-Mr. Wigggles

 

FWIW, the RE050A's are designed for cars with lots of negative camber

 

I simply lack the ability to feel bad for a guy who got FORTY-FIVE THOUSAND miles out of a set of performance tires...wow.

Btw - 45 ~= 50.

 

Mr. Wiggles,
You are not turning hard enough!!! Lean that 8 over and the negative camber will flatten the tire out (for maximum cornering grip, as I'm sure you're well aware) and it will even out the wear.
Viva La Twisties!!!

 

Quick question. Do you think that my stock springs that have 30k miles with newer stock springs that only have 3k miles on them? Would this make a big difference?

 

Are you asking if stock springs have a reduced spring rate at 30k miles compared to 3k miles? If so then no, metal does not fatigue that quickly. Should be zero dfiference but I will aqcuise to a more "godly" or "zoomy" source if they know more accurately.

 

Thanks for the info! Really helpful. I probably should have known since I worked for a major spring supplier for all the major car companies but I was a Network Admin. ::shrugs::

 

you're welcome

 

I'm with you 100%. I'm on my second set of tires with 45000 miles total and now I need a third set. I've had numerous alignements and I still get cupped tires and YES I do get them rotated every 5000 miles. The noise form the current Yoko's is unbelievable.