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[ASU]

Rather dumb question here but none the less here it goes.

I had BMW install new tires on the rear in the spring ContisportContenential 3 19". I do drive hard but at the end of the fall my rears are almost ready to be replaced again and for some unknown reason I had very uneven wear on the fronts. Yes it could be alignment but...

I noticed after the summer that my left rear tires had one with the label Outside on the outside (yes makes sense) but the other one had Inside on the outside (doesn't make sense).

So, were these installed incorrectly by BMW? If so does it make sense that it would cause the uneven wear on the front tires and faster than expected wear on the rear?

Your expect opinion would be appreciated.

[ben@tirerack]

The tire mounted with 'inside' facing out would have had less than optimum performance and possibly irregular wear on that tire. It is unlikely that it would have caused the front tires to wear unevenly.

With regard to the speed of wear on the rear, how many miles are on the tires and what is the tread depth in 32nds of an inch?

[ASU]

Originally Posted by ben@tirerack

The tire mounted with 'inside' facing out would have had less than optimum performance and possibly irregular wear on that tire. It is unlikely that it would have caused the front tires to wear unevenly.

With regard to the speed of wear on the rear, how many miles are on the tires and what is the tread depth in 32nds of an inch?

Thanks for the follow up. I spoke directly with Continental tire today and they confirm that this would create uneven wear and cause them to wear faster than expected along with performance issues as well. In addition, he felt it was quite possible that the front tires would also be impact by uneven wear.

As for the depth I have less than 4/32 left and at this point I have 10,000 miles on the rear tires with uneven wear. Basically shot.

I am not following up with BMW to see what they will do to compensate me for this.

[ben@tirerack]

Originally Posted by ASU

Thanks for the follow up. I spoke directly with Continental tire today and they confirm that this would create uneven wear and cause them to wear faster than expected along with performance issues as well. In addition, he felt it was quite possible that the front tires would also be impact by uneven wear.

As for the depth I have less than 4/32 left and at this point I have 10,000 miles on the rear tires with uneven wear. Basically shot.

I am not following up with BMW to see what they will do to compensate me for this.

Seems like BMW might at least give you a good deal on labor for a future install given the mixup.

With regard to tread wear, 10K miles with 4/32 left is actually pretty normal for rear tires on the M3. So while you might have gotten better life out of them with the tire mounted the right way, your result was within what is normal for this car. Some guys have reported rears totally gone by 8K miles with tires mounted correctly and no track days.