Ford Focus Tire Wear

pefrost

I seem to be having unusual tire wear on my 2000 Ford Focus. I am approaching 45,000 miles and again need a new pair of tires. The rear tires are wearing out faster than I would imagine. Care is particularly unstable on wet roads. Serious cupping on rear tires. Anyone else experiencing the same? This will be 6 new tires in 45,000 miles

paulbrustas

My first concern would be the type of rubber you are buying. Are you buying cheap stuff with no name brand or what?

Second question is frequency of rotation. Do they get rotated every few thousand miles?

Third Q is about alignment. You do a LOT of driving and that car should have been aligned four times by now.

Not to pick on Fords, but in my experience they are tough on tires and you really need to be pro active on tire wear. I ran tire shops for years and years -- and we LOVED it when Fords came in!

Notorious problems were inner sockets/tie rod ends in general. But your particular vehicle may have specific issues to deal with. The generalities I mentioned are for all of the smaller Ford lines and the early Rangers.

randyt2

What trim of Focus do you have? Did you replace them with OEM tires? I have a Focus ZTS, and IMO the handling in rain is not very good. I will replace them with better tires when the time comes.

pefrost

Paul, I have replaced them each time with what came on it. Firestones. Any suggestions for a better product? It has been aligned 3 times, once for each time I have replaced the rear tires, and once on a road hazard blow out.
Randy, it is an SE with every extra I could get. I ordered it to get the 5 speed, and glad I did, with the z-tech engine. I love the damned car, but about every 15,000 the rear tires turn to crap on me, and the stability on wet roads scares me. Thanks to both of you for responding. Maybe there is no Focus trend here, just my car.

randyt2

I don't know if your problem is solely related to tires, but for suggestions on new tires visit the Aftermarket & Accessories board and the Tires, tires, tires topic, if you haven't already.

Mr_Shiftright

What kind of mileage are you expecting from OEM tires anyway. I think 45K is about all you can hope for, even if it's 45K on one set and 25K on the other.

I don't see this type of wear as indicative of a problem. I wish I could get such mileage out of any of my cars on OEM quality tires (usually not great quality to begin with).

heng

I read: only the rear tires are wearing, the tires are done every 15,000 miles, and that's with 3 alignments.

Sorry Mr Host, but that sounds like a problem.

Is it just cupping that's ruining the tires? Are they cupped only on the outside?

zandor

It sounds to me like something other than your tires is wrong with your car. On front drive cars the rear tires should wear far more slowly than the fronts. Think of it this way- The fronts do almost all of the work- steering, putting power to the ground, and most of the braking. The rears just hold up the back end and provide some braking.

I'd try a different tire shop & have a mechanic check out the back end of your car. I'm thinking there's either something wrong w/ your suspension or whatever shop you've been going to hasn't done those three alignments correctly.

Also, make sure you have the correct air pressure in your tires.

Mike

Mr_Shiftright

Oh, maybe I misread...I thought he got 45K on the fronts and less on the rear, meaning 6 tires in 45K miles......was he saying 15K miles on the rears 3X and the fronts are still okay? He did say "6 tires in 45K miles). Maybe he would clarify. Yeah, 15K on the rear tires would be less than I'd expect even on OEM. It depends, really. I never got more than 10K on my Saab fronts, but that car had lots of power and I drove hard and it was FWD, so.....

paulbrustas

Lots of the small cars are running 185/65r14 tire size. Go up one in size to 195/60 and you'll get a bigger footprint while the same overall circumference will be there...not changing speedo or antilock brake issues.