i have a 2014 prosche boxster with the original goodyear tires with 23,000 miles. for about a year now every time i make a sharp turn, like backing out of a parking space, i hear a loud noise like the tires are rubbing the car. my mechanic assures me the tires are rubbing nothing, that it is the tires just making the noise. how can this be?
I am surprised you were not told that these tires have reached a time limit . Most tire companies say to replace tires at 6 to 10 years depending on your location . I doubt if these original tires have enough tread to be really safe.
Even if they still have an adequate amount of tread remaining, the rubber is now so “hard” as a result of age that the amount of traction on a wet road has surely been compromised.
Well, should have specified that these are my summer tires. I live in Ohio which has some snow in winter and from November to March I put on snow tires so I can drive the boxster in the winter. They have plenty of tread left but why the loud noise when in a tight turn?
Have a tire shop look at your tires because they may be too hard and just not as good as they should be. Tires can have lots of tread but compromised by the Ultra Violet says of the Sun after several years. Summer tire really have a short life span.
Have you demonstrated this for your mechanic?
That is the sound of the tires rubbing on the pavement, this is a common complaint, I have verified this on performance cars many times, there is nothing wrong with your car.
The steering system on a performance car is tuned to perform well at higher speeds, the compromise is that the tires scuff the pavement when making sharp parking lot turns. I have replaced front tires on some cars that were scuffed down to the steel belts on the inside edge from driving around parking lots. The part of the steering geometry that is involved with this is called the Ackermann angle if you want to research this.
I assume that you summer tires are not stored outside in the sun so they are probably not dry rotted. It seems that some people just want to sell tires, $2,000 latter you will still have the same condition.
Tire sounds might be coming from elsewhere. A dealer may recognize the sound from other boxy cars. It could be a transmission sound.
Do the tires look OK? You should be able to see most of the tread if you turn the front wheels completely to the left or right. Drive forward a couple feet and inspect again. If the tires are rubbing, it would be the edge where the tread and side wall meet, or just the side wall. You could use a mirror and a flashlight to check the inside of the tire. If you haven’t already, have your mechanic show you the tires while the car is on a lift and the transmission in neutral. You can see the both sidewalls and the tread then.