I bought a 2012 Subaru Impreza in February, 2012, and when I brought it in at 9,000 miles, I was told that I needed new tires. They checked everything on the car and could find nothing. They were factory-installed Yokohamas with no warranty. I got a new set of Yokohamas with Subaru paying 50% and Yokohama paying 50%. At 23,000 miles, once again I was told that I needed new tires - the front ones were in the red zone and the back ones were a little better. How can I go through 2 sets in 9 months and 23,000 miles? Yokohama says they will pay 50% again as long as I purchase another brand of tires, not Yokohamas. During my 65 mile commute, I have 5 miles of curvy, inclined paved road.
Very odd. What is the size and model of the tires?
How many times were the second set rotated?
The car alignment been checked. It should be covered by bumper to bumper warranty I think given history? My guess is something is aschew and eating your tires.
Second vote for alignment. Be aware that sometimes the alignment specs are set for good handling and not good tire wear - so the alignment could be “in spec” and still eat tires…
I have a different take than CapriRacer - “in spec” settings are designed to get a comfortable ride when driven by a “little old lady.” If you are regularly diving in “crazy man” mode, then you need to be proactive in customizing your alignment
First of all make sure to get an alignment performed to make sure there is not some minor damage to the suspension (maybe you hit a curb or a pot hole and knocked things out of whack) If the tirewear patterns on the same axle are not mirror images of each other, then alignment is clearly messed uo.
If the wear is different fronts versus rears - then rotate more often.
If front tires are wearing more on outside edge than inside edge - then it is because you are having too much fun during those 5 miles (times 2?) each day!
Start by playing with the air pressure - don’t be afraid to go up to 40 psi. You might be rolling over the outside sidewall shoulder during all those curves if the air pressure is too low.
Monitor wear closely. Maybe get a cheap IR thermometer and regularly measure tire temperatures (inner edge, center, outer edge) during your 5 mile roller coaster run.
Next step is to find a mechanic who gets excited when you say “camber bolts” (SPC or Eibach are typical manufacturers of camber bolts)
At 9,000, the inside edge of front tires was 3/32. The Subaru dealer checked the alignment which was fine and rotated the tires. Tire pressure in front was 33.
At 12,000, noted abnormal wear on so the dealer and Yokohama replaced with new (supposedly better) set, aligned and balanced.
At 23,000, treads on front were 4/32 with abnormal wear on inside. They checked alignment again and it was o.k. Tire pressure was 33. Tirewear on the same axle is a mirror image of each other. Rear tires were at 7/32. I am a “little old lady”, but drive somewhere in between that and “crazy man” - I take the curvy include at 40-45 mph.
If at 9K, the inside edge of the front tires is nearly worn out, the there IS an alignment issue. If the alignment is “in Spec”, then the spec is wrong. The fact that the ties are consistently wearing this way conmfirms this.
My experience says that published alignment specs are too wide by half. Put another way, the alignment needs to be in the inner half of the tolerance.
Also, it is common for many cars to come with large amounts of camber in order to get good handling. My experience is that anything over a degree of camber is prone to give inside shoulder wear.
So you need to find an alignment shop who will adjust the car to what you want - not to the book value. That may mean the car will need a camber plate or an eccentric bolt to get the camber where it needs to be - and you should expect to pay extra for that.
I’m agreeing with CapriRacer.
It sounds like I have the same issue. I have a 2012 Subaru impreza, I purchased it new in March of 2012. I have 24,000 miles on it and 2 tires from the second set are worn out on inner edge.
As long as you consider @capriracer’s advice…and alignment is not an issue, in general, Awd cars have the potential of giving you longer tire service life then fwd cars as long as you rotate them as recomended and drive sanely.
Wear on the inside edges of the tires points to a too much toe-out and/or too much negative camber issue.
Did they charge you for the alignment? If not and they claimed it was done under warranty then it could be that nothing was actually ever checked because after the first few thousand miles an alignment is considered a maintenance procedure for which the customer pays.
There should be some specs available from the alignment; assuming that it was done.