I have less than 25,000 miles yet this is the second set of tires I need on the front . The center of the tires show little wear. The outside tread shows very heavy wear.
If you mean that the tread on the inside edge of each tire shows little wear and the outside edge much wear, get an alignment.
If you mean the on each tire the center shows little wear and the outside edges much wear, then you need to start checking your tire pressure…it’s too low.
If on doubt, get an alignment and buy a good tire gage…do both.
In addition, check out tirerack.com, find tires for your car that have good wear ratings. It can vary widely. Finally, have your tires rotated every 5000 miles or so, the fronts will wear quicker if you don’t.
Tires with this wear pattern are usually run with too little air pressure. Alignment issues usually wear out one side of the tire or the other. You need to increase the tire pressure in the future. There should be info in your owner’s manual, or on the door jam, or fuel filler door. Getting your own tire pressure guaage and checking the pressure yourself monthly should resolve your problem.
Make this one more vote for the car having chronically been driven with low pressure in the tires.
As was said, you need to buy your own tire pressure gauge (buy only the “dial” or digital types, NOT the “pencil” type), check them regularly when the tires are cold (before the car has been driven), and then add pressure as needed to maintain the tires at least at the pressures specified on the label affixed to the driver’s door jamb. If you buy your own electric air pump (which plugs into the cigar lighter), you can adjust the pressure in the comfort of your own driveway, rather than using the poorly-maintained air pumps at gas stations.
In addition to actually being able to get the full potential life out of your tires, you will experience somewhat better gas mileage and greatly improved handling on curves.
Doing the math: 25K miles on a 4 year old vehicle is 6K per year. That’s a pretty low number, and it’s possible that the wear is a result of short trips.
Most tire wear occurs in cornering - and the more turns you make compared to straight ahead driving, the more rapid the tire wear. Think of it as “Turns Per Mile”: more TPM = more worn tires.
And the way this will show up is one shoulder (or both) will wear out before the center. While more inflation pressure will help this, the real cause is the driving situation.
Needless to say, a misaligned vehicle aggravates this!
…and as texases correctly pointed out, this situation also seems to indicate tires that weren’t rotated.
When I was a younger man we used to say “if your tires aren’t wearing out on the edges first you aren’t cornering fast enough”.
In my friend’s hopped-up 396 Camaro SS most tire wear occurred at the stoplights…oh, you mean FRONT tires!