How and when to retyre

[Brian Halling]

When my 987 was serviced last February the OPC Service Manager warned me that my rear tyres were near the limit, and suggested that I should consider replacing all four for "˜maximum safety'. Nothing was formally noted on the printed report. Over three months later and about to join the Boxster Scottish Trip (tomorrow), I decided to be ready for the inevitable wet conditions and do as he suggested. Sourcing four Michelin Pilot Sport Z18 N3s was not easy, but eventually I found a local tyre company which could locate and fit all four today for £690 including VAT, valves, balancing etc. When I arrived the foreman checked my old tyres and could not understand why I wanted to change them. His gauge showed 6mm remaining on the fronts and 4.5mm on the rears, comfortably above both the legal limit of 1.6mm and the Porsche recommendation of 3mm. I thanked him for his impartial advice and kept the old ones. My OPC quoted price for Michelins was £303 for rears and £219.50 for fronts, a total of £1045, some 51% more than my local tyre company. I conclude that both tyre checks and replacements should be left to the experts!

 

[THX911]

It is very odd you were told to replace all four in one go as the fronts will give you almost twice the mileage compared to the rears [&:]

The OPC didn't say anything about uneven wear on all or something like that for telling you to replace all fours?

 

[Brian Halling]

The OPC did tell me that there was only about 1mm tread depth at the edge of the tyre. When I queried this with the independent tyre foreman he laughed and showed me the new tyre - 1mm at the edge! Pilot Sports are asymetric, with the inside tread primarily for removing water and the outside tread helping to reduce road noise, so I was informed.

If I had been informed of uneven wear then I would have expected some action from the OPC as the car was still under warranty, a geometry check as a bare minimum, but nothing like that was reported to me.

 

[Mark Elder]

Which OPC? We need to add them to the "bad list"[&:]