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Everyone raves about the Continental ExtremeContact DWS and honestly, I have them on my car and they have been awesome. But, I was wondering about how long they should last?
I've had mine for 3 years and I was just told the sides (edges) of the tires are bald and two tires have little bulges in them. I knew they were getting worn, I just didn't realize they were that worn.
I have driven about 15,000 miles in those 3 years. Seems WAY too soon to be needing new tires. I keep them properly inflated. Alignment is fine. They get rotated.
Granted, I'll be honest. This is the first time I've owned a car for 5 years. My stock tires lasted 2 years. Usually I've sold my cars by then or if I've replaced the tires, I've only ever had to do it once. And I used to drive 15k miles A YEAR!!!
I don't have my car right now, but I'm pretty sure the tread on the rest of the tire is good. Not great, but decent that I figured I'd be fine through this winter.
Thoughts? I just want to know if I need to plan for new tires in another 3 years (assuming I keep my car another 3 years). If Continental, although great, wear fast, etc.
Find the DWS that's stamped on the tread and see what you can read from it now. I just put a set DWS06 on this late summer, so I can't tell you. My wife's lasted 3 years and then we replaced them with same set. Do you drive in snow all winter?
Find the DWS that's stamped on the tread and see what you can read from it now. I just put a set DWS06 on this late summer, so I can't tell you. My wife's lasted 3 years and then we replaced them with same set. Do you drive in snow all winter?
I can't recall what they said, but I'll check later this afternoon when I get my car back. I think the tread was there, but the fact that I have no tread on the side is worrisome (and the bulges).
I don't drive in snow. I think I drove in snow the first year I got them for an hour and that's it. Sorry, I live in Portland, OR. We don't really get snow. More ice than anything. And they do love to put down gravel (no salt). Road seem more harsh here too versus SoCal.
You should be checking inflation and for tread/punctures at least monthly. Ideally at every gas fill. Shouldn't be a surprise out of left field that you need new ones or that they have worn improperly.
I've have DWS's on three different vehicles. I do check the pressure every couple of weeks. If your tires are bald on both inside and outside, it's not a tire issue, it's most likely a pressure issue (low air pressure).
Air pressure is the most important thing to decent tire wear. If they are bald on one side only it is most likely an alignment issue.
I also have a set of Dunlop Sport 7000 tires that are wearing about the same as the DWS's. The DWS rides much better than the Dunlop, much quieter and slightly better handling.
Based on my usage of Dunlop, Goodyear, Yokohama, and Michelin tires over the past 6 or 7 years, I would say the DWS tires are among the best I've owned.
I got my car back. The edges are bald. 2 tires have DW 2 have DWS. I did the penny test, most of the tread is at or less than Lincoln's head.
Quote:
Originally Posted by notnamed
3 years is pretty good for such a high performing tire. But not 15k. All tires are a trade off of traction/noise/wear.
Uneven wear is more of an alignment/inflation problem.
Quote:
Originally Posted by notnamed
You should be checking inflation and for tread/punctures at least monthly. Ideally at every gas fill. Shouldn't be a surprise out of left field that you need new ones or that they have worn improperly.
My tires psi fluctuate a lot. I can lose almost 3 psi, which triggers my TPMS, just because the temps dropped to 45. And then if it warms up, I'm fine. I do keep an eye on my tires because they're easy to tell when they're low. Heck, sometimes I think it's low and it's fine. So, I'm not sure what is going on there. I have no idea if this is normal for the tire, normal for the weather/location or what. It's why I'm concerned about getting the Conti's again. Granted, I'm reading the DWS06 is better.
Also, I think it came as a surprise because I didn't think it would be worn out in 3 years and about 15k miles. And up until summer I could see all the DWS. I honestly did not notice how worn down it was on the edges. Sigh.
Don't know what pressure you are running, but I've discovered between 33 and 36 PSI depending upon the car seems to be the sweet spot for DWS's. (33 PSI for the smaller cars and 35 or 6 for the larger cars.)
What pressure does your tpms trigger? Usually that is quite low more than just a 3 psi seasonal temperature swig.
I'll need to double check, but I'm pretty sure my recommended psi is 35. And my tpms triggers around 30-32 (I'm pretty sure it's at 32 because when it's come on, I look at my tires and they look low, but not THAT low, so I check it and it's always a few psi off of what it should be). That's why I said, if temps drop below 45, tpms comes on. It usually goes away after driving for a few mins, but this week, it stayed on for 3 days straight until I could get the to the shop to get air into it.
At this point, I'm trying to figure out if Nokian's are as good on ice as the Conti's, since that's my biggest concern. It rarely snows here. And I wonder if they'll lose psi as much as the Conti's.
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