Tire wear reading after 7k miles on H&R Sport springs

For anyone who's wondered what the actual effect of a 1.5" H&R drop on tire wear is, here are my numbers after 7k miles (out of a total of 20K on my 2013 Touring). Just rotated them (doing this every 5k miles to even out whatever uneven wear might occur due to negative camber caused by lowering) and found (surprisingly) pretty even wear all the way around. I figured the rear would take more of a hit since it's further out camber-wise than the front. That's not to say that the inside shoulder doesn't show more wear; just that the more frequent rotation seems to be serving its intended purpose. That said, the inside shoulder on each shows about 2/32" more wear than the outside (which show virtually no wear at all) while the innermost tread block shows about 1/32" more wear than the outermost tread block. About what I expected. I should easily be able to get 25k on these tires, maybe a bit more. The lesson here is that there's no such thing as a free lunch. There's a cost involved with lowering a vehicle that doesn't have adjustable camber. And then there's the added issue of a stiffer ride. You pays your money and you takes your chances! BTW: I still can't imagine using any shorter springs on the CX-5. Tire wear and ride quality would have to be significantly worse.

Yea, my current tires have over 30k and only one is "yellow". Also I corner hard,fast and use the ebrake sometimes.

did you get an alignment after installing the springs? usually, lowering will mess up your toe (either more in, or more out). toe will eat up your tires faster than camber will.

Of course. I had it aligned a week after install and rechecked a month later.

cool. the CX5 looks great when lowered

Tire wear reading after 7k miles on H&R Sport springs

I pretty much agree with you on all your points. There is almost always a trade off. As your tires wear more, the inner shoulder wear should get amplified until you start seeing a difference. I've been rotating/cross rotating all my and my wife's vehicles' tires every 2,500 miles, and have always gotten exceptionally good mileage and always more than manufacturers' mileage warranties [emoji106]

njaremka said:

cool. the CX5 looks great when lowered

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That's the payoff. If only manufacturers offered lower ride heights for 2WD crossovers!