I suffered a nail in the nearside rear last week - deep joy!! As I have no spare was forced to use the compressor (which I must say did a superb job from 10PSI to 35PSI in under 5mins!!) to re-inflate, I didn't need to use the puncture repair gloop as the tyre held pressure long enough to get me to my local ATS (who I must say were probably the most helpful tyre people I have experienced in 25 years of driving). Good on you ATS Bourne End!!!. Anyway to cut a long story short I had the puncture repaired and was told that the tread on the rears was down to just on 3mm in 7500Miles in 4 months!!!! The fronts were at 6mm so the chap at ATS kindly offered to swap the front/rears for me. From what the nice chap at ATS told me is that the P Zeros have a slightly softer rubber compound than other makes which gives a smoother ride and reasonable handling BUT as a result they are rubbish at handling any form of torque and as such the tread is just eaten away!!!

I wouldn't mind but I don't and haven't had the opportunity to 'rag it' at all as my daily journey consists of 15 speed cameras from home to work and by having an average mpg of 36 since I took delivery of my beloved it certainly suggests from fuel usage that no excessive acceleration occurs that often. Daily journey is High Wycombe M40 to Kings Cross so a good mix of town and cruising.

ATS did recommend me looking at Bridgestones as a replacement which on a loss of 1mm every 1400miles will be in about 2months time at a quote of around £200 a corner - which I thought was quite reasonable when compared to my old Discovery at £350 a corner!!!

Would welcome any other recommendations from fellow forumees as to what you have found to be a more harder wearing tyre. At this type of wear rate would prefer to spend a bit more on a decent tyre which will have better longevity.

As I have noted through numerous posts the Pirellis are absolute rubbish - must be a good deal Jag has done with them then!

So now just keeping an eye on my rear tread depth and counting down the days before my trusty steed needs re-shoeing.

Thanks very in advance.

 

I'm on Pirellis too, though still some way off replacement. However, I would echo PaulPig's request for recommendations of replacement tyres. I have another issue with them though - they seem to me to be excessively noisy on very gritty roads and motorways. For me, it really spoils this cosseting and otherwise exceptionally refined car.

Has anyone swapped from Pirellis and found a replacement that both lasts longer and is much quieter?

 

Another Dissatisfied Pirelli driver

My 2.2 had 18" Pirellis supplied from new. The fronts are shot on the inner edges and the rears are down to 2mm, after 7500 miles.
That is ridiculous, daily commute of 10 miles each way of which half is city driving, plus the usual shopping trip / visiting relatives etc, nothing too mad you'd have thought.
I'm looking at either Avon ZZ5 or Hankooks to replace them, certainly not going down the Pirelli route. I can't understand why Jaguar fit them in the first place as, retail, they're more expensive than proven longer lasting brands.
I'll conclude that Pirellis aren't fit for (my) purpose.

 

My 2.2 had 18" Pirellis supplied from new. The fronts are shot on the inner edges and the rears are down to 2mm, after 7500 miles.
That is ridiculous, daily commute of 10 miles each way of which half is city driving, plus the usual shopping trip / visiting relatives etc, nothing too mad you'd have thought.

I´ve also had Pirellis factory fitted on mine. When changing them over to winter tires in October they had 4mm (back) and 4,5mm (front) thread left after about 20.000 km of driving - evenly worn.
I must be that either the quality of Pirelli tires varies a lot or there is something wrong with the alignment of the car. Being down to 2mm after only 7.500 miles (and no track driving involved ) I´d go with jagular suggestion and check the alignment.

 

How's the alignment wear? Did you rotate front to rear? Symmetrical inner edge wear results from excessive toe out (or insufficient toe in) which commonly develops after the suspension is run in if the factory set the alignment too close to one tolerance limit. I'd get the alignment checked when new tires are fitted.

I had my XF aligned and it made a noticeable difference to handling. However, even my Pirelli winter tires are lasting longer than that!

 

I've not rotated the wheels at all, the car drives straight hands free. I'll have the full laser jobbo done when the new ones are fitted, that certainly helped on the 2.7

 

Driving straight is no indication of correct toe in at the front as no thrust angle is developed, the steering rack just self centres. Only if the toe changes asymmetrically will you notice the steering wheel go off center. Road camber effect can mask this symptom also.

If due to suspension settling in after initial running in then the change in toe is likely symmetrical. Do you notice any squirrelly behaviour under medium braking forces? If so then toe out is likely the problem.

 

Having talked to many contacts in the Tyre trade it is the general feeling that Pirelli P Zero tyres are not good for wear /mileage and should be avoided.I am old enough to remember the Pirelli Cints and how we all craved for them on our cars in the 60s & 70s for grip and good mileage so what has gone wrong Pirelli I wonder? My new Sportbrake came with Pirelli P Zeros and I am trying to negotiate with my dealer to swap them from another car with Dunlops as I have read too many horror stories on this Forum and others about the Italian brand.Jaguar please take note about the complaints on this brand of tyre and stop fitting them as original equipment to our cars.

 

Having talked to many contacts in the Tyre trade it is the general feeling that Pirelli P Zero tyres are not good for wear /mileage and should be avoided.

..unless dry grip & handling are top of your priorities. The first EVO article about an XF, the Sv8 in Nevada, quotes Mike Cross as saying that the chassis was optimised around Volans and P Zeros. Obviously, not the top choice for a Prius or Leaf, though.

 

I had P0s on my SV8 and was very happy with them getting around 22-24k miles. I have Dunlops on my new car and I actually preferred the grip from the Pirellis. I don't drive in economy mode so maybe I've been lucky but I've changed them a few times and was very satisfied (covered over 70k miles).

 

High performance tires are worn out after five years regardless of remaining tread life. The rubber goes hard.

Seen in that light it is pretty pointless to build such a tire to last much longer than 20-30k miles, particularly for anywhere with winter temperatures. If ambient temperatures drop below 7C those P Zeros must be replaced by cold weather tires. If you try to drive in the cold with those P Zeros wear rates will go up and grip will disappear. If you use cold weather tires then you'll be lucky to wear out the P Zeros before they die from old age.

The general rule with tires is the faster they wear out the more grip they deliver. The current exception appears to be the Michelin Pilot SuperSports which seem to defy this principle for reasons not clear. The other exception is using tires for temperatures they are not designed for, then you get the high wear rates and no grip!

 

Am disappointed with tyre wear on my 2.2 diesel. At 16,460 miles treads are down to 4mm on 3 tyres and 3.5mm on the other. Pirelli P7s are fitted.
Pirellis did not last long on my X Types either.

Big question is what to replace them with?

Jagjohn

 

I bought 59 reg 3ltr diesel in January with 9.5k on the clock. P zeros allround and I assumed these were the originals. They were down to around 4+ mm, but the fronts were worn more on the inner edges. In june I replaced 2 with Dunlop Sport 01 which I put on the rear and transferred the rears to the front. In 2000 milesthe new tyres, on the rear were down to 6-6.5mm, even tho' the tracking was checked at the time of fitting and when I noticed the excessive wear. At that rate I'll be lucky to get 7k out of them. Neither Jaguar nor Dunlop were interested. I've put them on the front now to see how they wear there, but my initial conclusion is that for some reason some XFs get through tyres quicker than others, irrespective of driving style/roads etc. I'm thinking of Michelin Primacies to replace the next 2 that wear out-has anybody tried these?

The problem is that even if my tyres last only 8k miles, that's 18mnths driving for me, not long in mileage terms but long enough in time to mean it's difficult to apply any lessons I learn from whatever tyres I choose, as I'll probably get rid of the car in 1-2 yrs time.

 

I have Michelin primacy on my Subaru BRZ. They are an adequate tire but grip will be substantially inferior to ultra high performance summer tires. I am scrapping the primacy because they do not perform well at the limits of handling on my BRZ. They probably work better on a sedan but I'm sceptical.

Rapid wear and good grip go together. Michelin Supersports are supposedly hard wearing and grippy.

 

Don't really understand the wear. Even on my SV8 I got between 20k-24k miles out of them and this was over 70k miles! The tyres were Pirelli PZeros every time so pretty consistent. I currently have Dunlops on my XFR and they've done just over 8k miles and look pretty good so far so expect around the same from these.

 

I don't understand it either. I've looked at a lot of posts re tyre wear and there was a huge variation in results-some owners getting 20k+ and others less than 10k. In my case most of the 2k on the Dunlops was done on holiday, so mainly motorway and A roads and yet the Dunlops still wore badly. I decided I'd just have to put up with it. I'll just try something different next time, hence the query re the Primacy, which has good test results. I'm not after the ultimate grip just good grip and acceptble wear, say 15k+.

 

Keith, not sure if you've had 4 wheel tracking checked. This is a bit of an issue with XFs and could be accellerating the wear rate. Apparently 2 wheel tracking isn't enough. Just a thought as I can't think of any other reason for such severe wear apart from a bad batch of tyres.
the new Michelin super sports seem to be getting a good write up but not sure of longevity, worth considering I'd say.
Good luck!

 

Yes 4 wheel tracking checked by Stratstone when tyres fitted and by tyre retailer with modern tracking equipment when excessive wear noticed. Nothing amiss second time so have to assume Stratstone got it right the first time. Dunlop said tyres wear faster when new and then wear slows down-sounded like bull***t to me but difficult to argue and I wasn't about to fork out for another 2 tyres to allow Dunlop to test the tyres and then tell me they were OK! I'll try another make next time.

 

Yes, tread wear rates slow down as tread depth decreases and tire ages. Less tread squirm and slightly harder rubber as the tire wears and ages.

 

Oh, good job I didn't argue with the man at Dunlop!

Thanks for your input, you live and learn even at 64. Got to go and do the sprouts now. Happy Christmas

 

I have only just replaced the rears on mine at 37,454 miles and the fronts still have 4mm left on them. I have never had a car so light on tyres.

 

The word Saint comes to mind That is an extraordinary achievement, do you constantly check pressures etc ?

 

Peacocksean, are you sure the odometer's not still clocking up the miles at night while the car's in the garage/on the drive? (smiley face thing)

 

Well having read most of the posts about tyre wear, the only conclusion seems to be that mileage can vary from 10,000 mile to 37,000 miles! Some have suggested a 4 wheel tracking be done, others have had it done and it was OK. Poor tracking usually results in differing wear across the tyre tread and mine is OK so it is not that. I do not push the car anywhere near its limits but enjoy its roadholding ability on minor roads so I guess that must be the problem. The XF is really a motorway only car then.
It looks as if I want longevity of tyres then I will have to drive it like Ford Escort!! In which case, why did I buy the car?
There seems to be no conclusion on the best tyre to use as Dunlops and Michelins have both had problems.
Ah well, you can't have everything!

 

Incorrect toe when combined with incorrect tire pressure variations can cause more rapid tire wear than normal without it appearing to be uneven wear.

Our Alfa 164 is a demon tire eater whereas the almost identical SAAB 9000 is very easy on tires. My SAAB has much more torque and power but almost zero front camber and a beam rear axle (almost zero rear camber). The Alfa runs -2.4 degrees front camber!!! And the only way to keep tire wear halfway reasonable is to set front toe at zero. I know which car handles better but it comes at a big cost difference in tire wear.

However, I suspect these big heavy cars wear their tires out more or less quickly depending on driving style. It is important to have the alignment set to suit your driving style if there is enough range of adjustment.