I own a 2000 S80 T-6 with 22,000 miles. The tires have been rotated at 7500 and 15000 miles. At current mileage the front tires are worn to the wear bars and the rear tires have just a little left. The insides of both front tires are worn bald, I believe the ball joints are bad (to be looked at by dealer in a couple weeks). The tires (MXM4's) front and back run on 35 psi. Is this the mileage I should expect out of these tires? If the ball joints are bad, and seeing as the car is under warranty, is Volvo under any obligation to me for what I believe is the early demise of my tires?

Here is a very good site for tire reviews and comparisons. Used it when searching for new tires about a year ago. Decided on the Michelin XGT Pilot Z4 205/55-16 for my '98 V70 AWD. Excellent tire!! Too bad the car turned out to be a lemon (see posts upder "'98 V70 AWD harness burn")

Regards,
Nick

Hi, had a '98 S90 equipped with Michelins. I tried to get the dealer to swap to a different tire when I bought the car because of prior bad experience with Michelins. That wasn't going to happen and the tires were worn out in 17000 miles. The dealer said I had to deal with Michelin so I did. Michelin's attempt at making a deal with me was laughable so I went back to the dealer and, after much wrangling, the dealership split the cost of new set of tires with me. I was happy but the solution could have been arrived at in amuch more timely manner. For the record, the car is no longer mine and I sleep much better these days.

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Roy Olson

I ask because Michelin has tires with a wide range of treadlife expectations.

Hi Bart, wish I could remember, defintiely V-rated but the rest of the info escapes me. I do know that Michelin touted wear expectations for these tires at around 40K. I had so many other problems with the car that tire life became secondary. The replacements were still going strong at 55K when I was finally able to get rid of the car.
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Roy Olson

We've about the same mileage on our S80 T6 with MXM4 tires. They've worn down about 2/32 to 3/32 inch very evenly across the tread. Rotated them every 3000 miles for first 12,000, then every 5000 since then. Put 34 ppsi in the front and 27 ppsi in the rear to get the same tire bulge on all tires for full-width contact patch with the car fully loaded. Will probably get 60,000 miles our of them before they're down to the wear bars.

If your front tires are bald on their inside edges, I think there's an alignment or suspension problem.

At about 12,000 miles when I was rotating the tires at home and making regular checks for even tire wear across the tread to monitor alignment (plus I do this to clean the black brake dust off the wheels), I noted that all four tires had a barely noticiable amount of extra wear on their outside edges. Took the car to our favorite tire shop and had the alignment checked. Both front and one rear was a tad misaligned. After they got set right, the last 10,000 miles have shown very even wear across the tread.

Our S80 had a suspension problem at about 20,000 miles where there was a 'clunk' when either front tire was sprung hard up into the wheel well. Took it in to dealer and they replaced a worn tie or connecting rod on the right side and put larger rubberish front bushings on each side at some location. This is a Volvo S80 service note for warranty work. I don't know what extra tire wear this might have caused, but the service manager said it would eventually cause bad tire wear.

Don't know if your S80 has these same problems, but I'd get it to a dealer and have it checked.