I bought my brand new car in October 2020. When I went back in August 2021, the associate at Lexus insisted that I needed new tires or I would be in big trouble. He pushed so hard to get new tires. Fast forward to my October 2021 maintenance, and my boyfriend happened to be with me, and the same guy didn’t mention one word about new tires.
Anyways, is it true that I need to be getting tires less than once a year on the IS300 AWD F sport? Or do tires last as long as other cars?


Thanks!

 

^^ The IS has been known to have some preliminary front tire wear but I doubt the issue would be that severe within 1 year of ownership, unless of course you do lots of mileage - Can you share what is the odometer reading?

Also - Welcome to the forum

 

I do drive a lot. I go on road trips.
It’s at 23k right now!


& thank you

 

Humm well, that amounts to about 37 000 km which by normal tire standards is not enough to be an issue. That being said, I am sure that as you know, if you drive aggressively, that could have an impact on the tire wear. Additionally, if you have hit any significant potholes and put your alignment out of whack, that could also play a factor.

To me, all things being normal, you should be good for a while still but I also know that with winter upon us, and you do live in a snowy state, your all-season tires (I suspect that is what you have) may be getting at a point where they could be worn out to provide adequate traction. To me, if you run your car year round (I don't drive my IS in the winter), I would invest in snow tires and winter rims and just drive your OEM tires during the spring/summer/fall. I know this would be asking a lot but if you could post a pic of the tire wear, that would help.

Finally, the other option is also take it to another tire shop and just ask for an opinion. No one wants to replace tires unnecessarily but at the same time, if you are going to drive them in the winter with snow, you just need one moment of bad luck and that could cost a lot more than tire replacements. My best advice would be to get dedicated tires for the season and keep your all seasons for the rest of the year, that way, the all season can be stretched a bit longer and the winter tires will provide you a safer drive/handling in the white season.

Hope I didn't muddy the situation

 

You did not muddy the waters and I appreciate the feedback!

I actually hate driving in the snow so I avoid it at all costs. I understand what your saying though if I do have to drive in the snow, don’t have good traction and get into an accident. Def don’t want that to happen.
please see attached photos of my front tire!

 

^^ So I will see if others and more experts can chime in however, from what I can see, these tires would still be good for driving in most conditions but again, not in a snowy situation. It is possible that your service advisor was worrying the approaching winter conditions and such, but from a spring/summer/fall type of situation, these would still be good for a little while. On the 1st pic, it is hard to tell but it looks like the side is showing some excessive wear but it could be an illusion because I don't see it in your bottom pic. Are these the same tire in both pics?

I stick to my statement that for peace of mind, winters for Nov-Mar would be the safest best and then drive these tire from April to early Nov - That is what I do with my daily drivers (not my Lexus). Sure it cost a bit more to buy a set of dedicated tires but it gives you the peace of mind, also prolongs the other tires longer.

 

measure the tread depth - if you are around 4/32 or less you definitely need new tires. the stock tires are crap on most cars

 

If you want to check the tires yourself instead of listening to the tire shop, you could also just pick up a tread depth gauge. They are pretty inexpensive and will come in handy. It'll look like this:




Tread at 4/32" deep is considered the bare minimum on which you should be driving. Once my tires get to that level, I start tire-shopping. At 2/32", in the US, it is technically illegal to drive on them. I used to live in MO as well and did not take any chances with low tread in the snow. Honestly yours don't look that bad though, and you might be fine until next winter.

The important thing, especially with the IS, is to measure at multiple spots across the tire and not just in the most convenient spot. The inner part of the tire is going to wear faster, on average, compared to the outer. Even if just the inside part of the tire goes bald, you will still have issues.

 

Thanks for the feedback Arentz and kittens - Yeah, that tool is handy for sure and as you said, just not in the middle but inspect the sides of the tires to make sure there are no bald spots.

Wished they made a hair meter to measure the hair depth and identify the bald spots (lol) - Although my meter would not be good news

 

On average about 25k miles from what I've seen. I've been able to push it to 30K miles. My rears wear slower than fronts but I just recently went for square set up so I can rotate them. You should look into that if you want to maximize tire life + upgrade to RCF/GSF bushings (not expensive to do) for inner tire wear

 

Yeah and to give my experience with my 2016 IS 300 AWD, I managed to get about 21,000 miles out of my first set of tires. The inner parts of the front tires were bald.

 

Many people have replaced the inner bushings with RCF/GSF ones. As previously stated, inexpensive and easy to replace. If a shop does it, they should not charge more than one hour's labor.
It doesn't take that long. https://www.clublexus.com/forums/is-...tire-wear.html

 

I'll just share my experience since we had an inner tire wear issue recently. A little background, we have a 2016 IS300 AWD F Sport which had brand new tires installed when we purchased it. I also swap over to winter wheels and tires every winter (since we've owned it) and it has GSF lower control arm bushings (installed about 2,000 miles after the new tires were installed). Also had an alignment.
About a month ago, our IS had a tire "failure" while on the highway. We heard a loud sound from the driver's front wheel area and I thought I had hit something. Turns out the inner tire tread wore completely through and the tread separated/split from the sidewall (see photo below). The tire still hasn't lost air pressure but it definitely was an alarming sound. Luckily it was time to swap to the winter wheels but this happened after less than 20,000 miles put on the front set of all season tires (I say less than 20k because half the time is spent on the winter set).
I noticed accelerated inner tire wear when swapping the tires but did not expect this sort of failure only a few thousand miles later. I also thought the GSF bushings and alignment would have been good for something but this seems to be a significant IS issue. I wish there was a definitive solution but looks like IS owners will just need to keep an eye on the inner tire wear and save for new tires sooner than expected.

 

^^ That is indeed concerning and surprising given the stiffer LCA bushings. Are you a very aggressive driver? I am shocked by looking at the middle portion of the tire, the thread still looks quite good and not sure why the side got worn so badly? I have heard of some people tweaking the toe a little bit to avoid also the tire wear. There is no doubt that this issue is once of the IS' annoying/downside however, overall, it is still a fantastic sedan IMO

 

I was shocked as well looking at the rest of the tread. From the center of the tire, I'd say they had at least another 20K miles left in them.
We are not aggressive drivers but this is our "daily" car and it does get a decent amount of city miles. I expect the stop and go traffic has some impact but this seems a bit excessive. The "failure" also occurred on the highway so I have to assume the car is eating up the inner tire at all times (not just while city driving).
I agree the IS is a fantastic car and I do enjoy it but I wish there was a way to permanently solve the inner tire wear. I would go for "stiffer" aftermarket LCA bushings but seeing the GSF bushings had little to no impact, I can't see any aftermarket bushings solving this. An alignment also seems to be useless because we just had the car re-aligned by a master tech at Lexus and he said the previous alignment wasn't bad.