I have the same tires on my 550i sport and they look exactly the same but after 32K miles. You reall need to keep the pressures higher . Specs call for 35 lbs up front and 39lbs in the rear. Just yesterday I replaced the rears which were completly smooth down the middles and some excess wear on the inside from the negative camber. Unles you really want the absolute best handling, try and have the alignment man reduce the negative camber on front and rears and you'll see much longer wear. My factory tires were Conti's and they only last 16K before the Michelin Pilot A/s Sports . Don't know if Toe is a problem as I would think you would have only inside or outside wear issues with to much toe. I'm sure others may know better than me.

 

Considering that the wear is happening on the outermost edge only - tire pressure isn't the problem. I still say it looks like the wheel is toed in, that will cause excessive wear and will cause chunks of even the best tires to come off. If you look at the pics you can see scrape marks on the tire that go in a generally different direction than the tire rotation, looks like toe in is the problem to me.

 

Omg I know I'd be mad Pilots aren't cheap

 

Hey Mel, I'm Mel

 

I'll post another picture once I get to my home computer to get a better veiw but I think there is also similar wear in the inside but not as severe. So I don't know how a toe in problem would effect both sides of the tire. I'm leading towards a manufacturing issue.

 

I had the same exact issue on my previous car, 2005 A6, even just after I had an alignment done. I thought it was a bad alignment job too, but now im not so sure. I was on the same Pilot Sport A/S tires.

 

BMW mounted and balanced Conti DWS tires that I got from Tire Rack on my 2008 535XI. After ~5K miles, dealer told me tires were "cupping" probably due to bad alignment (my fault of course) - but could only check alignment by performing an alignment for $200+. Called Conti and they directed me to a local dealer who looked at the tires and also felt the cupping was from alignment. However, Conti offered to give me credit towards a new set - even though it was "my fault". Guess I'm saying if you think it's a tire issue - go directly to the manufacturer and try to work out something with them.

 

I have seen this before, on cars in towns with loads of round abouts, if not the case, seek out a good BMW KDS, and speak to the tyre manafacture technical line