Flipping Tyre Wear

[Cotswold Pete]

Just noticed bad tyre wear on nearside front, and wanted some opinions. Been keeping a close eye on wear, but all of a sudden the rubber goblins have been at it again.

See photo, of wear (at bottom as I cannot seem to get it to go here)

Question 1 - Why does it scrub such a small section, and really wear it out?

Question 2 - Had full front alignment 11,000 miles ago (this time last year at Chris Mullins, Glos), is this just the bad luck of living in the UK with potholes? Or could it be speed humps (which I always approach with caution)

Question 3. Given my UCAs are fine (so Osaka say), could it be as a result of new shocks (does not seem likely) not aware that new shocks mean you need alignment check?

Driving back from work tonight, the car seems to go in a straight line on flat road, would have thought camber out would have made car steer a little odd!!!

I think I am going to go visit Mullins or ProTyre this weekend and get alignment checked out.

Question 4. If the alignment is fine, what the heck can it be.  

I had similar problems last year, which is why I got alignment done.  I have attached my sheet from last July, and did not get rears done, but the rears approaching 40,000 and although not quite even wear still got another 3 or 4K in them.

Any thoughts welcome.

[Matt1986]

Mine had the same issue. I spoke with my tyre guy and he said that these cars will eat tyres on the outer edge due to the weight of the vehicle when cornering and roundabouts if you do a lot of town driving. Get a proper 4 wheel alignment at a decent garage. Absolutely transformed mine!

The likes of kwik fit etc are rubbish and when I was last in an f1 autocenter looking for someone to do a 4 wheel alignment the guy even said "we don't do that, we just adjust the track rods. Its the biggest ripoff going" 😲

[jonthetourist]

If Pete is using Osaka and Chris Mullins he has already identified the most competent technical folks in the area.

[olliesgrandad]

27 minutes ago, jonthetourist said:

If Pete is using Osaka and Chris Mullins he has already identified the most competent technical folks in the area.

I'll second that. Chris has an extremely good reputation and I have used him now for a number of years. 

 

[Malc]

two weeks ago noticed excessive wear on front tyres inside edges ......  and it had the Laser Alignment done at Treadmark / Protyre back in January after all the UCAs etc were replaced

Reading today was that the fronts were " out " a little and had it all reset ...  £30 .......  so let's hope that solves the undue wear

I had crashed into two potholes this last week so that might have buggered up the readings of course too

These front tyres have covered I think about 14k miles so far .........  maybe 50% of their life span I would think ( or it was before the uneven inside wear )

[BigBoomer]

I wore out my 2 rear Avon ZZ5s in the middle, but not at the edge. They managed only 15k miles.
There were 2 reasons for it.
1- For a few months they were over inflated due to a dicky gauge on my inflator (40psi instead of 33).
2- For several months I had first a defective O2 sensor, then recently an exhaust leak so TCS/VSC was disabled (all now fixed).
(I still don't understand why an emissions problem would disable 2 safety systems)

I think 2 had more to do with the wear than 1, but 1 made sure that the wear was confined to the middle of the tread.
I mean, who can resist doing doing the occasional burnout when you have 280bhp under your right foot? 
So now I have no excuse, as I actually have to push the TRC OFF button to do burnouts. 😎

[Daveyboy20]

The outer edge of my front 2 is worn out and I've recently had the wheels aligned.  I do have wider wheels on there but i can't see how that would affect it?

[Cotswold Pete]

On 7/10/2019 at 8:36 PM, Matt1986 said:

The likes of kwik fit etc are rubbish 

Totally agree kwik fit etc, avoid unless your are desperate or do not care about getting the best out of your LS.

I just cannot get my head around what a waste it is that the tyre has the potential for lots of miles, but edge wear due to weight on cornering halves (at the very least) the mileage.

Either Friday or Saturday off the Chris Mullins to see whats what.

I do not do a lot of town driving, so that's why surprised how my Maxxis are scrubbed, mind you some ruddy huge pot holes were visited just recently.  Maybe the view is if you by an LS from new  then replacing front tyres every 20K (or less) is well within ones wallet capability.  

[plexus914]

Don't you rotate tires? Lexus recommends tire rotation at approx. 7500 miles on a 96 model.

[Malc]

does anybody do this  ?

Malc

[C Mclean]

8 minutes ago, Malc said:

does anybody do this  ?

Malc

Only in the USA where they are conned left, right and centre by dealerships doing unnecessary work like oil changes every couple of thousand miles or months, whichever comes first.

[Cotswold Pete]

2 hours ago, plexus914 said:

Don't you rotate tires? Lexus recommends tire rotation at approx. 7500 miles on a 96 model.

 

Only makes sense if you have 4 tyres the same from my experience. Did do it in the past, but meant you ended up with 4 tyres with odd profiles which did not help handling.

Given my rears have done over 40K, if I was rotating with fronts I would probably find rears only lasting 25K miles.  So you end up throwing away more tyres when you have still got good amount of tread left across 90% width.

So my take on this is, if I have change tyres, best to just replace fronts.

I have noticed the off-side is also scrubbed, but not as much, so for sure will swap the fronts around.

On the waste front it seems shocking to have cars not using all  that rubber before it gets put into landfill.

Given I do not tear-arse around roundabouts seems like tyre walls should be stiffer on outside than inside, as surely this would help, though it might increase road noise??

[ambermarine]

Pete

The tyre industry recycling code does not allow tyres to go to Landfill these days and most local authorities will not accept them at there recycling centres nor will they allow them to go in landfill sites.

The tyres are churned by specialist recycling companies and used for all sorts of applications such as childrens playgrounds surfaces bedding blankets for large animals workshop flooring etc.

[Malc]

I've often seen them ( tyres ) in use by farmers and the like for the inexpensive building of compounds and barriers, even if they are then covered over by soil whatever ....  effective, long lasting and usually free I would guess 

Malc

[Daveyboy20]

Kwik fit are incompetent - the whole company is *******! Their 4 wheel alignment is a con

[runsgrateasanut]

Is it a Tyre pressure problem. What pressure do you put in your front tyres?

[Matt1986]

Just to add that the front strut rod bushes were replaced on mine recently and this seems to have helped with wear quite a bit as well. Also handling seems better. 

[Newbie1]

On 7/11/2019 at 8:55 PM, Daveyboy20 said:

The outer edge of my front 2 is worn out and I've recently had the wheels aligned.  I do have wider wheels on there but i can't see how that would affect it?

Changing from factory wheels probably means a change in offset from factory spec which will alter suspension geometry. 

[Cotswold Pete]

On 7/13/2019 at 1:01 PM, runsgrateasanut said:

Is it a Tyre pressure problem. What pressure do you put in your front tyres?

I run at 34psi all round.  Given that is slightly above recommended 33psi, I would have expected no problems with sides.

I wonder if tyres with softer walls tend to wear more, but in past with Nexen or Falken the tyres did seem to last longer than these Maxxis.

I also think the Maxxis are given me a rougher ride than usual, so need to work out what is best to replace them with. 

Going to be ££ as all four wheels will need replacing.

[runsgrateasanut]

52 minutes ago, Cotswold Pete said:

I run at 34psi all round.  Given that is slightly above recommended 33psi, I would have expected no problems with sides.

I wonder if tyres with softer walls tend to wear more, but in past with Nexen or Falken the tyres did seem to last longer than these Maxxis.

I also think the Maxxis are given me a rougher ride than usual, so need to work out what is best to replace them with. 

Going to be ££ as all four wheels will need replacing.

Interesting. I run the fronts on 31psi unless I am fully loaded (and I mean fully loaded!) when I will put in 34.  Perhaps I have this wrong?

My experience with the Nexens was the opposite to yours and I had the rear Nexens replaced with Maxxi's last year as I thought they had worn badly.  Mind you the Tyre place did say there was another 2k on them.

[Malc]

55 minutes ago, Cotswold Pete said:

the Maxxis

I'm using Maxxis   All Seasons    tyres which seem a little challenging to obtain

I find these pretty good

I did use Falkens until they became more or less unavailable so I changed to Maxxis

Now the ' new ' Falkens are available in our size, a new tyre it seems, I will go possibly with Falken next time around

Malc

[Cotswold Pete]

1 minute ago, Malc said:

I'm using Maxxis   All Seasons    tyres which seem a little challenging to obtain

I find these pretty good

 

Mine are Maxxi Premitra S, really not sure about them at all.  I think I have going to try putting them on the back rear to see how they behave, it's almost like having them on the front it feel like I am driving with off-road tyres most of the time, and on some new road surfaces in Stroud area feels like I am driving over rumble strips, which I put down to the front tyres.

Looking at the  Falken ziex

It seems to E rated for efficiency , but never worked out if it really makes much difference given the LS fuel consumption.  

[runsgrateasanut]

On 7/15/2019 at 9:13 AM, Cotswold Pete said:

I run at 34psi all round.  Given that is slightly above recommended 33psi, I would have expected no problems with sides.

.

Pete,

According to my Owners Manual the cold tyre pressure for the Car is 30psi not 33 psi which is for fronts fully loaded. Rear would be 39psi fully loaded.

Would explain the side wear. unless your Car is seriously heavier than the earlier model?  

[Malc]

On 7/15/2019 at 10:36 AM, Cotswold Pete said:

Mine are Maxxi Premitra S, really not sure about them at all.

I  had a different type of Maxxis tyre before I changed all 4 to the " All Seasons " style

Theses are totally different in tread pattern and seem a whole lot improved for road holding than the Maxxis NON All Seasons variety

just my thoughts having experienced two different types of Maxxis tyres

Malc

[Cotswold Pete]

3 hours ago, runsgrateasanut said:

According to my Owners Manual the cold tyre pressure for the Car is 30psi not 33 psi which is for fronts fully loaded.

Just re-read the manual, and seems like I have been reading the wrong bit, and given the only thing the car carries is me the missus, and the Lexus wooden bonnet strut, and 100mph is a fantasy (though did touched 95 last night when I managed to squeeze by a Sunday driver out very early).

So will drop to 30, suspect that will make the right a bit better, and see what it does to tyres.

Thanks for pointing out the actual facts in the manual, and my wife will merely confirm I do not read things properly.