Lexus is250 tyre inner wear

[jackcramerr]

I got advisory inner tyres wear is close to legal limit. The tyres have a lot of life in them. Bridgestone and had them no so long ago.

Suggestions? Thinking of taking to kwikfit for check and get it done there.

 

[jackcramerr]

[scudney]

If you want a proper 4 wheel geometry/wheel alignment done i wouldn't personally go to kwikfit 🤔

[Texas]

If you go to Quick-Rip you’ll need a new exhaust, brake pads & an Air Con re-charge I bet!

[Sundance]

Haha ... there's just two highly sceptical views of Kwik Fit and I don't blame them for many branches seem to work on a commission structure for fault finding! 🤨

I think the general view is to politely deflect any other recommendations that the Kwik Fitters suggest, claim a shortage of time but ask them to kindly put the faults in writing so that you can be reminded for next time.  Chances are that at this point they will suddenly begin to back-track (no pun intended). 😀

After all, you may not have an alternative option for a wheel alignment facility in your area. 🤔

[Mr Vlad]

Who gave you that advisory? From your pictures your tyres look fine and dandy to me. Even wear across the tread. Do you have a tyre tread depth gauge? If not spend a few quid and measure them yourself. 

[ColinBarber]

Yes they are fine. In your case the secondary diagonal treads can be completely worn and it is still perfectly legal. Only the primary vertical groves need to be 1.6mm or more, and only the middle 75% of the tyre is measured anyway.

[Sundance]

There's no question that those treads are perfectly legal, just that the inner wear is clearly greater than the outer as is particularly evident from the first pic which has rightly prompted the OP to think that alignment would not be a bad idea.  An objective observation with which it is surely difficult to disagree.

[ColinBarber]

31 minutes ago, Sundance said:

An objective observation with which it is surely difficult to disagree.

Well it is impossible to tell if the inner primary tread has less depth than the outer one just by the pictures. Yes the very inner edge is worn but that could be down to regularly driving over speed cushions rather than an alignment issue.

[LenT]

Looking at the tread depth indicators, it’s clear that the tread depth is still legal - but equally obvious that it’s uneven.

Clearly this should be addressed because it’s wasteful with regard to tyre life and inefficient when it comes to overall driving performance.  However, while 1.6mm may be the legal limit, whether it should be regarded as an acceptable minimum is debatable.

Personally I start to think about new tyres at about 3mm.  Interestingly (well you be the judge) in May 2017 Michelin revealed the results of tests they conducted on 26 different tyres.  They claimed that wet braking distances almost doubled on some examples as they approached the legal minimum.  Somewhat confusingly they also claimed that motorist were replacing tyres too early in their tread life, creating huge amounts of general waste.

Unsurprisingly the point of this research was to support their claim that Michelins were specifically designed and constructed to maintain their wet weather performance right down to the legal limit.  

Now I’m generally a fan of Michelin, but I would be nervous of trying to power a tyre with, say, 2mm of tread, through a sheet of standing water that’s, say, 4mm deep, because I am not convinced that its water dispersal ability is anywhere near what it was at 6 mm.

[LenT]

15 minutes ago, ColinBarber said:

Yes the very inner edge is worn but that could be down to regularly driving over speed cushions rather than an alignment issue.

Very true and an increasing problem where speed cushions are a popular form of ‘traffic calming’, such as any of the towns near us!  However the recommended method of keeping only one wheel on the cushion, so that the tyre is always flat on the road surface, can result in broken coil springs.  I speak from experience!

Another problem occurring in Milton Keynes is uneven tyre wear because so much of the driving is negotiating roundabouts.  Apparently this is also reflected in uneven brake wear.

[ColinBarber]

16 hours ago, jackcramerr said:

Bridgestone and had them no so long ago.

How long? Quite a bit of cracking on the outer tread. Have you run them under-inflated at some point?

[Linas.P]

I think there are few factors here - in my experience IS250 tends to wear outside more when on recommended tyre pressures. I used to run my IS250 2-3PSI higher and that made thread wear more even overall. Second thing, alignment is the obvious one - if they toe out or have excessive negative camber this will be result (have you done alignment when fitting new tyres?) . Third thing bushings on IS250 are very compliant and under braking they result in toe out - there are aftermarket bushings which improves on that, but they hardly worthy for IS250 (more of IS-F thing). Finally, this could be result of those nasty speed humps, stranding them destroys inner edges, going over them destroys suspensions and spines - just a way of living in UK.

[Texas]

 +1 on the Lower control arm bush having some bearing on inner tyre tread wear, I have been doing some searching ( for bush problem in another thread) and it seems that the OEM bushes are quite compliant for a smooth ride ( after all it is a Lexus) but maybe at the cost of abnormal tyre wear when the bushes are past their best.

[jackcramerr]

Thanks guys. Got so many replies today. Much appreciated.

 

- MOT was done at Halfords who gave the advisory

- I checked and had replaced front two years back. So it has been a while now. I replaced rears last year and confused it with them

- I rotate tyres on yearly service

- I keep rear 41/42 PSI and front 39/40 psi. There is slow leak on one of the front tyres due to wheel corrosion so it has been driven under inflated

- I did the alignment today at kwikfit. Independents were off today and I hardly get time.

- results are attached for the alignment 

-hardly any speed bumps  the area

 

 

[Sundance]

Good job jack, well done.  Solid correction on the front judging by the results.  Plenty more miles in those tyres providing you don't scrag 'em. 😉

[Linas.P]

2 hours ago, jackcramerr said:

- I rotate tyres on yearly service

What sizes do you run if you can rotate? 

[jackcramerr]

Hi Linas

 

By rotate I mean left goes to right. They are staggered wheels so I cannot put fronts to back.

[Mr Vlad]

You rotate left to right on the same axle?

Errrrrr are your tyres Not directional?

[Sundance]

I'll try and help you out here jack. 😉

Vladimir, it's clear, he means that he swaps nearside to offside and visa-versa ... and yes, on the same axle ... but not front to back (axle) due to different sizes.   Capeesh ... ? 🙂

[Linas.P]

1 hour ago, jackcramerr said:

By rotate I mean left goes to right. They are staggered wheels so I cannot put fronts to back.

It is not what tyre rotations means, nor how it is done... that is why I was slightly confused. Usually for cars with "square" set-up tyres are rotated to prolong the life, because they wear more on driving axle. On staggered set-up there is no way to rotate the tyres and it is first time I have ever heard of anyone rotating tyres on the same axle. Even if they are not directional (Brigestone Turanzas are not directional) I struggle to see benefit of such rotation. Assuming your rear tyres wear quicker due to car being RWD rotating this way doesn't help at all.

I know that on some AWD cars is recommended to cross-rotate tyres, but even then it is taking rear tyres, putting on opposite side front and likewise for front - put them on opposite side rear. Importantly as Vlad said - you can't do this with directional tyres and you basically don't need to do that with staggered set-up.

Finally, although it is kind of waste of time this is not the reason why you have inner edge wear, so this rotation topic is kind of irrelevant. 

[Sundance]

Streuth, this is taking being pedantic to a whole new level.  OK, so the poor guy perhaps should have used 'swap' rather than 'rotation'.  Holy moly ... pettifogging for the sake of pettifogging. 🙄

[Linas.P]

No it is not about the language or the term used. It is about the purpose and practicality - staggered set-up cannot be rotated. In case of directional tyres (which most of UHP tyres are) this is outright dangerous and would result in poor performance and excessive wear... and in case of non-directional tyres it is simply not needed... because purpose of rotation is to move tyres to another axle to even wear between axles, wear on same axle is generally the same so rotating left to right just makes no sense.

[Mr Vlad]

Blimey Linas your statement about the Turanza not being a directional tyre made me just go out and look at mine! Mine which ate the T005 don't have an arrow for direction But as clear as day the word Outside. Now that could just be because the tyre has a rim protective lip which is one of the reasons I got them. 

Gary you need to tell us your cars tyre sizes front and back and what tyres are on the car.

[jackcramerr]

Looks like the term is rotate. And should he done. Says the manual.