To start I have 41,500 miles on my car with the oe goodyear assurence tires. I just bought a new set andi plan to have them installed next week. I was looking at my old tires and noticed something odd. They are wearing unevenly around the outside. In some spots the outside treadblock is worn almost flush and some spots the tread on the outside is the same tread depth as the rest of the tire. I was wondering if this is a bad sign or if this is a common occurrence towards the end of the tires treadlife? I was planning on having the alignment checked when I get the tires installed. Edit: I also forgot to mention the tires have been noisy since about 25k miles. The spots alternate between inside and out side and it is almost a perfectly flat ring on each side of the tire that goes about 1/4 to a third around. My tires are roughly at 35 psi all the way around. My mpgs lately have been better than ever (so no effect there).
The wear variation looks trivial to my (untrained) eye. Tires nearing minimum tread depth are not going to be worn perfectly evenly (again, just untrained opinion). You might try an alignment check, just for peace of mind. Personally I wouldn't bother. The only thing readily adjustable is front toe.
It looks to me like there could be some excessive toe-in. Both of our Prii had too much toe-in. On C it was corrected at 5k check, on Gen3 much later.
Ya thats similar to what I hear. Im going to have it realigned next week when my new tires are installed.
either bad alignment or city driving with lots of cornering at higher than slow speeds. should be easy to figure out which of those applies here. if you have tire noise and/or vibration, broken belts is a possibility too.
Please let us know what the alignment check said when you get the numbers back. I have had a similar issue on one of my tires (also Good Year Assurance) that caused a lot of road noise. It helped to put it on the rear.
Is that a common problem? I corrected it myself soon after acquiring mine, by shortening the right tie rod slightly. That simultaneously corrected the off-center steering wheel. Tire wear looks even, so far.
I am not sure but I think it might. McPherson is producing toe-in on compression, so if springs or spring insulators lower after shakedown it may. Irreguardless we have taken last 3 new cars to check alignment and they all needed some kind of adjustment. Alignment was out off spec. If you need to adjust toe 1/6 of the turn roughly corresponds to 0.2 degree, but it is always better to get it measured directly.
Well I just got back from toyota dealer after having alignment done and tires installed. They said my alignment was good and they didn't say anything about the unusual wear on the tires. At least I have peace of mind now. New tires feel great and my ride is a little smoother and noticeably quieter.
do you drive too much at small turn radius (parking, tight city turns, etc)? My tires had similar wear pattern after driving in mountains with tight switchbacks. Gone away after coming back to flat lands.
Usually (nearly always) cupped or scalloped tires result from skipping a tire rotation or two, or not rotating the tires properly. Tire rotation patterns | TireBuyer.com There are nasty fights over tire rotation strategeries, similar to OCI and viscosity wars in the front end of the car, but I never have cupped tires in my personal rides since I almost always buy tires at either Sam's Club or Costco. Their tire balance and rotations are free every 7,500 miles or so although my local club will do them at 5k. - and I maintain tire pressures and assiduously monitor the rotation patterns. Our closest store has never messed up a rotation, but they always leave the tires at OEM specs when they're done. I still check their work (wheels are marked) and I break and re-torque the lugs after about 50 miles, so that I KNOW that they're torqued evenly. If you want to skip that part - all you need to do is check the lugs to make sure that they're tight after 50 miles. It sounds like a lot of work, but it's not really, and I'll get 80K out of a set of tires and over 150K out of the brakes. Really all you need is a decent tire gauge and the lug wrench that's probably already in your car. Your call, but tires aren't getting any cheaper and they're pretty important------especially if you live where it rains or snows, or you haul important cargo like kids and pets. My work car (2010 G3) is at 87K and the second set of tires are already badly scalloped because my beloved company uses maintenance practices that do not include 5,000 mile rotations because............most of their vehicles aren't itty-bitty front wheel drive cars, and cupped tires will last about as long as the smoother ones if you don't mind the thumpity thumpity ride. Cupped tires are worse in the Prius than they are in other ecoboxes because Priuses don't have very much sound insulation. I'm thinking that if you maintain tire pressures at OEM specs plus about 10 percent, and you rotate the tires frequently and use the right pattern, then you'll avoid the problem and your tires will last a little longer. Your call. Good Luck!
Nope. I drive almost all highway miles. The only time ive driven it in the mountains is when I went to visit my grandparents and cousins in Colorado. I rotated every 5k miles until 30k. When I got to 35k miles I decided not to because my tires were nearing the end of their treadlife.
