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My tires are ruined

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Old Oct 18, 2010 | 05:11 PM
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Default My tires are ruined

I am fairly new to the forum and this is my fist post.
Thanks for any help


Back in April and about 7k miles ago I had a shop do a 4 wheel alignment and rotate the tires. Today I had the tires rotated again along with a couple of other things done and the mechanic, who I trust shows me the front tires. The inside of both front tires is extremely worn. They are wore on the shoulder of the tires. Also the front tires are almost down to the wear markers and the back tires look like new. Their is only 20k on the tires total. The tires are Kumo Ecsta LX Platnium's.

The problem is when I had the tires rotated back in April the shop rotated the tires as you would a normal vehicle. So I have two different size tires on the front of my vehicle and two different size tires on the rear of my vehicle. The rear tires are fine no problems. It is only the fronts that are messed up.

After that long drawn out explanation my question is, would haveing two different sized tires on the front of the vehicle cause them to wear on the insides so rapidly and also cause the overall tread to wear down at an accelerated rate.
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Old Oct 18, 2010 | 05:14 PM
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you have a gxp? what car? and sometimes when you get an alignment, there are some things that cannot be adjusted without adding a cam kit or slotting the struts. if your camber was out, that will cause wear, if you have a heavy foot, that will cause wear, or if you have loose parts that again will cause wear lol did you not get a printout of your alignment specs?
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Old Oct 18, 2010 | 05:45 PM
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Yeah sorry, I have a 07 Grand Prix GXP 50k miles. I got an alignment print out. Everything was within spec. A cam bolt kit had been previously installed when I first had the car aligned and the tires put on 20k ago. I again had an alignment done and the tires rotated 7k miles ago. My question is more directed towards them messing up the tire rotation. Would having the tires placed in the wrong location cause the unusual wear issue on the front of the vehicle.
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Old Oct 18, 2010 | 06:07 PM
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You aren't supposed to get the tires rotated on a GXP because the wider wheels are supposed to be on the front only. The front wheels are 8 inches wide and the rears are 7 inches wide. Tire size should be 255/45-18 and 225/50-18

If for some reason the tires you have aren't directional, then you could have them taken from the left to the right side of the car, but never front to back like a normal car. If the tires are directional and you've been running them the wrong direction... well...

Last edited by Brangeta; Oct 18, 2010 at 06:15 PM.
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Old Oct 18, 2010 | 06:13 PM
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Also, the alignment would cause the camber, caster, toe-in/out and everything to be correct (or in this case, messed up) and cause the tires to wear like that. The wheels would have looked like there was a lot of weight in the car to wear like that. This is a little dramatic, but you should have been able to notice the wheels leaning like this:
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Old Oct 18, 2010 | 06:15 PM
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I have a couple of questions for you.
1. Do you mean that you had one rear wheel/ tire and one front wheel/ tire on the front?
2. Because the front wheels and tires are wider, why would you rotate them?
There is nothing that can be screwed up with a tire rotation that will lead to premature wear.
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Old Oct 18, 2010 | 06:18 PM
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Originally Posted by LuSe4
There is nothing that can be screwed up with a tire rotation that will lead to premature wear.
Well, running directional tires the wrong direction can wear them out quicker. Can make the car drive poorly too.
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Old Oct 18, 2010 | 06:18 PM
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Originally Posted by Brangeta
Also, the alignment would cause the camber, caster, toe-in/out and everything to be correct (or in this case, messed up) and cause the tires to wear like that. The wheels would have looked like there was a lot of weight in the car to wear like that. This is a little dramatic, but you should have been able to notice the wheels leaning like this:
Negative Camber. Something I had when I dropped my car after installing my springs back in April of this year.

I finally found time to install the revised rear springs and added four camber kits (one per wheel). Very simple to do. I'll eventually head to an alignment shop to get them dialed in correctly.
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Old Oct 18, 2010 | 06:22 PM
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Originally Posted by Brangeta
Well, running directional tires the wrong direction can wear them out quicker. Can make the car drive poorly too.
Especially in the rain.
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Old Oct 18, 2010 | 06:22 PM
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Originally Posted by Brangeta
Well, running directional tires the wrong direction can wear them out quicker. Can make the car drive poorly too.
Right, but the tires he has aren't directional. I checked before I replied.
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Old Oct 18, 2010 | 06:26 PM
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Sorry for 4 posts in one topic, but I keep thinking of more to say.

The front wheels/tires for the front are 8 inches wide. The rears are 7 inches wide. The front wheels are a lot more angled than the rear wheels. The rears on most cars are almost straight up and down, and the fronts have a bit of visible negative camber.

Although I'm not a tire or alignment person by any means, using the factory/proper/stock alignment for a GXP with 7's on the front and 8's on the rear would likely cause the front wheels to be a little over angled and the rears to be a little under angled because of the difference in widths of the wheels.

I would say that is what happened. The reason the rear ones don't show any excessive wear is because they have been running basically straight up and down, while the fronts have been running at too much of an angle.

I think that's right...
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Old Oct 18, 2010 | 06:29 PM
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To clarify the tires are asymetrical not directional, which means they can be rotated side to side and not front to rear. Which is one of the reasons why I got the tires.

LuSe4, Yes had one rear wheel/ tire and one front wheel/ tire on the front.

Outside of alignment issues, would the tires being placed this way cause the wear issues
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Old Oct 18, 2010 | 06:29 PM
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Wait a second, the fronts aren't supposed to fit on the rears. If I remember right, they rub.
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Old Oct 18, 2010 | 06:29 PM
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Also Welcome!!
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Old Oct 18, 2010 | 06:37 PM
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I thought the larger front tires mounted on the rear would rub also but the tire doesn't show any rubbing issues
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Old Oct 18, 2010 | 06:42 PM
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Originally Posted by cthorny528
To clarify the tires are asymetrical not directional, which means they can be rotated side to side and not front to rear. Which is one of the reasons why I got the tires.

LuSe4, Yes had one rear wheel/ tire and one front wheel/ tire on the front.

Outside of alignment issues, would the tires being placed this way cause the wear issues
I would say no. You can run(and some gxp owners do for rotation purposes) all rear tires and wheels on your car with no problems. I would say that you have either a front end problem or the alignment got knocked outta whack.

Another question is if you ended up with one front wheel and one rear wheel up front, where did the person learn to Rotate tires? If done correctly, and assuming they aren't directional, fronts will go to rear and rears to front with the nondrive wheels switching sides.
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Old Oct 18, 2010 | 06:44 PM
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Originally Posted by cthorny528
To clarify the tires are asymetrical not directional, which means they can be rotated side to side and not front to rear. Which is one of the reasons why I got the tires.

LuSe4, Yes had one rear wheel/ tire and one front wheel/ tire on the front.

Outside of alignment issues, would the tires being placed this way cause the wear issues
This is getting confusing. Can you fill in the below chart for your situation? lol

Driver side front wheel and tire: 18x_ and 2__/_0-18
Passenger side front wheel and tire: 18x_ and 2__/_0-18
Driver side rear wheel and tire: 18x_ and 2__/_0-18
Passenger side rear wheel and tire: 18x_ and 2__/_0-18

I looked up those tires and... they look directional to me.


Also, I found this review from someone with an Acura TL (a front wheel drive car vaguely similar in size to our cars):
Rotated tires, saw some uneven wear on the inside of front tires. Had all four wheels alignment checked. All came out ok..these tires only have 13,500 miles and my wide thought there was some fan going out in the car. It is the tires, these are TERRIBLE for noise. Looking at new tires and these are not going to be considered.....
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Old Oct 18, 2010 | 06:45 PM
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Originally Posted by Mels SS
Also Welcome!!
Oh yeah, welcome!
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Old Oct 18, 2010 | 06:51 PM
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Brangeta, they are not directional.
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Old Oct 18, 2010 | 06:52 PM
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I just read quickly and I wanted to write something to make it seem like I learned something in skewl. We have diff sized fronts and backs adn the "rotation" pattern is different then the generic 4x whatever size. Could be a rookie mistake there. Also if the specs brought up on the machine were incorrect, you're screwed. Some cars actually call for +/- camber (which would cause shouldeer wear). I drive like an a-hole too often and I dont get any wear with stock alignment. I appologize if I am not helpful, its been a long day and I will reread in the AM.
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