Front tires are wearing weird. WTFO?

[Mikey1968]

My front tires, specifically the front left tire, is cupping on the inside of the tread. Every other tread block on the inner edge is really cupping while the other tread blocks are wearing normally. I don't feel anything odd going on in the steering. This is making my tires really noisy. Here is my set up:

86 Capri 5.0L with Bridgestone Potenza Eager tires on stock 10 holes
11 inch rotors, cross drilled/slotted mounted on later spindles
Lincoln Continental brake calipers with Bendix Titanium Metallic pads, calipers mounted with Steeda stainless bushings
Subframe connectors, K-member brace, strut tower brace, poly sway bar mounts
257,000 miles on all front-end stuff except the struts and wheel bearings

I feel nothing in the steering that's out of whack. In fact, it feels really tight. No obvious loosness on wheels up/down or side/side. Ball joint indicators look good.

Ideas?
Thanks,
Mikey

 

[stang8urimport]

If there are areas of the tire where the tread is fine and others where it looks like there is no tread at all it is a serperation. The tire is coming apart slowly and will eventually cause the car to pull hard to one side and blow out. Get 'er changed.

 

[mustangsally93]

Take it to a tire place if I was you

 

[bill302]

when was your last front end alignment, you probably just need an alignment, better get one as soon as possible and rotate front tires to the back if all tires are the same size.

 

[Michael Yount]

As others have said, a good tire/alignment shop will help you diagnose -- just a guess, but it may be a toe problem. I'd have 'em look closely at the rack, the rack bushings and tie rod ends.

 

[Mikey1968]

I probably should get an alignment.

Ya know how a tire has a bunch of squares for the tread? Well, every other tread square is cupped as you go around the tire....and only the most inner squares, not all across the tread width. Make sense? I've never seen this before.

I'm used to the feathering you get from cornering but that happens on every tread square, not every other one like this.

 

[bill302]

info from my manual about cupping tire wear as you described in previous thread.

CUPPING
cupping may be caused by:
1. underinflated and/or mechanical irregularities such as out-of-balance condition of wheel and/or tire and bent or damaged wheel.
2. loose or worn steering tie-rod or steering idler arm.
3.loose,damaged or worn suspension parts.

you can push and pull tires left and right and up and down and see excess movement in wheel telling you if steering system has excess play. which is a sign of worn ball joints within tie rod ends,idler arm or ball joint itself. but all these checks are made by front end shop except for entry #1. goodluck and let us know the outcome.

 

[stang8urimport]

Get out there and change that idler arm on your Stang!!

 

[Mikey1968]

Hey, I have an idler arm.....on my 68!!!

I looked again at the tire and it's more like every inner tread block just some were cupped more than the others.

Plan: Schedule a front-end alignment and see what's up. New tires scheduled for this summer or fall. Gotta fix it before then.

Stay tuned!

 

[C_Heath]

Ever beeen wrecked?

 

[Mikey1968]

Actually, C_Heath, it has. But>>>>>

I took it to a good shop here and here's what's wrong:
Inner tie rod on the driver's side is shot (Same side as the cupping).
Passenger wheel bearing pretty loose and driver's side a little loose.
Early wearing on the struts but not too bad.

My plan:
I just tightened the bearings.
Plan on buying a new rack and will go ahead and get the outer tie rods as well...get aligned.
Let the struts wear out more then consider Konis.

Ta Daaaa!
Thanks everyone!
Mikey