What in the hell is this all about (tire wear)!?!

[DooMer_MP3]

So I was going to put the Racing Harts on today. I just ordered some Yokohama AVS ES 100s from tirerack, and figured it would be easier to have the shop just take off my 17s and replace the old Dunlops, instead of carting in my Racing Harts in the car, and having them take off the winter rims, use the proper lugs etc. So I was just going to use the Dunlops (which barely cover lincoln's head in the penny test... ie DONE) for the weekend and part of next week.

So anyhow, I'm waxing my rims, and notice THIS:

Notice the crazy dimple on the left side of the tire in focus. What the hell is this? I sure as s*** didn't see this when I took them off in the fall. Its on 3 of the 4 tires. It is worst on the wheels that came off the right side. It is on the inside part of the wheel. It goes all around. but not the same depth all around.

I DO have SPOOL springs on my car that do about a 1.75-2" drop in front, 1.5" back... The fronts are about 1-1.5 finger gap. I can't imagine I'm rubbing, but maybe I am?! Why wouldn't it be on the left side where I sit all the time? I barely ever have anybody else in my car these days.

Is it from the way I stored the wheels? They were sitting flat ontop of each other in alternating directions for about 4 months now.

I'm curious what this is. I did get an alignment when the springs were installed last April, and sure didn't notice this in July when I rotated.

Help!

Chris

 

[dmhrace]

no kidding all 4 of my dunlops did the same fing thing so i took it to mazda and they couldnt figure it out my car was there all day and they said all the suspension was up to mazdas specs so i went to get tires at Discount Tire Store and they couldnt figure it out either so now i have yoko's and i told mazda if it happens to these tires they are buying me new ones and paying for these yoko's(uhm)

 

[DooMer_MP3]

Thanks for the response. For the record, did you change the suspension at all? Or are you on the stock MP3 struts/springs? I mean, my tires are on the end of their life. I could probably get 500-600 miles more out of them, but I didnt put them on because I wasn't sure what the deal was. I imagine you don't have to take yours off for the winter, being in Phoenix...

I just hope this doesn't happen to my new Yokos!

Chris

 

[2K3 MSP]

I have Spool springs and never saw anything like that with my stock tires, or my Neo-Gens. Maybe a problem with the Dunlops?

 

[DooMer_MP3]

The crazy thing is that I didn't notice this when cleaning the wheels/tires off in the fall. I mean, as soon as I took them out of the garbage bags today, I noticed it right away. Could storage on their sides/ontop of each other contribute to this?

Chris

 

[dmhrace]

my car has stock suspension and the tires had 26000 miles on them this is the worst tire the rest look like yours and in phx we dont need winter tires

 

[DooMer_MP3]

Wow, thanks for the pictures man. I don't understand then. I spoke to my soon-to-be father in law who is a mechanic. Of course, his first thought was rubbing since I lowered it. But I told him yours had the same problem on stock suspension, and he was wondering if there was a sidewall flex problem with the Dunlops, but said when I get my new tires mounted, I should talk to them, as he isn't a tire expert. Either way, it'd be interesting to get to the bottom of this!

Chris

 

[dmhrace]

ya i would like to know why the tires did that 2 of the tires still had fairly good tread

 

[DooMer_MP3]

Heres a couple more. Oddly, it isn't even all around. Some areas it gets nearly unnoticable for a few inches, but then gets bad again...

 

[yeloprofan]

Look like an alignment problem, or maybe your wheel bearings are shot. Might also be time for camber bolts.

 

[ssmp5]

That's caused by a toe-out position of your front tires from what I can see in your pics.

 

[DooMer_MP3]

Somebody on ClubSi (which I frequent) asked for toe specs as well, so I wonder if this is an issue. A large problem here is that I have no idea what the specs are for the MP3. Nor do any alignment shops. They're not in the shop manual.

Does anybody have MP3 specs handy? I could always go in for an alignment after the new tires are put on, but I'd like to have proper specs.

Chris

 

[DooMer_MP3]

Ya know, I should've just searched to ease my concerns...
http://www.msprotege.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7345&highlight=MP3+alignment
http://www.msprotege.com/forum/showthread.php?t=12442&highlight=MP3+alignment
http://www.msprotege.com/forum/showthread.php?t=39233&highlight=MP3+alignment

And it seems like there is no true solution. Do I try the MSP specs for an alignment? Has Mazda updated the MP3 alignment spec at all? Sheesh. This sucks!

Chris

 

[Logan]

Have a look at the first pic posted by dmhrace. You can see the CORD showing!
I disagree with the toe theory. If that was true, the entire tread surface would wear prematurely, and not the edge.
The tire has rubbed on something. You probably can't see it now, but when you took the tire off, you probably would have been able to see inside the wheel well where it was rubbing, as that part would be marked black from the rubber or worn if it was the wheel well liner.

 

[TXMazdaSpeeder]

hmmmm

but it hasnt been really messing up my tires (course i was only on dunlops for about a month cuz they suck) but it leaves a ncie clean shiny stripe where u guys are having treadwear problems, im on stock suspension with 215/45/17 mastercraft avenger ZHP's, 100+ lbs of stereo in the trunk so the ass squats a bit.

 

[derrick1623]

my dunlops suffered the same terrible fate. only one got so bad, it wouldn't hold air anymore, and now i have kuhmos.

 

[dominoy2k1]

i dunno but my tires have been wearing out evenly i am on my 3rd set. my dunlops wore out quick because of autoXand kuhmos where just pos that i got rid of really quick. i know have some nittos up front and some hercules tires on back. oh yeah i also got alignment done at a brake check. one of my friends did it and said it wasnt that bad.

 

[rowan]

I've seen this on another MP3, but not mine. The SP9000's totally stripped of the inside edge. It looks like it's rubbing on the strut or something ... if it does, that's pretty scary for a stock setup.

 

[katsmp3]

Well, well, well, im on my second set of khumos.. and for the second time, one of my front tires went flat today because of what I thought was riding on too little air and the tire rubbing the rim.. but noww.. i dont know.. might be this

 

[PaulMP3]

Scott42 and i talked about this at the last meet.

my first set did this at around 15k miles. i called mazda and dunlop and they ended up splitting the new set of sp9000 with me. this was on all stock suspension.

Since then i am lowered with SPOOl springs and i noticed it doing it again, but not even close to as bad as before. my SP9000 now have 20k on them and still look good, the inner wear is there but not very noticable. my first set looked almost as bad as yours.