Hi,
I own 2013 scion tc since it was new. I been having trouble with tires cupping and wearing out very fast. I did everything suggested, alignments, balancing, rotation still no luck. tried different brand of tires, Coopers, Zelxs etc. Any suggestions will be appreciated. Thanks.
I suggest you post the actual alignment values for the car from your last alignment. Cupping is caused primarily by bad alignment. If I can see the numbers, I can suggest what to change.
Are you using the stock wheel size? Or bigger? Or wider?
Have you lowered the car?
How is your driving style… Aggressive?
Hi,
I attached alignment specs for your consideration and evaluation. Please give me your assessment of what’s going on? I did not do any modification on the car, standard tires, very conservative driving style.
Thanks. Brian
(Attachment ALIGNMENT 2013 Scion tc.docx is missing)
Your alignment file did not post.
How many miles on your TC?
Cupping is most often caused by tires that are out of balance as well as struts that are worn out. Cupping occurs when the wheel and tire bounce Ad infinitum as you drive due to the balance of the tire and the damping ability or lack thereof of the strut. This bouncing may be so subtle you cant feel it but… that’s usually how it goes.
I cured a friend’s car that had this problem with new shocks.
One more possibility - a damaged/loose suspension component. A good inspection should find it.
+1
If alignment and balancing didn’t take of the problem, inspection/repair of the front end would have been next on my agenda.
Presently I have 138.000 but its been doing this since day 1. I went trough 4 sets of tires so far.
Your front toe settings would tend to “feather” the inside of the front tires based on the left front toe being toe-ed out (0.09). The rear was withing spec but should be less than 0.13 for best wear in my opinion. This shouldn’t, in itself, wear out tires rapidly. The car may have other ideas. Some wear out tires faster than others.
Strangely enough the alignment guy put in MORE total toe than you had before by zero-ing out the left but moving the right from toe-in to toe-out and the total toe out is -0.04 where it was -0.20. And he increased the toe-in from 0.13 to 0.19. If you want to reduce wear, you want toe very close to zero at each end of the car. It is IN spec, but for best results, in my opinion, the rear needs to be closer to 0.05 toe-in and the front closer to 0.0 toe.
And cupping is a blown strut-type of wear. If you see any leaking of the front or rear struts, they should be replaced. If there is any “after-shake” or “wheel dribble” after hitting a pot-hole the struts may have failed internally without showing any leakage. Good Luck!
First, my experience says that for good tire wear, the alignment must be within the inner half of the tolerance. There are a number of items in the printout that aren’t.
My experience says that any camber over 1 degree leads to irregular wear (aka cupping). You’ve got that, too! - and toe is a multiplier!
So while you think you “got an alignment”, you didn’t get a good alignment.
Also, I hope you realize that once a tire develops a bad wear pattern, fixing the source of that pattern (like alignment), doesn’t fix the wear pattern. Any new wear occurs on top of what is already there, so a tire with irregular wear tends to keep the irregular wear.
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