My mom was driving her car the other day and said she ran over something and picked it up in the tire. By the time she got it home and I got off work to come take a look at it it was flat (with nothing in the hole). I tried airing it up to see how bad the leak was and it was leaking out faster than my compressor could pump it.
When I got the wheel off I noticed the tread on the inside of the tire only (facing the car) was completely worn down and the wires were exposed almost all the way around. This looks like to me something that has been brewing for a long time and not just suddenly. Out of curiosity I checked the other back tire as well and the tread is worn down exactly the same way, as if wires are exposed on that side I don’t know because I didn’t bother removing it.
This indicative of some sort of alignment or suspension issue?
What’s the tread situation on the outer edge? When a tire generally wears out to the point the tread is mostly gone, it is bound to wear out the most on some part of the tire first. If the tread is pretty good on the outer edge, but threadbare on the inner, sounds like a rear wheel alignment problem of some sort. I’d have guessed if anything the first wearing edge would be the outer edge, due to a slight toe on for the rear wheels.
Now, if the gas tank is full, and there’s weight in the back of the vehicle, it accelerates wear on the inside of the tires, and you end up with what you saw.
You defiantly have may pop(s) (may pop at anytime), you could def have worn out struts, maybe even one blown out, hard for me to see, but almost looks like you have some cross swiping going on…
You also need to have the alignment checked and set if out… Looks like 2 different tread patterns, best to replace in pairs… I am hoping y’all aren’t buying used tires…
Yeah I told her it could have been worse going by the looks of things. Not sure if it’s relevant but the wheel was initially stuck on there so I had to lay on the ground and start kicking it from behind to get it off. Before that however I just tried pulling on it and apparently it didn’t take much strength for me to lift/compress the suspension as the car was raised. I thought there would have been more resistance.
These are the tires that came with the car when she got it about a year ago. Gonna be buying brand new.
On my 86 park ave I had a tire that wore like that in about 20,000 miles. The shop said it was from the car carrier. At any rate they just used shims to correct it. So yeah, a couple tires, shocks, and a four wheel alignment at the least.
If you’re replacing only the rear tires, are you sure that the front tires are in good shape? More important, will you be able to match the tires you buy with those tires, which is what’s recommended for the best safety? Note that if you replace all four tires now, then you can do proper rotations, which can help prevent an issue like this in the first place. You can also get tires with good ratings; I suspect the mismatched tires thrown on this car before she bought it might not have had the best ratings.
Again, nothing new, seen it at least once a week or so (before retiring)… I put on a pair of 40K mile tires that because of very bad lower ball joints (customer said they would DIY) they blew out from looking like that on the inside in about 2 weeks, the outer tread was still brand new… Well one blew the other one was right behind it… A lot of BMW & MB vehicles (and others) with staggered wheels wear like that on the back due to the OE camber specs…
+1
Quite a few years ago, I noticed that one of a co-worker’s tires was in worse shape, with actual shredding of the steel belt. I brought it to her attention, and her reaction was… So**???**
My efforts to explain the seriousness of the situation didn’t seem to “move” her, so I urged her to show the tire to her husband, in the hope that he would take it seriously, but I decided to never again glance at her tires.
I had a lady in doing a LOF (oil change) on her close to if not 6 figure BMW SUV one Sunday with a very odd size tire that was about to blow out and I was able to round 2 up for the fronts to match the rears (staggard so able to do 2 at a time)… I took her out to see the tires and let her take a picture to send to her husband… Hadn’t even mentioned a price yet and her husband flat out said NO… I would have been more then willing to take a huge hit and loose money on the tires just to keep her safe, they were that bad…
I almost asked her if her husband had a very large life ins policy on her, cause he didn’t care about her safety…
Worsts case he could have come got her and had it towed to his tire shop/dealer, but he made her drive it home…
In Minnesota that could likely be classified as domestic abuse and the sherif escourting the guy away. The real issue is how else is she being abused? Had to ask her husband? Indeed.
@Stinky1 -
To summarize what folks are recommending:
Get the rear suspension inspected ASAP, the problem may just be worn struts or could be damaged components (the rear beam axle). Don’t let the new tires get worn, it’ll happen quickly.
I’d also get the front suspension inspected, if a road hazard caused the rear axle damage something might also have been damaged up front.
Very true, once the rubber is gone you can’t just add it back… (recaps don’t count lol)
The guy was off property, she was alone…and Tennessee has zero laws to keep you from driving away with an unsafe vehicle in anyway…Commercial vehicles aside…
The only thing I could have done would have been to pay out of the shops money to have it towed to her home, but as soon as the tow truck leaves she could have driving it right away…
You would be surprised at how unsafe some of the vehicles on the road out there are…
