Tire Wear

[Tanbruch]

Was working on my car and happened to notice this gouge on my front left tire. New to the 200tw tire thing so was wondering if anyone knows if this seems normal or not. Tires are Kumho ecsta v730 and are 7 months old and have been used for 10 events, with about 80 runs on them. Was thinking maybe this happened at the last test event at Phoenix Raceway, because i know the pavement was very rough. The actual tread still has plenty of life, not even worn to the wear bars yet, so seems kinda weird to me but i am not sure. Any input would be appreciated! And if anyone knows where to find these tires in a 275/35 R18 please let me know, seems the tires are on back order right now and tire rack and discount tire do not have them in stock. Thanks for the help.

[cgroppi]

Is this on a car without much front camber? You always wear the outside edge out first unless you have about 3 degrees of front camber, sometimes more on some cars. This looks like normal outside edge wear on a camber challenged car to me. 

Edited September 8 by cgroppi
Typo

[Tanbruch]

1 hour ago, cgroppi said:

Is this on a car without much front camber? You always wear the outside edge out first unless you have about 3 degrees of front camber, sometimes more on some cars. This looks like normal outside edge wear on a camber challenged car to me. 

this is on the inside edge of the tire. most of the runs on the tires have been with about -1 degrees of camber but a few of them have been with -2 to -2.5 degrees of camber.

[cgroppi]

Inside edge wear is typically from either lots of street miles with high camber, and/or too much toe. It usually takes both camber and toe to cook the inside edge fast. 

I did something similar with my STX BRZ. It had -3.5 camber in front with a bit of toe out (like 1/8"). I corded the inside edge of one of the front tires because I was daily driving it with the autocross alignment for a while. 

What's your front toe situation? How many street miles do you think got put on these?

[Tanbruch]

10 minutes ago, cgroppi said:

Inside edge wear is typically from either lots of street miles with high camber, and/or too much toe. It usually takes both camber and toe to cook the inside edge fast. 

I did something similar with my STX BRZ. It had -3.5 camber in front with a bit of toe out (like 1/8"). I corded the inside edge of one of the front tires because I was daily driving it with the autocross alignment for a while. 

What's your front toe situation? How many street miles do you think got put on these?

i dont know the spec of the toe but i had it setup by a shop for the street so it should be towed in a little. i did the math and i probably have 600 to 700 miles of driving on the street. Kinda seems like alot but i dont have any experience with using 200tw tires.

[cgroppi]

I would not expect that many street miles would do that to your tire unless there's A LOT of toe. You should check it. Changing camber will change toe significantly. If the camber got changed from -1 to -2.5 without the toe being redone, that would definitely do it. I have toe plates and could bring them to the event on the 20th, and I'm sure many of the CAM-T crowd has them. They're a cheap tool and are very helpful to check alignment and make adjustments yourself. 

I would drive a few thousand street miles on my BRZ and STi tires, and still wear them out from autocross rather than street miles. Both those cars had 3 degrees of camber or more, but not a lot of toe. 

[Tanbruch]

22 minutes ago, cgroppi said:

I would not expect that many street miles would do that to your tire unless there's A LOT of toe. You should check it. Changing camber will change toe significantly. If the camber got changed from -1 to -2.5 without the toe being redone, that would definitely do it. I have toe plates and could bring them to the event on the 20th, and I'm sure many of the CAM-T crowd has them. They're a cheap tool and are very helpful to check alignment and make adjustments yourself. 

I would drive a few thousand street miles on my BRZ and STi tires, and still wear them out from autocross rather than street miles. Both those cars had 3 degrees of camber or more, but not a lot of toe. 

Gotcha, yeah maybe it is from the toe then, didnt think it would change that much but maybe it did. Im not even sure if i am going to be able to make it to the 20th event if i cant find replacement tires for this thing but i appreciate the offer. Im gonna do some digging around for tires so i can try to still make it to the next event. Thanks for the help though Chris! Really appreciate it!

[SSLance]

Wear like that on the inside indicates something amiss, like Toe for example.  And changing from 1 degree of camber to 2.5 degrees will certainly have a big impact on toe setting on our SLA setups.  I can help you with a front end alignment check if you need, how far are you from 75th Ave and Happy Valley?  

There are some that "flip" tires on their rims to get more life out of their tires, but in this situation that will be putting the extra wore part on the visible outside edge so...   🤔

[Tanbruch]

12 hours ago, SSLance said:

Wear like that on the inside indicates something amiss, like Toe for example.  And changing from 1 degree of camber to 2.5 degrees will certainly have a big impact on toe setting on our SLA setups.  I can help you with a front end alignment check if you need, how far are you from 75th Ave and Happy Valley?  

There are some that "flip" tires on their rims to get more life out of their tires, but in this situation that will be putting the extra wore part on the visible outside edge so...   🤔

haha yeah, no these tires are gonna go into early retirement. Thanks for the offer lance, might take you up on that if i dont end up just buying some toe plates, i do have a caster camber gauge already. Thank you for the help Lance! got some new tires ordered up so once those show up i will get a gameplan.

[SSLance]

Now I do not condone this behavior, nor do I recommend anyone doing anything like this... 

Back in May I ran a track weekend at Inde Motorsports Ranch and after my first session of the weekend I noticed this happening on my left front tire.  In order to save the weekend, I moved that tire to my right rear (were running clockwise so least used tire) and ran it the rest of the weekend with zero issues.  I kept an eye on it and the wear didn't change at all, so I just kept running it.  I only bring this up to show that it's possible they'll still hold air with a little blistering or wear, you just don't want to abuse that section of the tire once it starts.

 

Like I said though, do NOT do this, it is unsafe and not recommended...   

 

[smeyers]

I've done something similar before some years back too. Was in California for a Tour, and moved the issue to the rear of a lighter FWD car, and survived the weekend. But to be fair, know that if a SSS saw that on any car, they would very likely end your day. Liability is huge. Of course, stupid can be too.😂😉 The degree of damage and location thereof play heavily into such a decision.

Do a full real alignment on your car in the very near future. If you can, make it to Lance's and find out what is what. Quit guessing. Might even be a damaged suspension bushing or joint heretofore unknown. Find out.

Edited September 9 by smeyers

[Manfred]

If cords are showing, the tire is not fit for any kind of service.

You will wear the cords, weaken the structural integrity of the tire, and at some point it will let go. You can move the tire to reduce this risk but you cannot eliminate it, especially for motorsports use.

[smeyers]

21 minutes ago, Manfred said:

If cords are showing, the tire is not fit for any kind of service.

You will wear the cords, weaken the structural integrity of the tire, and at some point it will let go. You can move the tire to reduce this risk but you cannot eliminate it, especially for motorsports use.

And this is the ONLY correct answer. Period. Anything else is a risk, not only to you but maybe to others. Over the years no doubt some of us have taken such risks, and just because we were lucky and nothing happened, does not mean that others were not so lucky……….hopefully without harm or damage.

if I was prepping my car for an event and noticed something like this, it would not leave the garage in that condition. I’d also find out what caused it for sure.

Something isn’t right. Find out.