I forgot to take a picture of the tire, but imagine this:

If you were to run your hand down the circumference of the inner part of the tire, the tire would be smooth (along the tread) for 2 inches, then slightly dip for 1 inch, repeat.

What is this and what does it mean? The tire on the passenger side is not like this.

 

Replace that tire immediately. You can't repair it when the sidewall gives out.

 

What you describe sounds like "cupping". It usually is caused by a suspension problem on your car. I would get your suspension checked out first, and then consider replacing the tires.

You'll find a description of tire cupping on this website. It was written for trucks but most of what they say applies equally to cars.

 

Probable causes:

- loose wheel bearings - I just tug on the wheel as the car's lifted to check this, right?
- mismounted tire/ wheel assembly - don't think so, been on these tires for 15k
- out of balance wheel assembly - possible
- tread design/ tire design - doubt it
- inconsistent dual inflation - I check my tire pressure biweekly

- worn bearings, shocks, springs or other suspension compnents - I've been running my GC/Konis for about a year, and to the best of my knowledge they're installed correctly. I've been on these tires for about 15k now, and I don't remember this cupping in the previous 10k either. Tires have been rotated every 3-5k.

Last week I was testing my suspension, running it at full stiff for about a week. But, if that were the case, both the driver/pass side would exhibit this cupping.

Shoot, I have to get this straightened out before I throw my SPTs on!

 

Yes.

There are other things you should be checking in the suspension, too - things like the bushings for the control arms, sway bar mounts, etc.

Your tires looked like the photos on that web page, right?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by nsxtasy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Your tires looked like the photos on that web page, right?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Durn, I need to take a picture, but my friend borrowed the camera yesterday. Anyways, if you look at the tread:



If that tire were mounted onto an imaginary car, the innermost tread bar (far right), looks somewhat like this:



^^^^^^^^^^^^^ (not the last two, however, there's no discoloration).

I guess that's where most of the contact is made with the road.

 

My guess would be that you either had a flat or ran the tire at too low of a pressure, causing the sidewall to collapse. I saw this all the time when I worked at Les Schwab, mostly on low profile run-flat tires because it's hard to notice. Get the tire replaced and your suspension checked out by a professional

 

sounds like you have a belt edge sepo or cupping

 

I think I found the problem.



As you can see, the pinch bolt is about a cm above where it's supposed to be sitting! No wonder I couldn't set my ride hide correctly, stupid perches wouldn't change the height at all.



The Koni seemed to be sticking out a little too far out the bottom.

Now the passenger side, after double checking, has a slight bit of cupping as well. I took a look at the fork and to my suprise, the damn bolt slid up the shock as well!

&lt;--- owned by not torquing the bolts down to spec


BTW, do you think my Konis would be damaged in any way?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by erikiksaz1 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">BTW, do you think my Konis would be damaged in any way?</TD></TR></TABLE>

As long as the axle hasn't hit them, they should be fine. I would have worried about bottoming them out internally, but with them stuffed so far down into the fork, I would wager you'd have UCA contact before the shock bottoms, so probably don't have to worry about that either. Just check the bottom of the shock for contact marks with the axle, and for leaking fluid out the top. If you see neither, you should be fine after putting the shock back to the correct location and torqueing down those fork bolts.

 

Thanks for your input.

Bad news though, CRX LEE (from koni) doesn't believe that the slipped shocks would have attributed THAT much to my cupping.

He thinks that it is my lack of an alignment that might have caused this. I have not aligned the car yet! Tire wear seemed good for the first year, so I thought I wouldn't need one. I guess I was wrong.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by erikiksaz1 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Bad news though, CRX LEE (from koni) doesn't believe that the slipped shocks would have attributed THAT much to my cupping.

He thinks that it is my lack of an alignment that might have caused this.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Alignment problems don't cause cupping. Suspension problems do.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by nsxtasy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Alignment problems don't cause cupping. Suspension problems do.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I don't know if that's good news or bad news

Ok, back to the problems:

- loose wheel bearings -
I held the wheel at 12 and 6, tugged, and there was no movement whatsoever. Same with the horizontal.

- mismounted tire/ wheel assembly -
Maybe I should have them rotate it?

- out of balance wheel assembly -
Same with above

- worn bearings, shocks, springs or other suspension compnents -
I inspected all the bushings, and the only thing I noticed that differed from driver's side to passenger was that the driver's side had a lot more gunk on all the bushings. But, besides for that gunk (not from a torn cv boot), the bushings looked fine.

-

 

I think you might have found the problems in those loose bolts. When suspension mountings are not tightened - it can be bolts, or bushings, etc - the suspension components are essentially wobbling back and forth slightly as you drive down the road. That's what causes the cupping (uneven wear as you go around the circumference of the tire). As distinct from alignment problems, which tend to result in uneven wear across the width of the tire.

 

Can you say Toe or Camber!!!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by hatchguy21 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Can you say Toe or Camber!!!</TD></TR></TABLE>

My guess is combination of both. Camber wear wasn't bad at all (up until this happened, at about 12k or so), due to rotating the tires. Toe, on the other hand, I have no idea.