I've been looking at my 2 front tires (Kumho XS) and they seem to have an odd wear pattern. The outside seems to be wearing out more than anything else with only 800 miles of street/canyon driving and 1 autox event. Is this normal?

96 DC
Koni/GC
-2.2 Camber (s2 camber kit)
Everything else is to oem spec
(missing any important info?)

 

im guessing understeer and your driving to hard into the turn?????

what is the offset of the rims? size?

 

15x7, +38 or +40

 

When was the last alignment? What are you inflating the tires to?

 

The alignment was done a week ago and 4 weeks ago. Tires are set at 30psi.

I was under steering a good amount though.

 

looks a lil uneven not too bad

 

It's hard to tell from the photo. Alignment - especially toe - is the most likely culprit. This wear could have been caused if your alignment was off before the most recent alignment; you won't know if that cured it until your next set of tires.

Really hard driving can cause uneven wear, too. On the racetrack, it's normal to see uneven wear because there are more right turns than left turns on a track that runs clockwise; as a result, the left edge of all the tires wears faster than the right edge.

Other possible causes are various suspension problems - worn bushings, blown shocks, a bent control arm, etc.

 

just came to mind,

try running a little bit more psi. i guess this is what everyone means when the XS have a slow reaction time when exiting a turn/corner. looks like the side walls are soft and with your low psi setting it's rolling over a little.

 

It's just from AutoX. Inflate your tires more at the next event.

Single side wear is due to camber or worn suspension components. Toe can cause feathering on one side, but the wear is on the outside of the tire and you have negative camber dialed in.

Alignment is fine. Some outside tire wear is unpreventable in AutoX, especially with a "stock" alignment. You can't pump enough air pressure to prevent the outside of the tire from burning off in some cases. But since your camber is at -2.2 some more tire pressure at your next event should even that out. If you're running 30 psi during AutoX, try 36-38 at the next event to start out with.

Quick method. Get some white shoe polish, a tire marker, or chalk and mark the outside edge of the tire tread and sidewall at your next event. If you're digging past the tread then you need more air, if you're not approaching the edge of the tire tread then deflate. Close enough.

Have fun.

 

From what you guys have said, it looks like my tire psi seems low. I was always under the impression that lower psi is better?

 

For drag racing yeah, for autocross you want at least 38-40 psi in the front and maybe 33-35 in the back (to get the back end to rotate). Start with those and adjust from there. My Azenis need about 40 front and 35 rear for it to rotate nice.

 

Lower psi is used in drag racing to increase the size of the contact patch (the area in which the tire comes into contact with the pavement). In drag racing, there is no concern for cornering, which suffers with lower psi and the consequent deformation of the sidewalls. (In fact, drag radials are designed to allow this deformation without problems.) For autocross/track, higher pressures are generally used to permit the sidewalls to support the lateral forces that result from hard cornering. The pressures mentioned by CivicSiRacer are a good place to start for autocross. For street use, though, I'd back them off a bit; I've found that the recommended 35F/33R, measured cold, works well on the street. On the racetrack I'm using R compounds and most R compounds have a recommended operating pressure measured hot.

 

Sounds good, ill keep you guys posted!

 

Every car is different. I was running upwards of 44 psi when I was running Azenis on an old '94 Integra and stock suspension / camber. On my CRX I still have a good amount of body roll, but at around -2.5 front and -2 rear camber I'm running only 32 psi front and 27 psi rear in my Kumho V710s.

 

If you reread my post I said "Start with those and adjust from there".

 

I wasn't knocking or countering you bud. If you reread one of my posts above I even recommend higher pressures like you do. I just quoted your pressures as a reference to my actual run pressures.

I'm just saying that pressures can be anywhere. When I tell people I'm running 32/27 their first comment is regarding my tire pressure. A lot of street cars run higher pressure than that normally. But I mention that in AutoX and most people look at me funny...

 

As people said above, raise your pressure. I think those tires are recommended 32-34 under normal conditions. Autox isn't drag racing so don't go under. Have you tried dropping your car? If you did then perhaps your camber needs to be adjusted.

 

I had my rear driver side tire wear evenly but a lot faster than my passenger side rear with my last set of AZENIS. My alignments were always performed to spec, maintained and monitored and it baffled me for a bit. It wasn't until I determined that my driver side rear shock was gone and that was the culprit.