Car:
2008 Accord
70k-ish miles on it, almost all high way driving.

About 10,000 miles ago i finally had to put tires on it. I was VERY impressed with how long the first set of tires lasted on it. I was going to replace them with the same, but they were incredibly expensive. I shopped around and found a comparable good year tire (don't have the model number handy, but has the exact ratings and specs as the tires that came on it, just different brand).

Normally i go 6k miles before rotating, every other oil change. But because my dealer does the oil change and I got tires elsewhere, i ran over a bit, close to 7k.
Keep in mind rotating every 6k on the original set NEVER caused a problem. So at my 6k (after new tires) oil change the honda tech said he noticed cupping on the back driver side tire. I think to myself, well that explains the road noise, but these tires have always been a bit louder (my wife drives it so it's harder for me to tell when road noise changes sine i drive it maybe once a week). I take it to sears, where i had the tires installed, they check everything out, do the free rotate and balance. Said everything checked out fine.

Suspension seems fine (bounce test, no leaks, etc).

So what would make one back tire cup? Everything i've read says balance, alignment, or suspension.

Balance is okay according to sears
alignment is okay according to sears
and suspension seems more than okay to me (my 2001 Impala bounces noticeably worse and i'm not getting cupping on it's tires and i rotate them like every 12k)...

So I'm at a loss. However with sears rotating the cupped tire from the back driver to the front driver it now sounds like it has off road truck tires on it. Vibration is barely noticeable in the steering wheel, and by barely i mean I might be making it up in my head just because i hear a noise that should be associated with vibration.

it'll cost me around 250 to replace 2 tires (to keep wear at least equal front to back) and seems silly if the cause of the problem hasn't been found as I'll just keep throwing away tires as they cup in 10-15k miles...

any suggestions as what to check or look for?

 

Did you have sear put it back on the alignment rack? can't tell just by looking. Cupping is usually cause by your "toe" being off, either pos. or neg., bad tie rods, but I have seen tires cupping from improper mounting of the tires or just plan bad tires. I'm hoping the sear people was competent enough to catch this and keep the weight as low as possible. If there was a large amount of weight and got knock off by hitting a large pot hole then that would cause the tire to become unbalanced; leading to cupping as well.

 

Balance is okay according to sears
alignment is okay according to sears
Then what caused the cupping according to sears? If it is a not their installation then it must be the tire, which is not your fault either. I'd bet the balance was off and they corrected it. Did you recieve a printout of your alignment specs/angles?

 

what kind of tires did you put on the car? a blocky tread design is more prone to cupping.

 

Hey, new memeber here, Just wanted to see if anyone else was having Cupping issues. I have a 2008 Accord Coupe EX-L-V6. We replaced the tires last year and they had significant cupping on the rear tires within a 6 months. We have taken it to get the alignment checked and the balancing checked. Everything is normal according to the shop.

I am looking into getting a Crosstour but have read some people posting the same cupping issues. Just don't want to buy something that has known issues.

 

What kind of tire pressure are you running? Go somewhere else for an alignment and watch them do it, and get the printout of readings