Came home from the track and noticed I did quite the number on one of my front tires. Is this what people call tire chunking? 195/55/15 Yokohama Advan AD07

 

looks like something cut into it

 

I've seen this before. I would say it was cut down a bit, but was first brought to a very high temperature, making it much more prone to falling apart when it hit something abrasive. So yes to both comments.

 

It does but I am baffled as to where that could have happened. They were not cut on the fender either.
I saw a few pics of other tires that look similar but less severe and overheating/abuse was what was blamed

 

that is called chunking and happens when tires get overworked, it is worse on tires with a lot of small tread blocks.

 

Definately some chunky monkey going on there.

 

Looks like something cutting it to me too.

 

Blistering, chunking it seems. Which tire was this? Front? Tire with the most heat? Were you checking your temps after sessions?

 

Tires with tread will do that when run hard. No all, but many.

 

What the left front. at the track I was at the right front gets the most work. It ever so slight started to chunk but nothing really.
I am going to have to start checking temps i guess.

 

could be from inconsistent warming; sometimes the outer tire surface warms much faster than the inner core...this usually happens on cooler days, however. But that pattern is very odd looking indeed.

 

 

man i havnt seen chunking like that since the days when i used to run kumho's ha

Any chance its hitting the fender? it could be from rubbing or chunking alone or both

 

I dont think it hit the fender at all. Thats what i thought as well but there is no evidence at all. The wheel well liner covers basically the entire edge of the fender and not even a scuff mark on the black plastic!!
I thought it was very odd since those are supposed to be pretty good tires

The other tire ever, ever so slightly started to have a couple of layers coem of the inside and outside thread blocks but that one looks more like shaving than cutting.

 

Were these shaved before running? I have found, contrary to intuition, that shaving these will help them last longer, perform better - more consistent.

This is odd...when you wrote other tire is the other tire on the same side?

 

No they were not shaved.

Whoops, I meant the other front tire

 

so both front tires did this...Mac strut or SLA set up? If Mac strut you might well need a little more neg static camber. Did you take tire temps across the tread after this happened? I know it's difficult to get super accurate readings unless you can drive into a pit and have a crew member take readings...but if you park as fast as possible and take readings you will at least see what the relative change across the tread is...

 

That is definitely something cutting at the highpoint on those tread blocks. I would do some more investigating in that wheel well.
It looks to progressively get smaller as you go around the radius of the tire. Is this correct?

 

It is fairly consistent around the tires circumference with a few thread blocks with no damage. The damage is worse towards the inside of the of the tire and lessens as the you move toward the outside of the tire, which you can kind of see in the pic.
They are 195/55/15 on a DC Integra with Skunk2 springs and Koni Yellows. Pretty sure there was no rubbing but I will check the wheel well again.

 

Hmmm...I have another idea. Are you sure that the upper ball joint stud is clearing the tires in roll? The skipping nature of the failure looks like the upper ball joint could have intermittently caught the tire.

I know this question seems absurd, but there are a few upper ball joint/camber kits on the market that use very long ball joint spindles...

 

I had that problem with generation 1 Skunk upper camber arms when I had them installed in 2001 or 2002 on my 00 Civic Si. Lucky for me the shop caught it before I actually drove out on them. He either filed them down or used different bolts.

 

Thanks! I will check that for sure but they are OEM or at least OEM style UCA's so I dont think that was it but I will check.

 

I know many components move in sync on paper but on a track there is deflection from many places in the suspension...I've seen some very funny things.

In any event, I hope you figure this out...your back side won't like a total tire failure at speed.