I have a 1990 Honda Civic Wagon RT4WD. This summer I sent off the stock steelies (14 x 5) and has them enlarged to 15 x 7, +25 offset. I had some old Azenis (2003 manufacture date, 205/50 R15) and mounted them on the rims.



The front tires suffered severe wear on the inside of the tires and were toast within 2,000 miles. The car rode horrible. It would kind of zigzag going down the highway like it was riding in and out of a rut in the highway. Why did this happen? Was it the tires? Are the rims too wide?

I also have an old set of Enkeis (15 x 6.5) with Blizzaks (195/55 R15) and had no issues at all. Ran them all winter.



What are your thoughts?

 

Sounds like a toe issue to me. Toed out in the front?

 

I have no idea where the alignment is at. But I should add this:

The car rides like a champ on 14" steelies or the 15" Enkeis with no wear issues at all, but was a whole different animal on the widened steelies. BTW, the driver's side tire inside wear was much worse. 75% of the inside of the DF tire was bald compared to about 20% of the PF tire.

 

I moved one of the worn out tires to the rear for a short period, but not long enough to see if the rear tire l moved to the front was going to wear.

I had the rim/tires balanced when I had the Azenis mounted.

One thing that occured to me was if I was running 2 of the wheels against their rotation, but I checked that a few times to be sure and that was not the case either.

I wonder if going to a 195/60 R15 tire would help at all?

 

first and foremost, you need to look at an alignment. that's the only place you can really start from.

 

Yeah, you are probably right, but can you explain why one the first set of tires wore out, but the other 2 sets don't? Does the alignment need to be set up differently for the wider rims?

 

azenis wear very quickly (more than any other uhp tire i've encountered) , hence why you noticed it gone after so few miles. snow tires and most all seasons have higher treadwear so it would take a lot longer before you'd see problems.

 

Do I just get a normal alignment in order to run the wider rims?

 

it also appears your right front wheel is shifted back.

 

Optical Illusion