beanbag

Posting for a friend that has an 05 TL with stock tires.

His tires have wear only at the very outer edges, both at the inside and outside. I checked the tire pressure, and they are at or slightly above the recommended pressures. Otherwise, the tires have plenty of tread all across the center few inches of the tires. What could be causing this wear pattern?

nsxtasy

There are several things that can cause an uneven wear pattern like that.

One is improper tire inflation; usually inflation that's too low will cause more wear on the edges than in the middle. Keep in mind that the inflation could have been low in the past, perhaps he had a slow leak at one point and later fixed it.

Other causes are improper alignment, or a suspension problem (blown shocks or ball joint, worn bushings, bent tie rod or control arm, etc).

Or, it could happen as a result of racetrack use, or driving on public roads in the same manner as one would do on a racetrack.

TunerN00b

My stock tires on my GSR wore like that, even when run at the factory recommended pressure. I believe the factory pressure is chosen as a combination of tire life, NVH, and traction, and too much emphasis was placed on NVH.

I now run higher pressures at both ends (38/34 instead of 32/30), and have gotten much more even wear since. Granted, the ride quality is slightly reduced, and so is the tire's contact patch, but the car feels more responsive and I want the reduced tire wear. In theory, mileage should improve slightly with slightly more pressure as well.

chargeR

Sounds like underinflation to me, and I agree with TunerN00b that the factory specified tyre pressures tend to be on the low side to preserve ride comfort.

beanbag

OK, thanks. I'll tell him to run higher pressures, then.

nsxtasy

First of all, the recommended factory pressures for the GS-R is 35F/33R. That's what it says in the owner's manual and in the placard on the door jamb. Whoever told you 32F/30R was wrong. And if you were driving around with 32F/30R, your pressures were 3 psi less than recommended by Honda, so it's no wonder you thought they were biased for ride comfort (which is what you really mean when you say NVH, which is a term - "noise vibration and harshness" - usually used for body integrity and not tires). Driver error.

Here's my experience. I've gone through half a dozen sets of tires on the '94 GS-R (it now has 186K miles), including the original stock Michelin MXV4 as well as Dunlop SP9000, Yokohama ES100, Kumho SPT, Bridgestone Blizzak MZ02, and Michelin Arctic Alpin. I always set them at the recommended 35F/33R and they've always worn evenly across the width of the tread, except for a few track events I did in the car at one point. Those factory pressures seem to work fine, for performance as well as even wear! If you don't get even wear and you're checking the pressures regularly to keep them at the factory settings, then something is wrong with your car.

So the actual factory pressures of 35F/33R are NOT biased towards ride comfort. They are just perfect for aggressive driving, such as on the track with street tires. The base model Integra is a different story; that model has recommended pressures in the high twenties, and those are the settings that emphasize ride comfort. But the pressures that are actually recommended by Honda, 35F/33R, are not.

You can set your pressures at 38F/34R if you want, but that's not going to make your tires wear evenly if they're not wearing evenly now with regular checking of the factory pressures of 35F/33R.

TunerN00b

Interesting. Wonder where I pulled 32/30 from if not the door jamb... Though, I haven't bothered to check in a few years, since I knew I wasn't running those pressures anyway.

Maybe I'm mixing up the GSR factory pressures with another car (had a 91 Integra LS and an 02 Civic LS for a bit). And to confuse me further, my Triumph Spitfire states 21/26 for tire pressures in the door jamb, which I can't believe is correct, but the car certainly feels planted at those pressures.

I'm certainly not above being corrected though. 35/33 sounds much more reasonable than 32/30.

Speaking of pressure, the shop I picked up a repaired tire from this morning inflated all my tires to 40+ psi when they mounted it back on the car, and then the mechanic looked at me like I was crazy when I went around with a pressure gauge and deflated them before driving off.

nsxtasy

I'm constantly amazed by the lack of knowledge of so many people who work at the tire dealers. Some might excuse it when they tell you something to make them some extra money (like how the tires they have in stock are "so much better" than those they don't ) but there's nothing in it for them to be overinflating customers' tires.

old man neri

Was the wear on both the inside and outside of the tire or just on the outside of the tires?