Today I replaced my Zero Nero's with Cooper RSA-3's. The car has 25,000 miles on it. I have been experiencing a weird noise for about 5000 miles and even took the car in for service. It was sort of a wheel bearing or brake noise - I could not quite put my finger on it. They said they didn't hear or feel anything out of the ordinary (typical). I realized a couple of weeks ago that the inside edge of the right front tire was wearing especially badly. Here is how it looked when the tires were changed today.



As a result of this wear, I had an alignment done. When they got it on the rack, the tech told me that everything lined up and no alignment was needed. Here is the alignment report.



Long story short - after getting the new tires and driving a little bit, I realized that the noise was gone. Could the tire itself have not only caused the noise but also the wear as well? If the alignment is good, is there something else I should have examined that could cause this condition? I don't want to ruin another set of tires! Should I go get another alignment anyway? At dealer??

I appreciate your help and suggestions.

 

Ok going by the printout, this is pretty close to what I believe your tires should look like. Factory tires, running -1 camber. It's completely within spec and acceptable. But it will wear the inner treads within 30k miles. If you were to install camber bolts or C/C plates to get the camber closer to zero, it would help with uneven tire wear but you would lose some control when cornering.

The inner tread area on those tires are pretty thin and probably started a slight belt separation. This is probably where your noise was coming from. There's no problem with your vehicle, just inspect those tires well after 10k miles and probably every oil change there after.

Also some may recommend rotating your tires often to prolong the life. I really don't recommend it simply because I prefer to buy two tires at a time instead of four. Rotating really doesn't save you any, just costs twice as much a little later.

 

Agreed. I get great tire life and I seldom ever rotate tires. Even as a Trooper for over 31 years, even considering that often 10-15,000 miles (my first car, a '78 Plymouth, killed two rear Goodyear Blue Streak Pursuit Special HR70-15s in under 8,000) wore them down due to "activities required in doing my duty" (radar, pursuits, responses, patrol) ....I seldom rotated the tires on the police cars just to rotate them. I did replace both tires on an axle together if one was punctured and needed replacement and was worn much .... and if I still had two good ones on other axle, I always put newest tires to the front and the more used ones on rear for better high speed handling in dry. We replaced those police car tires when they wore to 3/32 at any point exclusive of TWIs.

Typically, I do the same on my personal tires or earlier, though state law doesn't require it at that point.

There are times when I have really needed only two on a POV but bought 4 and either ran two a little earlier or saved the two goiod ones for possible use later if I had a problem and needed them. Usually, on POVs, even NOT rotating tires, it's been my experience that they wear close enough that I can justify all 4.


Yes Sir, you better believe that tires can cause those noises, some tires are worse about it than others due to construction or tread design. Wider tires with shorter sidewalls make for better response and .... greater susceptibility to just such wear as your picture shows.

Another thing about tires is once a wear pattern sets in, like in your picture above, as long as the circumstances remain unchanged, the wear will only continue. Had you caught it earlier, a rotation likely would have bought you some time by putting those front tires on rear .... but looking across the whole of the tread .... not much.

An imbalance will start a wear pattern that will lead to flat spots that only grow (often a rebalance will smooth the tire but not reverse the wear), they get real loud and growl. Add some feathering and people think wheels are going to run off. Some all weather tires are really bad about noise once a slight abnormal wear pattern starts.

And a "Good Alignment" is always just that and no more. There is no such thing as a "Perfect Alignment". The front end of the car steers and traverses bumps and dips and uneven ground while also carrying 70% or more of braking force. There's rubber bushings all over it, they flex and compress. A "Good Alignment" is at the very best .... just a "Best Compromise" group of settings devised to minimize tire scrubbing and thus maximize tire life .... while at the same time using bushing compression and "arcs" of components to provide the best driving feel possible .... all with the knowledge that even a perfectly aligned tire's tread still squirms and thus wears .... even on a straight road.
A different driver in a different environment with different habits likely would have seen slightly different wear.

What happened with this picture I stumbled on as I clicked your pic above?

 

TBear - two things

So should I get it aligned again or leave it as it is?

The cut you pointed out was a different tire that lasted another +/- 10k. It was the victim of a curb (and a bad driver - me) at Chick Fil A. It was replaced last week as well.

 

If that's the worst tire, besides the inner shoulder ..... how was it's wear across the middle compared to the other front tire and rears? That looks a lot like I'd expect of one making a lot or tight right turns if that's the inner edge of the right front tire.

If that was mine, if wear was comparable, and if I made a lot more right hand turns that lefts (as statistically, most people do) .... I would not have it realigned if that print out is correct as it's gonna be hard to make it better. I would watch my new tires, and I might roll a couple jacks out in the driveway and rotate them after 10 or 15K miles.

Tire wear is normal and the pattern is as much the result of driver use / habits / roadway environment .... as alignment settings.

The inside tire's (right frt on rt turn, left frt on lt turn) inner edge usually get's scrubbed (scuffed) on tight turns as the further you go from straight ahead, the greater the stress on things like bushings that are rubber and so even if the front end geometry is perfect, the compression of bushings results in minor alignment changes that scrubs tires. Even the outer tire scrubs some.

Our 2008 GT was purchased last year with just shy of 22,000 miles and the OEM (date codes all 3107) P-Zero Nero Pirelli tires showing equal wear across the tread with 6-7 /32 nds left ..... but the car spent it's early years in Nebraska, apparently on straight roads with no burn outs. The owner moved here before trading in. Now there's some age cracking or checking starting to show in the tread groove bottoms that wasn't there last summer so I guess I'm gonna put some new Goodyear RS-As on it soon.

 

Those tires had 25,000 miles on them. I am not the original owner. I purchased at just under 14,000. The sound that was obviously coming from that tire started around 20,000 miles. Other than that one edge, all the other tires were very evenly worn and down to the wear bars at 25,000.

Hopefully the RS3-A's will wear a bit better. They feel good so far.

 

Not bad .... I understand they are soft rubber .... many don't get that many miles out of them.

Likely they will ..... and easy to watch .... just look when the car is parked with the wheels turned.

 

These guys have great info here, Sbbamafan. I recommend you have it checked at your Ford Dealer to make sure there’s nothing else going on.

Deysha