Tire Cupping and Potential Suspension Issues?
- Thread starter TG1
- Start date
This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.
Tire Pressure and Alignment would be what I check first. I would then look at steering linkage, wheel bearings, bushings, etc.... from your list. Good luck
What kind of tires and how religious are you with rotations? More aggressive off-road tires like the K02s will cup if you don't rotate every ~5k miles or so. Especially if you run at higher speeds a lot.
- Thread starter
- #4
Thanks!
- Thread starter
- #5
They're Michelin all-season's so not off road tires.
Rotate and balance. You may have had an “iffiy” balancing job on the Michelins. That would cause the cupping. Alignment being off would normally affect only the front tires. Your LX is too young to have suspension problems affecting all 4 tires. But, while it’s up on the lift for the rotation and balance, do a quick visual for anything leaking or broken. In the end, I suspect balance and rotation will solve it.
- Thread starter
- #7
Appreciate the info. So typically not anything significant and costly but a check by a Lexus tech would ultimately determine if anything is wrong more than a rotation, balance and/or an alignment? Thanks!
It might be hard to see in a picture, but my front KO2s have extremely uneven wear on the inner sides. I have less than 10,000 miles on them, and they have been rotated once.
this is the driver’s side, and the road force balancing machine was so pissed it was throwing errors. The tech ultimately added enough weight to get it close (a lot of it), but any idea what’s going on here? Is this considered “cupping”?
This reminds me of rice burners rolling while pigeon TOEd out; however, my last alignment should have me dead straight
this is the driver’s side, and the road force balancing machine was so pissed it was throwing errors. The tech ultimately added enough weight to get it close (a lot of it), but any idea what’s going on here? Is this considered “cupping”?
This reminds me of rice burners rolling while pigeon TOEd out; however, my last alignment should have me dead straight
Last edited:
It might be hard to see in a picture, but my front KO2s have extremely uneven wear on the inner sides. I have less than 10,000 miles on them, and they have been rotated once.
this is the driver’s side, and the road force balancing machine was so pissed it was throwing errors. The tech ultimately added enough weight to get it close (a lot of it), but any idea what’s going on here? Is this considered “cupping”?
This reminds me of rice burners rolling while pigeon TOEd in; however, my last alignment should have me dead straight
View attachment 2733954
View attachment 2733813
View attachment 2733950
Thats weird. Im gonna go on a hunch here and think if both fronts are wearing like this on the inner shoulder than my first guess is that your doing a bunch of highway driving and your AHC is lowering it out of spec and that camber adjustment is off somehow.
Have you done a sensor lift?
yep. I'm lifted to the max, including Height Offset Utility.
She's my daily driver, and my commute is in-town ~10 miles a day. however, I took a 3,000 mile road-trip in January.
You make a good point, though. @doublehundy and I were recently talking about our alignments not being "toe'd in" at all. at 62mph, AHC lowers to "Fast normal", which is .75" lower than normal height.
Would a .75" drop be enough to put on that angle of wear? @Taco2Cruiser @TeCKis300 @linuxgod any thoughts?
Last edited:
This is exactly on my list of to-dos prior to lifting and a huge headache for me right now.
I need to get my rear level, then dial in sensors, then offset utility for fine tuning adjustments and THEN get an alignment done at the truck place down the street.
But what height is my alignment to be done towards?
I think one needs to align for the bulk of milage or at least the bulk of driving at speed (where friction, heat and wear are at their peak).
Having thought about this alot due to me pulling my hair about my AHC leaning, ive come to notice that at factory spec, it looks to the eye to be slightly positive in camber for this very reason. My 100 was also like this, and doing a lot of city driving in both 100 and 200 on the stock wheels both had OUTER shoulder wear.
This indicates that the factory alignment spec is for highway height.
I have no idea how to get a proper alignment done unless we can figure out how to precisely calculate how much positive camber to aim for at our lifted "normal" height. To try my best at answering your question, I think these vehicles are extremely sensitive to alignment and wheel/tire setups and pressures.
This is the only platform in my life I have felt a 1 PSI difference in tire pressure on.
The AHC ecu needs to be cracked, im so tired of it being an enigma and roadblock for us.
EDIT:
I forgot to add that with wheels (mine included) not being the same offset as stock, this also has an impact that needs to be considered.
Also, from what ive read on double wishbone suspensions slight positive camber is always the aim but dont quote me on that i could be mixed up.
Last edited:
With the tire wear along the inside edge, the first thing I would suspect is toe out. Not sure if these tires have had a stint in the rear, but that also shows significant toe out, on account of the big lift. Not much you can do there. Short answer is I would dial in about .15 total toe in on the front axle to compensate.
I don't think AHC lowering has as much to do with this. Though generally, lifting the suspension will cause it to toe out. Lowering, toe in. At freeway speeds, it lowering prob helped a little but you still need more toe in. Likely other dynamics at work such as aero loads and toe steer actually creating more toe out at speed. That's how I read it at least.
Last edited:
Make sure that when whoever does the alignment, that the vehicle is in the Neutral suspension position, i.e. take it out of the entry assist function before handing it off to them, if you have it in that mode.
