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Uneven Tire Wear. Defective Tire???

8K views 9 replies 4 participants last post by  MSTEWART 
#1 ·
I have a 2003 Honda Pilot with 125K and the tires were replaced with Kumho Solus KR21 tires about 20K ago. I also had a 4 wheel alignment done also with the purchase of the tires. When I drove home the steering wheel was all of the way to the right. I went back to NTB the next day and told them that they obviously didn't tighten something down or did not properly align my vehicle. The told me that they checked the alignment again and it was ok, but they moved the front passenger tire to the right rear.

Needless to say 20K later I am noticing major wear on the outer tread of the tire. Half of the tire outer tread is almost bald but the other half of the other tread isn't nearly as bad. The tire also is losing 10psi every week.

My question is, does anyone think that this is a defective tire? The old tires didn't seem to do this. My shocks and struts have not been replaced yet, I plan on doing it in a couple of weeks. My pilot is very well maintained and has not been drove hard at all.

Thanks in advance for any input! I am just confused on what this could be...:confused:
 
#4 ·
They did replace the valve stems according to the paperwork. It doesn't really look like any of those pictures. I check all of my tires weekly since I have an air compressor in my garage. It looks like half of the outer tread is almost gone. The other half of the outer tread has wear but not as bad as the other half. Can the Pilot get the alignment adjusted in the rear or is it just the front? They charged me for a 4 wheel alignment. I will never use NTB again!!!!!
 
#5 ·
By any chance, do you have the sheet of alignment specs, before and after, from when it was done?

It sounds to me that they adjusted the camber way too much positive in order to compensate for the crown in the road, which makes total sense.

If they adjusted the camber on the right front and cranked it positive, the tire was at that point riding more on the outer edge of the tire on the right hand side, which would bring the steering towards center by doing it exactly the wrong way.

The diagram below shows how. Your vehicle would be similar to the top left.
 

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#6 ·
hondacuraworld said:
By any chance, do you have the sheet of alignment specs, before and after, from when it was done?

It sounds to me that they adjusted the camber way too much positive in order to compensate for the crown in the road, which makes total sense.

If they adjusted the camber on the right front and cranked it positive, the tire was at that point riding more on the outer edge of the tire on the right hand side, which would bring the steering towards center by doing it exactly the wrong way.

The diagram below shows how. Your vehicle would be similar to the top left.

I do have the diagram in my Pilot which my wife drives. So I will review it tonight and put the setting on here. I looked at the wheel & tire last night and it looks like possibly they did adjust the tire like you said (upper left in the pic). I didn't know if it was even possible to make those adjustment on the rear of a Pilot.

Thanks for your reply! I will let you know first thing tomorrow what the diagram says.
 
#7 ·
Also, I took the tire off last night and placed it on the garage floor and usually the tire stands up on its own and will roll around... This tire in question just falls right over. It leans so far toward the outer tread that it can not stay up by itself.

If this was a bad wheel do you think they would find this out during a balance?

Could the belts in the tire be bad causing this. A guy at work suggested that it might be a bad belt in the tire causing the uneven wear and constant air leak. :confused:
 
#8 ·
I'm guessing that it fell over because of the side wear. Shifted belts don't cause edge wear, although edge wear could cause a shifted belt.

Since they were balanced, you can easily confirm a shifted belt by putting the tire on one of the front positions. If the steering wheel wobbles all over the place, diagnosis complete :) . But that may or may not be the root of the issue.
 
#9 ·
hondacuraworld said:
I'm guessing that it fell over because of the side wear. Shifted belts don't cause edge wear, although edge wear could cause a shifted belt.

Since they were balanced, you can easily confirm a shifted belt by putting the tire on one of the front positions. If the steering wheel wobbles all over the place, diagnosis complete :) . But that may or may not be the root of the issue.
Thanks!!! I will try that tonight. I called the dealer and they wanted $89 for a 4 wheel alignment. They did indicate that the Pilot has adjustment in the rear for alignment. I wish I would have known that they are cheaper than NTB for alignments, because I would have taken it there instead. ;)

I am probably going to get a new tire on order because this one is shot anyway. I think I am also going to do struts and shocks this weekend before I have it re-alignend.
 
#10 ·
I replaced the struts, stabilizer links, strut mounts & rear shocks this weekend. I also had it aligned. They said that the rear alignment was off on the passenger side but the wear pattern on the tire looked like it could be a defective tire. The car drives much better now. It is nice around turns (no more roll) & all around the car drives like new. Now if I can just figure out the popping that happens every once in a while over bumps & the shimmy in the steering wheel at 70mph. I think that it is the front motor mount from what I have read on here...
 
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