dreaming37

My brand new tires are wearing in a funny way on my stock G37 coupe with OEM 19's. I want to see if anyone else has seen it, especially if you've gone to wider tires on the OEM 19's.

After 2500 miles, every single tire is getting feathering, now turning into ramping, on the inside edge. Identical pattern for all of them. Perfectly even across the entire tire diameter for all 4. Rear is worse than the front. It's caused singing, then whining, and now going into droning (highly technical terms, I know). Anyone?

I've searched on tire wear, found lots of good stuff, but not anything on my problem. I'm very experienced with tire wear patterns, alignment adjustments, suspensions, etc. Never seen this before.

I'm taking it in for another alignment, even though I had one 15,000 miles ago.
I went wider on all tires: 245 up front, 255 in back. Could this be causing it?
Inflation pressure has always been good; 35 to 37 all around.
Camber? but it's front and back!
Toe-in? but it's front and back.
If it's unique, I'll blame the tires (Yokohama Advan Sport A/S)

Thanks in advance!

blnewt

iTrader: (13)

Sounds highly unusual, are you running stock suspension? Since it's all four and you seem to think your alignment is proper it could be something w/ the tires Have you had any jarring impacts that could have jacked w/ your alignment? Those tire sizes should be well within the recommended rim widths FWIW.

Black Betty

iTrader: (60)

Post your alignment specs please.

donshou

^^^
Toe out is common with wearing only the inside edge of the front tires. Changing tire size would definately affect your alignment.

I increased tire size on my ser, and it increased toe out leading to me driving until the insides were threads. Get your alignment done and post the specs please.

blnewt

iTrader: (13)

Actually wider tires won't change anything about your alignment (unless the guy mounting your tires did something to a part related to your suspension) but wider tires tend to wear better w/ less camber compared to narrower tires. The actual alignment specs won't change w/ wider tires but the way your car tracks and handles could very well be affected by the wider track. Also wider tires are more prone to tramlining.
That inner wear on all four tires is strange, hopefully you can post the alignment data.

RadioFlyer

iTrader: (1)

It sounds like your toe is off -toe'd out. No, different tires won't change your alignment.

If that's not it, I'd look into unusual things like if there's a road around you that's weirdly crowned, and you ONLY drive on that road.

You mentioned that you're stock, I'm taking that to mean 100% stock suspension as well? Because another thing that can wear the insides is if you have a wacky camber curve because your car is so much lower/higher than the original height.

Do you typically carry a lot of weight in the car? If so, try to get your alignment set with the car loaded up.

Do you get bump steer? If so, that's indicative of a wacky camber curve.

I would say to look at the ball joints and tie rods to make sure there isn't any play in them, but if it's happening on all 4 corners, then that's not likely. Not to mention you'd probably complain about vagueness in the steering/handling.

That's about all I can think of with the posted information. A printout of the alignment would help.

Neal@tirerack

iTrader: (2)

My vote for toe as well.

dreaming37

UPDATE:
Thanks for the info guys!

I got the alignment done. As y'all suspected, toe-in was off on the front and the rear. Camber was off on the rear. I don't have the alignment sheet with me.

The tech looked at the tire wear and said that it was unusual for it to be so even on all 4 tires, even after accounting for the alignment. It might be that this particular tire is more susceptible to this wear pattern. It's a new model, so there's not a lot of info on TireRack's forums and reviews yet. (Yokohama Advan Sport A/S)

As for the other items y'all have mentioned, none of them are in play here. The only factor that might be involved is that my commute is mostly on new concrete highways, and I know that concrete can lead to heavier wear.

A consequence of this wear is a loud whine from one of the rear tires on the concrete; it's really annoying! So much so that I might dump them on e-bay (with full disclosure, of course), and replace the rears. I tried rotating them side-to-side. I've had some luck with that in the past for getting rid of mild wear patterns and noise. But no joy this time.

Again, thanks for the help.

RadioFlyer

iTrader: (1)

Happy to help!

One other thing you can try before getting rid of the tires, is to 'flip' them. As in, move the right rear tire to the left rear, and the left rear tire to the right rear. and do the same for the fronts. If you were feathering the inner edges of the tires, then the feathered part of the tread will be at the outsides, and you'll predominantly be riding on fresh tires again. Personally, I'd give that a shot before selling the set of tires at a pretty big loss.

blnewt

iTrader: (13)

I think those Yokos are asymmetrical though, so the outside of the tire can never be mounted to the inside

RadioFlyer

iTrader: (1)

Oh good call! I forgot about that possibility. Yes, OP, check on that before attempting.