Had some new tyres fitted to the Focus about 5 weeks ago. UniRroyal Rain Experts, so not cheep rubbish.
However, had a 'moment' on them driving upto Scotland, just after you cross the border on the A68 and go down the switchbacks. Thankfully it was 1am by this point and there was no one coming the other way although for the 5 minutes it felt like the car was understeering into the crash barriers they were looking rather solid and the drop the far side rather big! Thankfully they gripped again and no harm done, just clean pants needed.
In the light of day I checked the tyres for any obvious damage like a puncture causing it to lose pressure and grip, but they're still at the recomended pressure, no punctures.
But there looks like a 1mm deep layer on the the tread of a lighter gray rather than black rubber? Which is peeling off in strips! And the shoulder is full of small cracks, the rear's (Prestivo Soort's)have similar cracking on the shoulder, but they were cheep and 30,000miles old so I'd be staerting to expect them to be showing UV damage or wear. I got 20,000miles out of the last fronts and that was because poor tracking wore the inside shoulders out prematurely, there was still 4mm on the outside 3/4 of the tyre, and the half worn rears are 30,000miles old and anyone's whos had to sit in the car with me will tell you I'm not the type that drives fast enough to skid round corners!
So which of the below is most likely true:
a) there's a fault with the tyre(s), drivers side looks worse than passenger side but both have the issue.
b) there's a fault with my driving, somehow sliding has ruined the tyre? FWIW I wasn't goig fast enough IMO to skid that badly and almost end up in the metalwork on the opposite side of the road!
Need to go back to the garage and get the tracking done anyway, just wondering whether to start an argument over where there's a fault.
Has it done it again?
Could you have hit some black ice, diesel etc to cause the slide
Sounds more liek you have been through spilt diesel. Cracks in the sidewalls are normally from over inflation or age, new rubber shouldn't show any cracks. The peeling of rubber and colour difference is more worrying and for that I would take them back to checked.
Could you have hit some black ice, diesel etc to cause the slide
I drove from there to GT at crawling pace (after gettign out to check they wheels were still attached), and made it home safely last night (again, even slower than usual).
Air temp was still 10degC and no rain, if the tyre wasn't looking as it is I'd have balmed diesel too. Question is, was the tyre like that before the corner, or has the slide burnt/melted/denatured the rubber somehow?
Sounds to me like either the tyre is faulty or you've driven through some chemical degrading the tyre. Back to the manuf asap, I think they'll be keen to see them.
The slide won't have damaged the tyre other than a little wear. You've seen cars drfiting and a it takes some serious abuse to damage the tyre.
The slide won't have damaged the tyre other than a little wear. You've seen cars drfiting and a it takes some serious abuse to damage the tyre.
Those were my thoughts, off to the garrage tonight then.
Missus' brother in law sued to manage a branch of Kwikfit then Halfords (yea, yea, I know) so I'll give him a ring as well and see if he's seen owt like this before.
looks like a 1mm deep layer on the the tread of a lighter gray rather than black rubber? Which is peeling off in strips! And the shoulder is full of small cracks,
This sounds pretty odd and like you should get them replaced asap.
Just been to the garage to get the tracking done. It was supposed to be done 6 weeks ago when I had the tyres fitted, but the machine was broken, and its taken them this long to get it fixed. The fitter said it was the tracking's fault, but I'm not convinced. Firstly the old tyres never went this bad (and the tracking was what wore them out), secondly the tracking was toed out too far, wearing the inside edge of the tyres, all this damage is starting on the outer edge. Thirdly the passenger side looks OK, but you can see the two shades of rubber, if it was tracking surely both tyres would be wearing in the same way (i.e. both on the inside edge).
I'm going to e-mail uniroyal and fwd them onto the brother-out-law for a look, but I think I've been fobbed off slightly, I paid for new tyres and tracking, the fact they didn't do the tracking (or tell me about the machine being broken till after the tyres were fitted) then took ages getting it fixed, and in the meantime the tyre's done this makes it their fault (IMO).
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Small cracks look like they've turned into lumps and fallen off entirely.
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The tracking being out has nothing to do with the damage to those tyres. The only thing that happens to tyres when the tracking is out is either the inside or outside edge gets worn off first.
Something is up with that tyre, faulty rubber or as mentioned something has come into contact with it and is breaking the rubber up.
Not the garages fault in the slightest, not like they make the tyres.
That damage is certainly possible from poor wheel alignment and they've definitely got warm....
The crown area damage is quite typical from tracking issues. The damage to the shoulder looks quite severe though I suggest has come from them getting rather warm from running constantly misaligned, causing the rubber to harden & crack.
How old are the tyres? (from the DOT code)
date code is 2412 (Mid July, so pretty much new).
I run UniRroyal Rain Experts and they have never shown damage or wear like that...in fact, they have been great tyres up in (sunny..) Scotland...
Considering then that the tyres are very recently manufactured, it only strengthens my belief that it has come from the misaligned running....
What did the garage say about the tyre damage?
The garage said tracking, but I'm not convinced as the previous tyres made it to 20,000miles before the INSIDE 1/4 wore down to the limit. That damage in the pics is the OUTSIDE of the tyre. And the fitter said they'd been running toed out, which backs up the wear on the old tyres.
ive seen that before
was on an escort that i completely missed a speed bump at fort william nevis range on the exit road at about 30 in a fully loaded car then drove down the a9 with the front wheel pointing at each other with a pair of bent wishbones.
backs up the missalligned wheels im afraid
Back from work and just caught up, straight back to garage, then Uniroyal themselves!!
Surely if the tracking was out THAT far it Marge, the effing thing would be pullin all over the shop. Thats awful damage for 5 weeks, but I'd be putting it down to a contamination rather than mis-alignment.
Exactly.
For the tracking to have caused that damage, the wheel would have be sitting at such an angle you would be able to see it. Not to mention the car would be driving like a small moon.
It's a faulty tyre, simple as.
I will have to disagree.... 😉
The damage on the outer shoulder is not pure abrasion related looking at the photo. It looks to me like overheating has caused the rubber to become dry & brittle. Toe out will cause the most distress on the outer shoulder as the tyre shoulder / buttress area is in compression rather than tension.
The tread area damage is pure misalignment.
If you are still unsure about the tracking (tracking at a garage, even when they dress it up as computer aligned laser tracking) is very basic.
Go and get a 4 wheel alignment done, but ring around as the pricing varies...some will charge £40 and then £10 per adjustment (usually two), others will charge more but the adjustments are included.
www.alignmycar.com
My money is on the tracking combined with Rain Experts to be absolutely useless as a front tyre especially when pushed for grip. Rain Sports are better but not great.
I had a full set of Rain Experts on my 07 Focus and from the beginning the fronts were useless. They would understeer whenever I went into a corner carrying a reasonable amount of speed and because of this they only lasted 6 months on the front. The previous pair of Michelin Premicy HP lasted over 2 years and gripped the road much better. I have some Rainsports on the front of the Focus now and they are better than the Experts but they still understeer when pushed. Its predictable but not ideal.
I used to have a car where the tracking wouldn't stay put. I got through a set of front tyres in about 500 miles once. The inside had been shamfered off smoothly - it didn't look like that at any point.
If you are still unsure about the tracking (tracking at a garage, even when they dress it up as computer aligned laser tracking) is very basic.Go and get a 4 wheel alignment done, but ring around as the pricing varies...some will charge £40 and then £10 per adjustment (usually two), others will charge more but the adjustments are included.
It looked like it involved putting a clamp over each wheel rim then putting it in front of the worlds biggest Wii bar, so I'll assume it was done properly, certainly looked more profesional than the bit of string and plank of wood I've used on the Midget!
I'm still not convinced by the tracking argument,
a) it's only 1 tyre? Tracking would wear out both surely?
b) The tracking was known to be out, as it wore the old tyres unevenly, but only slightly, and in the opposite direction.
c) why is it peeling off in layers, I've never seen a tyre do that before.
[i]It looked like it involved putting a clamp over each wheel rim then putting it in front of the worlds biggest Wii bar, so I'll assume it was done properly, certainly looked more profesional than the bit of string and plank of wood I've used on the Midget![/i]
Yeh, it looks posh but all its doing is making sure the front wheels are both pointing forwards. It doesn't measure the camber of the wheels (how much they lean over) or anything untoward such as a bent wishbone. It also ignores what the back wheels are doing, so won't pick up if they are not aligned with the front (causing the car to crab).
Your wheels could be doing this and tracking wouldn't pick up on it...
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Then again it could purely be down to a dodgy batch of tyres...
Yeh, it looks posh but all its doing is making sure the front wheels are both pointing forwards. It doesn't measure the camber of the wheels (how much they lean over) or anything untoward such as a bent wishbone. It also ignores what the back wheels are doing, so won't pick up if they are not aligned with the front (causing the car to crab).
They had clamps on the back wheels as well.
And do any (production) car's these days have adjustable camber? Its not even possible to adjust it on a mcpherson strut.
I've e-mailed uni-royal so we'll see what they have to say about it.
c) why is it peeling off in layers, I've never seen a tyre do that before
It is because the rubber that contacts the road is getting very hot due to running under constant stress.
Please keep us updated on what uniroyal say...
It may not be designed to be adjustable, but bouncing off a few kerbs will do the job 🙂 If its a 4 wheel alignment machine they normally give you two prints outs, the before and after with about 12 measurements on each.