2004 Solara Tire cupping Madness!

[alexanderdarke]

Hello!

My 2004 Solara (SLE) is having some serious tire issues that my wallet can't afford anymore. The guy at my local tire place is almost stumped about this issue so any info you guys could share would be great.

I bought the Solara about a year ago and back in october I changed the tires since they were pretty worn. Well in a couple of months I heard *that wobbly noise* and knew I had an issue. Brought it back to my tire guy and he swapped out a pair of tires (front I believe) because they were cupping on the inside. Tires were warrantied so I dodged that bullet. Alignment done.

Fast forward a couple of more months and the same thing happened to the older set. Swapped out, rotated, warranty covered. Alignment checked and no problems reported.Another bullet missed.

A couple of more months and all tires were cupping. Tire guy came to the conclusion that the suspension was eating the tires. Offered me new ones but couldn't warranty any more tires. Since he was being good to me, I had all the struts fixed and he comped me the tires. Alignment rechecked. The bullet got me to the tune of $1400k but for smooth handling and no noise I'd buy that.

Suddenly car's pulling to the left all the time. Alignment rechecked and its toes perfectly. Diagnosis-torque steer. Cars got miles so I chalk it up to that since I trust Tire guy. Swears it won't eat the tires. Hate the pulling though.

Sure enough...problems return. Tires cupping, suspension solid, wheel bearings good, alignment good, the whole enchilada. This point he's scratching his head because all the bases were covered. Only thing he can think of is that I went 10k miles without rotating. He rotates the tires and wants me back in 6k miles or less. Tire guy says if it's a rotation issue then the wear should stop.

Now a week later and I can hear the problem getting worse. I know he's going to be stumped when I get back in there and I've already paid too much for this muffler! (err tires). The killer of it all is that I love the car!

Anyone got a clue? Thanks for reading!

Alex

[Lamski]

That's interesting... I thought of the suspension originally when you mentioned cupping as I had cupping on my older Camry as well due to the struts. Are you lowered at all?

Strange it's still happening even though you had the struts changed out.

[DOHCammer]

You didn't mention what tires you put on your Solara. Some tires are just prone to cupping. You've got all the other bases covered, new struts and an alignment usually take care of any cupping issues. I've also seen underinflation cause some cupping but I imagine your tire guy has that covered.

[Robert1820]

Camrys and Solaras are a little worse than the average front drive car for cupping wear. I'm in the tire biz and see all kinds of tire wear. The tire technical term for cupping is heel and toe wear. The texture and pattern of it is dependent on which way the tire is rolling. The way to stop it is to cross rotate the rear tires to the front and rotate the fronts straight back. Doing this every 5-6k miles will pretty much stop the cupping. For this reason, I recommend to sales people and customers to avoid directional tread tires on most street driven cars since they can only be rotated on the same side. This will almost certainly result in reduced useable tire life due to cupping and irregular wear.

[alexanderdarke]

Thanks for the feed back guys!

Lamski- The suspension isn't lowered-just plain ol standard.

DOH Cammer- The new set of tires on the car is Kelly Navigator Touring Gold. I'm told its an average and decent tire. Someone tell me wrong?

Robert- I had a feeling the solaras had a tire eating quirk. Guess I got lucky again. I didn't know about the directional tread though and I'll have to ask Tire Guy (or find the receipt) if these tires have em and stay away from them in the future.

Again thanks! Much appreciated.

Alex

[DOHCammer]

I don't know much about Kelly tires. They are made by Goodyear and I've never had any luck with them. I've changed out Goodyears that still had plenty of life left because they just plain sucked. If the Kelly's still cup after new struts and cross rotation then you need different tires.