elibutton

Hi,

Was hoping for some feedback on this issue. I own an '01 GS430 L-tuned, it's been lowered, and as 18" OZ Salinas rims that are staggared (9 fronts, 9.5 rear). Bought the car used on '05 and just love it. Right now I have some Bridgestone Potenzas Pole Positions, 255's front, 275's rear.

My problem: the 2 front tires are cuffing badly, sounds like a wheel bearing coming lose when you drive it on the hwy. I've had continuous alignment issues w/ this vehicle, and have found out (from the alignment shop) that the previous owner looks to have treated this baby like crap - - they hit a curb hard as the front right side unibody is slighly bent, and it's caused a continuous misalignment.

I visit my alignment guy every 6-8 weeks, and everytime I see him he says something is misaligned. He also says the car has been lowered, and it was not done the right way, and that too may be causing misalignment issues. All of this causes major cuffing of the front pair of tires.

He recommends that I find a tire w/ a "good ribbed tread design", a softer tire, that may last longer and be able to handle the cuffing better. He recommended Nexen 5000 (Korea) or Sumitomo HT+ tires, and does not recommend anymore high performance tires w/ direction treads on them since this cuffing will be an ongoing issue.

What do you guys think? My rims are low profile, so I'm thinking those types of tires may not work, but wanted to ask the audience for their feedback. He's not too sure what's the root cause of the cuffing, and w/ 120k miles it may not be cost effective to do any unibody frame work.

Would appreciate your thoughts and recommendations on tires or troubleshooting - - I'm searching tirerack but they don't have a search for "ribbed tread design" tires.

Thanks!

timgs300

iTrader: (22)

That is usually a sign of bad suspension. If you push down on the corner of the car, does it bounce a lot? Any leaks from the shocks. Have you had the ball joints checked for play? Also, it never hurts to put new control arm bushings in (The Daizens). Sounds like you should find a really good suspension/body shop that can fix the root of your problem so this does not occur and possibly turn into a dangerous situation.

BigClexus

iTrader: (2)

(For reference: Stock suspension, stock height, stock rims) I originally had brigestone turanzas which were a bit soft, but still considered a great tire. I just recently put potenza's on and the difference was like night and day. I would suggest keeping a good high performance tire on there at all costs. You will probably not be happy with softer tire. I would really work at getting the problem fixed because there is no guarantee that lower performance tires will not wear out just as quickly, but surely the driveability will be compromised.

ZippyGuy

iTrader: (9)

The L-Tuned Salinas are 18" x 8" (front), 18" x 9.5" (rear), proper fitment is 245/40-18 front & 275/35-18 rear. My suggestion on tires is to visit www.tirerack.com and sort by tires that are rated by purchasers as scoring high on ride comfort and/or noise. The Michelin PS2 and Hankook V12 come to mind as great choices, or a quality summer touring tire like the Toyo Versado (I'm a BIG fan).

As BigClexus stated, you are not going to be happy anything other than a great summer tire.

Also, timgs300 makes the best point of all. GET RID OF YOUR SUSPENSION SHOP. timgs300 didn't say that being the gentleman he is, but your shop isn't doing you any favors. Recommending Nexen 5000 or Sumitomo HT+ as a first choice he has NO idea what he's talking about. I'm not saying they're crap, what I'm saying is that there are better choices for the money especially since you're running standard sizes. Again, get a new shop.

eyecon7

iTrader: (2)

my tires have the same problem! its sounds soo bad.. its your toe!

timgs300

iTrader: (22)

WHICH ONE?

Infamous 1

iTrader: (20)

I agree with the majority. Get a second opinion and check your suspension components.

elibutton

I appreciate the responses - thank you!

Timgs300 - - I agree, I think the root cause may be due to a bad suspension, I'm just having a hard time isolating the issue. I had my mechanic check out the struts and shocks last Fall, he did the push test and said nothing was out of the ordinary. I am unsure about the leaks from shocks, but maybe I will have him look into this. I just got my 90k + 120k mile service completed, next on my list is the ball joints. I will have to look into the control arm bushings (Daizen) - - is this a manditory maintenance? What mileage? 120K?

Zippy - - I used to have Michelin PS2's and they ran into the same problem - - cuffing, although I did buy the tires used at a deal. I think from now on I will only shop for brand new tires since there's so much variance w/ used tires. I agree w/ your feedback on my suspension guy, I think my issue may be out of his realm, although he's been doing alignments for 15-20yrs now.

I spend an hour with him every 6 weeks for the past 8 months, and he hasn't been charging for my revisits (one time $55 payment). Everytime I take it in there's something misaligned w/ the car. I am a pretty conservative driver and baby it over speed bumps too. Like I said, he has no idea what the source is - - his first step was to possibly replace the camber screw and see how that goes. All he says is the car has unibody damage and hasn't been lowered properly, and therefore I will always have suspension issues w/ this vehicle.

I think my next steps are:
- buy new tires (never had Hanooks, may shoot for new PS2's or something rated high)
- replace ball joints - - does this mean I should put in new control arm bushings?
- take it back for a realignment and see how if there's any improvement after my 2nd visit.

elibutton

Actually, I'm kind of leaning towards these: Continental Extreme Contact DWS. I live in TX, so no snow, but it looks to have great tread life and is rated well in rain, and people say it's a quiet ride:

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....omCompare1=yes

elibutton

Another tire update:

Been spending all morning in tirerack, and I finally contacted my local tire shop to inquire about those Continental Extreme Contact DWS, this was his feedback:

He’s afraid that if I get the Continentals and if my alignment is not dead-on (which it's not), it could scallop the edges of the tread where one edge is raised, and the other edge is down, and that would end up turning into a noisy tire. He recommends putting on a soft tire so that before it starts scalloping the tread. I asked "isn't that just a band-aid remedy - putting on softer tires? He agreed. He then recommended the Kumho Ecsta LX Platinum, the only problem is there are no sizes available for my rear (275/35-18). Kumho didn't make them.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....omCompare1=yes

God Blessed. He said if I want to step it up to the top of the line, go w/ the Michelin Pilot Sport PS2's. And those are pricey too.

Damn.

RMMGS4

iTrader: (5)

PS2's are at another level performance wise to the tires mentioned so far, but all this topic of tire choice is clouding the REAL issue which is to get to the root cause of the problem.

So any recommendations for tires are just with the premise to waste less money, since you are still going to wear out tires sooner than if you fixed the actual problem.

Your alignment guy has NO FIX and it also appears NO CLUE how to fix. All I have read so far is a lot of wasted time guessing what it could be. More than likely you will need to change more than just one part in your suspension to fully resolve it. It's likely you have worn or damaged suspension components. Which worn part change has the best improvement? Well it's hit or miss and it could get costly for you to keep replacing parts while the shop continues to charge you. If they know the true problem it's going to cheaper to tear the car down once instead of repetitively.

Anyone can turn a wrench until the computer tells them to stop, that doesn't make them aligment experts.

You should go to a shop with real technical expertise in "Understanding" what suspension issues can cause this type of wear. A shop that specializes in aligning race cars, autocross and modified suspensions is preferred.

As an example. the shop would have a background such as this one that I go to: http://www.customalignment.com/


edit: Sounds like you like the guy you're working with, so hope he charges you minimally for advancing his skills by working on your car. At the same time, if the fix doesn't happen on the first try, you won't find out until xxxx miles down the road when your tires start cupping again. Verifying that the alignment is "good" is no guarantee of a fix. What tends to happen is that with the first "fix" the problem is reduced but not gone completely away, hence there is more than one problem or the first fix is not the real fix. I hope you see my point where this is going, but good luck and hope he hits it on the first attempt.