I own a 2006 IS 250 with less 13k miles on it and my two front tires are cupped on the inside and outside of the tire. I have checked the tire pressure regularly and done all the maintenance as required. The tread on the tires is still great but the road noise and vibration is getting worse by the day due to the cupping. The service department told me that the tires are high performance and that I was lucky to have gotten this many miles. I worked as a mechanic for 4 years at 2 different ford dealerships and I have never seen a car that was able to eat tires in less than 12k miles without the car being broken or driven extremely hard. My wife drives the car everyday to work like a grandma. Has anyone else had this problem?

 

Are you sure the tires are not under inflated?

From my own experience, I have only seen tires cup on either the inner or outer side of the tire, but that is usually related to the camber of the wheels. Usually if both outside edges are being eaten away one I would tend to think that the tires have been under inflated. How much PSI are you running?

The only other thing I can think of that is that the car might have been involved in a accident at the dealer, long before you came along and bought it and it was never disclose to you.

 

There have been several discussions recently about this on the Forum. You might want to look around for those discussions. I have a 2006 IS350 and just replaced all 4 tires at 20,000 miles. The front tires were worn on the inside edges (which the dealer said is normal for the IS). They were also worn on the outside edges with the drivers side tire being worn more. The rear tires were worn in the middle of the tread even though I maintained the recommended air pressure. My dealer tried to get me to continue driving the car and put more miles on my tires even though they were worn out. Long story, but since I purchased "Tires for Life" they ended up giving me a new set. I purchased the "Tires for Life" program because I anticipated getting 10-15K on a set of tires. Getting 20K was a real surprise.

 

[I] don't remember what the pressure is off hand but i make sure they are correctly inflated often. I have seen tires wear the tread on the inside and outside due to under inflation but cupping is a different issue that usually is controlled by rotating tires that can not be done because the IS model tires are directional and have different size front and rear tires.

 

I'm running 35 PSI in the Front and 37 PSI in the rear per the sticker inside the driver's side door. The tires are checked when cold (before driving).

 

I recently discovered the same problem on my 06.. I just had a new set of tires put on and a 4 wheel alignment 4,000 miles ago and all 4 tires are cupped on the edges... probably a prior accident :/

 

There has been many threads regarding this. To summarize, it's because of the alignment up front done on purpose by Lexus to make the wheels more like / \, instead of ||. You can take it in for an alignment and have them straighten it out (which would go outside of factory specs).

 

Also, don't trust the dealer when they align it. They will set it to the factory specs with the camber and toe changes for performance. If you want you tire to last, take it to a tire shop that knows alignment. Most shop will just read the machine without know much about alignment.

 

so how do you know their correct if you dont 'know'?

also, how hard do you attack the corners?