Drove from Christchurch to Dunedin for the weekend on Friday night. At one stage the car wanted to steer to the left quite badly, then the left front tyre blown, not puntured, but ripped and destroyed.

Tough luck, changed to the spare donut tyre and carried on. The tyre's inside threads were quite worn, not sure if it's cause by uneven wear or by the accident. I took all the tyres to paint the calipers a few months ago and don't remember seeing any super uneven wear.

During the weekend, replaced with a 2nd hand tyre, the guy there wasn't sure what happened to the tyre either. Anyway, tyre replaced, and planned to get a wheel alignment done once back in Christchurch.

Then this whole thing becomes interesting, on the way back to Christchurch, not long after passing Ashburton, the OTHER front tyre blown as well, looks like same thing happened as the other tyre.

So, WTF happened, what might have caused two front tyres to blow in a weekend? They had plenty of threads earlier this year, I'm not certain but don't think there was much uneven wear when I painted the calipers a few months ago, all tyres where at ~35psi before I left Dunedin. The front lower ball joints did got replaced recently as well. Is it likely to be something a wheel alignment would fix?

Anyway, here're the pics:

far,
wth happened?
Would be useful to state the brand of tyres were used for those which are blown?

Any chance they were rubbing against something when they are fitted to the car?

Looks like they've been rubbing against something as the tear is appears to be around the whole tyre :o There's no tread left on that side of the tyre.

ouch !

had similar damage to our front wheels (the alignment was a long way out, grumpy story) :

Quote" At one stage the car wanted to steer to the left quite badly." - Wheel alignment
Quote" The front lower ball joints did got replaced recently as well. Is it likely to be something a wheel alignment would fix?" This is what threw ours out 2 x DZ101's 9 weeks !!, this done prior to us buying the car and i only found out when i found the WOF sheet tucked under the boot carpet

Did you notice chirping when turning corners across road paint/markings from your front wheels ?

things i would check
1.Wheel alignment.
2. Self check all components are tight and in place. (reverse order if you choose)

Very unusual that the front left and right both go. Does seem like something has been rubbing. But you should have noticed a very audible sound for that sort of damage. I would be taking a good look at the front suspension. At a guess I would say that when the ball-joints got done (I am assuming left and right front) something wasn't done quite right or put back in wrong.

My first question is how low is your car?

That kind of wear is often caused by lowering your car and not getting an alignment afterwards, all the steering angles change and will produce results exactly like that.

2nd question is how could you not notice they were that bad? Your car would have been aquaplaning in the wet and sledging around tight corners. You clearly need to pay more attention to the state of your car as this level of wear would have occured over months NOT overnight.

Altezzas are wll known for chewing through tyres like this if the alignment isn't spot on, it's something that needs checking AT LEAST annually.

Bet you'll pay closer attention in the future. It's an expensive lesson to learn...

Ah the good old front inner tyres chewing out. Very common. You should pay more attention to whats going on under your car.

Have a read of these
http://z4.invisionfree.com/lexusaltezzaclu...hp?showtopic=49

http://z4.invisionfree.com/lexusaltezzaclu...?showtopic=2244

As everyone's said a wheel alignment should sort this out, just make sure to take it to a specialist as your average tyre shop probably wont be able to sort it out. There's a place in the UK that has done extensive work on fixing this problem. They may be able to help you fine tune your alignment specs http://www.wheels-inmotion.co.uk/tyres-wheels-lexus.php

Toe-out...

Those tyres were dragged sidways for a thousand km, and the long trip just finished them-

Common on Altezzas/IS200s, all explained here-

http://z4.invisionfree.com/lexusaltezzaclu...hp?showtopic=49

Check everything in the suspension for play, but make sure you stand and watch the guy doing the alignment and make sure the tow-in is where you want it, not just a green tick on the computer.

Then check the inner treads (front AND rear) every couple of months...

Thanks, I'll get an alignment done (was going to do that anyway). Wanted to confirm that was indeed the problem.

I personally haven't lowered the car, and don't think the car's been lowered. When I park the car it clears the kerbs no problem.

Like I said before, all four tyres had been taken off couple months ago when I painted the calipers and didn't notice any uneven wear, car usually handles quite well, like it's on rails around corners. Did steered to the left very slightly, which got quite bad couple of kms before the tyre blew.

I learned this lesson too.. get a pro to do a wheel alignment.. i chewed 5mm of tread off my front tyres in 3 hrs on a back road..

ended up getting 4 new tyres.. $700 later........

I'm getting a ball joint done this week too - should I get an alignment done afterwards? I only just had one not too long ago so would prefer to keep the $70 in my pocket...

The other option if I do need one is to swap my fronts and backs - the current backs will be due for replacement in a few months anyway so might as well just chew them up on the front...

General rule is if anything is done to your suspension, get a wheel alignment

Ouchy! :(

OK, follow up.

Ended up with 2x near new GT Radial tyres at $80 each, and $65 wheel alignment, so ended up not TOO costly. The car's almost chewed through the space saver in the last few days though.

Result of alignment:



As people correctly diagnoised, front toe was out of this world. :blink:

I did what greeneyes suggested, and asked the guy at Firestone to set the toe in to maximum allowed. Looks like he's done that, so hopefully that's the end of this.

good stuff mate....maybe i should book in for a "checkup" :)

Wow
that would be "driving with your rims only" toe

PS: total toe doesn't add up?!

OK, that's good Robo- Stick your head under there every month until Xmas and make sure they are wearing evenly, then every few months next year.

If they show signs of toe-in wear or toe-out, you can change it yourself easily enough. Just loosen the locknut on the steering arm and move the arm in or out as needed by 1/4 to 1/3 turn and run it for another month or two.

The actual alignment needed depends on each persons driving and the roads they drive on.

scary stuff. didn't know altezza come with space savers

In a way, kind of lucky that I had a space saver instead of a full size.

If I had a full size, I may not have bothered to get a new tyre during the weekend, then on the return trip, the other front tyre would blow and I'll be screwed.

Wonder what would happen if it was a BMW with run-flat tyres and NO spare tyre. Don't know if a run-flat would survive sitations like this.