roadbike56

When I purchased our 09 RX350, the dealer had replaced the Michelins with new Sumitomo Touring LS tires. We now have 15K on the tires and the road noise is deafening. I just had the oil changed and tires rotated and asked the mechanic why so noisy. He pointed to the inside tread on all four tires and said the tires were "cupping". Other than that, the tires are wearing very nicely, all even across all four tires. There's no pull on the steering wheel other than normal pull due to road crown. But these tires sound like one of those big pick up trucks with off road tires. The Lexus RX is a 2 wheel drive with 73K total miles and we rotate the tires every 5K miles.
So what causes the "cupping"?

numbafree

http://www.procarcare.com/includes/c...dtirewear.html

https://www.pepboys.com/tires/treads...wear_patterns/

zapola6

I had a set of Pirelli’s, they were loud, cupped and I rotated and balanced often, lasted maybe 20K before I took them back to Discount…. Went to Michelin’s never had another issue. Didn’t change anything on the car.