so I just got new wheels about a month and a half ago. I had some rubbing issues. I shaved and it somewhat fixed the problem. only get rubbing on really bad dips in the rear and rubbing in the front on really bad dips/turns.

tonight I went out and I got a flat on the way home from bars at 2am:




I thought it was just a normal flat. screw or something that poked a hole.

finally I take wheel/tire off and I come to find this:







im absolutely no expert and this is my first experience with aftermarket wheels/tires or any problem with the tires to be honest, so im not sure exactly what the problem here is.

does the ripping of the tire look like normal wear/tear, does it look like it was from rubbing?
tire specs are: 285/30/20. can anyone help diagnose the cause of the tire looking like this by the above pictures?
I DID find a screw in the middle of the tire, so im very confused as to which factor made the tire go flat. I was thinking maybe the screw caused the flat and then the fact that I rolled on it flat until I got to a gas station (about a mile) caused the rips to happen? any help would be great as I wont be able to get this checked out until late tomorrow and also id like to be aware if I will run into future problems. I got lucky there was a gas station so close by. next time there may not.

 

Honestly bro, it looks as if it was torn by the both the tire coming into contact with the fender, and also because of a bad alignment (based off of the tread wear and threads beginning to show through). The nail MAY have had something to do with it, but I doubt it'd have caused that much havoc by itself. Just my opinion though.

 

You probably ran over the nail first which gave you a slow leak. Then you ran the tire on low air pressure. That's normally what a failure looks like from riding on too low of a pressure for too long.

 

+1. Plus, that's the inner part of the tire right? Most likely you lost pressure (from nail, drop in temperature or whatever) and riding the rim of your wheel on the sidewall and cutting in the tire.

If its the fender, then could be the fender rubbing the tire but not sure how that can cause it if its the inner side. I'd also make sure there's no control arms or something hitting the inside of the wheel/tire too.

Check pressure frequently, especially in months when temperature is dropping, because it can be hard to notice loss in air pressure if you're on low profiles tires like 285/30/20 (man, i would hate mount those).

 

Looks like text book under inflation damage. What does the tire straight across on the other side of the car look like?

 

^Agreed, maybe had been low for a while, the car likely also has negative rear camber which will wear the tire much faster. I'd get the tire fixed and take it in for an alignment, then ask how negative the rear camber was.

 

oops, sorry I forgot to mention that the rips on the tire are on the INSIDE not the outside. but I was thinking maybe it was rubbing something on the inside.
you might be right, I hadn't done an alignment yet as I was waiting to go somewhere that I knew could do good alignments with dropped cars.

thanks man I think you may have just let me realize what caused this. this particular tire had been going pretty low on air constantly for a while so I kept having to fill it up with air. In between filling up I probably road on it with too low of air pressure for a while and was causing this.

thank you for the tips. yes it was inner part of the tire. the temperature outside was pretty cold last night (32 degrees F) so im sure that also caused pressure to drop even more in the tire.

ill have to make sure nothing is hitting on the inside I guess, but is that very likely?

I ran the 285s because I got them from Diego at vossen and he gave me a good deal on the tire/wheel purchase. he said they would run fine, but they are a little big. next time im going with 275.


not familiar with "text book under inflation damage". does that just mean that's what happens when you ride on low tire pressure for too long?
I don't know that the other tire looks like, yet. im hoping nothing like this one. I will be taking it off today to take a look. this tire had been running low on air and I kept having to fill up. from the sounds of everyones input, it sounds like riding on low air pressure for too long was the culprit of this.

thanks, you're probably right and im figuring low pressure was the problem. im sure I have negative camber too, so it probably didn't help. thanks for the tips. alignment does need to be done.

 

Thanks for all the help guys!
I'm thinking the low air pressure is going to end up what caused this. As I mentioned I had that particular tire keep running low on air and had to keep going for fill ups. The damage was probably caused in between.

I also just remembered I did hit a pothole a little hard last night. So this could be another factor? After the pothole I did continue to ride for another good 10 miles and I didn't hear or feel anything strange so I don't think this was the problem right away, however it does add ANOTHER factor and something else that could've added to why this happened.

thanks for all the help guys- I really appreciate it. I was starting to get worried that it was more of something with the overall setup of suspension and wheel/tire combination and that it would be a recurring problem as long as I kept the car like this- in which case id remove everything and go back to stock.

 

Ya, looks like the tires were pretty worn anyway so no big loss, as long as the wheel is okay-looks a bit damaged on the lip. But ya, think of it this way, the camber is low, so the inside of the tire takes most of the load, add a low tire to that and it will kill that edge damn quick, two new tires and alignment.
But do you have a pic of the tire from the rear, mounted in the car? I only ask because if you have rubbing issues on the fender lip they will be much worse with your camber straightened out.
Now, the GS as far as I know has no rear camber adjustment, so if its low you will need an aftermarket kit to have this done, there is a toe adjustment, but that's it. That being said negative toe alone could cause that kind of wear, but you'd need to have it checked on an alignment rack to know for sure.

 

Yea man those tires look pretty worn out even from the thread in the middle. I'm pretty sure the damage was caused by driving the tire really low on air and alignment problems. If I was you I would check the other tire to see how it's wearing.

 

yeah that makes a lot of sense. sounds like I had all the factors for something bad to occur eventually.
I don't have any picture directly from the back. the best I have right now is this:





you're right though, my tires barely have room to roll freely under normal driving conditions. so hopefully an alignment wont straighten everything out TOO much and cause rubbing issues. I see what youre saying completely. these are all the little things I was trying to avoid when I was doing this mod haha.

im not super low, im only on springs (Tanabe nf210s) so im dropped less than an inch in the back and just a little over an inch in the front- I shouldn't have too much negative camber right?

thanks for the input clos. yeah im going to dismount the other tire and see how its looking. I visually checked it today and felt the tire and it seemed okay. will have to fully inspect it when I get it dismounted tomorrow.

you haven't had any problems right?

 

that just happened to me recently. its low air pressure and negative camber. i had to buy two new tires because of it. im putting in my rear camber kit soon though.

 

Camber doesn't look too low, may not even need a camber kit, but if you do it will be a lower arm adjustment so with narrower tires it probably won't cause any problems.