I noticed noise coming from my tires recently. Mechanic said the tires are
'cupping', probably due to bad shocks. The tires are Michlen XC LT4. They
were put on at 18000 miles (Firestone recall) and the car now has 65500
miles.
I have replaced the shocks with sensatracs. I also had front end aligned
because the tires showed some wear on the edges.
I have noticed this same type of noise coming from other vehicles on the
road.
I don't do any towing, just occasional boat launching.
Are the tires still safe? They still have fairly good tread and overall I
am satisfied with the tires. But I still get tire noise on the road.
What, exactly, cause tires to 'cup'?
Thanks
2000 Limited
65500 miles
5.0 V8, most all power
Hairy - 17 May 2005 06:01 GMT
> I noticed noise coming from my tires recently. Mechanic said the tires are
> 'cupping', probably due to bad shocks. The tires are Michlen XC LT4. They
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>
> What, exactly, cause tires to 'cup'?
Are they safe? Depends how deeply they are cupped. Regardless how much tread
is left, the tire is no better than the thinnest part of the tread.
Cupping is caused by bad shocks, unbalanced tire assemblys and even
incorrect tire pressures. Unfortunately, once they start to cup, they will
continue that pattern even after you fix the problem. I'd start saving for
new tires.
H
Big Shoe - 17 May 2005 13:27 GMT
You don't say whether you regularly rotated the tires. Cupping can be
aggravated by running the tires in the same position all the time. My
experience has also been that once they are cupped they stay cupped
and must be replaced.
>> I noticed noise coming from my tires recently. Mechanic said the tires
>are
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>new tires.
>H
Eric Brown - 20 May 2005 18:49 GMT
Also, by my calculations, you've put almost 48,000 miles on that set of
tires. Pretty good service for an SUV. In my experience, the tires look
like they have "pretty good tread" until you get a look at a new set. With
the cupping, they're going to be noisy. Only solution is to replace, with
concurrent check of shocks and alignment. Then monitor tire pressures and
alignment and rotate the tires regularly to avoid a repeat.

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Eric