Please help me diagnose this wear problem. My car is a very early 2008 model HCH. Within the first 2,000 miles I had the rear upper control arms replaced and a new alignment. I thought that would take care of any wear problems in the future; it didn't. At 30K miles I noticed pretty bad cupping while rotating the tires. This pretty much confirmed the howling noise i heard while driving.

For 30K miles, these tires have been inflated at sidewall pressure or above. In fact, the center of the tire is wearing a little faster than the edges except for the inside shoulder blocks. Those inside blocks look like poo. The bad wear pattern is being scrubbed in while the tires are on the rear. The fronts exhibit very even and minimal wear.

I paid for another alignment at 30K and the specs which scrubbed on the tires for about 20K miles were:
Camber = L -0.8° | -1.3° R --> spec is -2.4° to -0.6°
Toe = L -0.1° | -0.15° R --> spec is 0.04° to 0.16°

The only alignment which really stuck out to me was the right rear toe which was wacked out. So the question is:

Can one wheel with really bad toe cause the tire damage in the pictures? Or, can high inflation pressures cause the tire to be so firm that unusual patterns are scrubbed into the tires.

Do those of you with good alignments, high tire pressures, and proper upper control arms wear down the tires in a similar nature?

 

Sometimes it takes more than just the upper control arm replacement to allow for proper camber! My 2006 required new rear spring as well in order to get the camber in spec. It sounds as if yours is still not in spec? Hal

 

It reads within spec

Oh hang on: toe spec values are negative, and his readings are positive. Just had a look in my '06's Service Manual: toe is adjustable, via a nut at the end of the trailing arm. Likely still is for '08. FWIW, the '06 rear toe spec is:

Rear toe-in: 2 (+2,-1) mm, or 0.08" (+0.08",-0.04")