Tires bald and alignment out again! need help
 

Had an alignment and rear control arms replaced at 33000 miles, and also replaced all 4 tires with standard Dunlops after reading about the control arms on this forum. Alignment was way off and there was pretty advanced wear.

At 55,000 miles, the front tires were shockingly bald and the internal sides had metal showing. huge misalignment noted. I had it realigned today and put on some Michelin Pilots.

I mostly drive highway miles in N california and don't think they're full of potholes. I've never had a car wear out its tires or alignment so quickly.

1) has anyone had a similar experience? Seems like I had less life with the second set of tires after the control arms were replaced!
2) any advice?

thanks

Re: Tires bald and alignment out again! need help
 

I can't speak from specific experience but there are some thoughts that come to mind.

It sounds like you got reasonable life from the original Dunlops considering you had the defective control arms and other alignment issues. Why the replacement set of Dunlops wore so badly in 22,000 miles is surprising. However, it sounds like you may not have rotated the tires often enough. Inside wear on the fronts is normally caused by too much negative camber (tires squat out at the bottom). What were the alignment readings before correction? (I am assuming that the Dunlops on the rear were not wearing abnormally and the control arm replacement did work out).

You have certainly switched to a superior tire with the Michelin Pilots. I'm sure others on the site would be interested to hear what you think of them. My guess is they will be better handling and quieter but may cause a drop in mpg.

As I'm sure you know already, maintaining tire pressures at or above the factory levels plus regular diagonal rotations will add to tire life. If your alignment is prone to going out of spec get it checked more often, particularly if you see any abnormal wear.

My final thought is that your original alignment job may not have been done properly and this triggered this chain of events.

By the way, welcome to GreenHybrid. You will find many helpful items posted here if you take the time to do some "research".

Good luck,

Roger

Re: Tires bald and alignment out again! need help
 

Thanks Roger.

My alignment was wildly off; i don't have the actual report in front of me but it is in my glovebox. The measurements were quite off in the front; and you're right that the rear tires and alignment were not that bad.

However, my alignment 22,000 miles ago was at Honda! So I'm wondering, is the Civic hybrid more delicate when it comes to alignment? Or is there a possible problem here? I mostly drive highway miles and don't think that the road conditions are anything out of the ordinary. I'm not a hypermiler and do drive fast on the freeway, but I don't fly over speed bumps.

I'm wondering how to approach this since I don't want a repeat on my pilot exaltos. Thanks for the reply.

e

Re: Tires bald and alignment out again! need help
 

I had my rear upper control arms replaced as well on my 2006 HCH2 at my Dealer in Victoria Canada. A few months latter the rear tires were bald . When arriving in Dessert Hot Springs, California I notice my rear tires had no tread left. Took the car to the nearest Honda Dealer to have things checked out. Rear was way off speck and had lots of tow out. Two new tires[Dunlap original tires] and 4 wheel alignment and 5000 miles since and all looks OK. I think the Victoria Dealer's alignment crew screwed up! They said I must have had to much weight in the car. Two small people and a couple suit cases. I'll deal elsewhere in the future. H

Re: Tires bald and alignment out again! need help
 

Harold, I hope the Victoria Dealership reads this. Not only have they lost your business, their shoddy treatment is out in the open.

Service departments rise and sink on the personality of their managers, I've found.

Re: Tires bald and alignment out again! need help
 

Yes I hope they read it as well! H