Trying to salvage cupped tires.

slow_jazz

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I just bought a used Camry and the tires are cupped pretty bad. Their expensive Bridgestones with plenty of tread left. Any way you can grind a tire down to smooth it out and just get a new set.

I had the dealer rotate them but it didn't help much...
 
If they're inflated properly, and the suspension is fixed, (they're cupped for a reason), they should wear into a flat pattern again. I had one cupped from a wheel bearing going out. After the bearing was fixed, it took about 3K miles to straighten out.
 
They probably could be ground, but if the cupping is bad, there probably wouldn't be much tread left anyway, so it seems at first glance like thowing good money at bad.

Key is, figure out why (and fix) what caused the cupping before shelling out for the new skins.
 
It maybe a problem with the suspension or alignment or it could be that the last owner drove the wheels off it. Hard cornering and hard driving will chew tires up pretty quickly. If you just bought try to get the dealer to put tires on and check the alignment.
 
Have the car checked out for balljoints, bearings, bushings, alignment (front and rear)etc... Tires do not cup for no reason. Then treat yourself to some fresh sneakers on that car. You will think it is a new car.
 
There are few tire places around that skin tires anymore and just try to find anywhere that will balance the tires on the car. On car balancing always was the best, but no one does it anymore. If you can't afford new tire run those out, but get whatever caused the cupping fixed.
 
They put new tie rod ends on yesterday so I think the cupping is solved. They also did an alignment.

I'm afraid I will have to buy new tires....

Thanks for all the support...
 
So what's it doing now that everything is set right? If the tires are howling it probably will go away but will take quite a few miles to do so. Your probably looking at at least two oil changes worth or driving before the tires get back to a near normal wear pattern.

If it drives fine I wouldn't worry about it if you can put up with the noise.
 
Its a must to always have the frt end checked whenever putting on new tires and have a alignment done.Tires are can be a large investment and not to mention the security of knowing that your frt end is in excellent cond.
 
Definitely fix the cause and worry about tires later. Check the struts, as those might be the #1 suspect. The front hub bearings go bad on those, but they usually cause a howling noise when turning the car in the opposite direction of the bad bearing side. No funny tire wear I've seen as a result; just noise and naturally an accident hazard if it decides to seize and fail. Secondly, if the tires weren't rotated on time over their life, they will cup anyway, no matter how good of repair the suspension is in. All the effort on trying to grind the tires is probably a waste, in my opinion. Just get a new set of tires... Even cheaper new ones are better than worn or cupped high-dollar ones. $150 should get you a set of good ones, if you have the stock 14 or 15 inch wheels.

Charles
 
I'm leaning towards just getting some cheap new ones.

According to Firestone the tires weren't properly rotated...

Thanks again... I don't think I can wait for the cupping to repair itself...
 
If the alignment is fixed move them to the back and get as many miles as you can. Usually once a tire wears funny its gonna be that way through out its lifespan. If you put them on the back you'll never feel them at all. Unless they are much worse than I'm picturing.
 
Camry conundrum

Quite a few years ago I used to have all my wheel/tire/suspension work done by a friend of mine who owned a good shop that was located in a "vintage" building. He had started working there as a very young man and learned the trade from the much older gentleman that had started the business originally.

He had a lot of "vintage" tools and equipment as well as whatever newer equipment was required. He used to do "speed balancing" of tires on the vehicle.

Back to the point. He had a "Tire Trueing" machine for dealing with just such issues. Evidently, this was probably a bigger problem years ago than it is now. That or perhaps people were more prone to need to get their tires trued or less prone to toss them and buy new ones.

This fellow came in one day while I was there with a serious tire wear problem on his big 4WD pickup. The front tires were severely cupped and a thorough investigation found the problem with the front-end. After it was fixed, the tires were put on the truing machine. It methodically sliced small sections of rubber off of the tire until it was true. After he was gone, I asked my friend Eddie about it.

He said "that's probably about half of the tread lying on the floor there, but it's better than throwing them away"!

It was a powerful lesson to me to keep a close eye on the treadwear of my tires!

Good luck with your Camry and hope it gives you many miles of trouble-free driving! :thmbsp:
 
If they are not directional tires, just reverse their rotation and install the worst tires in the rear. This will get you the quietest/smoothest ride for the rest of the tires life.

Kinda hard to explain but you want to roll off of the raised edge of the tread. If you run your hand along the cupping you will feel what I mean by raised edge.

I could explain it better standing next to your car, are you going to the SMAC meet Sat?
 
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I had the Firestone dealer rotate them. Not sure how they did it. I don't believe their directional. I don't see the arrow on them.

Not sure if I will make it to the SMAC meeting Saturday.

Thanks for the advice.
 
I had a second opinion from a small tire shop. Only one of the tires is really cupped bad so I'm having that tire replaced. One is not cupped at all and the other 2 should even out within 5,000 miles. With front end repairs it should work out. He showed me with his hand where they were actually cupped.
 
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