Hi all,

I'm scratching my head a bit on an issue I'm having with my 2015 Trail. I have started to notice uneven wear on both front tires - they are both wearing on the inside ~1 inch from the edge of the tire.

Bit of background and sequence of events below:
1) Started at stock height with stock suspension and Cooper Discoverer AT tires. Tires were on the car when I bought it so I'm unsure of mileage but I'd say ~30k kms. No noticeable issues or vibration.
2) Installed new Bilstein 5100 shocks, front and rear, went with the mild lift at the front (0.85" I believe). I loosened the camber bolts during the install to help in getting the strut out/back in. Tightened back up after install.
3) Took the car for a wheel alignment. Mechanic said it was slightly out of spec and they adjusted it without much effort. As far as I know wheels were not balanced, only aligned, but with no vibration before I didn't think it needed it.
4) Drove ~6000kms on a big road trip. Noticed significant vibration through the steering at around 100km/h. Started to notice the uneven tire wear during the trip.
5) Got back from the trip, still getting vibration through the steering. Took it to another mechanic who said the alignment on 1 side was slightly out, but nothing major. There appeared to be slight cupping on the front tires. Re-aligned and rotated rear tires to the front. So far I think the vibration is reduced. Haven't had a chance to properly test.

Now I am going to monitor the tires that were rotated to the front to see if they develop the same wear. But the whole thing has me a bit stumped. I am hoping to get new tires soon so want to make sure this is sorted so I don't ruin a new set.

Any thoughts or ideas on what to check next would be appreciated!

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I would get a reputable shop to check tires, balance of all 4 tires, Align according to Toyota specs.
If you let your tires go too long without balancing, the wear may be too great to bring them back without alot of weight.

My rule of thumb, and it's worked for years, on my T4r's, is to balance and rotate every 5K.
My BFG AT KO2's have 55K on them and still have 6/32" of tread without cupping or any abnormal wear pattern.

Hope it works out and hope this helps.

my cooper at3 xlt's started to cup as well. i rotated them every 5k, but they still did it. i ended up selling them for some toyos. It was a shame cause they were fantastic tires. I will try them again now that i've had my Kings rebuilt, and new ball joints installed in my upper control arms.


Discount tire did mention to me that a blown shock can cause cupping but idk.

Question. You didn’t mention balancing, did you balance and rotate?
Did you balance every 5-10K miles?
Predictive/preventative maint helps maintain your T4R.

yea back then I was having discount do the balance and rotate every time. these days I just rotate myself when i do oil changes/tinker. I wont do a balance anymore unless I notice a vibration. bad habit but it takes too much time to drop it off

Understood.
Years ago I learned the hard way. Never felt any unbalance on my Tacoma until the tires were too far out. Cupped and actually started to go out of round.

Is that alignment chart yours? When was that done -- long ago or recently?

Note that the toe is way out -- far into the red. That is what is causing the edges of the tires to wear. Toe bad will always do that.

Why didn't your mechanics flag that bad toe alignment?

Why didn't other responders to this post flag that?

I thought that was initial.

"it's for the crown in the road" betcha thats the response he'd get from the shop. I didnt even look at that pic lmao

Yes that is my alignment chart prior to the second alignment after I got back from the road trip. They aligned and balanced the tires during this visit.

The mechanic said that only 1 side had bad toe alignment - why would both front tires be wearing the same on the inside edge?

It just seems strange that the tires didn't seem to have abnormal wear/cupping until after the lift/alignment/road trip.

Did you balance every 5-10K miles?

What was your alignment specs "after" your lift?

We can't help if you hold back info!

Toe is the angle difference between the right and left side. Zero toe indicates both tires are pointed straight ahead.

Even with only one tire with the toe out, it will try to steer the car in that direction; thus the one without a toe problem has to fight to bring the car back straight.That is why both tires wear, even though only one has a toe problem.

We have the same issue with Cooper AT3s on our 2014. Road force balance the tires. Consider balance beads in the tires. Rotate tires every 5K miles as the feathering will scrub off in the rear position. Check suspension for worn ball joints. Check shocks for wear.

No, I didn't balance every 5-10k miles. In a perfect world where I was trying to get the longest service life out of my tires, sure. But my driving is 95% paved roads so personally I think that is excessive. I could see this being more important for heavy off-road users.

I don't know what the alignment spec was after the lift but before the first alignment. All I was told was "it was pretty close to OK". After that first alignment it was within spec.

Thanks for the reply - this makes more sense.

Interesting. Is your vehicle lifted at all? My vibration is gone after the second alignment and balance but I will keep a close eye on the wear. The shocks are brand new.