Are T4R's known for cupping/improperly wearing tires?

[ddicosmo]

I have a 2008 V6 SR5 with only 35,000 miles and the tires on it are already cupping pretty badly. The tires are supposedly top of the line Michelin Cross Terrain SUV tires so it shouldn't be the tires. I bought the truck used with 21,000 miles at a Toyota Dealership and have only put about 14,000 miles on it myself. When I bought it, I did not notice any cupping. I baby the vehicle and have not done any off-road or hard driving where the suspension could have been damaged. Do these trucks have inherent issues with improper tire wear and cupping? I heard that cupping is most likely related to suspension issues but when I bought it, the dealership said everything is fine and I have not noticed any issues with the suspension. Finally, the truck still has low miles and I would not expect the suspension to go at such low miles. Anyone have any ideas what I could look for to see what may be causing the cupping? I'm going to need new tires by this february and I don't want to buy new tires without fixing the underlying issue with cupping first. Thanks,

Dave.

 

[sonerick]

Maybe it's just an alignment issue.

I agree cupping shouldn't happen with that low miles. Not a common problem or anything that I've heard of/experienced with the 4th gen.

 

[rfuree11]

This may be a dumb question, but have you been rotating the tires regularly? Toyota recommends every 5k on these things and I think that's a good idea, as there's a lot of weight over the front end and it's an IFS truck.

 

[chaz]

it can also be caused by misalignment and insufficient inflation pressure & rotation. http://tires-and-tyres.com/Tire_Wear.htm

 

[mrpanic7]

Yeah i would say double check your tire pressure, alignment, and wheel balance

 

[superman3043]

I had a set of tires cup on me with about 20k miles on them. A combination of bad alignment and crappy tires. They were those Dunflop Grandtek AT20's that come OE on some Yota trucks... Ugh. I'll never buy Dunflop again, but luckily I got a great deal on them. My other 4 sets (OE Bridgestones, Yokohama Geolander HT-S, Cooper Zeon LTZ, and Nitto Mud Grapplers) wore perfectly with proper alignment and regular rotation. Had 75K on the Yoko's and still had 10K left on them when I sold them, and got 55k on the OE Bridgestones and never rotated them. So it's not an inherent issue with these trucks like it was with my 03' 350Z.

Hope that helps!

 

[scottydoo79]

yeah i would say double check your tire pressure, alignment, and wheel balance

.. X2 ..

 

[M1911]

I've put 125k miles on my 4Runner and no tire problems. A good 60k of those miles were on Michelin Cross Terrains -- a great tire.

 

[4RunnerFan]

This may be a dumb question, but have you been rotating the tires regularly? Toyota recommends every 5k on these things and I think that's a good idea, as there's a lot of weight over the front end and it's an IFS truck.

:iagree:

 

[jimmied]

I just took my original cross terrains off at 52k with zero problems with cupping. I just didnt want to go through winter with tires getting low on tread.

 

[M1911]

I just took my original cross terrains off at 52k with zero problems with cupping. I just didnt want to go through winter with tires getting low on tread.

I use snow tires in the winter; my Cross Terrains are my summer tire. But I think mine are about done and I will to replace them this spring.

 

[jow]

I got tires replaced with just the cost of mounting/balancing and new road hazard due to premature wear and simply saying I am not satisfied due to this wear. That was with my direct purchased tires with satisfaction guaranteed. You might still get some help from the distributors.

Can you post a pic of your tires showing the wear? I have a 07 SR5 V6 2WD purchased 2 yrs Christmas with new tires at 43,000 mi and I have not had the tires rotated. I avg 3,000 mi a yr or less and h/n noticed any wear. I had what I thought was an alignment issue due to the truck walking vs tracking on the Hwy. The alignment was checked and showed no problem. The posts recommended 34 psi vs the dealer’s 40 + psi and that made a big difference tracking.

 

[nevada]

cupping is caused from not rotating the tires correctly.

if they've never been rotated in that 14,000 miles, theres your problem.