ScorpD-Tank

I have had my '09 xB since September. I bought it new, and it now has 17k miles on it. Both front tires have been ground down to the steel belts on the inside-facing 'edge/corner' of the tires. Drivers side has sheared off flaps of rubber and steel belts so i put on my spare. Passenger side is down to the steel, but nothing is popping off yet. I'm leaving to the stealership right now to have them service it. I checked the back tires, and the wear is there as well, but not nearly as bad, as my tires haven't been rotated in 7k miles. The wear is there on the rear tires though, so I expect this is something that has been happening since I got it.

Has anyone else had this happen? I have not done anything at all to my car to modify it it any way, other than the dealer installed rims tires and lowering springs. It has been serviced only at the dealership that I bought it from. It almost seems like they should have a 1/2" spacer or something.

I don't drive too aggressively, and can't seem to figure out why this has happened. Any insight greatly appreciated. Thanks everyone!

boooosty

did you get an alignment

IH8ONYU

what kind of tires you have?
whats the speed rating?
have you been making sure that they are properly inflated?

sounds like you have a camber/toe in problem... i would check to see that the dealership did in fact do an alighnment after they lowered it for you. if they did, they should be able to prove it with an alighment report that showed all your specs before and after an alighnment. if there was a camber issue at that time, they should have told you, or at the least, told you what it would cost you to have them fix the camber..

if they did the lowering and not an alighnment, or didn't recomend that you have an alignment done... i would be getting 4 new tires and an alighnment out of them if it were me personally....

what dealership did you go to? i have had nothing but good things to say about frontier toyota's service dept... i have found them to be very knowlagable, and proactive in the past..

ScorpD-Tank

My tires are the Proxes 4's that came with the TRD wheels. They are the only tires that Toyota/Scion will put on the TRD's. I'm pretty sure the tires are 'R' rated. Pressure is fine.

If it is a camber/toe issue, it has been going on since they installed my springs and wheels when the car was new. wouldn't they check that when they do the regular service and tire/wheel rotation? it's been in twice for that service, and they apparently didn't notice the wear. I checked the rear tires and they show the same wear pattern/marks, but not as deep as they weren't on the front of the car for as long as the current ones have been.

I don't know if they have ever done an alignment or not. They never advised me to get one done. I would think that it is something that they would have noticed when my car has been in for service since they installed the wheels. I'm just waiting for them to call me and tell me that it's due to the car being lowered and having 19's on it. Even though all parts on the car are from and installed by them.

I dropped it off at Frontier. We'll see what they say. I've had problems with them in the past, so in my experience they haven't been that great. When I dropped it off, the guy in service that I talked to made a point of telling me my rims and tires aren't factory. I said, 'no, they are factory installed, Toyota manufactured/branded parts that were ordered and installed by your dealership. They are factory as far as who mfg'd them.' All he told me after that was that they aren't considered factory parts.

We'll see what hapens. So far I have not been impressed with Frontier Toyota. Hopefully this works out.

Thanks for the input, IH8ONYU.

SHOCXB

I have the TRD Springs and 20" inch wheels and I don't have any rubbing issues.

Go_HIN

it's pretty common, when you lower your car all cars tend to camber in a bit as you get lower and lower. When your wheels are cambered you'll get uneven tread wear since the inner portion of your wheel is making more contact then the outters.

Its recommended that you get an alignment after changing tires, wheels, or suspension. The alignment will help get your wheels closer to spec. I also always recommend rotating your tires as much as you can, the front will always wear out more. After a front to rear rotation, the next rotation I un-mount the tires and swap sides. hope this helps, I'm also on Proxes 4 and I have alot of life left in my wheels, I'm well over 20k with the tires on 19's. I rotate them as normal.

ScorpD-Tank

Ok. All is cool now.

The dealership told me that it was due to driving on tires for months with excessively low tire pressure. They found no leaks in my tires. They say that they found my pressure to be at 22-24lbs per tire. I argued this with them, as I check my tires every Saturday and have them at 30-31 every time. I've had them at this, which is a little low, because they never applied the new rim/tire load/pressure specs label that should have come with my rims. I had them order that label for me 3 times, and never received it.

I asked them why the TPMS never alerted me of low pressure. The TPMS should alert you once there is a 25% or greater loss in pressure. If my tires had been as low as they said they were, they had between 25-35% pressure loss, depending on which tire you were looking at. They had no response for that.

After calling Scion corporate, the dealership then called me back within a few hours of my call to corporate, and said everything would be covered and replaced under warranty (even though tires are not covered under the warranty), and that all I had to pay for was a new alignment. Cool.

That got me thinking though. When i bought the car, they put the TRD springs in. Then, 2 weeks later, they put on the 19" TRD wheels on. I don't think they ever had the car aligned. I think they lowered it in-house, and never aligned it. The rims and tires were put on at a tire shop around the corner. This makes much more sense to me, especially considering I know my tire pressure has not been that low. This would also explain why my TPMS never went off, and why the tires ended up being 'covered under the factory warranty'.

As far as i know, if you put new tires on your car, you don't need to get an alignment done. if you are using the exact same spec tires, on the same exact rims you've had, there is no alignment to be done. you don't touch the camber/castor, etc. to mess with when all you are doing is pulling the wheels off, then putting them back on.

All that matters now, is that I now have new tires, and the dealership and corporate ended up being very helpful. Thanks for listening errrebuddy.

KoolBox

i have 19" tire and i don't have any problem,the only issue is that i have to rotared them very often otherwise they ware choppy in the inside but the rear end.

Redbeard46

x2

buickid

I noticed you said you keep your tire pressure around 30-31 PSI. You might want to try 35PSI all around, 30 sounds kind of low. I'm running 37PSI all around.

Jailbird

I run 38PSI in my TRD 19s. Also, Proxes are not the only tires TRD puts on. I have Hankooks on mine. I'll be on Sportlines in a few days and don't forsee any rubbing.

-JB

bigjoe7757

i just had my 1st oil change after the 2 the dealership does(15000) and the front 2 tires are worn on the inner edge, i made sure they rotated the tires at 5 and 10 thousand miles and now it appears to be wearing funny. i cant beleive the dearlership didnt notice this when they had it last.

pyroman131

If they're wearing on the inside, I believe that's an alignment problem if I'm not mistaken. When it wears in the middle, I believe it's a tire pressure problem. When it wears on the outside, I think it's something like a CV joint, etc. problem. I never remember. All I know is that if you're not receiving even wear on your tire, then rotating it won't really do it too much good.

draxcaliber

and note, whenever you get a car lowered, you wait a week for the springs to settle and then get an alignment.