Tire Question

"f86sabre" (f86sabre) 01/04/2016 at 19:12 • Filed to: Maintenance, mini

1

11

The Mini picked up a nasty vibration. Pulled the passenger side front tire off and found what looks like rubber build up on the second tread bar in from inner edge. What causes that? Alignment? Bad bushings?

Caleb "If a rally car can do it, so can my Malibu" M. S. > f86sabre 01/04/2016 at 19:18

0

Stance, bro

The Snowman > f86sabre 01/04/2016 at 19:23

0

Have you tried scrapping it off? Also the corner looks worn off the tire so the alignment is likely bad or Stance Bro!

deekster_caddy > f86sabre 01/04/2016 at 19:28

1

That looks like a defect, or belt shifted under the surface. Not an alignment issue. Replace that!

Edit - also, those are down to the wear bars anyway. Time to replace.

MM54 > f86sabre 01/04/2016 at 19:36

2

I think a cord shifted under the tread, but it really doesn’t matter because you need new tires anyways.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > f86sabre 01/04/2016 at 19:39

1

Dude: you need a new tire. Then a trip to a reputable alignment shop, as should always be done when buying new tires.

DasWauto > f86sabre 01/04/2016 at 19:40

1

I don’t think that’s rubber buildup but rather what’s left of a layer of rubber that has been torn away. You’ll see that on softer compound tires as they wear. It looks like that tires is pretty far gone anyway so it’s probably time for a whole new set; I usually have the alignment chacked/adjusted when I’m through a set of shoes. Bad bushing and incorrect tire pressures can lead to funny wear too so have whatever shop does the alignment check the bushings as well and keep an eye on pressures, as sure you know. IIRC those Minis can go through control arm bushings faster than some cars (a trait adopted from BMW), I’m not sure what the arms in the back like to do for wear.

f86sabre > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 01/04/2016 at 20:54

0

Yeah. That is in the plan.

f86sabre > DasWauto 01/04/2016 at 20:56

1

Yeah, the set is shot and alignment is in the plans. Control arm bearings could be an issue. I need to look into that.

Lurch > f86sabre 01/04/2016 at 21:33

1

I have seen that a few times. It looks to me like blistering from tread separation. I noticed a sudden vibration on my (former) A4 and it ended up being a tear in the belting making the whole tire go quite out of round. Different issue perhaps but nonetheless it happens.

f86sabre > DasWauto 01/04/2016 at 21:57

1

I looked at Pelican and what the described for bad bushings is pretty much what I experienced. I like to wrench on my own cars, but I think I will take it to Way Motor Works and let them handle this.

uofime-2 > f86sabre 01/05/2016 at 10:39

0

An easy way to check if you have a bad problem is to just jack the corner up and check for toe and camper compliance. If you can move it, you’ve got a problem.

That will basically only tell you if they’re shot, if you have a lift of course you can directly inspect them for cracking