ninerguru

Heading out to NJMP this weekend. Decided to switch tires and found my driver side rear tire inner shoulder damaged. It was damaged about 1/2 way around the thread, showing some steel belts, not all the way around...

Car is a 2004 GT3 aligned to Kussmaul settings by a reputable shop in NJ using a Beissbarth machine. Rear toe is 16' per side, camber is 2 deg 21'. All toe links, adjustable nuts, etc were painted and nothing has moved since alignment. Probably has about 500 track miles since aligned in Spring.

Car has locked rear toe links inner adjusters with spherical joints. Also upper suspension arms have spherical joints. Quick suspension check of toe/camber using crude ruler measurement shows equal alignment on both sides. I'm know car did not hit/bent anything.

Pressures have always been at the recommended 36 hot, going any higher than that, turns them greasy.

It looks as if the shoulder was softer in a portion of the tire allowing the tire to deform and wear in a weird way. Other side is fine. Enclosing pictures.

Any advise will be gladly welcomed. Thanks! Lou

PS: any one out there has a spare 295/30-18?

IcemanG17

that SUCKS...those tires had plenty of life in them.... I sure looks like the outsides are barely wearing, which could means several things....

Gofishracing

Lou- you were using a wheel spacer originally. Have you also been running curbing when apexing? Kinda looks like an impact.

ninerguru

Bob- Spacers were removed after first event. No curbing while apexing... Wear is on the inside. Will call Toyo this morning and see what they say... Lou

Burger

At first, I thought this might be sidewall separation from the tread cap. After looking at the pictures more closely, it looks like a manufacturing flaw. Like there wasn't any rubber there to begin with.

I would contact Toyo directly and the place you purchased them from for next steps. They will say they are not warrantied, but from my point of view, this is not a wear warranty, but a manufacturing flaw warranty issue which they should be able to work with you on.

Gofishracing

You might be able to get a NASA Instructor discount from Phil's tire. I wouldn't expect any consideration from TOYO. Still looks like an impact to me.

M758

I have seen that sort of damage, but mostly the outside shoulders when guys run too low a tire pressure. What happens is that the tire rolls over too far and you end up running on the sidewall rather than tread surface. Damage results at the edge between sidewall and tread surface.

This looks like same thing, but it is very strange to happen on the inside. Looks like it could be a tire defect especially if it not worn down 360.

mdrums

I've had a few R888's develop a split straight across the tread from sidewall to sidewall . Toyo helped out a tiny bit but would never tell me the cause. Anyway I pmd you a contact and number at Toyo Warranty so you can start that process.

Bob Rouleau

Do you drive those tires on the street a lot? Your alignment is good for track but will wear the insides fast on the street.....

ninerguru

No real street driving on those tires. Have 3 sets of tires. One for street and then Toyo r888 + Yokos (came with wheels I bought) for track. Car is trailered to events. Only street driving track tires see is to gas up and back before event. About 14 miles round trip, perhaps 112 miles total (8 events, I switch tires every so often). Tires have a total use of about 900 track miles or so as per my logs...

911SLOW

Many sets of 888s with rears in 295 and 315, including street driving.

Camber:
F 3
R 2.30

Toe:
F .4
R .30

Never seen this before.

Good luck with the warranty claim.

TAI2

Hi Lou,

I have a used set of R888's that have about 1/2 the tread left and I will be headed to NJMSP this weekend as well. I think they are the size you are looking for or they are 305/35/18. I'll check tonight and send you an email.

Tom

gums

Excuse me, but did you say "900 track miles"?

911SLOW

He did and I missed it.

Get a new set of tires and don't even call Toyo.

M758

If those tires have 500 track miles on them you are not using them very hard as they still have alot of rubber left over. They might cycle out, but it still looks like they lots of life left in them due the rubber.



Here are one set of R888 I ran for 14 heat cycles. This about 325-350 miles of hard track use. Tires started full tread and were cycled out. I still conider them having rubber on them. Notice the seam on the outside edge (right side). That is the edge where the tread rubber meets the sidewall. On this set I has been playing around with tire pressures and had run some of time a little low. I never damaged this tire, but prolonged running on this seal would cause it to split the OP's tire did. However it worked for me since the tire was done anyway. I think if this occured part of the way around on the OP's tire it was due a tire defect. 900 miles is lot of miles, but those seem like easy miles. At least compared to my 350 on this set.