Rapid Rear Tire Wear

[lsxgmc]

I dropped my 2011 Aveo off at the local GM dealer this morning to have the timing belt replaced (presently at 59000km). The car has had a noticable sqeak at idle for a little while and I had them check into it at the last oil change. Got a call in the early afternoon that it wasn't actually the timing belt, but it looks to be the water pump that is noisy. They also noticed my that the right hand axle seal is leaking (both sides have now been done twice). And the real kicker is my winter tires are pretty much pooched. They suggested new tires and a 4 wheel alignment, with the likelihood of needing shims in the rear.

After purchasing the car (brand new) I thought the rear camber looked excessive. The guy who was the service manager at the time said most front wheel drives have some amount of negative camber on the rear and it didn't look unusual but to keep an eye on the tire wear. Well, that can get a little tricky when you are running both winter an summer tires, it takes a lot more use to make any issues evident. This fall when I switched over to my winter tires and rims I noticed that the summer tires were far more worn than I expected them to be. The rears were worn more than the fronts, with uneven wear through the tires. The right rear was at the wear bar, the left about 1mm off and the fronts about 2mm off. They looked scalloped or cupped. I made mention of it to the service manager since the tires themselves only have about 27000km on them despite the car having around 50k at the time. I was hoping he might do some digging or see if GM was willing to do anything. I get the impression he didn't bother, but it is impossible to know for sure as he's moved on elsewhere since. Again the winter tires are all showing a similar wear pattern to the summer tires, with the tires presently on the back having more wear than the front. I'm not much of a suspension guy, but on a car where the rear suspension is fixed with no real wear items like the front end I am a little baffled as to how a car comes from the factory in a state that would cause it to destroy tires prematurely and require shims to correct it. I am basically at the point of having to replace 2 sets of tires under 60000km. I did a little searching and found a few similar occurances on car complain sites but was wondering if anybody else on here has experienced a similar problem.

For what it's worth, the tires were rotated when changed bewteen seasons (around 12-15000km). The summers in a forward cross pattern, the winters front to back (unidirectional). I'd say over 98% of the milage is from highway use. I drive 200km round trip to work and have only gone on a couple other road trips, all on familiar roads with minimal surface issues.

[lsxgmc]

So update of sorts. The shop did a 4 wheel alignment and all were within spec. The techs involved both feel that GM's specs are a little excessive and they are currently looking for shims to bring the camber to the other end of the specifications. GM warranty rep was at the dealership today and said they made be able to do something, sounds like a couple tires at best.

[Lamar]

I have a 2011 aveo and my rear tire wear with flat spots on the rear and I drive about 98% highway about 300 miles per week I always rotate my tires and it still happens what ever happened to you vehicle to fix the problem

[lsxgmc]

The dealership installed rear shims and did a 4 wheel alignment and brought the alignment to the opposite end of the specifications. At this point it is too early to tell if anything was gained by it, but things are looking positive. The summer tires were at 27000km when the alignment was done. One tire was at the wear bar and the others within 1 or 2/32. I've put another 10000km on them since and should make another 3000km or so until they are at the wear bars. By that time it will be getting pretty close to winter tire time again. Probably going to start with a new set as well unless I can find a pair that is half worn to make use of the 2 I have that aren't all scalloled/cupped. Suffice to say, I'm probably a good year away from knowing for sure if this fix was a 100% success or not.

[petrified.rabbit]

I see two issues here, one is that you are running worn tires with the new alignment. The old wear will affect the near wear. But as you said it will be a good year before you know. But it is almost pointless now as prolonged driving on bad tires will affect the alignment as well. Two, you never stated what tires you are running, most summer only tires are soft, with a tread wear below 300. Many of the "standard" winter tires are not designed for prolonged highway use. So if those are what you are running on the highway 200km a day at __ km/h. Then the fact the you got to almost 30k km out of them seems about right, if not good. I tend to only get 10k MILES out of a set of summer tires with a 240ish tread wear rating. That seems the consensus of most of the people I talk to. If your highway driving mostly, then I would suggest staying well above 400, and never going below 300. My winter tires, I have run a few different ones, but they all have considerably lower speed ratings than the summers, some of them also recommend not running them above 50 degrees F. At highway speeds the tires get well above the recommended temp range, then when you exit the highway the rubber is soft and wears quickly as you turn and such on side streets.

I have a lot of experience with tire choices, you need to buy a type of tire based on the majority of the type of driving you do.

[lsxgmc]

The stock tires are Firestone firehawk gt, rated at 460. The winters are Hankook w409 ipike. The Firestone are on the car right now, their wear is fairly uniform and was just excessive prior to the alignment. It is the winters that have odd wear patterns in them. I can't remember what I ordered to use as summer tires but I believe they were rated 600 or higher. I ordered them back in April so it has been a while. I didn't expect the Firestones to last this long even with the change of alignment.

[Thud Slamrod]

Did they give you any spec sheets on the alignment? I'd be interested to see what they were and what they changed.

[lsxgmc]

Did they give you any spec sheets on the alignment? I'd be interested to see what they were and what they changed.

I don't think they did, but either way I have a habit of tossing stuff like that out. They said the car is still within factory specs. Initially the camber was at the extreme negative end of the specs and the shims adjusted it toward the positive side (but the car still has negative camber).