What is your opinion on my tire wear?

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I rotated the tires on my Honda Pilot yesterday at 21,000 miles for the 3rd time since I bought the vehicle new 1 1/2 years ago. When I do this I always check the tread depth. The tires are Bridgestone Dueler H/P Sport AS tires with 4 tread groves that allow me to get, you guessed it ... 4 depth readings on each tire. Two on the middle and two on each edge.

The two rear tires had the same even readings across the width of the whole tire at 8, 8, 8, & 8 32nds. The two front tires also had the same readings across the width of the tire, but they were 7, 6, 6, & 7 32nds each. I have not had an alignment done since buying the car and keep the pressure at the manufacturer's spec - 32 psi. Other than the difference in tread depth I did not see any abnormal wear. Factory specs show the tread depth to be 10/32nds when new.

My suspicion is that the wear in the middle of the front tires is simply due to turning and steering. What do you think?
 
Same thing on my pilot. I’ve had alignment done twice and it still pulls to the right. Not sure what is up with this
 
In general, if the centers wear faster, it's over-inflation. If the outer treads wear faster, it's under-inflation. Cornering wear (or alignment not suited to your driving style; either one) would show as the outer treads being shallower.

With the center treads a bit shallower, it looks like the inflation is a bit higher than needed. Some people like that for a bit better gas mileage and a bit more responsiveness to changes in direction; some don't. But I would choose that over under-inflation. Either comes at the cost of uneven tire wear.

Given what you described, I wouldn't change anything. The differences are too small at this point to worry about over the life of the tire.

If the car pulled to one side or another, that could be either alignment or a tire with potential belt separation.

HTH.
 
i would not read into this unless this is your 2nd set of tires.

OEM tires are always a bit wonky and maybe designed to different specs and wear faster or unevenly. even if they are the exact same name as a consumer tire, they maybe a one off spec run for OEM.
 
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I'm with Eagle-- I hate when tires wear out on the shoulders. I'd like to keep "sharp" shoulder blocks for the life of the tire.

You're rotating, so rotate away and
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Originally Posted By: eagle23
With the center treads a bit shallower, it looks like the inflation is a bit higher than needed. Some people like that for a bit better gas mileage and a bit more responsiveness to changes in direction; some don't. But I would choose that over under-inflation. Either comes at the cost of uneven tire wear.


You got me thinking. I'd guess that 80% of the miles lately have been sustained highway driving ... 60 - 75 mph. When that happens the tire pressure always increases due to heat. Sometimes the dash TPMS shows tire pressure up to 37 - 39 psi on hot days even though the cold pressure started out at 32 psi. My Pilot does get good gas mileage on the highway ... usually 29 mpg, sometimes up to 33 mpg with a strong tail wind. But only 23 - 25 into the wind
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The shallow center on the fronts is curious, however I'd keep on driving and rotating. If it was mine I think I'd be running the pressure much higher, as I do with all FWD vehicles. I've checked tire wear and inflation on hundreds of vehicles and have yet to see any front-wheel drive vehicle clearly wearing the centers out of the tires.
 
Originally Posted By: Roger
Originally Posted By: eagle23
With the center treads a bit shallower, it looks like the inflation is a bit higher than needed. Some people like that for a bit better gas mileage and a bit more responsiveness to changes in direction; some don't. But I would choose that over under-inflation. Either comes at the cost of uneven tire wear.


You got me thinking. I'd guess that 80% of the miles lately have been sustained highway driving ... 60 - 75 mph. When that happens the tire pressure always increases due to heat. Sometimes the dash TPMS shows tire pressure up to 37 - 39 psi on hot days even though the cold pressure started out at 32 psi. My Pilot does get good gas mileage on the highway ... usually 29 mpg, sometimes up to 33 mpg with a strong tail wind. But only 23 - 25 into the wind
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Okay, now you got me thinking...
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IDK how accurate the TPMS is. The only way to know would be to be on the highway where the TPMS shows elevated pressures (the 37-39 you referred to), and then make a normal stop and check them.

Reason I say that is it seems a lot of the tires I've had in recent years don't seem to raise pressure much. Maybe 2-4 psi, which I expect, but not the 5-7 psi you mention. Obviously, that may vary with tire, vehicle loading, road conditions (hot vs. cold weather), etc.

Short of actually checking pressures, you may want to use the TPMS as an indicator and value it, but not take it literally at small psi differences. Just a thought.
 
Originally Posted By: parshisa
Same thing on my pilot. I’ve had alignment done twice and it still pulls to the right. Not sure what is up with this


Have you rotated the tires front to rear? If one of them is going bad that can cause a pull, even though the tire balances fine and there is no obvious vibration. If you haven't rotated them, putting the offending tire (whichever one it may be) in the back may remove the pull.

One other thought...how much can the shop align the front end? Some cars require special camber alignment cams to do that. Not sure if yours is one of them.

Did the shop offer a printout of the final alignment settings? Some places call it a day when the settings are "within factory specs" no matter how the car drove or how far off the settings are from each other. They may claim "But they're within spec." Yeah, but it drives lousy, so please fix the problem!

Okay, one MORE thought
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I can't recall, but ages ago it seemed good practice to dial in just a bit more caster on the right side, to allow for road surfaces with crowns on them (meant to help water runoff). If the crown is more pronounced, the pull to the right can be there. Does it pull on all roads or just some?

I am curious if those with more alignment background than I have can speak to this.

HTH
 
I've had one rotation done thus far and car is at 17K now. The printout I was given basically said it was all 'green' and within spec. And it pulls harder on some roads and less on the other. not sure what's up with that. I might give it another try and do alignment again. If that won't help probably re-balance the wheels
 
I just checked all 4 tires with the gauge and fronts measured 7-7-7-6 (the last number is the grove closest to the face of the tire). Rear tires read pretty much the same but instead of 6 I'd say it is 6.5 and closer to 7. Current odo reading is 17.5K and the car doesn't see much of the highway. Would that be considered normal wear for this mileage?
 
Originally Posted By: parshisa
I've had one rotation done thus far and car is at 17K now. The printout I was given basically said it was all 'green' and within spec. And it pulls harder on some roads and less on the other. not sure what's up with that. I might give it another try and do alignment again. If that won't help probably re-balance the wheels


Other than being in the 'green', does the printout actually say what the final settings are?

Does it pull to the right (see above)? Maybe use a different shop from the other one?

Road force balancing the tires may show one or two are out of spec. Indexing them on the wheel(s) may help, or eventually getting new tires.
 
If you get the $10 digital caliper from harbor freight you can use the far end that pokes out as a depth mic and record your tire wear to the .001 inch level. Do it at every oil change.

I think few of us would notice to your level of detail.
 
Originally Posted By: parshisa
Here's the copy of the report. All numbers seem to be within the spec




They do look right. Checking the tires for road force imbalance may be next.
 
To the OP, beyond perhaps checking tire pressures with a good quality tire gauge to verify, I wouldn’t change anything.

To pulling pilot, a good alignment person should be able to tell a typical tire pull from alignment, as a general rule alignment tends to be more of a drift/lead and tires are a pull.

The most basic first diagnosis step would be to switch the front tires, if it doesn’t go left then the chances it is a tire are low. Hunter does make balancers that can detect variations in road force across the surface of the tread, they can even be linked to the alignment rack and can produce positions on the vehicle to minimize lead/pull. Finding someone who is both capable of using it properly and willing to use it properly may be another matter.

All vehicles will eventually lead off in one direction or the other if uncorrected, it is usually the right due to road crown but in spite of what some customers seem to believe cars will not go straight down the road indefinitely with no hands on the wheel.
 
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