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(Edit: More pics)Weird tire wear from tires locking up

BlitzPuppet

BlitzPuppet

Platinum Member
Was on my way to work this morning cruising along going 70mph in the fast lane, about 3-4+ car lengths behind a black Mercedes. Suddenly a Yellow Van that was in the fast lane slammed on his brakes causing the Mercedes and me to do so as well.

I slammed on my brakes and started to pull slightly off onto the paved shoulder to give myself some extra room when my wheels locked up (no ABS). I was able to the react and pump and had no issue slowing down/almost hitting anyone. Kept on driving like nothing happened.

These are brand new Michelin Defender tires with MAYBE 1.5k miles on them. I got an alignment right after I got them and haven't hit anything so my alignment is fine.

IMG_20130618_150334_696.jpg
Pic:https://www.dropbox.com/s/fhb3ay0e4z2yywp/IMG_20130618_150334_696.jpg

Tread sipes seems to have spread from where the wheel locked up, and feathered on the outer wall (possibly from me turning).

I have the "road hazard" insurance/warranty through discount when I got these tires, so I'll be bringing it by tomorrow morning to see what they have to say about them.

I expected to get out and see tread melted over/covering some sipes...not spread apart!

EDIT:

Better pics were taken, they said just to let it wear down but I wanted to give everyone here a better idea of the "damage"

Normal tread on driver side just in front (counter clockwise) of the affected area: https://www.dropbox.com/s/yt0yg6s5f8hlna1/IMG_20130619_134415_078.jpg

The trouble spot: https://www.dropbox.com/s/inm7a0rbw46x5z3/IMG_20130619_134410_225.jpg

It looks like the tread blocks folded on top of eachother...doesn't it?
 
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It is probably from the edges of the sipes getting worn. That would make them look more spread apart. The pic doesn't look too bad. I've flat-spotted tires before, and it was bad enough that you can feel the THUMP THUMP THUMP driving down the road.
 
3-4 car lengths, why so far away? Here in DFW you aren't supposed to be more than about one half of a car length away, it seems. In all seriousness, I'd say you seem to have been following a little too close?
 
I wouldn't worry about it unless you are getting vibration from the flat-spotting. You should see what tires look like when they come off a 20 min road course track session. They look like pizzas, but after a hundred miles of normal cruising they look normal again.
 
I can't make out any flat spots. Every time I've seen noticeable ones, it's been on the back tires of a FWD. You can guess what happens there.

Those don't look bad. If you can feel some unevenness as you run your hand across the tread blocks, I doubt that's from this incident. Your brain just used said incident as an excuse to say 'hey, my tires!'

That's from some combination of alignment wear (toe, not camber), bad shocks/dampers, and lack of rotation. Some cars, even with pretty new suspension and the alignment in spec, will do that to front tires if they don't get rotated regularly.

Does seem like a shitty tread design, though. Too many deep sipes, not enough 'connective tissue' between the various bits of tread.
 
Doesn't look too badly flat spotted to me.

Here is reference on comment of the guy above about tracks making tires look like pizza. This is mine from a few months ago, after just three 25 minute sessions:

mtnqTCm.jpg
 
Gerle said:
3-4 car lengths, why so far away? Here in DFW you aren't supposed to be more than about one half of a car length away, it seems. In all seriousness, I'd say you seem to have been following a little too close?
Click to expand...

Haha, it was most likely more than 3-4 as I was following at a distance that tends to invite jackasses to get infront of you from the right lane.

phucheneh said:
I can't make out any flat spots. Every time I've seen noticeable ones, it's been on the back tires of a FWD. You can guess what happens there.

Those don't look bad. If you can feel some unevenness as you run your hand across the tread blocks, I doubt that's from this incident. Your brain just used said incident as an excuse to say 'hey, my tires!'

That's from some combination of alignment wear (toe, not camber), bad shocks/dampers, and lack of rotation. Some cars, even with pretty new suspension and the alignment in spec, will do that to front tires if they don't get rotated regularly.
Click to expand...

It was from this incident as I was able to take this picture maybe 5 minutes after it happened. The tread at the top is normal, the tread towards the bottom where the blocks widen is not normal and were created by me locking up the wheels.

sm625 said:
What is wrong with the tire? Maybe you should take some more pictures....
Click to expand...

See above. Tread midway down the picture has blocks that are spread apart, that is not normal. Compare to the tread blocks at the top of the picture.


All in all I drove home yesterday and looked at my car again...didn't see what was shown in the picture. I came to work, same deal...brought it to discount tire this morning for them to look at it and while I was in the parking lot I didn't see it again.

Going to pick up the car within the hour so we'll see what they had to say.
 
Those tires don't look like they've been damaged from locking up. At all. Lock-ups result in flat-spotting. It would look like the picture below REAL fast if you really damaged them.

tirewear7.png


Bear in mind that you could have broken traction without actually stopping the wheel. I've seen it done before.

The wearing you're describing (though it's not apparent to me at all) is likely from an alignment or suspension issue. Alignments aren't idiot proof at all. Did all of the bolts stay tight? Has anything slipped from normal driving forces? Is every jam-nut still tight?

Edit: I think I can maybe see what you're talking about. Doesn't look like anything other than some barely-chunked tread blocks. Why are you driving such a heavily siped tire in the summer anyway?
 
JCH13 said:
Those tires don't look like they've been damaged from locking up. At all. Lock-ups result in flat-spotting. It would look like the picture below REAL fast if you really damaged them.

tirewear7.png


Bear in mind that you could have broken traction without actually stopping the wheel. I've seen it done before.

The wearing you're describing (though it's not apparent to me at all) is likely from an alignment or suspension issue. Alignments aren't idiot proof at all. Did all of the bolts stay tight? Has anything slipped from normal driving forces? Is every jam-nut still tight?

Edit: I think I can maybe see what you're talking about. Doesn't look like anything other than some barely-chunked tread blocks. Why are you driving such a heavily siped tire in the summer anyway?
Click to expand...

I understand why people think it's alignment related since cupping/toe/chamber wear are very common. I get the car aligned after every set of tires that it gets (this is the 3rd set) and they aren't off by much each time I bring them in. I haven't hit anything since the alignment and the care steers straight.

To me it looks like if you were to take a block of rubber, cut sipes in it, and put it against a heavy friction object and push forward...the blocks will bend under the friction. This looks like that but in a "stuck" fashion.

I live in Houston (rains a lot and is hot as balls 8 months out of the year...the remaining 4 are what I call "Cold front season" where it only gets cold for a few days at time due to a cold front) and these have a 90K mile warranty and got good reviews/are quiet 🙂. I wanted to get a set of tires that would last well into the 200,000 mile mark (at 122K when they got put on and I'm now at 125K).
 
I can see what you're talking about, but it doesn't look like actual flat spotting. Just a squirmy tread design where the tops of the tread blocks got a little hot. If it only looks like that on one part of the tire, then I guess it was indeed from locking the brakes. But unless there's abnormal noise or vibration coming from them, I don't see the problem.

I wouldn't try to warranty them, nor would I accept them on the other end. If the tire shop will accept that under road hazard, more power to you. I just wouldn't go in with high expectations.
 
Looks like the tread is a little bit "feathered" in one area from locking up.

I wouldn't even worry about it.
 
BlitzPuppet said:
Tech said that it should wear back into it's normal state, and to come back in after 2-3K miles for a rotation.

I've never seen this type of wear though...
Click to expand...

Typically, the tire is feathered all the way around, usually on one side, and it's an alignment problem. Feathering is a well known type of tire wear.

I called your problem "feathering" because that's what it resembles.

You have just a little bit of it in one area from very slightly sliding the tire for a moment.
 
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