[BAMxi]

Hi. Im currently running staggered 19s and my rear left Hankook Ventus v12 has started cupping. Got an alignment, and the shock doesn't appear blown, so I don't really know what could have caused it other than a bad tire. At some point I'm going to want to replace the cupped tire, but don't really want to go with Hankooks again. Do you think I'd run into any issues if I replaced the back two tires with a different brand, but kept my Hankooks up front? I just bought the tires last summer and took them off over winter, so they probably have like 70-80% of their tread left. Thanks.

[AWD Addict]

Poor tire pressure management can cause cupping (or scalloping as some call it).

I personally would not run different rubber front to back on an AWD car. I also wouldn't run the same brand rubber with substantially different treadwear.

[BAMxi]

Originally Posted by AWD Addict

Poor tire pressure management can cause cupping (or scalloping as some call it).

I personally would not run different rubber front to back on an AWD car. I also wouldn't run the same brand rubber with substantially different treadwear.

Yeah, kinda my thoughts as well about basically being stuck with throwing away 3 perfectly good, fairly new tires. Tire pressure is checked at least every couple weeks to a month, so I don't think the cupping was caused by that. I think I'm going to ride it out for a while and see if it gets worse. Not pumped to get new tires again, but thanks for your help!

[zipstic]

You could get another new V12 for the rear and have it shaved to match the others.

You'd really want to make sure there isn't anything wrong with the suspension before you put another tire on there. I'd hate to put another on and have it start cupping again.

[BAMxi]

Originally Posted by zipstic

You could get another new V12 for the rear and have it shaved to match the others.

You'd really want to make sure there isn't anything wrong with the suspension before you put another tire on there. I'd hate to put another on and have it start cupping again.

yeah, I am considering doing that. when I had my alignment done, the toe was way off (at .26 degrees when the max range is .13). I would assume camber would be more of a contributing cause to cupping, but I guess the toe being that off could certainly cause excessive wear in the tires. I don't see any oil leaking from the shock on that side, indicating it was blown, and I had the mechanic at Firestone, where the alignment was done, look as well. He also said they didn't look blown, but of course the only real way to tell is to remove the shock and see if it's easily compressed by hand. a blown shock was the first thing that came to my mind, as I have been lowered on eibachs for over a year now on the stock shocks, which have about 52k on them. I will not remove a stock shock and put it back on my car, regardless of its condition, so if that shock comes off, I'm getting konis or bilsteins to put all around.

I think I'm going to have the two rear tires unmounted and swapped, and rebalanced, and I'll try to keep a close eye on the "new" left rear tire to see if it shows any signs of cupping.

On top of this ongoing issue, I think I noticed I have a blown/rattling speaker in the driver's side door today. ugh.