I have a 07 Azera Limited. When i purchased the car it had 13,000 miles. Dealer put 4 new tires on the car. I also had a 4 wheel alignment done on the car. But now it seems like the rear tires are cupping on me. There is about 18,000 miles on the car now. Has anyone else had a problem with this? Is it the Struts? Tire inflation? Something I should go back to the dealer with? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. The tires are Michlen's, 17 inch, the same tires that were originally installed on the car.

My right rear did. Made the front end whir noticeably after rotation. I ended up putting the full size spare on the right front to stop the aggravating noise. From what the dealer told me, they need to be rotated essentially every 3000 miles right rear to left front, and left rear to right front so the tires change sides and run in the opposite directions. He's seen it on several Azeras.

:)

3000 mile rotation is crazy. :wacko:

Something is not right with the alighment for tires to be wearing that fast on the insides.
We have 15K miles on ours, and the tires have been rotated twice, once at 5K miles and the
second time at 14K miles, and no unusual wear even though the rear alighment was toeing out.

Personally, I do not believe in reversing the rotation of an radial tire.
Front to rear or back to front, but no cross rotation.

:innocent:

This post has been edited by snaglepus: Oct 8 2008, 08:19 PM

:)

So you are saying that in only 5K miles, your brand new rear tires are cupping?
Which side of the tires, inside or outside? Are both rear tires the same?
If that is true and the rear tires have not been rotated at all, there
is definitely something wrong and I will bet it is your alighment.

Stay away from whoever did that alighment. Go to an independent shop and have
everything checked. I think you will find that your rear alighment toe is way off.

Good luck and keep us posted.

:liebe011:

This post has been edited by snaglepus: Oct 8 2008, 08:35 PM

I'm just repeating what he told me. I don't buy it, I personally think he's full of crap. I've never rotated tires that often. I rotated mine just a couple days ago at 24k, too late to prevent any cupping. I won't have the car long enough for the tires to wear out where I'd need to replace them... Thankfully.

Thanks , let me go into a little more detail here. Bought the car about 5 months ago, had 13,000 miles on the car. Before if left the dealer lot they replaced the two front tires, said they didnt meet specs. I thought wow, im getting two new tires, never giving cupping or anything a thought. After driving the car for about a month, the car was getting very loud, so i then decided to have the car checked out by my mechanic. He then told me that the rear tires were cupped very bad. Went back to my dealer and he did me justice by replacing the two cupped tires, I had to pay for one and they foot the bill for the other, Michlin gave me 45 % credit for the tires. OK, so now i have 4 new tires on the car. The dealership said they aligned the car before i bought it, I wanted to make sure so i took it to a front end alignment guy in my hometown, independent. Checked everything out, said the back was worse than the front, gave me a computer print out of the alignment ( I dont understand it) and off i went thinking everything is cool now. That was about a month ago. Now since the 4 tires were not put on at the same time, and the ones on the back that are cupping were the ones on the front before i had the alignment. ( you follow that), maybe the cupping started before i had the alignment?? Im confusing myself here, LOL.
And the tire that is cupping is the driver rear on the inside. Seems like all the others are fine. Maybe put a little more pressure in them??
Thanks for the posts guys, ill keep you posted. Im going to go and check it out with my mechanic today and see what he says. Have to go to work. Check in later.

He sold you cheap tires or didn't balance them correctly or both!

I've had the same problem. Tires were rotated 2x between new and 15K. At the 15K rotation and balance the noise was bad. Went back to the shop and found the tire cupping on the front tires that were previously on the rear. Ended up getting 4 new tires from Michelin (75% discount) and when the alignment was done with the new tires it was out front and rear. I put a claim in with Hyundai to get back the alignment cost. I'm still waiting. Check out my post "Good and Bad 1 Year Later".

I do plan on rotating at every 5K going forward. This will be at no cost since the shop I got the tires from will cover it.

Lastly, after my last round with this vehicle I was actually looking at getting rid of it that weekend. Even though I own it outright, I could not justify taking on another payment since I just bought a new 08 Outlander and with kids in college the emotion/frustration with this vehicle was getting the best of me.

FishOn

I know the feeling. 9 months and counting until I can get rid of this POS.

:)

For tires to become cupped in only one month, there is something seriously wrong. :wacko:

I am sure your problem is alighment. Your dealer told you that
your car had been alighed earlier? That is balderdash!
Either that, or the tech that did the alighment did not know what he was doing.

"I took it to a front end alignment guy in my hometown, independent. Checked everything out,
said the back was worse than the front, gave me a computer print out of the alignment
(I dont understand it) and off I went thinking everything is cool now."

Was an alighment done at that time, or did that shop simply print out
what your car specs were at that time without doing an alighment?

Read what the rear 'toe' is. Is it toeing out? If so, there is your problem.
What about the front specs? What is the toe reading there? Is the front toeing out also?

If your car was alighed at that independent shop, go back and show him your tire wear.
Ask him to explain about the differences between toe in and toe out.
Maybe you will then be able to understand why you cannot have a car setting at rest with toe out.
As you go forward, road force causes the toe out to become
even greater which is what scuffs off the insides of a tire.

Tire pressure by itself unless it is extremely low will not cause cupping.
Do you have your own tire gauge? If so, check your tires before the
car has been driven and before the sun has a chance to hit 'em.

30 psi is a good place to start. You may go as high as 44 psi according to the
maximum pressures allowed according to what is printed on the tire sidewall.
That is if you have the factory Michelins such as the
Michelin S8s or the Michelin Energy MXV4 Plus tires.
With 44 psi, you will feel every little pebble, so
I do not recommend going that high. :grin:

BTW, did the dealer mount tires with a 'V' rating? They should be Size: 235/55R17
Serv. Desc: 98V Load Index 98 = 1653lbs (750kg) per tire Speed Rating “V” 149mph
UTQG: Treadwear: 400 Traction: A temperature: A400 A A
These specs are for the Michelin Energy MXV4 Plus tires. Those for the S8s are similar.

Once you have cupped tires, there is little that you can do except replace them or wear them out.
Not much of a good choice is there?

Good luck, and keep us posted please.

:thumbsup:

This post has been edited by snaglepus: Oct 9 2008, 12:44 PM

This is one person’s opinion but here goes.
The traction tires will always wear quicker than the non-traction tires.
If you are religious in rotating your tires, come purchase time you will be buying 4 tires.
If you do not rotate tires you will be buying 2 tires. Come tire purchasing time the set of tires that have the greater wear will be discarded and the better tires will be put on the non-traction end.
In theory a vehicle that is perfectly aligned will have even tire wear. If your vehicle is not properly aligned it will surely be noticeable after 7500 – 10000 miles. If this is the case then you should take corrective action.
Rotation MIGHT get you a couple thousand extra miles but not necessarily.
As far as tire pressure you should go by the suggested tire pressure on the decal on the left front door of your vehicle. When the vehicle manufacturer suggests the correct pressure they take the weight of that particular vehicle and the displacement of the tire into consideration and arrive at the proper pressure setting of the tire so it will sit flat on the road without convexing or concaving in the center of the tire, its weakest point.
The tire manufacturer will give the pressure parameters of its tires not knowing the weight of the vehicle it will be installed on. A pressure of 44 lbs is too much pressure for the weight of an Azera and the tire will start convexing (protruding in the center, its weakest point) in very short time.
I believe you have alignment issues; something is bent or loose.
Sometimes we take it for granted that the alignment mechanic will check all components for wear, looseness or defects at alignment time. Usually all they do is check alignment when the car is stationary. Funny things happen when we travel at various speeds on curves and over bumps. It may behoove you to take a pry bar and start probing your suspension components to see if you have any jiggling.
I’m sure I’ll be getting a lot of negative feed-back on this article but I’m a big boy and I can take it.

:)

Well said . . a well written response to be sure! :liebe011:

The only thing I would say would be to comment on your statement about
44 psi causing the tire to become convex or protrude in the centers.

While that used to be the case, especially before tradial tires, I'm not sure that is true now.
My alighment guy always airs the tires up to whatever the maximum tire pressure
are on the tire sidewalls, and he tells everyone to keep them that way.
I cannot stand the ride when he does that, and I simply don't believe in running that psi.
Mahout does not run those extreme pressures even when he is on the track!

My alighment fellow always test drives all vehicles prior to any alighment work being done.
Then during and after all adjustments are made, he tests the car again. I've seen him
go out as often as 5-6 times before he is satisfied. He's been at it for 40 years,
having grown up with his father running the business, and he and
his brothers each have shops in the general area.

As far as looseness or wear on the front components, shouldn't that be much later on
when the car has more time and mileage? We are talking about relative new cars.

Thanks again for the well worded post. Don't worry about "getting a lot of negative
feed-back on this article." You are indeed a "big boy and I can take it."

:whistling:

:)

"Went back to the shop and found the tire cupping
on the front tires that were previously on the rear."

Were they cupping on the inside or the outside? :puzzled:

It is indeed too bad that such an otherwise fine car is having these problems.
If only Hyundai had taken the time and made the effort to design the suspension for the US. :whistling:

:amen:

BTW, did the dealer mount tires with a 'V' rating? They should be Size: 235/55R17
Serv. Desc: 98V Load Index 98 = 1653lbs (750kg) per tire Speed Rating “V” 149mph
UTQG: Treadwear: 400 Traction: A temperature: A400 A A

These are the tires on my car. Here is the latest i got and it makes sense to me. I went back to my mechanic, not the guy who did the alignment, but my mechanic who i think highly of. He checked the tire and did say their is a little cupping in the left rear. But what he told me is that those tires were on the front of the vehicle for about 3,000 miles before i got two new ones. When I got the new ones they put the new ones on the front and put the ones with 3000 miles on the back. They told me the car was aligned but i didnt believe them. That is when i took my car to an independent person for another alignment. He told me that the car was out of alignment. The back was worse than the front. So low and behold i assume the dealership was blowing smoke when they said they did an alignment on it. I have the print out of the alignment, I will look for it and post the tow in and out ASAP. My mechanic said the car is due for an oil change in a thousand miles, so we will see how the cupping is at that time. But he believes that the tires cupped before the alignment. More bull crap from hyundai. Im not sure yet, but I think I bought my last Hyundai. Time will tell for sure . Maybe Ill get a GM after they go bankrupt ( its scary out there, not to change the subject. ) Thanks for all the help, i really appreciate it. Ill post again and let everyone know how things progress. I love the azera. Fansiest car i ever owned, and i owned many, as my wife will attest to. But I am not one to tolerate incompetence at any level. If it is a probelm, it is gone and never again to buy that make or model. We will see. Thanks again guys. Ill keep you posted

:)

I am reading correctly that you did in fact have your Azera alighed by an independent shop.
Your trusted mechanic thinks that any cupping was most likely done prior to that
alighment while the tires that are now on the back were mounted in front.

It will be interesting indeed when you find the print out from your
independent alighment so we can see how the toe is set.

You cannot blame the Hyundai corp. for the incompetence of any one stupid dealer.
If I were to blame Hyundai for all the mistakes that my local
dealer has made, that would not be fair to Hyundai. :innocent:

:amen: