Tire/Rim Questions

[loudandheard]

I have 19" moven s5r rims and they seem to be very sensitive. I've had them for almost a year and a half and all the tires are bent. They seem fine on the out side, but when you roll them when they're not on the car you can tell how bent they are.

I want to say the bends in the rims are on account of the bad roads in Houston. I want to drop the car, but I'm scared that with the problems I am already having that it would just be multiplyed by a drop.

There is also tire wear, in the time I've had my rims I've gone through 2 sets of tires in the front and 1 set of tires in the rear. I had a full alignment done and everything, but the tires still don't wear even. I can't really rotate the tires because of the staggered set up.

What I want to know is if everyone has had a problem with their rims becoming bent over time, do your tires seem to wear quicker because of the size, and what have you done to prevent all these problems? I really want to give the car a slight drop, but I'm worried of more wear on the tires.

Here's a pic of my car:

[Luwin1026]

In regards to the rims being bent, that all depends on the brand/style/type of wheels you have, as well as what you had stated - the condition of the roads. For higher-end, reputable wheels such as BBS, Volk, AMG, etc., chances are that they're a little less prone to the chances of being bent, although if you hit something hard/fast/big enough, no wheel is invincible.

In terms of tires, chances are you are running a performance tire due to the bigger wheel size, and wear on performance tires are not as good as stock all-season/touring tires. Although you can't "rotate" them in the common sense of the term, you can dismount and "flip" them and run it on the opposite side, keeping the staggered setup. So you would flip the fronts and run them on the opposite side, and likewise for the rear. That should give you a little more even wear/life to the set. Another thing to look into is another performance tire with a higher treadwear rating than that you currently use. It might be helpful to post up what model/size you are running currently to solicit some opinions from other members.

[loudandheard]

The tires are ventus hankook, with 235/35 in the front and 265/30 in the rear.

[Luwin1026]

Hankook has the Ventus line, in which there are different models, so I'm not sure which model you have, but I'm assuming that you're running a high performance tire, given that the specs you give seem to be a 19" application. What does the treadwear say on them?

Also, how is it wearing? Is it the inside that's wearing out fast?

[loudandheard]

I'll check on the treadwear tommorrow, but yeah in the rear and the front they wear on the inside. I think I might need to rotate them from side to side in order to get more thread life out of them. How many milers would you recommend to do that on. Also, would lowering my car cause more wear?

[Denlasoul]

If your tires are wearing on the inside, then you have a pretty good amount of negative camber. This camber is a result from lowering. You can solve this in two ways, fix the camber or raise the car back up a bit.

How many miles do you drive a week?

[Proven Guilty]

Bad roads in Houston?

I would say it's likely that you need a new set of rubber. Often at times people confuse vibration and wheel slop with suspension issues when it's often broken belts, unevenly worn tires, and warped brake rotors.

As DLS suggested, you should look into the K-Mac camber kit that can be found for sale at a special club202 price by K1, or sign up for the backorder list of Speedybenz camber arms to reset your rear negative camber to zero.

I would recommend that before swapping out the rubber, but do both relatively soon.

[loudandheard]

I would drive the car around 250 miles give or take 10 miles every week. I wanted to lower my car, but I feared that there would be more wear on the tires. Currently the car is not lowered. I have had the wheels aligned on two seperate occasions and I continue to get the same problem. I'm sure the bends in the rims and the different bushings and different suspension parts do not help the situation.
I guess I just wanted to know if the normal wear for my tires would be about a year or so, because it seems about how long it takes before I have to replace them. I just need to figure out a solution if it's the fact I need a better alignment or what I need to do to make the tires last longer. I know how to take care of my rims, but things always happen.

When I went in for my last alignment, which they charged quite a bit, they said that they had installed a camber kit. I wanted to be there and supervise and see for myself what they had done, but I didn't get the chance. I've really never heard of a camber kit for our cars besides the ones you mentioned and I feel like I may have been screwed. The alignment only slightend the wear to the front tires, but their is still more wear than what I would like on them. I haven't been able to notice how where much of the wear has been in the front, but the tire are wearing much quicker. I'm not sure if they did anything to the rear, but I noticed that on the very inside of the tire it was wearing slowly, the rest of the tire looks fine excepy for the inner portion. I'm thinking I just need to rotate them next time to get an even wear. I'm just cofused as to what to do.