# Tires cupping, 7,000 miles



## Dieselard (Jan 2, 2012)

I have a 2012 Cruze 1LT RS with the 16" aluminum wheel. at around 900 miles winter came and I purchased 4 bridgestone blizzaks (I got 50% off, not charged for mount and balance) with a lifetime alignment (50%+ off). when winter was over at approximetily 3500 miles I purchased 4 bridgestone turanza serenity tires (sold the FR710's and bought these for very little difference in cost, once again 50% off) and aligned it and it wasn't out. now at 7,100 miles I did my second oil change and noticed the outside of the tires cupping. I noticed I didnt see any threads about this here on this forum so I am blaming this on the tires. 
The chopping isnt severe, but if you run your hand across the tire it is smooth one way and rough the other way. From experience I know this will get worse
They have approximetily 11/32 (still brand new) and are noisier then they were brand new by far. 

For bridgestones top of the line tire, this must be a defect. 

Thinks it CANNOT be :
-Tire pressure, I check every 2 weeks
-Rotation (rotated at 3000 on the tires (not car)
-Alignment
- aggressive driving (baby this car)

If anybody has any input I would love to hear it


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## XtremeRevolution (Jan 19, 2012)

Take em back and get them replaced under warranty. That's just unacceptable!

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## coinneach (Apr 10, 2012)

Why do you say it can't be the alignment?

ETA: To clarify my question: you said you had the last alignment done ~7000 miles ago, right? There's no reason to assume something - ball joint wear, maybe hitting a pothole just that bit too hard, etc - hasn't gone wrong since then.


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## Dieselard (Jan 2, 2012)

coinneach said:


> Why do you say it can't be the alignment?
> 
> ETA: To clarify my question: you said you had the last alignment done ~7000 miles ago, right? There's no reason to assume something - ball joint wear, maybe hitting a pothole just that bit too hard, etc - hasn't gone wrong since then.


Last alignment was when i had the tires rotated, and balanced around 6000-6500
everything was within half tolerances of factory specs.


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## obermd (Mar 3, 2012)

What tire pressure are you running at and what is the sidewall max psi?


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## Dieselard (Jan 2, 2012)

I am running 36 Pei in all tires and the Max is 51psi


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## Vetterin (Mar 27, 2011)

Well either your alignment guy is FOS or you need some suspension work.


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## XtremeRevolution (Jan 19, 2012)

Vetterin said:


> Well either your alignment guy is FOS or you need some suspension work.


At 11,500 miles? Unless he hit some serious potholes or went off-roading, I don't see how. 

I've read complaints about some Bridgestone tires having this issue. Some claim you need to rotate more often, but that's clearly not the case here. Sounds to me like a defective batch of tires.


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## 70AARCUDA (Nov 14, 2010)

...is that "cupping" happening on ALL the tires, only the fronts, or only one tire?


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## Dieselard (Jan 2, 2012)

All the tires but the rear are the worse


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## XtremeRevolution (Jan 19, 2012)

Dieselard said:


> All the tires but the rear are the worse


Are these uni-directional tires? When you rotated them, did you cross-rotate, or just front to back?


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## 70AARCUDA (Nov 14, 2010)

Dieselard said:


> All the tires but the rear are the worse


...that sounds like a rear alignment problem!


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## Dieselard (Jan 2, 2012)

They have an inside/outside on the tire itself, when they were rotated the rears were cross rotated to the front went straight back.

If it is a rear alignment problem, that is on firestone....

They pretty much told me that this is a FWD car thing, and to keep them rotated and the choppy tires will "go away" I think this is complete bull


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## XtremeRevolution (Jan 19, 2012)

Dieselard said:


> They have an inside/outside on the tire itself, when they were rotated the rears were cross rotated to the front went straight back.
> 
> If it is a rear alignment problem, that is on firestone....
> 
> They pretty much told me that this is a FWD car thing, and to keep them rotated and the choppy tires will "go away" I think this is complete bull


To be honest, it does sound like the issue would go away. When you cross-rotate, you effectively change the "forward driving" direction of the tire, thus wearing them in the opposite direction. In theory, this should eliminate the cupping or feathering issue you've noticed. You're probably noticing excessive cupping on the rear tires because they came from the front and haven't been rotated like the rears were in order to reverse their direction. 

It would appear then, that the ideal rotation pattern for tires like this is to cross rotate them to the diagonal position. This rotates them both front to back, but also changes their rotational direction. 

That is, of course, assuming the tires themselves aren't defective...


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## spacedout (Dec 7, 2010)

Dieselard said:


> They have an inside/outside on the tire itself, when they were rotated the rears were cross rotated to the front went straight back.


It was my understanding(though I could be wrong) that with tires with a defined inside/outside tread you were not suppose to cross rotate. I did this on a previous tire I had & also got cupping of the tread within the next few thousand miles(the tires never got better after that). Next set of the same brand tires I just rotated front to back & on same side & never had the issue. 

These new tires with multi-tread designs(different tread on each side of tire, not the same) seem to not like being worn in both directions from my experience.


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## NBrehm (Jun 27, 2011)

You didn't change the tire width with the new tires did you?


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## Dieselard (Jan 2, 2012)

NBrehm said:


> You didn't change the tire width with the new tires did you?


No same tire size as what came off.

Firestone is replacing them with the new turanza serenity plus, with a 75,000 mile warranty (mine is now a 50,000)
They will pro-rate the ones on the car for uneven wear (not pay hardly anything)


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## XtremeRevolution (Jan 19, 2012)

Dieselard said:


> No same tire size as what came off.
> 
> Firestone is replacing them with the new turanza serenity plus, with a 75,000 mile warranty (mine is now a 50,000)
> They will pro-rate the ones on the car for uneven wear (not pay hardly anything)


Nice! Free upgrade FTW. 

That's a pretty nice warranty too! How much did those tires run you?


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## Dieselard (Jan 2, 2012)

XtremeRevolution said:


> Nice! Free upgrade FTW.
> 
> That's a pretty nice warranty too! How much did those tires run you?


Tires are on order since they only came out June of this year. The ones I had installed on this car were approx $340 I don't remember the exact amount
After the pro-ration Im sure it shouldnt be over $50


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