Because this affects how much traction you are getting when accelerating and braking, it can be a very dangerous issue and should be addressed promptly. There can be a number of reasons why tires experience cupping, here are some of the most common.
It is typically a bad extension that causes tires to scallop. As your car bounces up and down due to bad shocks or struts, it briefly loses contact with the ground and as your car lands the weight wears the tire in that area.
This uneven wear becomes more and more severe as time goes on because the tire being uneven will cause this effect to worsen naturally pushing the car up with each scallop and causing the car to land in the next scallop. This will not only make the road noise when driving very loud, it will also prevent your car from smoothly gliding over the road. Especially at slow speeds you will be bouncing around in the cab of the car. Shock absorbers need to be replaced every 50, to 60, miles and struts should be replaced every 60, to 90, miles.
Suspension bushings will last a bit longer, every , to , miles. To be safe, it is recommended that you have your suspension looked over every year or every 12, miles. Shocks and parts of the suspension tend to be car maintenance items that are neglected by vehicle owners.
Most drivers are under the impression that the suspension is a component of the vehicle meant to solely cater to the comfort of the ride, however this could not be further from the truth.
The suspension of a car plays a huge role in maintaining safe traction while driving. This effect is often made worse for vehicle owners who frequently drive on bumpy roads or on roads that have a lot of speed bumps.
In some cases tire cupping can be a result of poorly crafted tires alone. You want to be sure to outfit your car with high quality rubber, tires are not where you want to be cheap when it comes to safely maintaining your car. In some cases under inflated tires can also cause tire cupping. Be sure to check the tire pressure of all four wheels once a week. If you have driven your car to a vastly different elevation, like if you take a trip to the mountains, your car will need to have the air pressure in its tires tweaked.
There are quite a few ways that you can tell if your tires are cupping and they are not hiding from you. It is very easy to identify a car with cupped tires whether just looking at the car, listening to the car drive, or evaluating the smoothness with which the car drives. Here are the best ways to tell if your vehicle is cupping:. Excessive Bouncing : The scoops out of your tire are going to prevent the car from driving smoothly.
Especially when you are driving at a slow speed, you will feel the car bouncing up and down. This is also a sign that you may not have cupped tires yet but they could be developing. A car that bounces excessively is usually a sign of an unhealthy suspension which will lead to the car putting more and less pressure on the tires as it bounces and loses contact with the ground. This effect will lead to tire cupping. Heavy Vibrations : You will not be experiencing a smooth ride if your tires are scalloping.
There will generally be a great deal of shaking and vibrating as you drive down the road. This is because the tire is no longer flat and cannot make constant contact with the pavement.
Noise : When you drive on cupped tires, you will experience a great deal of noise especially at high speeds. This is because your tires are making contact and then not making contact with the ground. This happens many times per second as you drive and the resulting sound can lead you to believe that you are piloting a helicopter instead of driving your car, truck or SUV. If your alignment is bad your tires are going to wear unevenly and may result in tire cupping. You can see the scoops : tire cupping is pretty easy to spot while looking at your tires.
Every three to four inches it will look like someone to a spoon to your soft tire and carved away part of it.
This will be around the entirety of the tire and is usually on all four tires on your vehicle. In most cases, the cupping will be on the outer edge of the tire along the tread, but if you are driving on tires that have too much air in them, that part of the tire will never make contact with the ground so the cupping will be more in the center of the tread.
You should give your tires a once over every week, checking for irregular tread wear, cupping, proper inflation, and foreign objects like nails. When you drive on scalloped tires you vehicle is bouncing around, losing traction with the ground many times per second as you drive. Tire cupping creates risks due to moments of lost traction. Tires are made to have even and consistent traction. This becomes extremely risky at moments where a driver is trying to stop quickly and ends up not having traction because their car is bouncing around.
If you make the decision to drive on cup tires, you are putting yourself, your passengers and everyone on the road with you at risk because you are not always able to stop. Now that we know how dangerous tire cupping can be, what do we do if we have cupped tires and want to take care of the issue?
Can cupped tires be fixed? Generally the answer here is no, cupped tires cannot be fixed. Higher spots will wear faster than lower spots, which will smooth them out eventually. If you choose to smooth the tires out by driving, remember that the ride may be dangerous, especially on wet surfaces. Because the tire loses grip due to uneven contact with the surface, which may lead to control loss. Also, the vibrations and noise that it generates may damage other sensitive wheel parts and even cause nausea to the driver or the passengers.
Tires cup on the inside due to severe suspension issues. More rarely, such a pattern is caused by bad wheel bearings, loose ball joints, damaged control arm or steering linkage. You need to go to a repair shop and run a full diagnosis on the suspension and other parts that connect the wheel to the car. If the wear is close to the outside edge, this may also mean a damaged suspension. However, if the pattern is between the outside edge and the middle of the tire, the main reason might be tire imbalance.
In case there are many hills and valleys, shock absorbers or struts may be the culprit. Middle cupping is usually a result of severe underinflation, failing shock absorbers or wheel bearings, tire imbalance, or damaged suspension. Underinflation-related cupping is rare and has noticeable characteristics. The scallops are frequent and small, unlike the shocks-related pattern that has larger scoops.
Damaged wheel bearings usually cause small but deep scallops. Back tires usually scallop due to poor wheel alignment. Also, if those tires are on a truck or a trailer, the loads may apply more pressure to one of the tires, causing the issue. When trying to avoid issues with tires, drivers usually put their efforts to maintaining the rubber.
However, the roots of the problems may lie in the vehicle, and failure to notice that may cause serious consequences. Some tire blowouts are caused by neglected tire scalloping, which is in turn caused by neglecting suspension, shocks, struts, etc.
Learn about the lifespan of the parts that connect the wheels and the vehicle and replace them when necessary. Pay enough attention to basic maintenance procedures. Our used tires go through rigorous quality control check to make sure you get top of the line tires.
Used Tires Utires. My Cart: 0. Shopping Cart You have no items in your shopping cart. Log In Sign up Cart. Search by sizes Width Aspect Rim. Vehicle misalignment. Read more about the importance of vehicle alignment. Suspension issues. The most extreme and visually distinct cases of tire cupping are typically caused by damaged or worn suspension.
Tire cupping from suspension malfunction can be much more immediately catastrophic. When suspension components are not functioning as intended — particularly on the absorption compression side of the equation — that transfers the brunt of road impact to the tires.
Tire cupping results from the tread blocks routinely absorbing all of those road imperfections. Unfortunately, diagnosing and observing suspension issues is often not as straightforward as an imbalanced wheel.
Especially because suspension component degradation can occur over many years, drivers might not notice the difference. During routine tire rotation and servicing, verify that your tires are inspected for abnormal wear patterns like early signs of cupping. And particularly if your vehicle is older, make suspension inspection an annual service. Behind the wheel, the symptoms of a cupped tire can be nearly identical to the symptoms of an out of balance wheel: Steering wheel judder and chassis feedback felt through the seat.
Cupped tires also tend to create excessive road noise that becomes increasingly pronounced as speeds increase. Even before being visually apparent, tire cupping can sometimes be felt.
With your vehicle parked and secured, run your hand around the tire tread. Feel any high and low points to the tread pattern? Tire tread should wear uniformly across the contact patch and around the circumference of the tire.
Before significant high-low points become observable, tire cupping starts with smaller variations around the tread blocks. Examine the tire in a longitudinal fashion, i.
Are there variations from one tread block to the next? Certain tread grooves or siping appear to be more worn down than at other points in the same line of tread blocks? These could be early signs of tire cupping.
Tires are engineered to provide sufficient traction with uniform tread contact with the road. The high and low points of a cupped tire prohibit this consistent road surface interaction.
The consequence is compromised all-around traction and vehicle performance. If any of your tires have reached an unrecoverable stage of cupping, don't press your luck.
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