Hey guys, I just put a beautiful set of Dunlop DZ 101 on my car, and the inner part of my tires are bald after 3 months. Is it a super simple fix to prevent this on my new tires? Too much PSI? Please Advise

 

Camber is off or alinement . Tie rod bad ?

 

Definitely an alignment issue. Could be camber, but much more likely to be a toe issue. Camber would take alot longer than 3 months to wear the tires that much. Take the car to a good alignment shop and get it checked.

 

Is the car lowered?
Sometimes folks just change the springs, or use coilovers, and don't change other parts needed to matain the steering geomertry....car gets lowered cheap.

But the cost of tires quicly eats the savings......

Mini specfies the alighnment is done with weights in the car...so thecar is alighnent as it is typically loaded (on the gen 1 anyway), so besure to find a shop that will align in right, and not just do an alignment ...

 

I just want to say that your write up/pictures are great! Definitely helpful!!

 

I leave my computer for 5 hours, and I get the best feedback ever! I love all of you. I have self diagnosed negative camber wear! Now, I wanna get my car lowered, what is the proper way to get it done .and I just came back off the snake on mullholand and slid all over the place, way too dangerous now.

 

well if you lower it your most likely going to get negative camber

 

So then, what's the current problem? is it preventable?

 

It is preventable. First you need to ensure that your car is aligned perfectly. Find a good shop and have it aligned to factory specs. (If you lower it I don't know how you align it properly. I mean you can I just wouldn't know the spec.)

The next most important thing to do for your tires is to check the tire pressure weekly and I mean without fail and rotate the tires without fail every 5000 miles. It is so simple yet most people do not check the tire pressure enough or have the tires rotated when they should.

My wife's car got 35K on the factory Conti run flats! (What you say, you must be kidding?, Nope.) I have 26.5K on my factory Conti run flats and I will get at least as many miles as my wife.

There are some caveats. If you have summer only tread and run your car like a bat out of you know where or track your car, obviously you probably won't see this kind of mileage.

Like I said, keep the proper air pressure in the tires, check weekly, rotate the tires every 5K and make sure the car is aligned properly. You will see improved tire wear and longevity.

That's my experience.

Regards.

Pat

 

Thank you, And I don't have a manual, what should the PSI be at?

 

Look at the plate on the inside of the drivers door jamb.....it will list the psi for the favtory oem tire/rim combo size wise....if you are running wider, etc, then it will need tweaking a psi or two to matian the correct contact patch.

 

I've observed that these cars are pretty sensitive to rotation. I bought my car used and abused, and it looks as though the tires were never rotated. The fronts are almost gone, and the rears look 75-80% good. I rotated the tires, thinking the car would have wicked lift throttle oversteer (not wanting it, just trying to maintain in spite of previous neglect). I was dead wrong. The car pushes even worse with "good" rubber up front (yes, I readjusted pressure). I won't align my car until I get new tires, but I really don't suspect that. I think the tires just wore into their angles. On my VW TDI, I rotated once every 10k (lazy), and I have 90k on the current Uniroyals, with plenty left to go. The MINI will definitely get 5k rotations religiously.

 

Make sure they check the toe too. Toe in or out is much harder to detect by looking at it. From looking at my car, and some of the others I've seen, the Mini has some negative camber dialed in as part of it's regular alignment. This helps with cornering, and isn't really a big deal for tire wear. I had negative camber dialed in on my WRX to benefit the handling, and although the inside of the tires wore a little faster, I still got 30k+ out of the factory tires. Even a small amount of toe in or out (as little as 1/16"), however, can cause nasty tire wear problems, and doesn't give any benefit to handling, and can cause some weird things to happen under hard braking.

 

I just saved the chart you had on your post. It is really a good thing to keep around. Thanks,

 

As previously stated look at the door jamb. That will give you a good starting point. Leave it as the jamb says for at least 1 rotation sequence then look at the way the tire is wearing and readjust the AP. It really should not vary more than a pound or two. Especially if you are not tracking your car.

If your going to track your car I would get specific wheels and tires made for that purpose. (This is the ideal, it's expensive to do so.)

I hope this helps a bit.

Regards,

Pat

 

Could you give some examples of "weird things under hard braking?" Maybe an inexplicable and inconsistent pull to the left or right while braking?

 

Yes.

 

Great info and pictures. Thanks.

 

Sorry if someone else said this and I missed it, but if you want to lower your car and not chew up the tires, get coilovers (or springs if you're doing it on the cheap.) and also some adjustable rear camber links:

http://www.waymotorworks.com/h-sport...ber-links.html

so you can dial in the appropriate camber after the car is lowered.

 

Wow...I worked for Bridgestone Firestone for over 40 years and could not have supplied better information than you have received...What a great source of info the people on this site provide...Sure glad this site is alive and well !!!!