CTNYC

I have an issue where my right rear tire is cupping. I bought the car used w/ ~85k miles or so from an Acura dealership (they put on new tires) about a year ago and the problem was detected by my (different) dealership by ~95k miles. As per that dealership's recommendation, I didn't rotate the tires so that the other tires wouldn't get cupped and did an alignment. Didn't seem like a huge deal and not high on my priority list.

I brought it to several repair shops and none of them could find anything wrong -- everything seems to be tight and all the shops and dealerships I've asked said shocks do not seem to be the culprit. I don't want to blindly throw money into this car and hope that I fix the issue. Basically, from what I gathered, I *might* need new struts ($1100), rear control arms ($900), or it could literally be anything else in my rear suspension. I just did another alignment/balancing/rotation (my front tires are wearing out now, so I'm okay with a worn tire cupping and replacing those tires) a week ago, and now 2k miles later, my right rear tire is starting to cup again. Anyone else have a similar issue?

My car will also need new brakes/rotors ($500), CV axles ($600), tires ($1100) in the coming year... Starting to think it might be smarter for me to just cut my losses and move on at this point... Thoughts?

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

what did alignment say?
you keep throwing out there that you did an alignment, but did not indicate if it was put back to spec.

please show us alignment printout, showing before and after.

you are going into this blind. will not be able to find out what the culprit is without hard concrete facts.

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

tire wear, specifically camber wear is attributed to out of spec TOE.

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

also, not to sure what it means to cut losses, as you're not losing anything to repair car.

as a brand new car will cost MORE than a couple grand a year to maintain 4G.

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

unless you are trying to justify a brand new car....and you've already made up your mind...

CTNYC

justnspace - Thanks for your input I don't have the printout in front of me (it's at home) but everything before the alignment was within Acura's specifications, although the front tires (which are wearing normally) were right around the min/max spec. The right rear was well within the specs that Acura has put out for this car.

Cut my losses as in accept the depreciation hit (not too bad in all honesty, around $7k in 15 months/35k miles including taxes)

Not necessarily trying to justify replacing it (I'm already planning on buying a second car, either a TLX or MDX, in the next month or two), but I'm also not one to throw $$$ into car repairs hoping my issue gets resolved (one national chain *cough*sears*cough* said that it is "urgent" that I do $7000 worth of suspension work to my TL and throw 4 new tires on it... I went in to patch a flat tire)

I'll double check the toe specs for my car when I get home

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

without the specs in hand, its hard to determine where its going out of spec at...

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

if you say the suspension is as bad as it is; did you hit something?
sure, rubber bushings do go out, but should be changing those instead of the whole control arm...

and you know those items, especially the tires are wear and tear items. have some money saved just for the tires. so, instead of hitting you all at once....you're prepared....

thoiboi

My bet is on right rear toe being out.


for me, anything NOT 0.0 toe is out of spec.

CTNYC

The right rear toe was at -0.4 and they brought that in to -0.1.... I didn't ever hit anything (except for potholes... lots and lots of potholes... it's Toronto, NYC, and DC streets though) However this problem was present since I bought it, or very shortly after... The car seems to have been driven in CT the first 85k of it's life, which doesn't have rough streets compared to where I normally drive...

Even if the right rear is toe at -0.1, I doubt (correct me if I'm wrong) that would cause my tire to cup to the extent it is cupping in say 300 miles (started cupping right away)... Now it has ~2k miles on that tire... Looking back at the service records from the previous owner, he changed all 4 tires and did alignment/balancing, but then a couple months later, 1 tire was replaced (with alignment and balancing), then another couple months later, 1 tire was replaced again (with alignment and balancing). Then he did 1 rotation, then about 1.5 years later, he traded the car into the Acura dealership where I bought it from, who changed all 4 tires and did alignment/balancing. Just checked closer on the invoice/record and the reason is that 2 tires (didn't specify which) was chopped. and the tire thread was lower than their standard....

I have a feeling that I just didn't do enough due diligence with this car and might have bought a bad used car... Mechanically sound, but maybe a bent suspension part somewhere.... Other than that, mechanically it is great... so not exactly sure which route to take... Maybe I'll simply play the "wait and see" game and pounce on something new if the numbers work out well (Since I'm already planning to buy a 2nd car in the very near future)

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

so, maybe your mechanics did spot a bent control arm. or some other component bent, thus why they are asking that large amount for repairs.

CTNYC

My mechanic spotted nothing... Sears, on the other hand, said it was very necessary to do new struts, 4 new tires, wheel hubs, etc out of precaution... When I asked if anything was damaged/broken, they said no... they just recommend replacing all of those...

csmeance

I'd replace both rear shocks and verify the springs are the right height. Sometimes a shock will fail and cause cupping.