Wavy rear tires... second set.

My 05 has now ruined 3 sets of tires. Original tires got noisy at 10,000 mi. Kept them rotated and balanced. Bought new wheels and tires and 20,000 miles later, we could feel the flat spots and everyone else we went by could hear them loud and annoying. After an alignment, we replaced the tires... and within 15k miles we were rolling on loud and very scuppered tires... and noticed that the rears were the problem. I didn't rotate them to try to find out where the problems were being generated.

Scheduled maintenance with Toyota after I took off all the wheels and discovered that the rear hubs (especially rear passenger) were binding just a little. That rear right had 3 spots that you could feel resistance as it was spun. One of the spots was slightly stickier than the other 2.

Toyota service could not find anything wrong. They told me that they pullled the rear hubs, cleaned and lubed them... and that they are fine. I put a new set of tires on the car, again. Guess what?? Same thing happened to these. I didn't rotate them. The fronts are round and in good shape. The 2 rears look like they have waves on them. Same as before.

Anyone on this site ever see anything like this?

I have an appointment with Toyota Monday morning. I'm going to try to show the mechanic what the hubs feel like when they are rotated without a wheel on them. This is the only problem that this car has developed.

 

No. Tread looks normal and then there is a large wear spot that is followed by three or four similar spots that decrease in depth and width.

A little less than a third of the tread circumference is affected. Shocks are still good. This type of wear pattern started to occur when the car was new.

The last two sets of tires developed the same wear pattern. One was a set of Goodyear TripleTreds and now a set of GoodYear RS-As.

I found a subtle binding when rotating the rear hubs, especially the rear right (passenger) side.

And yes, I will once again have the alignment checked. Everything was well within specs the last time the alignment was done.

 

Just put the rear up in the air and rocked both rear wheels. No play. I also rotated the tire and visually noted where the bottom of the tire ends up in relation to the change in resistance (I like that term better than binding), and the wear spots do line up with the locations in rotation were the resistance starts to be felt.

Why would the hub offer those increased resistance spots? Seems to me it should always be smooth through the entire rotation.

 

Something has to be doing it, and it has been doing the same thing since I bought it. Can't see any deformation or wobble from the outside... but I will make sure that the Toyota tech looks at it. I plan to personally take the wheel off and have them turn the hub by hand so they can feel it.

It's not that subtle, especially with the wheel off.

 

Thanks. I'll do my best to show the Toyota tech what I think is causing the uneven wear. He will feel the those hubbs slow in three spots as he turns them by hand.

The first time I took the car if to have this problem investigated, I didn't personally go back with the car. This time I will.

Hopefully they'll find the problem. My wife and I really have enjoyed this car for 5 years we have owned it. It will be getting ready for a little trip to Florida in late February. Road trip! But I really hope Toyota can fix the rear hubs, so I can keep a set of tires round for more than 10 to 15,000 miles at a time.

By the way, JimN, nice picture of the Tesla model S avatar.

 

I understood that a hub has sealed bearings. I just reported what the service manager told to me. The reason I ran the second set of tires without rotating them was to see if the same problem cropped up again.

I'll try my best to get to the Toyota tech so I can show him the hub problem and also show him the results on the tires themselves. Now I don't even trust the alignment that they did.

I may take the car in to a local tire dealer for the alignment, depending how I get treated by Toyota service, and also since Toyota doesn't shim. I need to put a set of snow tires on it, so we can safely make a trip to Florida and back in late Feb and don't want to ruin the snows. Weird having to put snow tires on the car to go to Florida, but we have to get through most of New England to get there and then back into New England... and unfortunately, it will still be Winter up here.

 

I'm sure it won't be easy. The only way I can have them actually feel the problem and explain how the tire wear lines up with the places that have that increased resistance when turning the wheel and hub is to be right there with them. I don't want to have to deal with another one of those hub lube stories.

 

Got in to see the Toyota tech this morning. Explained and showed the increased resistance locations as the hub was turned by hand. Tech and Service Manager both said that it is a common occurrence in Prius and other cars. I mentioned that this is the first time I've run into this situation.

Recomendation was to send the car over to their alignment rack. The Service Manager brought up shims, not me. The alignment tech said that this is a fairly common problem on some Toyota products. Not a reasuring statement.

The alignment was done and the shims were installed. This time I did get a readout and toe was out of wack (outside tolerance) in front left and a bit out on the rears. All the other numbers were changed from near edge of tolerance to middle values.

The car now tracks as well as it ever has, although the trip home was not ideal for that test. Gobs of rain and high winds this afternoon. The storm should be out to sea later tonight, so maybe I can try it out under better conditions tomorrow. I'll instal the new snow tires later this week. Hopefully it's fixed. That just means another new set of rubber for the summer wheels, set # 3... not counting the short lived 15 inch Goodyear Integritys.

I've never had a car that chewed through tires this way. A woman, waiting for parts at the parts counter, told me that her Sienna was wearing sets of tires every 25 thousand miles. I'm and old Honda guy, so I'm not quite used to this.

 

Kinda sad, but that's almost the same though I had as I heard those words, almost like the old... "they all do that" routine.

Maybe all corporations go through the same type of metamorphosis as they grow too big and complex. I'm more than just a little dissapointed.