Im spending a small fortune on tires... help me out here...

[hotdoghogie]

the air pressure and alignment have nothing to do with the bubbling of the sidewall.

what kind of camber are you running?

ummm well considering camber is part of the alignment...

I blame most of it on camber, but it wouldnt hurt to have properly set tire pressure and toe. slow n' low... Like they say, you gotta pay to play.

[610EURO]

thats very mild stretch. impact is the number 1 cause of tire bubbles.

i used to have good amount of camber on my fronts in summer mode and never had bubbles, but i avoided potholes even if it meant stopping dead in a busy road. avoid them at all costs. should fix the issues.

[Smitty]

dude im telling you. its impact. thats it. excessive pressure on the innersidewall from the PSI setting and camber setp STILL is consistent. it wouldnt cause a sudden bubble on the sidewall. its all from a sudden impact that the tire cant absorb properly.

You're absolutely correct: Bubbles are caused by impacts. The sidewall of the tire compresses upon impact, breaking the belts in the sidewall. The broken belts create a void and pressurized air fills the void, creating a bulge.

The phenomenon has little to do with alignment and everything to do with having sufficient sidewall present to absorb impact. The sole area of suspension adjustment that can help mitigate this, but not prevent it is camber. If the vehicle is running too much negative camber, the load on the inner sidewalls is increased dramatically. Changing camber closer to 0º will help distribute the load, but then the wheels will likely not fit.

There is no panacea and this is a simple matter of form, function and compromise. If one wants the form, the compromise is frequent tire replacement. If one wants the function, the compromise is a form that may not appeal to the vehicle owner.

[Jason@Rotiform]

Smitty and slideonKais are right. Also, running out of suspension travel is another cause and further exacerbates the stretched sidewall issue.

We have seen some tires that do it worse than others

[Steve]

it sucks to roll hard.

[LuckyBoyOne3]

it sucks to roll hard.

This, plus pot holes, steel road plates in shitty construction zones, and dramatic bumps all cause bubbles, alignment just chews tires...

[Presns3]

yeah i understand what you're all saying.
however, i only ever get bubbles on the inside sidewall.
if it really were just from pinching, wouldnt the outside sidewall get bubbles too?
but the fact that its always the inside sidewall, makes me think it has something to do with camber or toe...
yeah?

im just hoping its correctable or else i might go to a smaller wheel or something

[LuckyBoyOne3]

Before I became a swerve master I only got them on the inside rear of my Infiniti with 235/35-19 on a 10 inch wheel, but with my retarded camber most of the weight was on the inside of the tire.

[Smitty]

yeah i understand what you're all saying.
however, i only ever get bubbles on the inside sidewall.
if it really were just from pinching, wouldnt the outside sidewall get bubbles too?
but the fact that its always the inside sidewall, makes me think it has something to do with camber or toe...
yeah?

im just hoping its correctable or else i might go to a smaller wheel or something

With all due respect, I think you've missed the point. You're getting them on the inside because of your camber settings and lack of sidewall. Negative camber means that the wheel is not riding square to the road: The inside of the wheel is closer to the ground to the outside, so there is far less compression area on the inside. When the wheel hits something, the inboard sidewall compresses and the air is displaced. When the air is displaced, the tire is pinched between the road surface and the wheel. Pinching the tire results in belts in the sidewall breaking. As the wheel rotates during normal driving, the weakened sidewall flexes and, without the reinforcement of unbroken belts, the rubber stretches and fills with air, much like a latex balloon.

If you don't want this to happen, return your camber closer to 0º. If you don't like the look of the car with less camber or your wheels won't fit without it, be prepared to buy new tires frequently. There is no solution that's going to give you the look you want and be durable.

[Presns3]

No, thats what im saying, i want to return my camber to 0 degrees, and im hoping that by doing that i'll fix the issue. I dont really want camber, its just a result of he drop and i haven't had a chance o fix it

[Smitty]

In that case, you'll be much better off. You shouldn't be at 0º because the suspension was engineered to have static negative camber, but as camber gets closer to 0º you'll be taking less risk. If you go to a slightly wider tire with the same aspect ratio, the likelihood of damaging the tires will be further mitigated.

Please keep us updated with the results of your setup changes.

[Presns3]

what do you recommend? im thinking -.5 degrees in the front, -1 in the rear?

or 0 in the front? (my car is fwd if that matters)

heres pics of the tires i had to replace and throw away today... sigh...
they still have like 75%!

Rear one:


Front one:

[riffman12]

looks like my rears

lack of alignment - you probably have a combo of toe and camber which eats tires

mine is also attributed to my destroyed rear trailing arm bushings

getting fixed soon though!

[Presns3]

i tried taking it to the alignment shop today, and they said they couldnt do it, i need camber plates i guess?

they measured my camber and its 1 degrees in both fronts and 2.5 in the back driver and 2 in the back passenger... blahhhhhh

is the only way to align to get camber plates?

[fatmike]

I daily my car, and because of camber I do go through tires as described, but not as bad. Try not to inflate them so high. With my Falkens my whole inner seam bubbled. I switched to nankangs for a few months and no problems besides inner wear. I'm on Toyo t1-r on my new wheels so we'll see how these last.

How the VIP guys do it? My buddy went through 11 tires last year.