mskinner

I only have 20,000 miles on my car and so I decided to rotate the tires. I know I should have done it a little sooner, but anyways. I noticed that the front tires were quite a bit more worn than the rears, which I expected being a front wheel drive car, but the problem I ran into was when I got to looking at the back tires. They are smooth on the outside half of the tread, but the other half of the tread on the back tires is bumpy. I went a head and rotated them thinking that maybe they will wear back correctly, but now my car has front end vibration, especially when braking, and is loud to boot just driving down the highway.

Is this a common problem with civics? My dad's had tire problems also, but thought maybe it was a fluke. What have you all ran into?

My car is a 2007 civic coupe Lx. (hooray for cheaper gas... I paid $2.05 today)

TRIZ

iTrader: (14)

Sounds like a camber issue...

manahoonie

/\/\ what he said.

can you post some pics to show how bad it is?
did you get the car new or used?
has the suspension been messed with at all? (possible if bought used)
if bought new, i'd rotate the tires back to where they were, and take back to dealership, and see what they say. DON'T BUY ANYTHING YET! Just see what they say.

and i've also heard that new cars (non-sports car type) usually come with some cheaper tires anyways, so faster wear would be expected. That's so they can show you on test drives how well the car can handle, then you buy the car, and drive like crazy, wearing out the tires...:P

wheelspinLX

You should also rotate like every (at least) 8,000 miles rather than every 20,000 miles.

kugmo

I think posting photo's of the car would be a good idea so we can clearly see the tires...

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

its a known problem that 06+ civic have serious tire wear issues due to the alignment.

gn3ric

i agree to gearbox. when i first got my car i've noticed that there were some weird negative camber... but i dont' know about the tire wear on it. I bring my car to American Tires to get them rotated every 5 thousand miles. i asked one of the employees about my tires and he said i'm doing great. ROTATE YOUR TIERS PEOPLE!!

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

rotate will help, but you really need to fix the alignment problem too. the car comes messed up from the factory.

Fox04coupe

alignment will most certainly kill a tire quicker than anything.... besides doing burnouts.

CraigW

iTrader: (1)

Leaving any tires on any car left in the same position for half of their rated life on a FWD is certain to ruin them.

I tried to go with the 10k rotation at one point in time and still had some issues with tires cupping and scalloping, I switched to 5K rotations. I also swap sides and rotation direction at each rotation now.

DeX

W......T.......F?

CraigW

iTrader: (1)

Passenger front to drivers rear, Drivers rear to passenger front.

Drivers front to passenger rear, Passenger rear to drivers front.

Each rotation, Tires are only ever in 1 of 2 positions.

The OE Potenza's lasted 42K and the Michelins I have are rated at 80K and are wearing perfectly with this method at almost 40K.

DeX

Well that's what the manual calls for in every common tire change, plus a modified version for a full size spare. I was questioning more your decision to change rotation direction of the tire, they're only designed to roll one way. There's arrows on the sidewall to show you which way they rotate.

EDIT - If you have a shop take your tires off for you and rotate them on the rims (the proper way to rotate tires).....wow. Any shop should know the direction a tire is supposed to roll in. If you do it yourself by simply switching the wheels around.......WOW x 1,000,000. You're going to blow a tire out on the highway and have a bad spill.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

i do mine every 10k and my last set of bridgestones went to 60k until one tire was too badly worn from having blown shock. the rest couldve gone much longer. and i dont exactly drive like grandma either lol

krazymatt

A few ideals I'll point out from my experiences in the last 18 years and about 20 cars and trucks I've owned.

If you don't rotate your tires till 20,000 miles, then there's no room for complaining, you will likely need new tires soon.

I wouldn't expect the world from any tires installed by the manufacturer. I've heard they buy large amounts of lower grade tires of any given brand to get a good deal because they buy so many.

One thing I've noticed by experience throughout the years is that Michelins, and certain Continentals and Goodyears do tend to do better than others but not always. Firestones and Bridgestone from the factory have seemed to fare the worst in my experiences.

When I rotated the tires on my 07 Civic Coupe at around 10k miles I just simply swapped the backs for the fronts and they ended up with a slight vibration at 80mph. The car currently has 20k and the tires look like they should easily last 15k-20k miles more. In my case I would plan on replacing them next fall if everything went right.

DUI Elite

well if you got the civic new, and unmodified, im pretty sure the dealer gave you crap tires... i dont know what year yours is, however manufacturer tires usually dont cut it...

i know they did for me (mines bone stock)...

treadwear 260. pretty much anything under 300 isnt gonna do you too good for too long....

armieo

iTrader: (15)

welps I'm still rolling on my stock firestones from march 2003 for the winters. But 7 months out of the year I use my rims.

Yikes?

Albertross

iTrader: (2)

Careful.

Make sure to check the direction of rotation stated on your tires. On some tires, you can check the sidewall of the tire and see the word rotation along with the direction it is pointing at. If your tires are specifically made to rotate a certain direction, and you rotate your tires incorrectly, you lose traction, and as a result that means trouble trouble trouble.

Anyway, about the tire wear, it may not only be a camber issue, but a toe issue as well. Remember that camber is not as much of a culprit for eating tires up as toe is.

FoSho

This is a terrible problem for honda at the moment. More of an issue than the 3rd gear si problem. I was doing roughly 10 or more 06-08 civic's a month at the dealership with this issue. Honda messed up the rear camber on only the 4dr models & hybrid...no coupes or si's at all. The problem was excessive negative camber in the rear. It eats the **** out of your inner rear tire. I have seen civic w/ 5-10k doing this aswell. It was a design flaw from honda on the new civic. They did release a tsb but did not come out with a rear camber correction kit until recently. So what happened was all these brand new civic ate there tires very very fast. If you rotated alot then both tires are affected. They sound like a damn tank when they do down the road.

Honda has a kit to replace the upper rear control w/ an alignment but only under regular warraty. My Honda district rep did help out w/ some out of warranty ones aswell.

The only down side to this tsb is the tires. Honda will pay for the kit and the alignment free of charge. They would never fight me on this. But when it came to the tires honda is screwing alot of people over. You used a chart w/ mileage and 32nds of the tire. You match the two to see if the tires are covered. Honda made this impossible. You have to have a brand new civic w/ 2/32nds or less tread within 10,000 miles.......pretty much impossible unless you are road racing. The most I saw honda pay for tires was 25% of only 2.

Almost every single customer was outraged...I never had a good experience with these. I did a **** load of these too!!!

so bottom line...get to the dealership and ask them to check your car for the rear camber kit issue. If the car has already had this done then it has a "C" stamped in the upper rear control arms.

We did so many we had 10 of these kits in stock...they are very easy to do and we could knock em out in about 1 hour and 30 mins w/ alignment.

One funny note is that aftermarket companies had rear camber kits way way before honda released there fix. One customer waited 1 year to get the kit when it was first discovered. She ate 4 sets of tires and she had to pay for them. She traded the civic in and got a cobalt....

Hope that helps!

redline2k

You have two problems.
First you need to rotate your tires every 5k. It is very important on front wheel drive vehicles the bumpy wear you refer to is called chop wear and is caused by lack of rotation.

Second the uneven wear on the outside half of your tire is an alignment problem it ,ost likely is a camber problem but could also be a toe problem.

The best thing to do is to replace the worn tires align the vehicle and rotate the tires every 5k. Then recheck check the alignment every 6k. You should also check the air at least once a month

FoSho

I can't actually take the tsb off of honda but I did find this site with the tsb...here it is. http://us.f13.yahoofs.com/bc/464bb45...5_DHJBB1SkIrWY

Check out how impossible 100% tire replacement is and the pictures of the tires. This should have been a recall, almost every 4dr civic is affected besides si's....

eloplayspolo

There is a recall on the 07 civic - the rear control arm is too long and causes rear tires to wear more quickly and also to wear in a wavy pattern, honda will replace this all for free and u may also be elligable for cash back on ur tires. i took mine ot my dealership and the did it in 2 hours

xxhaimbondxx

I went though this issue, but got tires replaced for free. Had to go thought a regional manager. I drive a 07 ex- sedan.

eloplayspolo

so right now im trying to get some money for my tires... i got after market wheels and tires at 500 miles, and they at first said they woudl give me 50% back cause mine were done at 17,000 which is covered, my car is at 21k and now tehy are saying i have to order them from honda for 190 each... i found the same tires for 80 each at store over here. anyways now they are saying that they wont do anything because i have aftermarket wheels and tires and i called bull$hit on that cause they sell aftermarket wheels and tires at the dealership. the dealership agrees with me and said they will gladly help me... but they jus gotta make sure they get reimberssed from honda.... so right now im trying to contact someone higher in the company directly.

The last poster, how did u get in contact with the regional manager?

FoSho

Just call up Honda of America Customer Service and try to get a case started, they will then want you to visit a honda dealership. They should pre-call the dealership and give em a heads up. I always used a gentleman by the name of RON, here runs the midwest region. good luck.

Mattrx

I got a new 2008 EX Civic in January. Have 12.6k miles, last rotated tires around 8k. Since the stock tires performed poorly last winter, recently refit with Cooper CS4 Touring T tires. My wife's car had those last year, they seem to grip better in water and snow than the OEM tires. I always rotate tires regularly - my last Saturn (the crash and total loss was what led to the Civic purchase) had the original tires to around 60,000 miles but regularly rotated about every 6000 miles.

I'm not sure about the camber issues at this time, but will keep in mind.

eloplayspolo

ive talked to honda america... they just say that they understand and that im right... but i have to order the tires from them... they are 180 a piece... i just got soem for 62.99

eloplayspolo

talked to the regional manager today and got back 50% of my new tires. thanks

DC2007CivicEX

My boss bought a 2007 Civic about a month before I bought mine. Both EX Coupes. He told me that when he went into the dealer for service that they noticed his rear tires were too worn for his mileage. Apparently there was a known issue? So I took mine in and the service dept found the same issue (different dealer). They replaced both my rear upper control arms, but charged me for the alignment. They even gave my boss a proration on his tires since it ruined them. I was over the mileage, so I got nothing.

I notice on my paperwork for that service, an ABS O-Ring recall? Looks like they only inspected though.

mskinner

Well thank you all for the advice and I will start rotating my tires much more often. My bad there. I think I will contact my dealer even though it is a coupe and see if there is anything they can do about the rear control arms. I will keep you all posted. Thanks again.