21" Tire Cupping / Noise -- Am I the Only One Experiencing This?

[OHJimIO]

Love, Love my P85 and with 7700 miles to date it has been perfect EXCEPT for ONE THING:

After 3-4K miles I started inspecting the inside edges of the 21" Continentals watching for excessive wear. The wear wasn't that significantly different from the outside edges, but when I ran my fingers around the inner edge, I could feel every other edge sticking up a bit higher than the previous one which feels like cupping. The result is that I began to get the whirring noise from the rear tires that really distracts from the otherwise quiet nature of the car. At 7,000 I had the tires rotated from front to rear and now the noise is even a bit worse. Its especially noticeable at 40-50 mph.

Is anyone else experiencing this? This different than excessive wear on the inside which everyone has reported and the overall wear pattern suggests that I am going to get 20K miles, which is fine. But the tire noise really takes away from the overall exceptional experience of the car.

Any thoughts, suggestions?

 

[qwk]

It sounds like your car needs an alignment( toe is out of spec).

 

[jerry33]

Cupping is generally caused by tire/wheel balance, wheel bearings, or something being loose.

 

[JPP]

Please search out the extensive posts on tire wear esp. with 21's. For sure you need an alignment and maybe a closer look at bushings and nuts in the back.

 

[OHJimIO]

Thanks for the suggestions. I have been driving south from Cincinnati to Sarasota FL (almost 1000 miles) and stopped at both the Atlanta and Tampa service centers for charging. The Service Advisor at Atlanta believed it was an alignment issue and arranged for an alignment at Tampa today as part of my final drive segment. After seeing the tires, the SA at Tampa felt certain that it was an alignment problem. Work completed this morning, along with another issue they addressed. Car was washed and cleaned and I arrived in sunny Sarasota mid-afternoon. Hopefully this will resolve the problem.