Territory RWD with unusual tyre wear

[whynot]

I have been looking around at buying a second hand Ford Territory. One example I looked at had tyre wear that I had not seen before. It was an SZ RWD with around 40K on the odometer. All four tyres had what I can only describe as fresh gouge marks. It was as if someone had taken a sharp knife to the edge of all four tyres to cut slits in the rubber (see attachment). For this and other reasons, I passed over the vehicle for another. But, still, this wear has me curious. Could it be rough road driving? Driving under inflated? Or, as I suspect it was a fleet hack, just simple driver abuse? Any ideas?

[XR Martin]

Driver abuse, you get that kind of damage spinning the tyres on gravel or course asphalt.

[rst2000]

Originally Posted by XR6 Martin

Driver abuse, you get that kind of damage spinning the tyres on gravel or course asphalt.

it was a rwd though and it's apparent on all four tyres..

[GasoLane]

El Cheapo tyres ?

[mik]

looks like he`s been rally crossing it.

[Franco Cozzo]

Thats odd, I belt the crap out of my cars on dirt/gravel roads and I haven't done damage like that to any of them, the worst thing I've done was cracked the top corner of the windscreen.

[03 GHIA]

Don't suppose you noticed the manufacturing date of the tyres? I've seen that sort of wear on tyres before, but only ones over about 7-8yrs old. Doubt a terri with 40k would be on original tyres though.
Otherwise as mentioned, it could just be a cheap tyre with hard compound.

[rst2000]

imo, possibly the start of tyre delaminating...


this came off a motorbike :

[whynot]

GasOLane - the tyres were original equipment Goodyear Fortera
03 GHIA - as OE tyres, they would be around three years old

I could understand a manufacturing fault occurring on one tyre, but all four corners with similar gouge marks seems unlikely. The tyres seem otherwise fine, however, the passenger front was under inflated (could have occurred while sitting in the yard).

The wear pattern on the front and rear indicates that they had been rotated at least once. Not a scratch on any of the rims, and the spare is untouched.

The gouge marks were relatively fresh. I am wondering if it had been a company hack car, and near the end someone got their hand on it and gave it a flogging. The bit I don't get is how similar the gouge marks were front to rear and left to right. Fronts normally complain first with abusive steering and the rears normally show first signs of excessive throttle applications.

Pure speculation on my part is the driving style was triggering ABS/DSC and the "pulsing" that occurs during the application of the brake was placing high shearing loads on that part of the tyre that was in contact with the road. But, not just once, a driving style that caused heavy and consistent triggering of ABS/DSC.

Anyway ... not my problem ... we have moved on to another purchase. Still, I do wonder ...

[madmelon]

I have seen similar tyre wear/damage on a 3 month old Merc C200K that I spent an evening thrashing along some twisty roads. Tyre probably overheated and had chunks ripped out of it with understeer and oversteer.

[2011G6E]

I remember similar damage to tyres on both the GT Cortina we used to own and a TD Gemini sedan we owned in the past. We narrowed it down to the flinty rocky driveway of my brother in laws farm he owned at the time where we used to visit every couple of months to go shooting. It had a hard based driveway leading from the main road up to the farm house, but it was strewn liberally with loose sharp edged flinty rocks. The chunky 4x4 tyres on his old Landcruiser ute would also lose bits and pieces of tread.

After he sold that farm and bought another one in a different area with a "normal" dirt driveway, the problem stopped.

[mik]

bet a crisp $20 ......abuse.

[danzvtil]

Originally Posted by 03 GHIA

Don't suppose you noticed the manufacturing date of the tyres? I've seen that sort of wear on tyres before, but only ones over about 7-8yrs old. Doubt a terri with 40k would be on original tyres though.
Otherwise as mentioned, it could just be a cheap tyre with hard compound.

+1 for age, my exes Honda Accord had OEM Michelins on it which did this at the 5 yo mark. Several tyre places stated that this was common for this particular brand as the compound ages. She was only ever a nanny driver too.

[raceteam]

The feathering at the very edges can be caused by incorrect toe settings - too much toe in can do that front or rear.

[Vesper Martini]

Originally Posted by 03 GHIA

Doubt a terri with 40k would be on original tyres though.

Territory RWD should do a minimum 60K on a set.

[mik]

look closely you can see abrasion on the side of the tread, been bush tracking it for sure,
as a young bloke i did a hill climb with tyres going hard on a rough stony track did much the same type of damage .