Today while checking the diff oil in the 245, I notice to my complete shock and amazement, that one of the rear tires was completely worn down through the metal, but only in a spot about 8 inches long on the inside! All of the wheels had been off not three months ago for brake work, and were worn, but fine. Obviously, I wll be replacing the tires tomorrow, but what might have caused this kind of wear? It is as if the wheel had extreme negative camber and was locked for 50 miles!

The tires on this car have always been a bit wacky (BFG Comp T/A 195/65-15 on turbo wheels), and I'm hoping that they just decided to give up, but I'm hesitant to put new ones on if something else has caused the problem. Could worn bushings do something this drastic? Except for slightly loose steering, the car handles fairly well. I had noticed a bit of pull to the right recently, but nothing that could damage a tire to this extent. I would notice any suspension problems that would cause this, I'd think (bent axle/toasted shock/broken spring/etc). Anything specific that I should check? The car was aligned about two months ago, but the shop was incompetant. Of course, I'll be getting an alignment with the new tires tomorrow.

thanks in advance,
erik
1990 245 M47 225000mi
ipd bars
ipd lowering springs
bilsteins
VX cam
ipd exhaust
3 turbo wheels with worn BFGs
1 steel with a snow tire

The localized wear sounds to me like that tire suffered a belt failure. Being on the rear, any runout would be less noticeable than if it were on the front. If you haven't already, spin the tire or roll it on a flat surface and see that it runs/rolls true. A carcass failure will result in a visible bulge and a non-flatness looking across the width of the tire - one side will be higher (bigger diameter) then the other, and it won't roll straight.

That sounds about right, and it is what I was hoping for. Where it is worn down (waaay through the tread), it is about the same height as the part with some tread -- does that make sense? It is relatively even across the tire, but one side is severely worn and the other isn't. Anyway, I hope that this was the cause. I'm running with snow tires now, and everything seems fine.

thanks,
erik

A decent tire shop could tell you if it's belt failure. Years ago, I had several Semperit tires die 'young' of belt failure, and I even got some bucks off the replacement set because it happened before 40K miles. Couldn't believe how much smoother new tires were!

Two things come to mind other than alignment. The first is something rubbing the tire. Don't know what it could be but I'd take a very very close look under there. Second would be an over active brake on that corner causing that tire to lock up WAY more often than the others. That's kind of streching it a bit though. Let us know what you find out.