The inside edges of my front tires and out side edges of my rear tires are cupping.

Front end is all new, upper and lower ball joints, inner and outer tie rod ends are new. Rear end has one new wheel bearing and all four struts are new.

All four corners were aligned when I did the front end work, though it still has a slight pull to the right.

Tires are cooper atp with about 25,000 miles and were dynamically balanced.

What are the chances that this is a characteristic of the tire? What else would cause cupping like that? There isn't much else left replace.

 

Sounds like you addressed nearly everything with the work you did, maybe the cause is due to low/uneven tire pressure on one of the tires?

One thing you could try is removing the front tires and switch sides (right on left side, left on right side) and see if the pull changes which could help isolate a bad tire.

 

I forgot to mention that....


I have swapped all four tires to all four corners and the pull remains. I'm not 100% confident in the alignment and had it scheduled to go back in after a week for a re-check. but as life happens, the day before my re-check we had a baby and the alignment just didn't seem as important after that


I think the alignment is probably still off, but I don't think it would cause the cupping. maybe it would, I don't know.


I have checked the pressures and they are spot-on where I want them.


I forgot to mention that the sway-bar links in the front are both new too. not that I think it would cause an issue, but everything but the bushings are new and there is no noise indicating any play anywhere.


baffled.

 

A caster difference is typically cause for a pull.
Did you get a print out of your actual settings after the alignment?

 

no print out.


it went to an old-school shop with dial gauges ect.


at one time they were the best in town, and they currently make most of their money working on OTR trucks. This isn't where I would have gone, but I had the shop that put all the parts on take care of it.


I should have taken it back, but by the time I got out of the hospital and back home it had been too long to make a fuss about it.

 

It's very likely that the rear alignment on your Expedition was not set correctly.

I haven't had the best experiences with the local tire shop that has top end computerized equipment, although they do give you a fancy sheet of paper with lots of numbers that don't necessarily mean anything depending on their Quality of there test set up procedure. Regardless of what equipment they use it all comes down to the equipment operators meticulousness of procedure.

Edit, take it back to the alignment shop if they stand by their work they will fix it on their dime.

 

Here's some pics I took tonight to show what I'm talking about. These were rotated not very long ago when I had the struts done.




Front tire cupping on the outside edge





Rear tire cupping on the inside edge<br/>Rear tire cupping on the inside edge <br/><br/>

 

It's hard to tell from a picture but would I be correct to assume the smaller outside tread blocks are wearing down more than the larger tread blocks and slightly angled towards the leading edge of the tires as they turn?

If that is the case it's most likely a toe-in issue and I would guess but not guarantee that it's too much toe-in on the rear tires.

Edit, on a second look i'm questioning the front alignment as well.