I appreciate all those who took some time to contribute to this thread.
I wish I did a closer visual inspection last November, when I rotated my tires from front to rear for the first time. I believe the front has a different wear pattern than the rear. Once the wear pattern starts, rotating seems to accelerate their destruction.
The Front tires had about 8K highway miles before rotating. Looking at the inside shoulder, they seem to have worn away more rubber than the rear. The extra 1/8? toe-out is most likely responsible. Given this is a front wheel drive vehicle; I would think the toe-out spec would be reduced, as under acceleration the wheels tend to pull inward. Hind sight is 20/20 and I guess I should have first rotated after 3K-5K miles.
The Rear tires seem have slightly less wear then the front, but have developed a saw toothed edge on this inside shoulder. They now have about 3K miles up front and have started to generate noise as the wear increased more rapidly. This is what alerted me the problem has returned. Rear alignment was within spec, so why these are getting chewed up is anyones guess.
After the rotation from left to right (my KDWS aren??t directional) the reverse spinning has seemed to quiet it up a bit. I hope the saw toothed blocks will wear the other direction to return the profile closer to normal. Once I get another thousand miles, I??ll return to the tire shop for another inspection and alignment. I paid for a one year alignment program, so getting it checked again won??t be a problem. Eventually I may get the tires dismounted and swapped to start some wear on the untouched shoulders.
On a side note, someone up above must have been watching me!
I happened to find a super deal on a brand new set of 215/50R16 KDWs on EBay. I won the auction and the guy was local so shipping wasn??t necessary. Perhaps now I??ll look for another set of rims to make summer/winter combinations. P.S. I think that guy still has a set on there!
