ElanMike

I have Falken F452's fitted to my new Vossen wheels when I bought them about 1 year ago. The tires performed well and a year later the tread still looks good - less than 10k miles!
A few weeks ago my SL550 started vibrating at speed - I figured it was a balance issue, and hoped I hadn't dented a rim. Went to Discount tires today and all 4 tires had really bad wear right on the inside of the tire and the tread was coming away from the side wall! In some places metal was showing. Across the whole of the tread area though, still very deep tread.

You can see the wear in the attached 'Photo'. 'Photo2' shows the same tire from the other side.

Is this a common issue with the FK452, or with Mercedes?

I have 305/25 R20 on read and 255/30 R20 on front. Car is lowered about 1in.

I couldn't get FK452 replacements for 2 weeks, so they are putting on Nitto tires instead. Hope to have better luch with these?

hyperion667

uneven tire wear on a lowered car...........hmmmmmmmmmmmm

clkwork

looks like a combination of incorrect camber and under inflation

ElanMike

They should not be under inflated. The dealer actually set them at 3-5psi over the recommended inflation as they said they do this with all low profile tires and set the Tire monitor to flag if they are below what was the original normal inflation.
I did think about the camber but I would not expect a 1" lower to affect so much that it rides only on the edge where the wear is so bad.

Jon2007E63P30

Had the same wear with two set of F1 asymmetrics on the front.

Stock alignment, once from Dave at Borelli Motor Sports. Ran 44psi thinking under inflation. No luck.

This is a construction problem. Work privately with Tire Rack to get an RMA.

JDM_SXE-10

I'm not a big fan of the tire either. I have gone through several sets and they just don't seem to hold up. There are other brands that I have used and they all seem to last longer than the Falken FK452s.

benbods

That is definitely camber wear due to lowering and not at all related to tire brand. 10k+ miles with excessive camber and without flipping the tires is going to result in that. Do you have your alignment specs? Did you align the car after lowering? Of not then your toe is most likely out of spec and that contributes more to tire wear than negative camber.

ElanMike

No alignment previously. Definitely planning to do it now though! Do I need to take it to the dealer for alignment? When I asked the Discount Tire guys they said they couldn't do the alignment.
Guess I need to chalk this one up as an expensive lesson - a very expensive lesson

SoCal208

It look like an alignment & lowered problems. The fender (or shock bolt) cut the edge when the tire in motion up & down. Do not see uneven wear on the tire, so there is NOT the Falken tire to blame !!!!!

Centurion

Exactly.
This also happened to me on my previous CLS63.
I had Continental Contisports in the rear at 305/25-20 and it looked the same way.
This car definitely has negative camber issues when lowered but the tear you see there in the picture was caused by rubbing inside the wheel well.

ElanMike

Centurion - this was my first thought which I bought up with the wheel shop. They inspected for any sign of rubbing from the wheels inside the wheel well and there was nothing. When sitting on the ground, there is no apparent area where this could rub. I would also have thought rubbing would show up on the outside, not on the inside like here.
The wheel and tire combination I got are used by a lot of people on this thread but I haven't seen others having this rubbing issue. my vehiclke is only lowered about 1" which is much less than most, and I would expect the full bottomed out suspension travel to be the same whether lowered or not - th elowering links only change the feedback to the sensors, not the the phyical suspension travel and therefore ability to raise higher in the wheel well.

benbods

I am 100% certain it is your alignment issue. However, if you want the best tire life I would suggest getting aftermarket camber arms since I don't think the stock ones are adjustable for camber. They can get your toe in spec with the factory ones and it will help out a lot but you may still get some camber wear depending on what your settings are at. If you want to get back within factory spec, look into aftermarket camber arms and then get your alignment.

Another alternative is to only get the toe in spec with an alignment and flip your tires once in a while to get more even wear on the tires. Again, how often will depend on your camber settings but I would just take a look at your (new) tires maybe after 5-8k miles and see how your tires are wearing. If you notice the inside wearing faster, flip them. If not, continue and check again after a few thousand miles.

EDIT: You don't need to go to the dealership for an alignment. Any competent shop with an alignment rack should be fine. Just make sure that since you're lowered and have aftermarket rims that the place you bring it too won't scratch up the rims and have a ramp low enough for your car to clear.

ElanMike

I'm taking the car to the dealer tomorrow for alignment - $60! I thought that was pretty good for an alignment.
The dealer said they have kits to enable the camber adjustment if it goes beyond a certain limit but they want $80 per corner! As I've got adjustable lowering links, i told them to adjust up if needed to avoid the $320! Apparently it can be lowered a certain amount without needed additional adjusters.

benbods

Yes, you can lower the car a certain amount and still be within factory spec in terms of negative camber. It's not much though, if you're happy with the ride height then it's all good. If you ever want to go lower again, you'll need those adjustable arms. 320 is a bit steep though, I would look into other alternatives.