[JW16]

I'm having an ongoing issue with my HAH Touring and rear tire wear along the insides of the tires. The tires that came with the car wore on the inside so quickly that I ended up replacing the entire set with a new set of Goodyear Z rated performance tires. Excellent tires with great handling, low noise, etc. After experiencing some louder than usual road noise on a lengthy trip recently, I took the vehicle back to the Goodyear where I got the tires and I'll be damned if the exact same thing wasn't happening on the inside of the rear tires again. I had the tires rotated and rebalance in the spring and had them perform an alignment which made everything exactly as it should have been. I reached out to my local Honda dealer to explain the situation in which they had me bring the car in right away and put it on their alignment rack. The alignment was again perfect according to Honda specs. Side note, I do not carry passengers, nor do I carry anything in the trunk area of this car. 99% of its life has been me only.

Unfortunately, there's no camber / caster adjustments in the upper a-arm or lower control rod in the rear of a Honda Accord. So whatever it comes from the factory as far as camber / caster is what you get.

The service manager who had a long history of dealing with alignments, tires etc had mentioned that he has never had an Accord issue where the inner part of the rears were wearing at such a high rate. He speculated that the Honda engineers did not take into account the noticeably heavy battery and equipment that's sitting under the rear seat area when it came to figuring in the final caster/camber settings for the rear.

Has any other HAH owners in here notice the same issue? If so, how did you fix the problem? It seems to me that the only option is to purchase expensive adjustable upper a arms from aftermarket sources to make it adjustable going forward which I am not willing to spend that kind of money. But in retrospect, I also can't fathom spending even more money on new tires.

Thoughts?

 

[jackpine]

I'm having no wear issues in my 2019 Touring Hybrid. From your discussion, it sounds like the factory setup was faulty. I would think Honda should be responsible for a manufacturing defect like that.

- Jack

 

[zeng]

The faulty part between the two above is not the hardware parts that comes with very tight dimensional tolerances of say, ±0.05 mm.

Imho, the faulty part is the software 'part' whose wide and loose alignment tolerances are say, ±1°00' camber and ±0°15' or so of toe.

The alignment was again perfect according to Honda specs.

I've a hunch this statement/interpretation is the culprit, in the absence of specific details in #s.

Mind sharing the alignment screenshot?

 

[Hunter Mike]

What’s the tire rotation interval?

Perhaps you just need to enjoy going around corners more. What’s your location?

Here‘s my alignment today with out of spec negative camber but I have no tire wear issues rotating every 5k

 

[C0mm4nder]

I have the same issue, NON hybrid owner here, its hondas fault, those loosers designed a part non adjustable, now even my car is under warranty (less then 2 years old)my 1 tire set is almost gone, As you suggested buying an aftermarket part is the best fix but i dont wanna spend 1000+ bucks on parts and labour because honda messed it up and not owning up. I am still monitoring them and i will go to the customer beauro if honda didn't helped me on this.

 

[JW16]

An update to the situation. I just had my tires rotated yesterday at 1700 miles. Goodyear is telling me that they're already seeing signs of where on the rear inside of the new tires. This after having the vehicle put on Honda's alignment machine just last month and being told that the it is in perfect alignment according to Honda spec.

I can't hardly believe that Honda can't figure out a way to fix this.

 

[C0mm4nder]

If they told you its wintin honda spec, can you post that before/after alignment page here please.

 

[stephens.randye]

I have a 2018 Honda Accord touring. The original tires started cupping at 12,000 miles, they had been rotated by the dealer at every oil change, 7,000 miles and I was given a report each time showing it was properly aligned. The dealer told me it was bad tires and offered nothing to help. Their words "you should contact the tire manufacturer." I did and ended up paying to have the tires replaced at 20,000 miles. At 50,000 miles they started cupping, again after the dealer had done the oil changes and rotations and checked the alignment at each 7,000 mile service. At 67,000 miles the roar was too much so I returned to the dealer. This time the dealer showed me a report on alignment that indicated the rear was out of alignment. This report was different, everything was shown in mm, where as all the prior reports were in cm. I had an independent third party check the alignment on the rear and it tested "in correct" alignment. He explained it appears to be a design flaw in the Accord, the Camber on the rear is somewhat like German made cars in that the tires mount on a slight slant, there is no way to adjust this camber, so cupping will happen as long as I have this car. I am reaching out to Honda corporate.

 

[Dw190273]

I have a 2018 Honda Accord touring. The original tires started cupping at 12,000 miles, they had been rotated by the dealer at every oil change, 7,000 miles and I was given a report each time showing it was properly aligned. The dealer told me it was bad tires and offered nothing to help. Their words "you should contact the tire manufacturer." I did and ended up paying to have the tires replaced at 20,000 miles. At 50,000 miles they started cupping, again after the dealer had done the oil changes and rotations and checked the alignment at each 7,000 mile service. At 67,000 miles the roar was too much so I returned to the dealer. This time the dealer showed me a report on alignment that indicated the rear was out of alignment. This report was different, everything was shown in mm, where as all the prior reports were in cm. I had an independent third party check the alignment on the rear and it tested "in correct" alignment. He explained it appears to be a design flaw in the Accord, the Camber on the rear is somewhat like German made cars in that the tires mount on a slight slant, there is no way to adjust this camber, so cupping will happen as long as I have this car. I am reaching out to Honda corporate.

I'm going through the same situation with my 22 accord. 3rd set of tires 46K. 90% Straight line interstate driving. Rear insides cupped all to hell like clockwork.

Please let me know what corporate says.

I called my honda dealer where I purchased the car and he told me because I don't have a maintenance history with them he can't really diagnose or help me.

Mike

 

[JW16]

Update to my update.

Talk to Honda directly in which they sent me an email to fill out of the exact problem, how many times a problem has happened, mileage, wear, and to attached photos.

After waiting for 2 weeks, remarkably I received a phone call from a representative from Honda. They told me that That's the way the car is designed and they're not going to assist in any way shape or form of installing aftermarket equipment or covering the labor cost. If I wanted anything done, I have to do it on my own dime.

Asked for a supervisor, went to the entire process a second time, and was told the same answer. It's pretty clear to me after reading the complaints on this website as well as multiple others, they know damn well that they have a problem but they don't want to pay to fix it. It reminds me of the same bullshit that GM does.

So for now, I will start rotating my tires every 2000 miles like clockwork, and when it comes time to buy another car, I can guarantee you it sure won't be anything from Honda.

I can't begin to tell you how disappointed I am after hearing for decades the quality that Honda motor company supposedly has.

 

[zeng]

I'm going through the same situation with my 22 accord. 3rd set of tires 46K. 90% Straight line interstate driving. Rear insides cupped all to hell like clockwork.

Please let me know what corporate says.

I called my honda dealer where I purchased the car and he told me because I don't have a maintenance history with them he can't really diagnose or help me.

Mike

Have a wheel alignment checked and appropriate adjustment made by an outside competent alignment tech as compliance with oem specification range doesn't mean anything in pre-empting issues of cupping and accelerated tire wear.

 

[JW16]

Have a wheel alignment checked and appropriate adjustment made by an outside competent alignment tech as compliance with oem specification range doesn't mean anything in pre-empting issues of cupping and accelerated tire wear.

Already did. Two different third party shops verified that there's not enough adjustment in the rear to correct the problem. Even the service Manager for the Honda dealership I took the car to said the same thing.

 

[JW16]

Update to the update to the update:

Just rotated my tires after 2,800 miles because the tires are starting to get loud again. The tire folks had the car up in the air and had me come look at the tires. The 2 rear and right front tires are starting to show signs of cupping along the inside of the tread, causing the tires to be very loud and I can feel a slight vibration in the steering wheel. Ironically enough the driver's side front tire is wearing perfectly.

I'm at the end of my rope with this car. There is nothing that can be done to fix this problem. Phone calls to two more Honda dealership says resulted in the same response of nothing being wrong with the alignment but the tires need to be rotated more. What exactly do they expect me to do? Rotate these tires after a thousand miles every time??

 

[Mr.Cannon]

How many people are usually in the car when you drive? Tire cupping is usually due to tire pressure, struts failing, or poorly balanced tires and having a full car can exasperate the issue. If it were strictly alignment excluding the aforementioned issues you should have excessive but even wear and no cupping.

Can you post your spec sheet(s) for your prior alignment?

 

[JW16]

.

 

[JW16]

How many people are usually in the car when you drive? Tire cupping is usually due to tire pressure, struts failing, or poorly balanced tires and having a full car can exasperate the issue. If it were strictly alignment excluding the aforementioned issues you should have excessive but even wear and no cupping.

Can you post your spec sheet(s) for your prior alignment?

95% of the life of this car is just me in it. I do not carry passengers, I do not have anything in the trunk or back seat at any time. According to Honda alignment is within normal specifications. Air pressure for all four tires are perfect as I do check them at least three times a week. The problem always has been and always will be is unnecessary amount of force being put on the inside of the rear tires causing premature wear and cupping, to which Honda has no repair for other than buying aftermarket parts and paying them to put them on.

 

[Mr.Cannon]

So we're back to failed/failing struts, tire balancing, and maybe failed/failing bushings (not likely). I would think each of those possibilities are pretty noticeable at any speed and given that one reply said they noticed cupping at 12k miles then maybe it makes sense to get rear camber arms and seeing if adjusting + 1° resolves the issue.

Tires aren't out of the question either and I personally had a set of factory tires later recalled because they couldn't be balanced and bounced all over the place.

Beyond that I'm out of ideas.

 

[JW16]

So we're back to failed/failing struts, tire balancing, and maybe failed/failing bushings (not likely). I would think each of those possibilities are pretty noticeable at any speed and given that one reply said they noticed cupping at 12k miles then maybe it makes sense to get rear camber arms and seeing if adjusting + 1° resolves the issue.

Tires aren't out of the question either and I personally had a set of factory tires later recalled because they couldn't be balanced and bounced all over the place.

Beyond that I'm out of ideas.

Tires are balanced and rotated every 3-4 000 mi. Honda tech reports struts are in excellent condition with no leaks. The fix would be to buy aftermarket upper a arms for the rear to allow for the camber to be corrected. Problem is between parts and labor it is a $1,500 fix, in which Honda is unwilling to cover the cost of the labor even when I offered to pay for the parts.

I find it very hard to believe that I am the only person on this planet who has a Honda Accord who has this issue.

 

[JW16]

Update to the update to the update to the update.

I emailed Honda customer care again. Went through everything with them again. According to the man I spoke to, they are offering me a monetary settlement for me to fix this problem using aftermarket parts. I am very skeptical at this point with Honda so I'm going to proceed with great caution. Since there are no options for me in this scenario other than buying new tires every two years, I am going to pay for these new adjustable upper control arms and hope for the best. The work to swap out the OEM ones for the new ones is minimal and will be done shortly. This should put an end to the problem and hopefully Honda will pass what I've done along to their engineers and get a fix.

 

[paintmann111]

Had the same issue as you, but I carry a bunch of stuff in my car. Set tire pressure to 40psi and it helped with the inside tire wear. I have 214k on my 2018 accord. I get about 50k-60k to a set of tires doing it that way (Michelin cross climate’s). The easy fix and what you should have done from the beginning is just buy adjustable upper control arms. Shop could have installed in an hour and your problem would have been solved. Accords have had this issue forever, it’s just more noticeable on the hybrids due to the extra battery weight. Also funny enough the cross climates have a slightly higher load rating which I think also helps with tire wear compared to the factory Michelins.
If you keep having cupping after the adjustable arms you have bad rear shocks.