[Non SE-R] What is wrong with this tire?

[Mark Holden]

I've combined several resonses together below, so the
parts I'm quoting come from different people.

>> http://www.vectorworld.com/~mark/tire.html
>> This is a tire off of my girlfriend's Volvo, and we're
>> trying to figure out what's up with it.

>any chance she kissed the curb and rubbed the sidewall?

Half yes.  She did hit a curb with this tire not too long ago,
but if you look at the picture, the sidewall on both the inner
and outer parts of the tire are both wearing like this.  This
is not from rubbing the sidewall on the curb.  It could well
be damage caused by that incident that is causing this problem,
but what kind of damage?

>hitting the curb can ruin your alignment, causes your toe to
>be off, giving you that vibration when you brake?

Braking or simply letting off the gas.  Could toe cause that
goofy wear pattern on both sides of the tire tho?  And the
steering feels good in the car.  No pulling or oddness.  And
the passenger side tire looks normal.

>Hmmm...it looks like the tire was either driven while
>underinflated or some severe loads (hard cornering) took
>place on the tire.

Nope, neither is the case, tire has been properly inflated,
and hasn't been driven hard.  The passenger side tire looks
perfectly normal too.

Keep the ideas coming guys.  I'm just trying to make sure
that when the dealer fixes it that we aren't going to see
the problem come right back.

-Mark Holden
'93 Classic