Any way to fix this on a tire? Quite a different problem...

[ssmith96]

I was helping a friend do a deep clean and seal on his wheels before the winter, after we were done with the wheels I went to clean and dress the tire when I noticed this:

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/661/22702867614_7daa41169b_z.jpg

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/734/22702866624_95a8647839_z.jpg


This one shows you a half and half
https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/578/23248647861_6dbc1264b2_z.jpg

Basically the tires are sort of scored, it seems, he said this might be from when he was trying to clean them with a brush to get dirt off.

The scoring causes the tire dressing not to lay flat and look kinda weird. In the third pic you can see the difference between the scored and not scored rubber, it definitely does not look good.

Any one have any ideas on how to fix this? I was thinking something involving heat... but not sure if that was a good idea.


Obviously if it comes to buying new tires we'll just forget about it but I wanted to see if there was any tricks I could try for him first.

Thanks and Happy Thanksgiving!

[David Hayward]

What kind of brush did he use? Was it one of those metal bristle brushes?

[GSKR]

Looks like curb rash is this on all four tires.I highly doubt it's from scrubbing the tire,other than curb rash looks like a tire defect or dry rot and nothing will fix that.

[ssmith96]

Just spoke with him. It was a brush with what appeared to be hard plastic brittles. He was scrubbing them pretty hard with soapy Water
In a not very well informed attempt to clean the tires.

Definitely not rash or dry rot. Wheels are in perfect condition no rash and the tires are less than a year old.

[GSKR]

If you have some sort of warranty I would bring them back.

[GSKR]

Sometimes low on air or driving with a flat will cause distortion like that.

[David Hayward]

I mean he has a 50/50 of scrubbed un scrubbed. It's probably not a flaw in the tires since based on what I'm reading it didn't show up until he scrubbed it. It looked to me like bristle marks but it doesn't seem likely unless he used something like metal bristles from something similar to a grill cleaning brush.

[David Hayward]

Going to toss this out there, maybe try a softer brush and soak the tire in apc or wheel cleaner. Maybe it's just a thick buildup of grime that he has just used tire dressing right over without cleaning the tires prior and his brush cut into that but couldn't remove it.

[ssmith96]

I'm gonna try to see if he can find the damn brush he used so I can get a pic. This is def not a tire defect, its only on the 2 wheels he tried to clean, so its pretty safe to assume that was the issue. Maybe a rubber conditioner like gummi pflege will help, or heating it and letting the rubber get slightly hot enough to let that rubber "settle back in" if you will, just would want to make sure thats safe.

[GSKR]

Nothing will fix that those are deep and back in the day we used wire brushes to clean raised lettering and never scorched a tire like that.

[ssmith96]

That sucks.

[David Hayward]

Nothing will fix that those are deep and back in the day we used wire brushes to clean raised lettering and never scorched a tire like that.


Tires come in much softer compounds these days too though. Something summer only is so soft I wouldn't doubt that an aggressive brush could scuff it up.

[TRDTACO]

Looks like an old layer of tire dressing or tire coating that hasnt been completely removed, id try a different tire cleaner and keep scrubbing maybe even an sos pad to cut through the layer of dressing or coating thats built up on there.

[DaveT435]

It's only on 2 tires, and it's not all the way around the tire?? Don't use heat to try to fix this. You would probably end up with a much worse problem than you have now. If it were all the way around the tire I would have to agree with whoever said they were run low on sir. If it's only half way around the tire then it's definitely the brush. It's definitely not a defect.

[Rob4092xx]

It will go away as the car is driven and the tires heat up then cool. The rubber material will outgass and the marks will slowly disappear.