Tire Rubbing

["Benjamin Piecuch" <bpiecuch@hotmail.com>]

Hi all,

     I have a '98 GLX with a Bilstein Sport, H&R Spring Setup.  The car was 
lowered about 1.4 inches all around.  I'm running the stock rim size with a 
stock size tire (Toyo Proxies.)  I rotate my tires every 10k, and on my last 
rotation I noticed a SEVERE wear groove on the inside of my front left tire. 
  I checked out the other three and found the same groove being formed, but 
no where near the severity of the left front.  With the car up on stands, I 
poked all around the wheel wells and found nothing.  No wear on the shock, 
no wear anywhere in the well.  I'm totally stumped as to what is causing 
this.

     Recently, I was running the tires at 30psi because my girlfriend 
thought the ride was too rough at higher pressure.  This caused a little 
excess wear on the outside of the tire that looked like normal tire wear.  
This inside groove is probably 1/2" by 1/2" on the inside, and is definitely 
not normal.  The sidewall is in perfect condition, yet this groove is right 
above it.

     Anyone have any idea what could be causing this?  The tires have about 
two years (w/o winters) on them.  With my driving, that's about 35k miles.  
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

    For what it's worth, I swap out winter tires when the snow hits.  These 
are 195-15-60's, and I haven't seen anything problem with them.  TIA.


               Ben Piecuch