Odd bald spot on tire

My wife's van had been pulling almost since day one. I fought with the local dealership to no avail. The I noticed we had a tire with a round spot that was bald. Didn't go all the way around, or across. Took it to a different dealership, and they said a broken belt. Was going to fight paying for it, but all four tires needed to be changed, so decided it wasn't worth fighting and getting all worked up about.

Then the other day I was walking by, and I noticed it is starting again. The only thing I can think of is something is bent. It's on the rear. Any ideas?

 

Bent axle or rim? Follow while your wife is driving the van and watch it.

 

Assuming you rotated the tires, I would guess the problem lies on the wheel/tire itself. If it were part of the suspension, it would correct itself when you rotated the tires.

 

I hadn't rotated the tires on the van yet when I found it. On the previous set, we had done a tonne of driving without rotating the tires (kept forgetting, because on the car I had, I just switched the wheels with the seasons, and since they were directional, I'd just switch front with back). It's front wheel drive, so there's no axle on the back. Just trying to determine what to look at to see if it's bent. I put on air bags a while ago, and there was nothing obvious.

Any easy way to check for a bent wheel? I guess the only way is to lift it and spin, then put it on a different corner and repeat. I suppose there is the possibility that the same wheel is on the same corner as the previous set of tires.

 

Sometimes if you brake hard enough to make your vehicle go into a skid, it will leave a small bald patch on the tires which did the skidding. It's caused when the wheels are completely locked and the same patch of the tire is skidding across the roadway surface.

That could be the cause.

 

Not in this case...first tire was getting progressively worse until I changed it, and now this tire has the exact same spot. And it doesn't go all the way across the tread.

 

He mentioned fighting with the dealership so I'm guessing it's relatively new...most cars on the road these days have ABS which acts to eliminate a locked up wheel skid during heavy braking.