Odd Wear on Passenger Front Tire
 

It seems I've caught this in the early stages....I'm just not sure what it is yet. I got an alignment less than a month ago, both fronts were -3.8 camber and 0 toe. Rears were -3.1 and -3.2 with 0 toe (leave me alone I still have stock rear arms) I plan to get the alignment checked when I can, but what does this seem like to you guys if not alignment?

I got a pic of the drivers side for reference and you can easily see theres a straight wear line down the tire. The passenger side kind of "zig zags".

Is this on the inside edge of the tires? You do realize that negative camber will cause the inside edge to wear more rapidly, right?

Yes, it is the inside edge. However, the camber matches side to side. That doesn't answer the question as to why one side is getting funky wear and the other is wearing perfectly straight. If the camber were the issue would the wear not be the same on both sides?

Sorry, I think I misunderstood your question. I thought you were asking why the inside edge was wearing faster than the rest of the tread on the tire. If you're talking about the wear patterns side to side, I'm not entirely sure on the answer but the fact that it is a /shifting/ wear pattern makes me think you could have either a failing wheel bearing or ball joint, or alternatively that you have some loosening/moving bolts that should be torqued down. The position of the wear seems normal for the amount of camber you're running, but the fact it isn't in a straight line is concerning.


Have you lifted your car up and inspected your wheel bearings and checked the torque on your suspension bolts? Has the alignment changed when it's racked from the last printout you had?

I like the way you think I suspected wheel bearing, but everything I've learned about cars I've learned in my 3 year ownership of this car. Point being, I haven't had experience with wheel bearings because I haven't had one go bad yet. The alignment has not changed since my last trip to the rack. Everything is tight, and I can't seem to find much play in the wheel.

However, I've noticed more of that "wawawawa" noise that tires can make from the passenger corner. I jacked the car up on my lunch break today and that wheel has no free spin at all. It'll stop as soon as I take my hand off of it. I'm thinking the final test I can do would be to take the pads out and see if there's still resistance.

I would guess that either the wheel bearing on that wheel is all chewed up or more likely, the caliper is sticking.

I suggest you take your car to a front end/alignment shop and have them diagnose and fix it. Your learning experience can be had by asking them what was wrong and how did they fix it.


;)


humfrz

Not challenging you, but would a stuck caliper cause tire wear like that? I would imagine it would just create excess heat and perhaps cause the car to pull to a certain direction when braking, neither of which are currently symptoms.

Check toe, blame road crown and drive harder so you wear the outside edge instead of the inside edge of the tire.

:burnrubber:

The sticking caliper or chewed up bearing comment was addressing the condition where the wheel would not rotate freely.

As far as the uneven wear on the tire, that is most likely an alignment issue.

I realize that you said that the alignment was within specs, however my experience has been that it doesn't take much of a "hit" on the suspension to knock the front end out of alignment.

A good tire/alignment shop should be able to sort that out pretty quick.

OR, you could DIY with a length of board with two nails in it and a piece of string and a stick of chalk - :D


humfrz

This looks to me like absolutely nothing to worry about...

I don't know about you guys, but alignment shops seems to mess up on my car .. a Lot.

I've had 2 shops mess up on me consecutively (after 3 days alignments go out each time) until I took it into the dealerships and they finally had everything tightened down right.

I'm bringing it into a Tire Kingdom for a free check on Sunday. I rotated my tires yesterday to see how the car drives/sounds in the mean time.

Checked everything out last night. I cleaned and re greased the caliper pins and recompressed the pistons for good measure. Went for a 20 minute test drive, came back, jacked the car up and the wheel spins freely.

After resolving the issue with a stuck caliper, do you think this will resolve your wear issue? Was the stuck caliper on the same location as the tire that was wearing oddly?