Tyre wear on inside edge.

[Noesph]

Right, The car was serviced yesterday and it's been noticed that the inside edge of the passenger side front wheel is wearing down quite fast (the tyres are about a year and a half / 6k or 7k miles old).

The rest of tyres the wearing normally,say 5 mm groove depth across the tyre, while this wheel is 5 to 6 mm groove depth until it hits the last 4 or 5 cm or so across its diameter, where it down to say 3mm depth and visually more worn than the rest of the tyre (a more rough grainy texture and matt colour). It seems only one wheel is toe out.

So if you imagine the car from the front, the tyres wear is sort of like if one wheel is toe out like this



Now since I've had the car, on a smooth road, radio off etc I could all ways hear a rumble, sort of like a wheel bearing noise. The rear wheel bearings were changed (it sounded like it was coming from the back, but its hard to place.) and made no difference to this rumbling noise. No garage could ever find out what it is.

Sort of like the noise on this video, but a lot quieter. Like I said on a rough road, in town, radio on you can't hear it. I need a smooth road, low rpm, radio off to hear it.

[youtube]46F07Qx0EoI[/youtube]

This time the garage thinks of could be a worn top mount on the passenger side causing the tyre wear and rumble (but there is no knocking noise), but after a year and a half, doing work and replacing parts the car most likely didn't need and plenty of my £££ to find the problem, I wondered if there are any ideas on here before I throw more money at the car.

 

[Liquidyellow]

Both my Twîngo RS have had this issue- inside edge of passenger tyre . My first ever set of tyres did 7k. After about 3 years I found a solution that now gets me 14k.

Ready for this. Simple, I stopped throwing her into roundabouts. ;-)

 

[singlespeed]

^^^ is that toe out that your talking about, as your diagram would be showing a difference in camber, when viewed from the front with the road below.

Ideally your tyres would sit square to the road, so theres maximum contact patch. However cars lean over when cornering and bushes etc flex when under load.

Most cars will have some negative camber so the cornering force leans onto the tyre and brings it more vertical whilst cornering. Its a compromise between unduly wearing the inside edge and reduced grip whilst going straight, Vs grip whilst cornering. Worn topmount, worn lower arm bushes or wheel bearings etc can cause an increase in camber on one side.

Toe angle ( angle from straight ahead when viewed from above). Most FWD cars have slight toe out when stationary, to compensate for the flex in bushes when driving. This ends up with the tyres pointing forwards when driving straight, so theres no (verrry little) side slip skidding of the tyres. Incorrect tracking can leave the tyres skidding sidewards and it doesnt take much to scuff the inside edge down. This could be from pothole damage or slack/play in the steering components or worn bushes etc as mentioned above.

 

[Noesph]

I mean a difference in camber then.

Throwing into roundabouts is too much fun to give up :lol:

Anyway, I noticed today after the garage wiggled the suspension about, the top rubber bush / nut thing (the bit you see when you open the bonnet) is sitting higher than usual. Instead of flat to the body, its sitting a few mm up in the air. :?

 

[Spitfire1]

I mean a difference in camber then.

Throwing into roundabouts is too much fun to give up :lol:

Anyway, I noticed today after the garage wiggled the suspension about, the top rubber bush / nut thing (the bit you see when you open the bonnet) is sitting higher than usual. Instead of flat to the body, its sitting a few mm up in the air. :?

Yes those bushes are pretty sh***t, you need to go over to solid ones and remove those bushes from hell. I wouldn't bother with camber bolts as your bottom wishbone bushes are just as bad and will cause your camber to go all over the place - in general OK design for French roads but not much use when you want to give it some beans. :shock: :shock: :lol: :lol:

PS - I forgot to say I run 2 Deg negative camber on the front, done about 8,000 miles now and the tyres are as good as the day I put them on.

Rob.