Uneven wear on front tyres

[John Laidlaw]

Hi all, just had my E300 Bluetec Hybrid W212 (AMG sport) serviced for its first anniversary.
I was a bit surprised to have reported that that the front tyres had uneven wear, specifically both fronts had worn 1mm more inside than outside. In itself that wasn't too surprising, what was surprising was the explanation from MB, that the tyre pressures had caused this, and to 'keep a watch on them'- surely this wear is more indicative of too much negative camber in the cars set up?

 

[television]

You are right and not a tyre pressure issue

 

[C350Carl]

I would say too much negative camber. For it to be tyre pressure it would have to be worn in the centre for over inflation or worn on BOTH edges for under inflation.

Either that or you do a lot of cornering both left and right at the same time

 

[denchen]

My C200 was scrubbing the outside of the fronts when I bought it, too much toe in. Anyway I took it around to the local tyre company I always use, their lazer system soon showed up the problem and was adjusted, it also shows the cambers were within the right tolerance. 20 pounds well spent and worth ever penny.

 

[oldmedic999]

I had modified camber bolts fitted.They are an item Mercedes can supply. get tracking done at same time. That sorted out my tyre were a treat. Best of luck.

 

[turbopete]

outer edges, i would expect to wear a little harder on the front tyres. inner ones is DEFINITELY a tracking/camber issue

 

[television]

With a tracking fault this always leaves a feathered upstanding edge on one side of the tread as when the tracking is out the tryes scrub the tread off.

 

[oigle]

It is actually quite important to balance the amount of negative camber (they all have some) with the amount of toe-in. The more neg camber, the more toe-in you need. Getting neg down to around 1° is ideal with around 3 to 4mm toe-in, depending on vehicle - different steering setups.

 

[survey]

The outside edge of my front nearside tyre is completely worn with the remainder showing an even depth of approx 3 to 3.5mm. The offside tyre is wearing on its inner edge. These are Continentals and have covered 30,000 miles. I pointed this out to my dealer who tells me that this wear is normal with all E and C Class platforms. However I am not so sure. As a new set of tyres is on the horizon, I just wonder if my tracking needs checking and I assume this isn't covered by the car's warranty although I had mentioned this uneven wear to my supplying dealer early o in the car's life.

 

[television]

The outside edge of my front nearside tyre is completely worn with the remainder showing an even depth of approx 3 to 3.5mm. The offside tyre is wearing on its inner edge. These are Continentals and have covered 30,000 miles. I pointed this out to my dealer who tells me that this wear is normal with all E and C Class platforms. However I am not so sure. As a new set of tyres is on the horizon, I just wonder if my tracking needs checking and I assume this isn't covered by the car's warranty although I had mentioned this uneven wear to my supplying dealer early o in the car's life.

The camber is too far out with that much wear and makes it very expensive on tyres. It is wrong as it is.

 

[hairyg]

IMHO it is always worth getting the tracking checked if there is any uneven tyre wear. Quite apart from the cost of tyres, incorrect tracking will increase fuel consumption and reduce grip in wet/icy conditions.

My local tyre specialist charges £15 a wheel (£60 for all 4 wheels) and does free re-checks after 5000 miles. I saved that on one set of tyres lasting 20% longer

 

[television]

Tracking stops tread from being scrubbed off, usually across the whole width of the tyre, where as camber is for uneven wear from the inside to the outside of the car, with perfect camber the wear would or should be equal on both sides.

 

[survey]

IMHO it is always worth getting the tracking checked if there is any uneven tyre wear. Quite apart from the cost of tyres, incorrect tracking will increase fuel consumption and reduce grip in wet/icy conditions.

My local tyre specialist charges £15 a wheel (£60 for all 4 wheels) and does free re-checks after 5000 miles. I saved that on one set of tyres lasting 20% longer

My tyre dealer has just tested for alignment (free as I do buy tyres from them) and found it to be within MB tolerances. They also think that the camber adjustment is probably OK and teh wear may well be due to road camber, roundabouts etc. MB want £110 (plus VAT no doubt) for a full check but say they can't do it with worn tyres on the front and didn't like my suggestion that they could take a pair of wheels from another car for the purposes of the camber check.

 

[television]

My tyre dealer has just tested for alignment (free as I do buy tyres from them) and found it to be within MB tolerances. They also think that the camber adjustment is probably OK and teh wear may well be due to road camber, roundabouts etc. MB want £110 (plus VAT no doubt) for a full check but say they can't do it with worn tyres on the front and didn't like my suggestion that they could take a pair of wheels from another car for the purposes of the camber check.

Good point on the camber, as if the tyre are badly worn then impossible to set up though I understand that mercedes have the jigs to set the camber, but I do not know how these jigs work.

You could ask an up to date Kwik fit outfit if they can do the camber, those that have the Hunter set up should be able too and their charges are very low for doing this, they cannot cheat as you see it being done on the screen, but again good tyres needed.

 

[oigle]

My tyre dealer has just tested for alignment (free as I do buy tyres from them) and found it to be within MB tolerances. They also think that the camber adjustment is probably OK and teh wear may well be due to road camber, roundabouts etc. MB want £110 (plus VAT no doubt) for a full check but say they can't do it with worn tyres on the front and didn't like my suggestion that they could take a pair of wheels from another car for the purposes of the camber check.

The term "within MB tolerances" is where it all goes wrong. You need to go to someone like WIM and get it done accurately - not just within tolerances. A little more neg camber on the passenger side is always good to counteract road camber and roundabouts. WIM would set that up properly. A properly done job works wonders.

 

[C350Carl]

I've used WiM in the past after using a few other places that "knew what they were doing"! It was the best £100 I ever spent on any of my cars. The car had never ever felt so good on the road as it did after I drove out of WiM. I'll be going there in the near future with the Merc to counter the constant pulling to the left and to get the wheels balanced properly.

 

[survey]

The outside edge of my front nearside tyre is completely worn with the remainder showing an even depth of approx 3 to 3.5mm. The offside tyre is wearing on its inner edge. These are Continentals and have covered 30,000 miles. I pointed this out to my dealer who tells me that this wear is normal with all E and C Class platforms. However I am not so sure. As a new set of tyres is on the horizon, I just wonder if my tracking needs checking and I assume this isn't covered by the car's warranty although I had mentioned this uneven wear to my supplying dealer early o in the car's life.

I have had the alignment re-checked and recently took the car to another MB dealer that I trust. A camber check was carried out and the car is apparently OK. Still doesn't explain why the front nearside tyre is worn on the outer edge and the offside tyre slightly more worn on the inside edge. The dealer says it is due to road camber, roundabouts etc., and the fact that these tyres have covered 30000 miles is remarkable; the wear showing is not unusual on MB's C & E Classes. The rest majority of these tyres still have 3-3.5mm on them and are indeed road legal. The other point is that 25% of the wear has been on continental roads so reverse road camber!

I am at a loss. Should I just accept the fact that 30000 miles is good and replace the tyres? Amazing that our other cars haven't had this problem!

 

[C350Carl]

30k miles is very good from a set of tyres. But it depends on driving style and road surfaces etc.

But for peace of mind I would visit WiM.

 

[Rory]

The term "within MB tolerances" is where it all goes wrong. You need to go to someone like WIM and get it done accurately - not just within tolerances. A little more neg camber on the passenger side is always good to counteract road camber and roundabouts. WIM would set that up properly. A properly done job works wonders.

MB said mine was fine so I took it to WIM some years ago and they said it was mostly pretty good but corrected the toe-in.

It still drifted (actually it's more like it gradually rolls on more lock) left.

More recently I had new tyres fitted and took it to a well recommended place in Liverpool. Again said it was very good, hardly worth adjusting but did slightly adjust the toe. The guy there reckoned with the angles my car was showing that, if anything, it should run to right.

It doesn't - it still rolls on left lock. They started talking about the steering angle sensor causing the ESR to activate the brake to pull the car left so I thought that was a good time to leave.

 

[television]

If the tyres are run at very high pressures, this will enable the car to wander more, and the same for 1 too low, it will pull to that side.