SERIOUS FRONT TYRE WEAR

[James Edwards]

Just come back from a 500 mile trip & found that the outer edge of passenger side front tyre so worn that the canvas is showing in places!!!!! The very worn area is right around the tyre but is only an inch or so wide. Inside edge of that tyre has quite good tread. Other front wheel on drivers side showing wear on outer side. (Rear tyres ok)
Wheel has not been kerbed as far as I know but car has done 145K - I think that perhaps bushes or other componets etc are likely to be worn and need replacing. What should I look for??
Obviously first action is to get new tyres - anyone know a place which has laser tracking system in S E London/Thurrock area or in Kent?
Any advice greatly appreciated.
Thanks
J

 

[Francois]

The most common cause for his problem is wheel allignment. Have this looked at and if that is not the problem then there might be some other reasons, like a skew chassis, worn control arm bushes etc.

 

[TimN]

If you have worn bushes then you may just be wasting your money getting the tracking checked. To have such severe wear then you have either a problem with you toe or camber alignment. It is a bit academic as if one goes out it will affect the other. I would suggest having a look under the vehicle and testing all the bushes. You've probably seen the MOT inspector checking the bushes with his prising bar. Look for other clues such as cracks and shiny rubber. The camber is probably altered by releasing som concentric washers and rotating them. Have a look and see if the washers have rotated all the way to a maximum adjustment in one direction.

Finally you can check camber yourself. Park the car on a nice flat floor. Go backwards and forwards a couple of times to make sure the car is well settled. A warehouse floor is the best if you can get access to one. Then you will need to take a board and draw a large right angled triangle on it. Using a bit of school maths mark graduations along the hypotenous for each degree. Attach a pendulum to the base of the adjacent side and offer it to the wheel. Read off the position of the pendulum against the hypotenous and compare with the specification.

I have one which I prepared earlier which I can fax you (If I can find it) You will have to make sure that it is not influenced by the tyre or hub.

Generally toe will affect both front tyre, camber mainly the one.

 

[oggers]

Toe in/out not tracking. Easy garage job

 

[James Edwards]

Severe front tyre wear

Thanks for your replies.
What worries me is that whilst I noticed the wear before - it seemed that the severe wear took place last weekend when I went to the continent & did quite high speeds (80/90mph) and that the wear has taken place only at the very narrow band on the outside edge! It is quite off putting to see the white threads showing!!!
Tyres are 205/55 - 16 Michelin Pilot Sport - Rear tyres are fine.
Thanks
James
98' 250TD Sport

 

[Barnie]

FRONT TYRE WEAR

Hi J E
I HAD SIMILAR PROBLEM WITH MY MB200\124 about two years ago , I used a local garage hoist to enable me to check all steering joints whilst an assistant rocked the steering wheel( this action loads the joints & shows up any free lateral movement present in that joint), I found a very slight movement in the "offside track rod outer ball joint" the amount was not enough to fail the M O T but was enough to cause very serious tyre wear in a very short time.
Replacing the b|J with a genuine MB part sorted the problem,
NOTE that is the only ball joint I have had to replace on this car.165,000 miles ,cant be bad ,Eh?
Regards, Barnie

 

[sunil sood]

Just come back from a 500 mile trip & found that the outer edge of passenger side front tyre so worn that the canvas is

.

i have this exact same problem with the outer edges of both tyres but much worse on the front passenger side.

some years back,i had the tracking check done by a tyre shop who have a computerised machine-all was fine-so it has got to be ball joint causing the problem