Uneven Tread Wear?

AMilbut · Post by **AMilbut** » Mon Jul 07, 2008 5:26 pm

I took my car to the shop today because I had noticed some uneven tire wear on both of my front tires, mostly all of my wear was going to the outside of both of them. I found this kind of odd considering I just had my car to this shop about 4,000 miles ago, had my front tires replaced and moved to the rear, and had my rear tires moved to the front. I also had a camber kit put on and installed, as I had recently lowered the car.

The guy at the shop looked at my front tires and said there is definately uneven wear, but he says that because the tires that are on the front now with uneven wear were once previously on the rear when the camber was all jacked up from having it lowered, that that is the cause, and that once a tire has established a wear pattern it will remain as such no matter how good of an alignment.

Now I think this first off is BS because the tires don't even have 7,000 miles on them, and only had about 3,000 on them when I moved them from the rear. Not to mention they were only on my car with the horrible camber for about 1,000 miles at the VERY VERY most. (The tires still have those little rubber hair thingies that new tires have on the heel.)

Is this guy feeding me BS? I find it hard to believe that once a tire has established a bad tread wear that it will wear that way for the rest of it's life. Geometrically it doesn't make sense to me. If you rub something on the outside until it is shaven down a bit, but tilt it back up so it's on it's point the point would wear and the rest of the tire would eventually "catch up"?

Am I crazy here or what, or have they screwed up my camber on the front when they installed the kit?

Swordfish2Cowboy · Post by **Swordfish2Cowboy** » Mon Jul 07, 2008 6:57 pm

Well it all depends on how much of the surface of the tire is actually touching the road. You've gotta remember that the rubber is going to flex and bend around some, so parts of the sides of the tires will be touching the ground unless you overinflate, which brings about its own set of problems.

Wenuden · Post by **Wenuden** » Mon Jul 07, 2008 7:24 pm

sounds like an underinflation issue to me, but I'm not a pro.

AMilbut · Post by **AMilbut** » Mon Jul 07, 2008 9:11 pm

The problem is not underinflation. I checked the tires PSI and they are correct. I don't recall the exact number, but I remember they were accurate.

This does not explain the wear pattern on my tire. To have the toes of my tires going bald, and the heel and main face of the tire basically unscathed does not seem right to me.

Also wouldn't underinflation show not just on the outside, but on the inside as well, and leave sort of an M wear pattern in the tire with the portion on just each side of where my rim wings are worn in excess?

thttxboy · Post by **thttxboy** » Mon Jul 07, 2008 11:11 pm

well his statement is true once a tire starts a certain wear pattern it will continue for the rest of the tires life the only thing u can do with a good alignment is slow down the wear. i learned that in alignment class (i take shop classes) but i have a question about this. u said u had bad camber due to lowering and u had that corrected with a camber kit and u moved the rear tires foward. now did u have the tires crossed ? meaning right rear to left front or are they directional? if its wat im thinking they crossed the tires and the alignment is fine but since they had wear already when u make turns or even drive fast u can make them wear down faster since they already had a head start itll show alot faster. oh and underinflation shows on the out side and inside walls but u would have a pull to the side that has the worst underinflation. and just beacuse u only had the camber for 1000 miles doesnt mean it didnt do that much wear. with camber the weight of the vehicle causes tires to wear alot faster, ur tires are at a angle so causes them to wear down on a specific side instead of the entire tire.