Front Tyre Wear

[Cotswold Pete]

Any ideas on what is causing odd wear on front tyres.

Been on the motor for about 14kmiles, and the photo shows about 2cm strip where tyre is scuffed bald. Good tyre photo is rear one fitted at same time, and it has plenty of life.

Tyres are Nexen N Blues. but this problem looks like suspension gear problem to me.

Had a full re-alignment done 30 months ago (after both front tie bars and Near Side rear suspension arm done), and had basic alignment done about 4 months ago.

Service in May 2017, was told UCAs looked good, but not had them done, and car is on 180K, and bought at 120K, my mechanic said he thought they may have been replaced before I got the car.

All ideas welcome.

Pete

[Tinonline]

Well 14k Miles is miles more than I get as I'm overdue lower control bar bushes.

My set up is spot on and yet I strip out the inside edges in no time. MOT did not unearth anything undue and the mechanic is very thorough and guides me on to do work.

Trouble is, my brake wear message came on with the familiar grind of shot brakes so that's the priority. At 84k miles I'm going to replace the discs too.

So I'm saying suspension is your issue with worn bushes: but what mileage should we expect from our tyres?

[steve2006]

Has the wheel alignment/tracking been checked recently?

[Tinonline]

Mine is spot on...

[Cotswold Pete]

2 hours ago, Tinonline said:

Mine is spot on...

Tracking spot on.

Just seems so odd that it is that really just that edge of the tyre that is wearing, when the rest of wear seems fine across the width.

[NemesisUK]

Harsh cornering can also promote edge wear on front tyres

[Cotswold Pete]

9 hours ago, NemesisUK said:

Harsh cornering can also promote edge wear on front tyres

This is a nice little chart.  The chap who last did tracking said cornering can be the problem, but being a sedate sort of chap am a little surprised, as never had this problem with other tyres.

Maybe I should justdrive over the roundabouts on the way to work, though may cause me a few other problems doing that!

[ambermarine]

Pete 

I had this problem from day one on my Mark 4 I went through a new tyre in 8k miles wearing the shoulder away.

I had the car at Lexus who blamed the tyre and said the alignment was ok .I had it up on a teletrimy laser gizmo in Barnstaple and two visits to tyre suppliers who said it needed a new tyre.

I then took it to Kenny Miller( motor engineer )in Glasgow a specialist in building racing cars who fixed it and the problem was camber and toe in.

The lower arm as an adjustment on it which is initially factory set but any serious knocks (potholes kerbing) at the front end can put that out and no amount of adjustment anywhere else will sort out the problem.

Mine was two degrees out on negative camber and combined with misalignment on toe in created the end of two perfectly good tyres.

I can still see the initial markings he made on the lower arm setting guage and they are now two marks apart to get the car properly set up.

15k later and there is no adverse wear on both front tyres.

 

 

[NemesisUK]

I can thoroughly recommend Tony Bones at Wheels-in-Motion if you want to get the geometry set up properly. Bit of a drive but well worth the effort. The guys there set up the coil-overs on my Merc and sorted the typical Mercedes left drift before that. Top guys..

[bullhorn]

I can also recommend wheels in motion at Chesham,

Sorted my is200-worth the journey. 

[Cotswold Pete]

Cheers for all ideas, I have a local place that fully alligned my last LS, so will have a chat with them, but also would consider a drive to Chesham, as heard good things about Wheels in Motion, and from this part of the world, is a lovely drive.

 

[Tinonline]

8 hours ago, ambermarine said:

Pete 

I had this problem from day one on my Mark 4 I went through a new tyre in 8k miles wearing the shoulder away.

I had the car at Lexus who blamed the tyre and said the alignment was ok .I had it up on a teletrimy laser gizmo in Barnstaple and two visits to tyre suppliers who said it needed a new tyre.

I then took it to Kenny Miller( motor engineer )in Glasgow a specialist in building racing cars who fixed it and the problem was camber and toe in.

The lower arm as an adjustment on it which is initially factory set but any serious knocks (potholes kerbing) at the front end can put that out and no amount of adjustment anywhere else will sort out the problem.

Mine was two degrees out on negative camber and combined with misalignment on toe in created the end of two perfectly good tyres.

I can still see the initial markings he made on the lower arm setting guage and they are now two marks apart to get the car properly set up.

15k later and there is no adverse wear on both front tyres.

 

 

Great stuff: and that's what I'm suffering from but via shot lower arm bushes that cause the camber to go off but setting the camber would not fix it. It would move the wear.

[Tinonline]

8 hours ago, ambermarine said:

Pete 

I had this problem from day one on my Mark 4 I went through a new tyre in 8k miles wearing the shoulder away.

I had the car at Lexus who blamed the tyre and said the alignment was ok .I had it up on a teletrimy laser gizmo in Barnstaple and two visits to tyre suppliers who said it needed a new tyre.

I then took it to Kenny Miller( motor engineer )in Glasgow a specialist in building racing cars who fixed it and the problem was camber and toe in.

The lower arm as an adjustment on it which is initially factory set but any serious knocks (potholes kerbing) at the front end can put that out and no amount of adjustment anywhere else will sort out the problem.

Mine was two degrees out on negative camber and combined with misalignment on toe in created the end of two perfectly good tyres.

I can still see the initial markings he made on the lower arm setting guage and they are now two marks apart to get the car properly set up.

15k later and there is no adverse wear on both front tyres.

 

 

Great stuff: and that's what I'm suffering from but via shot lower arm bushes that cause the camber to go off but setting the camber would not fix it. It would move the wear.

[Tinonline]

Apologies for the double post ... no idea...

[Tinonline]

7 hours ago, Cotswold Pete said:

Cheers for all ideas, I have a local place that fully alligned my last LS, so will have a chat with them, but also would consider a drive to Chesham, as heard good things about Wheels in Motion, and from this part of the world, is a lovely drive.

 

Chesham is well in range for me...

[Newbie1]

Thumbs up for Wheels in Motion. The only guys I trust for my suspension work. I could tell them what I liked about how a car handled on the factory settings and what I didn't like, and they worked out an alignment spec that suits me perfectly.

[Bluesman]

Here here, I won't go anywhere else to have my tracking etc sorted. These guys are magic.

 

[Big Rat]

Inner front tyre wear on the Is-F is a very common problem, I hadn't realised that you LS guys had it as well.

Ive done some detailed research on the is-F as to the likely causes and it does seem no matter how spot on the geometry is it still happens.

There are 214 is-F's left in the country out of a total of 265, I have the reg numbers of 126 of them.

Ive researched the MOT history of all of these cars and over 92% have had advisories or failures for inner tyre wear.

Some members are in the process of buying from the states the USRS   designed lower control arm bush which they say will eradicate this problem.

My car has covered 44k the OEM Bridgestones have been on for 22k and 4K mikes ago started to exhibit inner front tyre wear.

Ive been running a little experiment with tyre pressures the car usually runs 44psi all round I increased the fronts to 47psi 4K miles ago and the inner wear stopped and had not worsened.

There is no discernible loss in feel ride quality, our cars ride firmly anyway, and no detriment to the wet/dry handling of the car.

I have a tyre development background and consulted with Bridgestones first.

Hope some of this helps others on here.

Big Rat