Tracking Front Wheels Lexus Ls400

[ambermarine]

A month ago I brought up the problem I had with the front tyre wear on my 98 LS400

.Having bought it last year with low mileage I had at that time done a couple of thousand miles the nearside front tyre was wearing its outer edge away exccesivly . I got Lexus glasgow to check it they said it did'nt need any adjustment.I had various advice scenarios on this Forum and took on board one of getting it checked with the four point laser system.I went down to North Devon this last weekend and it was done by a Mitsubishi dealership .

Result ;very slight toe in on front and rear nearside wheel but not enough to cause this tyre wear.

Scratch head time;Probable cause; The front tyre on this car is one of the originals and is 15 years old ,there is cracking in the sidewalls and now after this last trip I have noticed the edge of the tyre tread is disintegrating and coming off in small strips.Although the tyre is a Dunlop sports it as obviously detiorated through age.I know the last owner did no mileage at all in his last three years max 600 mile .I did 600 mile yesterday in 8 hours from North Devon to north of Glasgow (lovely run that was) average mpg 30.5 including non motorway for a total of 1200 miles there is about 120miles of non motorway.

I will be now fitting new tyres to the front and monitoring the wear issue in the future.

[Bluesman]

A month ago I brought up the problem I had with the front tyre wear on my 98 LS400

.Having bought it last year with low mileage I had at that time done a couple of thousand miles the nearside front tyre was wearing its outer edge away exccesivly . I got Lexus glasgow to check it they said it did'nt need any adjustment.I had various advice scenarios on this Forum and took on board one of getting it checked with the four point laser system.I went down to North Devon this last weekend and it was done by a Mitsubishi dealership .

Result ;very slight toe in on front and rear nearside wheel but not enough to cause this tyre wear.

Scratch head time;Probable cause The front tyre on this car is one of the originals and is 15 years old ,there is cracking in the sidewalls and now after this last rip I have noticed the edge of the tyre tread is disintegrating and coming off in small strips.Although the tyre is a Dunlop sports it as detiorated through age.I know the last owner did no mileage at all in his last three years max 600 mile .I did 600 mile yesterday in 8 hours from North Devon to north of Glasgow (lovely run that was) average mpg 30.5 including non motorway for a total of 1200 miles there is about 120miles of non motorway.

I will be now fitting new tyres to the front and monitoring the wear issue in the future.

Bear in mind that should you put new tyres on the front its still well worth having the tracking done again. Let us know how you get on. Mike

[steve2006]

I always have my tracking checked yearly or when I have new tyres put on and it always needs adjusting.

Thing is you drive out the garage and with the 1st pole hole you hit it's out again probably.

Still on original Dunlops after 15 years! I'm not surprised thet are crumbling, tyres are like cambelts made of rubber compounds so with cambelts it's normally 60,000 mile or 6 years so tyres replace them when they are worn to the legal limit or every 5-6 years perhaps.

[Keith Bowler]

Had a similar problem with excessive tyre wear on my nearside front.

Turned out to be a dodgy balljoint and the extent of tyre wear problem only became apparent after I had the balljoint replaced.

Seemed that tracking had been adjusted to compensate for minor tyre wear over a period of time caused by the failing ball joint.

Got tracking checked and it was 6mm out of true now resolved and trye wear is fine and thats with 245 wide tryes on DHP wheels.

[PEPE]

Interesting, Keith . . .I also had my n/s/f ball-joint replaced a week ago as a result of MOT failure. I'm running on four new Avons bought only 4,500 miles ago so no uneven wear is yet detectable. I'll have my tracking checked! Cheers, Pepe

[bigjap]

i would of thought the problem is just the use of a 15yr old tyre,especialy if you had alignment checked,that does seem quite old for a tyre

[brendangeorge]

A month ago I brought up the problem I had with the front tyre wear on my 98 LS400

.Having bought it last year with low mileage I had at that time done a couple of thousand miles the nearside front tyre was wearing its outer edge away exccesivly . I got Lexus glasgow to check it they said it did'nt need any adjustment.I had various advice scenarios on this Forum and took on board one of getting it checked with the four point laser system.I went down to North Devon this last weekend and it was done by a Mitsubishi dealership .

Result ;very slight toe in on front and rear nearside wheel but not enough to cause this tyre wear.

Scratch head time;Probable cause; The front tyre on this car is one of the originals and is 15 years old ,there is cracking in the sidewalls and now after this last trip I have noticed the edge of the tyre tread is disintegrating and coming off in small strips.Although the tyre is a Dunlop sports it as obviously detiorated through age.I know the last owner did no mileage at all in his last three years max 600 mile .I did 600 mile yesterday in 8 hours from North Devon to north of Glasgow (lovely run that was) average mpg 30.5 including non motorway for a total of 1200 miles there is about 120miles of non motorway.

I will be now fitting new tyres to the front and monitoring the wear issue in the future.

Hi ambermarine

I believe you should put the new tyres on the rear - I expect the tyre

fitters advised that. It sounds counterintuitive. If the road is

dry it does not matter but on a wet bend having rear tyres with less grip may

cause the car to swap ends. So new tyres always on the rear.

Bren

[ambermarine]

A month ago I brought up the problem I had with the front tyre wear on my 98 LS400

.Having bought it last year with low mileage I had at that time done a couple of thousand miles the nearside front tyre was wearing its outer edge away exccesivly . I got Lexus glasgow to check it they said it did'nt need any adjustment.I had various advice scenarios on this Forum and took on board one of getting it checked with the four point laser system.I went down to North Devon this last weekend and it was done by a Mitsubishi dealership .

Result ;very slight toe in on front and rear nearside wheel but not enough to cause this tyre wear.

Scratch head time;Probable cause; The front tyre on this car is one of the originals and is 15 years old ,there is cracking in the sidewalls and now after this last trip I have noticed the edge of the tyre tread is disintegrating and coming off in small strips.Although the tyre is a Dunlop sports it as obviously detiorated through age.I know the last owner did no mileage at all in his last three years max 600 mile .I did 600 mile yesterday in 8 hours from North Devon to north of Glasgow (lovely run that was) average mpg 30.5 including non motorway for a total of 1200 miles there is about 120miles of non motorway.

I will be now fitting new tyres to the front and monitoring the wear issue in the future.

Hi ambermarine

I believe you should put the new tyres on the rear - I expect the tyre

fitters advised that. It sounds counterintuitive. If the road is

dry it does not matter but on a wet bend having rear tyres with less grip may

cause the car to swap ends. So new tyres always on the rear.

Bren

Hi Bren

The tyres on the rear are new the front tyres are a mix of spare and a good old tyre ,I hasten to add that I inherited this situation and basically I am on a learning curve of this car.It as a lot to do with lack of road miles and eventually I'll get it sorted.

[Bassman]

Sorry to be a bit off topic, but can I ask how much it was to change the front ball joint?

Thanks a lot,

Keith

[steve2006]

Sorry to be a bit off topic, but can I ask how much it was to change the front ball joint?

Thanks a lot,

Keith

Genuine Toyota lower ball joints are around £60.00 each, fitting takes less than an hour.

[PEPE]

I'm happy to confirm what Steve said. Mine was £56.43 + VAT.

[Keith Bowler]

Sounds about right I too had a proper Lexus part fitted.

Can't say exactly what I paid for getting ball joint fitted as I had my lower front bumper mouldings replaced together with headlight alignment checked and my bill was £140 all in.