Inside wear on tires

[Sgtmeatsauce1]

I have 2013+pp SHO with 56,500 miles. The tires have 20,000 on them, rotate every 5,000 pressure 40 psi hot. Wear was even until recently I notice all 4 have more wear on the inside rim of the tires. What does that indicate?

 

[SHOdded]

Could be the tires themselves, but more likely alignment issues, created by worn ball joints, for example. Though the tie rod ends on the front are more susceptible to wear on the SHO.

One Side Wear
When an inner or outer rib wears faster than than the rest of the tire, the need for wheel alignment is indicated. There is excessive camber in the front suspension, causing the wheel to lean too much to the inside or outside and putting too much load on one side of the tire. The car may simply need the wheels aligned, but misalignment could be due to sagging springs, worn ball joints, or worn control arm bushings. Because load has a great affect on alignment, be sure the car is loaded the way it's normally driven when you have the wheels aligned; this is particularly important with independent rear suspension cars.

Diagnosing Tire Wear:

Toe wear - Toe refers to the parallelism of the wheels to each other. Toe misalignment typically produces a feathered wear pattern across both front tires, and/or inner shoulder wear on both tires (see the photo at the top of the page for an example of extreme toe wear). Front toe wear occurs when the front wheels bow out (too much toe out) as the vehicle is traveling forward. The underlying cause is often worn tie rod ends, but can also be caused by worn or loose inner tie rod sockets on rack and pinion steering gears, worn or deformed control arm bushings, a bent tie rod, bent steering arm or even misalignment in the rear wheels (which throws the steering off-center while driving straight). Measuring toe out with the wheels turned 20 degrees to either side can help you detect a bent steering arm.

If toe wear is accompanied by steering looseness or steering wander, there's a very good chance the tie rod ends are worn. Proceed to the steering checks. If toe wear is accompanied by steering pull or off-center steering, rear wheel toe alignment or axle alignment may be out of specifications.

Toe wear on the inside edges of the REAR tires on a vehicle with an independent rear suspension can also result from toe misalignment (too much toe out). The underlying cause may be rear rod alignment adjustments out of specifications, worn or damaged rear suspension control arm bushings, rear control arm bushings that have too much compliance (give) and allow too much lateral movement of the rear control arms, a bent rear control arm, or worn rear ball joints.

Camber wear - Uneven wear on one side of a tire tread may occur when the tire is leaning due to camber misalignment. The underlying cause may be bad control arm bushings, loose ball joints, a bent spindle or strut, or a strut tower that s out of its normal position (due to factory misassembly, collision damage, body sag or severe corrosion).

Another overlooked cause of camber wear can be a front-wheel drive engine cradle that has shifted out-of-position to one side. A weak or broken spring can also allow camber changes in the suspension that produce camber wear on a tire

 

[Sgtmeatsauce1]

Wow thank you, now git to figure out which issue it is!

 

[Sgtmeatsauce1]

Rotating my tires, I see where all 4 tires have more wear on the outside of the inner tire.
How can you know for sure if your springs or struts are bad. I do not see them leaking. The old push down ******* car see how it goes down and comes back, it really hard to push springs hard back up. Can't really push it down may 3 inches. Is there a way to measure the fender to ground see if sagging ?

 

[rubydist]

Its not real likely that you have a spring or strut issue. Much more likely that the toe is off, the camber is off, or both.

 

[OgreSmash]

sounds like more of a camber issue to me. is your sho lowered or stock

 

[Sgtmeatsauce1]

Suspension is stock. I am going to replace the front tires with stock size and will get a wheel alignment then.

 

[2011TAURUSSEL]

It is Highly recommended that alignment is reset ANY TIME that tires are replaced. Maybe not during every rotation but definitely when tires are replaced. That gives you a basis for wear. It is also possible that it could be the front tires only but if they moved them to the rear during replacement the wear was on the front but followed to the rear when tires were removed and replaced. I got my alignment package at NTB. They offer different levels (One time/6 mo/year/multi year/lifetime etc...) Nationwide. I think mine was five year for around $150. I had initial alignment in 2016 and I get checked usually every rotate/balance. The package has paid for itself and I had initial in summer of 2016 and at least three alignment check/adjustments since then all times within limits or very minimal adjustment needed.

 

[postwick]

Had mine in for an oil change and a nail in the tire today and I have the exact same wear pattern on all four tires, worn on the inside. The fact that it's all four says it isn't a problem with any component, that would be a massive coincidence. It's just how the car is designed. Camber is set that way for handling purposes. Big, heavy, powerful car so it'll be noticeable. My tires are about 20 months old.

 

[rubydist]

Here is what I have learned about this topic over the years:

It is possible to run with as much as a couple of degrees of negative camber, if the alignment is set correctly, and not have excessive wear on the inside of the tires. The way this is handled is that the toe-in must be increased until the inside wear on the tires is eliminated. I have done this on multiple vehicles.

The issue is that the factory allowable range of alignment values is too large. You cannot just set the caster, camber and toe such that each of them is somewhere in the allowable range, and expect all to be good. However, many alignment techs do not realize this, and then you end up with wear issues even though the "alignment is correct" because it is in the factory allowable range. Another factor that comes into play is that all tires do not respond the same to the same alignment. For example, back in the day I had a 89 Sable that was cupping the rear tires on the inside edges. Finally I put a different brand of tires on the car, and the cupping was eliminated. What I eventually learned was that the car needed a little more toe-in on the rear, but the brand of tires made a huge difference.

So, if you have negative camber and you are getting wear on the insides of the tires and you do not have any loose parts, you need more toe-in.

 

[6500rpm]

I'd start things off at the alignment shop, let them know your concern and see what they find on the machine. The fact that you're rotating your tires might mask an issue with one corner. Two weeks ago I rotated my new tires for the first time and I check each with a tread depth gauge outer/center/inner. The rt rear was the only tire that was worn evenly across the tire but typically only 1/64" different across the tire with the front tires showing more wear than the rear. Generally, more wear in the center of the tire=over inflation, Both outer ends=under inflation, saw tooth feel when running your hand across the tire=toe issue, worn inner or outer edge=camber. I can see our cars settling a bit over the years as springs and struts get a little wear, it may just need an alignment at this point to compensate.
As long as your tires are all the same size, rotate in the correct pattern and log your wear as measured with a tread depth gauge to look for pattern. I used the rotation as an excuse to remove the adhesive from prior tire balancing that the tire shops never remove from the old stick on weights ,and cleaned and waxed the inside of the wheels to get rid of the crap that accumulates and makes the open black flower wheels look horrible.