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dmac0923
Enthusiast
May 27, 2010, 2:23 PM
Post #1 of 7
(2674 views)
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interpreting tire wear
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2002 nissan sentra 2.5lt 4cyl
85,000 miles
looking at my tires yesterday. all four are pretty much down the wear bars. the fronts are more worn then the rears. i noticed looking more closely at the front tires that the inboard half/sholder of the tire is showing more wear then the outer halves. to break it down even more so the front passenger side inner half is more severely worn then the drivers side.
i didnt note the actual mileage when these tires were installed but i would guestimate at approximately 20-25 thousand miles on them. i know its low but they are a sticky summer performance tire and i cant expect much mileage from them.
ball joints/controll arms replaced at 45,000 miles
tie rod ends replaced at 70,000
struts are original.
car doesnt drift, stays straight on in lane. wheel is perfectly centered.
i just want to tackle any repairs before throwing new tires on and experience accelerated wear
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2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee
2002 Ford Ranger
2004 Toyota Corolla
1969 Ford Mustang Mach 1
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Hammer Time
Ultimate Carjunky
/ Moderator
May 27, 2010, 3:06 PM
Post #2 of 7
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Re: interpreting tire wear
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That's most likely alignment wear but you would have to check for worn parts before attempting to align it. It may have some negative camber but most likely it is toe'd out too much. As far as one tire worm more than the other, you can usually attribute that to one have more air than the other so one does more scrubbing and the other has more grip.
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We offer help in answering questions, clarifying things or giving advice but we are not a substitute for an on-site inspection by a professional.
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dmac0923
Enthusiast
May 27, 2010, 4:00 PM
Post #3 of 7
(2663 views)
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Re: interpreting tire wear
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Yea while I had it up in the air I checked the lower ball joints/wheel bearings and everything is good n tight.
I tried to match up the wear pattern on a google search and it seems to kinda match the camber like u said.
I've been starting to question how much life I have in the original stuts. And was wondering if maybe I have a bad upper strut bearing cause to excessive camber.
And as I'm writing this reply I'm recalling that I have a slight knocking noise on the front passenger side with the bad tire. I was thinking it was a halfshaft going or maybe that upper mount.
Not sure how to really check/test either tho
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2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee
2002 Ford Ranger
2004 Toyota Corolla
1969 Ford Mustang Mach 1
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Hammer Time
Ultimate Carjunky
/ Moderator
May 27, 2010, 4:37 PM
Post #4 of 7
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Re: interpreting tire wear
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It's possible but not real likely. It is far more likely to be a toe in problem rather than camber. Camber is a very slow wearing process but toe has a scrubbing action that wears the tire much faster. It's highly likely if the car has been driven over numerous speed bumps. They tend to spread the front tires.
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We offer help in answering questions, clarifying things or giving advice but we are not a substitute for an on-site inspection by a professional.
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dmac0923
Enthusiast
May 27, 2010, 7:47 PM
Post #5 of 7
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Re: interpreting tire wear
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ok no biggy.
its common practice for me to take the car to a quality alignment shop whenever i put new rubber on.
do you have any suggestions as to test the struts & upper bearing mounts? beside the push down on the bumper method?
also if ya could hear me out on this noise coming from the front passenger suspension
there is a slight knock when taking off in 1st and sometimes 2nd gear depending on the torque load of the engine at the time.
the best way to describe it is that it sounds like as the car's suspension flexes up with the torque of driving from a stop, it sounds like a suspension part is rocking with it and banging.
other then that theres not a rattle, clunk or squeak coming from the suspension. only the little knock on take off from the one side.
naturally my attention is drawn to the strut assembly since thats the only original, oldest part left in the front suspension. i tried to get some movement out of the strut with the load off the suspension but cant seem to get anything.
i thought the old rule of thumb was about 75,000 miles for struts? is that still valid?
__________________________________________________
2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee
2002 Ford Ranger
2004 Toyota Corolla
1969 Ford Mustang Mach 1
(This post was edited by dmac0923 on May 27, 2010, 7:53 PM)
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Sidom
Veteran
/ Moderator
May 27, 2010, 9:17 PM
Post #6 of 7
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Re: interpreting tire wear
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A couple of real critical areas are rotating & pressure checks..... It's a must to rotate every 5k and keep the pressure up...
With struts it best just to drive the car and see how it handles & goes into & returning from corners... With alignments ride height is pretty important as well......Monroe has some strut assemblies that come with new springs, mounts & bearings..... More spendy but they do get you back to specs..... 75 k is not a bad time to think about it. You've got a strut with valves & seals & other moving parts and they do get worn over time and by the time you see the evidence on the tires, its too late for that set of tires.
Another thing some people aren't aware of is side impact.......They do good missing potholes & such in the road but will bump curb without thinking twiece about it..... Frt suspensions are designed to absorb (to a certain degree) frt impact, it's just a way of life and having a suspension that wouldn't hold an alignment wouldn't go well for a manufacter over time...... But they aren't designed to take side or rear impact so slightly hitting a curb or hitting a parking block with the rear wheels while backing into a parking stall is actually worse on the alignment than hitting a pothole going forward.
It sounds like you may have a negative camber problem from what you described. Camber will usually wear smooth & toe wear will feather, you can feel toe wear pretty easily with your hand, rub one way & it feels smooth, go back other way & you can feel the rubber grabbing your hand.... Toe is the most critical setting. Toe being out of specs can shred a tire in no time......
Some shops offer package prices on alignments.....Either so many or for so long for a certain price..... It always sounds high but most if you use it 3 or 4 times pays for itself.........The thing is, that shop can do the best alignment it the world and the next day if you hit a huge pothole going to fast or hit a curb, that alignment is out the window, like they never did anything to it at all.....
How's the new place coming along???? Got your garage setup how you want it yet??
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Hammer Time
Ultimate Carjunky
/ Moderator
May 28, 2010, 2:34 AM
Post #7 of 7
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Re: interpreting tire wear
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Sidom has covered things pretty well here. You can check a few more things on the strut if you check it with the suspension hanging. You will be able to check the ball joint and upper plate a little easier. As far as your noise is concerned, it could be the spring moving in the saddle, the upper strut mounts, strut rod bushings, motor mounts, etc. It just needs to be inspected real closely.
The one thing I might disagree with is the idea of buying the packaged alignments. They are done for one reason and one reason only, to get you back on their lift more frequently and sell you something. The bigger problem with this system is that since there is no money coming in for the so called alignments, they can't give them to the quality techs. they end up letting the low end guys do it which means most of them do not know what they are doing and have been taught how to set toe and that's it. Lots of shops are doing alignments but very few are actually doing alignments if you know what I mean. A good alignment tech will be very helpful in finding the cause of your tire wear.
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We offer help in answering questions, clarifying things or giving advice but we are not a substitute for an on-site inspection by a professional.
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