My wife had a blow out on the way home from work this evening, 85mph in the fast lane of the motorway to boot! Anyway, the front tire which blew out is six months old, and an inspection after the event shows the inner tread (side of the tire facing into the car) completely worn away, down to the steel belt (hence the blow out, I presume). The outer tread (side of the tire facing out from the car) of the tire is fine.
Looking at the other front tire, which is four months old and currently intact, we see a similar pattern of wear. Inner facing tread completely bolloxed, bald as a coot, outer tread tip-top. We had the wheel balance adjusted four months ago, when this front tire was fitted at a local garage.
So, whats the SD here? Am I right to suspect a comprehensive bolloxing-up of the wheel balance? Or could some other factor be at work in creating such pronounced asymmetry in tire wear? The car does 70 miles a day motorway driving.
I’m a little unclear here. Did you have the tires balanced, or the wheels aligned. If the former, that probably wouldn’t have prevented the abnormal wear you’re seeing. Balancing really only keeps the tires from bouncing up and down as they rotate. Abnormal wear caused by unbalanced tires is exhibited by “cupping;” that is, patches of higher wear across the tread pattern. If the latter, then yeah, the alignment was either botched, or something other steering component has since failed to cause the abnormal wear you’re seeing.
Sorry, I’m not using the right terminology. It was the wheel tracking (is that the same as alignment?) that was adjusted. The cars steering wheel was shaking at high speeds, so that was why we took it in originally.
Yup. That’d be service identical to a “wheel alignment.” Did having this done at the time you purchased your tires make the steering wheel shimmy go away? Or was it still present? If it never went away, that would certainly point to a botched (or never performed) repair. If the shimmy went away immediately following the tire purchase, did it ever return? And if so, how long afterwards?
True. But the pattern of wear would be different from what Myler is describing. Over-inflated tires exhibit excessive wear on the tire circumference in the center of the tread pattern. Under-inflated tires should show more wear at the edges—both inside and outside—of the treads all the way around the tire.
If the wheel was shaking side to side when the car rolled (rather than just a vibration) it would probably indicate bad tie-rod ends. If those were replaced without the front end being aligned properly, it could cause a similar problem. The ends thread onto the tie-rod and if they’re threaded one turn too loose or too tight, the length of the entire assembly changes and could cause the front wheels to no longer point in the same direction…in other words, if the right wheel is pointed slightly to the right and the left wheel is pointed slightly to the left, there’s going to be some drag on the tires as they roll and it’ll cause some serious tire wear.
If there was a vibration in the steering wheel, caused by a wheel imbalance, having the wheels balanced wouldn’t require a front=end alignment.
Of course, if the front end was out of alignment and the wheels out of balance to begin with and all they did was balance the wheels, you’d still have a high potential for tire wear.
The service cleared up the steering wheel shimmy, it was fine. That was four months ago. However, in the last couple of weeks I noticed it had returned (I rarely drive the car). I’m going to have to take it in to a wheel fitter first thing tomorrow morning to sort out the temporary tire that replaced the blow out, and possibly the other front tire as well. Hopefully they can take a look at things and see what’s going on.
Are you sure about that? I’ve never worked in a garage, but when I was a chassis design engineer, we referred to the distance between the front (or back) wheels as the “track”. Maybe the terminology is different in other countries.
Based on the wear pattern, it sounds like your camber is wrong. Camber is the angle the plane of the wheel makes with the plane that divides the car into two mirror image halves. If your camber was too small (it can go negative), you would bias the load to the inner tread and wear it out prematurely. The camber, along with several other parameters, is adjusted during a wheel alignment.
The only way I can think of adjusting the track is to change to a wheel with a different offset.
Yes, but the term tracking is also used here in the states to refer to how the rear wheels follow the front ones. For example, if the rear axle is not perpendicular to the centerline of the vehicle, the steering wheel must be turned a bit to make the car go straight, and the tire tracks of the rear wheels can be seen to be beside the tracks of the front wheels, rather than being laid down on top of them. This condition is called “dog-tracking” (after the running style of dogs, where the rear legs come forward offset to the side of the front legs, allowing them to be placed farther forward than the front legs). A car must be in proper alignment to track properly, and I wouldn’t be surprised if what we call an alignment might be called a tracking adjustment in some other countries, as you suggest.
Back to the OP – what you describe is clearly the result of misalignment (or faulty tracking adjustment). In my opinion, the shop that did said adjustment owes you some tires.
My money’s on tie rod ends. I had the same problem a few years back sans blowout.
The local shop that installed the tires three years previous had a lifetime balance and rotation policy, so every six months I gladly took advantage of this. This particular Saturday morning, my car wasn’t on the lift for five minutes when they brought me in to see the terrifying sight of chewed-up steel belting poking out on the inside faces of both front tires.
My tires went from “just fine” to destroyed in six months of not all that much driving - mostly a couple miles each day from home to the train station, so it’s not at all surprising that the OP went from new to blowout in four months driving 70 miles a day.
On my car, at least, the ends were not terribly expensive and the shop was able to replace them and the tires in less than three hours and less than $500. Just be thankful your wife wasn’t hurt - a blowout at 85 MPH could have easily caused a fatal collision.
I got the wheels sorted out this morning, and they were basically all pointing in the wrong direction, randomly. I took the car to a large garage that gave me data on the tracking, before and after, and it was night and day. Just to round things off, the steering rack is bent! We had a minor collision six months ago, and the insurers garage must have missed it. So that, plus *four *new tires came to 350 quid. Pain in the arse, but well worth it if it means safe motorway driving.
My wife was saying that she had one of those moments of preternatural calmness: Hmm, the horrendous noise and billowing clouds of smoke coming from my front right wheel suggest I am having a blowout. I’ll slow down and activate my hazard lights. When it is safe to do so I will pull across to the hard shoulder and stop the car. Could have been a lot worse.
