So I went to have my tires rotated a couple weeks ago and the guy brought in the tire to show me the wear on the inside of my left front tire. The rest of the left tire is great and my right front tire is perfectly fine. They rotated it to the right side (which I’m not sure if they are supposed to do or not) but now two weeks later, I went outside to go to work and I have a flat tire. Just wondering what would cause wear like that on one tire and just the inside part of it. Help!
The first thing to do is to have your alignment checked.
Rotating that tire didn’t hurt anything, although it may be much noisier now.
You are planning to replace this tire, right? If your other tires are still in good shape, you’ll probably end up buying two new tires for the back and using the two best current tires on the front.
Wear on the inside edge usually points to an excessive negative camber problem caused by a bent suspension component or something like a worn ball joint. In some cases it can be caused by excessive toe out.
Rotating from side to side will cure nothing and unless the cause is resolved any tire placed there will wear in a similar fashion.
The tire that is bald on the edge should have been replaced. What did the guy who showed you the tire recommend? What did you decide to do? A front end alignment should have been recommended as the wear on the inside of the tire is excessive and means the car is seriously out of alignment. He also should have recommended replacing the tire. The bald area would quickly wear down to the “cords” and soon after that would be likely to blow out.
Thanks, guys! When he showed me the tire he told me to get an alignment check and obviously replace the tire soon since the winter weather was coming. Did both and it seems to be fixed so far.
@akuhn negative camber or toe out could cause wear on the inside of that tire
You definitely need to get your alignment angles checked and adjusted
Since you swapped front tires side to side, the “good tire” may now start wearing on the inside
A bad wheel bearing can also cause wear on the inside of one tire.
Yep, a bad wheel bearing, or need of an alignment, Is probably the cause. the tire you put on the left side won’t llast long. The toe-in is part of an alignment.
If the OP has only one front tire wearing on the inside, doesn’t that point to a camber issue - and not a toe out issue?
If it were a toe out problem, I would expect the insides both front tires to exhibit the wear.
In addition to a camber problem, it could also be caster, a wheel bearing, a ball joint, a tie rod end, trailing link bushing or control arm bushing and maybe something that I forgot.
@akuhn I just realized you posted on January 11th stating that you got an alignment and the problem is now resolved.
Do you have the printout of the before and after alignment angles?
If you do, could you let us know which alignment angles were out of spec?