2008 Santa Fe, horrible inside tire wear, all 4 tires

Maintenance/Repairs
1

I recently bought a 2008 Hyundai Santa Fe with 3200 miles. All four tires have severe inside wear, with the front right tire having absolutely zero tread left on the inner most trac; they other 3 weren’t far behind. The Hyundai service department said it looked like the tires had been driven badly out of alignment for 10-15,000 miles. They said the vehicle itself was fine. They put new tires on the vehicle at no additional cost. From what I’ve been reading, however, I’m concerned that the vehicle will eat these new tires, too. What should I do?

2

I’m sure that the service department would have checked the alignment after observing this problem! What were the results from the alignment?

3

First, an alignment probably needs to be done, to ensure the vehicle is in spec. Changing tires only means you got new tires, not that the problem was fixed.

4

A trip to an independent shop that specializes in 4-wheel alignments might be in order. What is this vehicles history? Was it a Demo or Repo?

It’s possible someone at the dealership switched the tires and wheels from another vehicle and the problem does not involve your vehicle…

5

New tires does not mean that they did a wheel alignment. It would be safest to take the vehicle to an independent shop, and KNOW it was done.

6

I had a suspicion that the tires had been switched myself; however, I’m reading on various forums that other people are having similar problems with inside tire wear at low tire mileage all the while the service departments are claiming everything is within the manfacturer’s specs and blaming the tire company, while the tires companies are blaming poor alignment. ??

7

Once had a customer who’s car needed to be aligned with him sitting in it for correct camber adjustment. He was 500 lbs and it made an absolute difference in the wear and driveability for him.
Was, or is this Santa Fe carrying weight ? If so, align it with the weight in place at the time. ( many trailer towers have head light and tire alignment done with the weight in place when 70% of their driving is done with weight.)