Inner front tire wear

My front tires are wearing quicker on the inside 2” ( measured from inner tread out )
Front wheel drive, 130,000 miles, no play in ball joints or tie rods, good struts and all the lower A frame bushing “appear” to be in good shape with no play.
The car tracks straight and the wear pattern across all 4 wear indicators is “almost exactly” the same. ( the inner grove is ever so slightly, 1/16” if that much, worn more than the other 3 ) It’s just that 2” on the inside that wears out quicker.

Maybe I’m just not rotating them enough for a front wheel drive vehicle or is something wrong?

Just curious about any thoughts on what could be the cause.

I’m not an alignment specialist, but if everything is right and tight, the first thing that comes to mind is the toe is off. Take it on for an alignment.

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Yes, and when they do it ask that they align it to the spec value, not just within the range that’s ok.

Too much negative camber or too much toe out; or both.
The car needs to go on the alignment rack.

Suspension will change with age as it settles in not to mention the countless potholes, curb strikes, etc which have an effect.

Off to the alignment rack it will go right after I mount & balance the 2 new front tires I’ve got sitting in the garage. Thanks :+1:

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Are you only putting 2 new tires on ? The tire and safety people recommend if only putting 2 new tires on a vehicle that they go on the rear no matter what the drive system is ( RWD - FWD - AWD ).

My answer differs a bit. I am assuming you have had alignments… I believe this is normal wear for you.

For someone who drives conservatively with significant amounts of highway driving, the alignment the factory specifies has too much negative camber (tire tilt angle) for your driving patterns… And not enough for agressive drivers.

So the inner wear is just something you must live with unless you can find a specialty alignment shop that can do a custom alignment for you.

New tires already on the rear.

And yes I drive conservatively and most of the usage is on smooth (no ice caused pot holes) Southern highways.
Owned since new and never aligned. I think the wear pattern has been for a very long time but when I had my backyard shop I rotated frequently and probably didn’t pay much attention to it.

As always interesting and informative opinions here. Thanks

How many miles on the tires you just replaced? If you get a reasonable lifetime, it might be normal wear as stated above.

33,000 miles. They were rated 40,000 miles but I never get that out of mid priced tires like these.

I think I’ll just mount and balance my new ones and watch them carefully …… and rotate more regularly.

If you can figure out a way to measure the front tires’ deviation from vertical, that might be helpful.

Might take some scientific experimentation, may have to construct a test fixture that touches the rim top and bottom without interference from the tire, then measure the angle either with a bubble level or an electronic gadget. Some cell phones have this function. Make sure car is sitting on level ground, tires point forward of course.

If your Kia is sold in the USA and you post the model year somebody here can probably tell you what that angle should be.

Front camber is 0 to -1 degree rear is -0.5 to -1.5.

For more even tire wear for your driving style, set the front to -0.25 degrees and the rears to -0.5.

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Does the negative number mean the top of the front tire is tilted towards the middle of the car slightly compared to the bottom? Or is the top tilted away from the car slightly?

In my backyard shop I used to have a perfectly level spot where I would use my toe in/ toe out and camber gauges. All homeowner quality stuff, but I don’t have that anymore. I did keep my manual tire machine and bubble balancer for my 1 car retirement garage :frowning:

I never did the Kia Rondo but did plenty of older cars over the decades.

I have both of those machines, find installing tires on the rim and balancing sort of fun. Time consuming and pretty hard work though.

I still remember my 89 y.o. grandfather using a bumper jack to break the bead on his tires and tire irons for dismounting and mounting his tires on his 1960’s Catalina. He didn’t drive fast enough to need balancing.

I’m only 73 y.o. Working on cars is in the blood. I can’t stop. Big mistake was giving up my complete do it all car shop. I think my next move is going back to little house and a BIG garage :slightly_smiling_face:

I used the jack bead-breaking method until I bought the machine with the improved leverage. I’d put the tire on the ground under my truck, the jack on top of the tire pushing against the truck. The jack would slowly push the tire off the rim. Mine wasn’t a bumper jack, screw jack designed for lifting at an axle. The only reason I used that particular jack is b/c the foot matched up w/ the tire better.

I prefer to do car work outside, so no worries about the size of the garage as long as the driveway is big enough. I get pretty good results with the portable bubble balancer. Of course the bubble balance process is fairly easy working on smaller diameter steel wheels.

If anybody tries the above bead breaker method, be careful w/the placement of your noggin’ b/c when the bead breaks it breaks fast, and the truck comes down equally as fast.

I’m definitely in the geezer age group. While there are downsides, there are advantages too.
The town where I live sent me a nasty legal notice that my garbage cans were not placed on the street at the right times, so I figured out they can be put out as early as 6 am. Fortunately for me I’m almost always in urgent need of a “haircut” about that time, so I put the garbage cans out at the same time and go back to bed … lol .

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My first tire machine I built myself. I had it anchored in the ground next to the garage with about 100 pounds of concrete. Then harbor freight came out with their version. I went with it since it was more efficient.

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Yeah, I use the HF version, works, pretty good, and small enough that it easy to move around & store. You’d laugh to see how I anchor it to the ground.

I can’t say I really like working on cars that much. Hurts my back. Cars in general have never really interested me. Just basic transportation as far as I’m concerned, Columbo’s philosophy. But I guess I enjoy technical challenges and modern cars especially are chock full of those.

Negative camber is the top of the tire leaning inward. Positive is top out.