Inside tire wear on a 2008 ford escape

Maintenance/Repairs
21

Bess,

Thanks for the update. There’s no question that there is alignment problem. Rotating tires should not cause a pull. Plus, the loaner you have with the same symptoms seems to point to a design problem with the vehicle.

Be aware that many factory alignment tolerances are too wide to give good tire wear. I’m of the opinion that alignments have to be within the inner half of the spec - except where the spec is faulty, which is what I think is going on here.

OK4450,

I would not recommend anyone bend a suspension part unless they know what they are doing. However, you can change the akerman by repositioning the idler arm. Like you said, you get excessive toe in or toe out depending on which way the idler arm is, BUT, you readjust the toe after making that modification. BTW, I changed a racercar from a pushing pig to a car I could put anywhere I pointed it, simply by changing the akerman as described. - and one of the symptoms was inside shoulder wear.

22

Hey Everyone, here is the latest update, dealer called me last night, and stated all is fine with the vehicle, said there is an issue with the continental tires, which are not under warrenty, and their hands are tied, gave me the 1-800 number for ford customer service. I called and they stated they were checking their resources, and will get back to me no later than 8-14 at 5:00pm. Needless to say, I am livid!!! Ford knows there is an issue with the tires they put on the vehicle, and won’t do anything about it, I guess folks will have to start having wrecks before they’ll recall the tires. My husband still thinks there is a problem with the vehicle. All I know, is if I get stuck paying for 4 new tires, the BBB will know about it, and I certainly hope the same problem doesn’t occur with the new tires!!

23

Bess–Here is a reality check that might help you to some extent.

The tires on a new car are warrantied by the tire manufacturer, NOT by the car’s manufacturer. This is the case for all vehicles, and if you check inside your glove compartment, you should find both the Tire Warranty booklet from Continental and the Ford Owner’s Manual which clearly states that the tires are warrantied by the tire manufacturer. I don’t blame you for being livid, but if anyone told you that a vehicle manufacturer warranties the tires on a vehicle, that person is flat-out wrong.

As to the BBB, I suggest that you save your effort, and possibly your money. The BBB is essentially a private club that retailers can join–for a fee. If you file a complaint with the BBB regarding a business that is a member of the BBB, the business will receive a polite letter from the BBB, asking (NOT demanding) that the member business satisfy your complaint. If they do not satisfy your complaint, the penalty is…essentially nothing. If there are repeated complaints about a member business, the BBB’s ultimate penalty is to refuse that business’s membership dues for the following year. Because the BBB is itself a profit-making organization (local BBB franchises are sold by the parent organization, just as franchises for businesses such as fast food joints are sold), they hesitate to refuse the dues that are the major part of their profit structure. The other part of their profit structure is the fee that many local BBBs charge for you to file a complaint with them.

On the other hand, if the business in question is not a member of the BBB, then nothing is done, other than to record your complaint and maintain a record of those complaints. And, as I previously pointed out, there may be a fee for having them place your complaint in a file cabinet and/or a computer data base. Clearly, they can not–and will not–do anything in terms of pressuring a business that is not a member of the BBB. Now you know why so many people refer to the BBB as the Better FOR Business Bureau.

For some reason, many people think that the BBB is a governmental entity with regulatory and punitive authority, but nothing could be further from the truth. The Consumer Affairs Office (run at either the state or county level, depending on your location) does have punitive authority, but I have to say that your situation may be beyond their scope. Unfortunately, the tires that new vehicles are supplied with are rarely the best quality, and many people wind up replacing those tires within a fairly short period of time. Admittedly, your situation may be more extreme than most, but this would not be the first time that someone was very unhappy with the tires that came on his/her new car.

All of that being said, the wear pattern that you have described is likely to be the fault of either bad alignment or poor vehicle design. I would suggest that you continue to pursue the issue with Ford Customer Service, and possibly even contact Alan Mulally, the CEO. But, your complaint should be framed in such a way that you are complaining about the vehicle, not about the tires. Ford will swifty dismiss your complaint if you try to hold them responsible for something relating to a warranty on those Continental Tires, simply because Ford warranties the vehicle, not the tires.

24

If you wind up having to pay for a set of tires yourself Bess let us know and we’ll recommend something good for your car.

25

thanks so much everyone, I will let you know how it turns out, VDC Driver, you have been quite helpful, a special thanks to you and your knowledge.

26

Bess

I want to add something regarding your situation. You might have a case for a claim against Continental Tire IF the tire treads wore out prematurely, and in an even fashion. Since the tread depth is uniform across the width of the tire, the only way that your tires could have worn in that particular way is if the alignment is “off”, or if the suspension design of the vehicle is defective. Uneven tire wear cannot be laid at the feet of the tire company. And, even if Continental decided to give you a new set of tires, I am sure that you don’t want that brand of tire again, now that your faith in them has been shaken.

Unfortunately, if you were supposed to have rotated the tires at 5k and you did not, you are providing Ford with a perfect reason for denying a claim under the warranty. Would that denial be valid? Not totally, but still, when a vehicle owner doesn’t perform the manufacturer’s specified maintenance, it leaves a lot of wiggle room for the manufacturer to escape from making good on a claim.

I do think that you should persist with your complaint, all the way up the corporate ladder to Mr. Mulally if necessary. However, if your claim is ultimately denied, I suggest that you take the vehicle to the most highly reputed front end/suspension specialist (NOT a chain operation!!!) in your area and have the problem(s) rectified before you put new tires on the vehicle. No matter what brand or model of tire you buy, the same uneven wear pattern will appear unless the underlying problem is corrected.

27

I second VDCDriver’s comments:

  1. If the tires were worn unevenly, then the problem is vehicle alignment. Either the vehicle is out of spec - or the spec is wrong.

  2. If the tires are worn evenly, but rapidly, then Ford is at fault again. Every vehicle manufacturer specifies practically everything about the tire - including tire wear - and the tire manufacturer builds the tire to meet those specs. If the tire wears rapidly, it’s because the vehicle manufacturer sacrificed the treadwear to get something - usually rolling resistance.

In either case, the problem rests entirely at Ford’s feet and they are trying to get you out of their hair by directing you somewhere else. In this particular case, there must be something inherently wrong with the design of the vehicle, but the dealer doesn’t know what to do to fix it - and if it is an inherent design problem, there is probably nothing he CAN do to fix it.

28

Hello Everyone,
Ford made things right, and installed 4 new tires on my vehicle, BF Goodrich,trailblazers. Hopefully, this will fix the problem, time will tell, I told them I would be back, if I started getting tire wear again.
I would like to thank everyone, for sharing their knowledge, and their support with me, as this was stressful for me. God Bless you all!
Bessie

29

I have a 2007 Escape in my shop right now with an unusual wear pattern as well. We installed their tires 1,000 miles ago. There is already a feathering to the tires. My question to you is is yours all wheel drive all the time like this one, or is it 4 wheel drive where you select 2 wheel drive or 4 wheel drive? I have a feeling this problem may be in the transfer case and/or all wheel drive system. As for the tires being the problem, while it is possible, I think there is something else if they look like these do.

30

The dealer is correct that the tires are not covered by Ford, but by the manufacturer of the tire. I had the same problem years ago on the Oldmobile Cutlass 4-4-2 that I bought new in 1978 (and still own). The car came with Firestone 721 radial tires that were known to have all sorts of problems. My tires developed a tread separation problem and the local Firestone dealer was going to replace the tires minus the tread already used against some phony list price. I said no thank you and went to Quality Farm and Fleet which was in business at the time and bought their Duralon tires that were made by Dayton for much less than the replacement Firestones would have cost with the warranty.

If your problem truly is the Continental tires, my suggestion would be go to a good independent tire dealer that has an alignment rack. Have this tire dealer replace the tires with one of the brands he sells and have him be certain that the alignment is correct. Independent tire dealers have their reputation at stake.

I know that this sounds like an expensive way out, but when your safety and peace of mind is at stake, this to me seems like your best option.

31

I believe my vehicle has the system where it is 2 wheel drive, until it needs it, then it will auto switch to 4 wheel drive, I cannot manually switch it to 4 wheel drive. I would like to add, that I am having another issue with this vehicle, and I am taking it back to the dealer today. When I give the car gas, at a low speed, I feel a fluttering, wheel spinning, in the pedal, and the vehicle makes a high pitched wheel spinning sound, kind of like a card stuck in a bicycle spoke noise. We’ll see what they say the problem is.

32

I have the same problem on a 2008 Escape Limited with 26K miles fronts only (since I never rotated). The only thing Ford doesn’t realize is that I travel for business about 2 weeks a month and I rent from Hertz and I have rented 3 2008 Escapes in the last 6 months and 2 of them have or were developing the same problem. I think it is a problem with Camber/tires. My last 3 cars (we drive a lot and purchase a car every year and half on average) went 50-60K miles with only one tire rotation–the thing was they were all Japanese cars. This is my first Ford…and probably my last. Honestly, save yourself time, unless they can fix this issue don’t rotate the tires. Just plan on buying 2 tires every 15-20K miles or so. After 26K miles our rear tires have virtually no wear. They are now on the fronts to be sacrificed to the Ford gods until our 3 year 58,500 mile lease ends in another year and half and new ones are on the back. Come to think about it, they may not be able to lease me another Ford anyway. I’ll do myself a favor and settle for a CRV–I should have never strayed from Honda in the first place but after 3 of their vehicles you have an itch to try something else–but as they say don’t mess with success.

33

Actually, my low pressure warning system is very sensitive. It warned me of a slow leak before it became visable (darn nails). And it needs to be reinitialized with each rotation, just as the owner’s manual says.

I have nothing to add to the long list of already great posts in the thread, but I did want to clarify this as lack of sufficient sensitivity is not representative of all low prssure warning systems.

I’m wondering of Dave G. didn’t hit the nail on the head. I believe this is a 4-wheel independent suspension system with a 4-wheel alignment, and aligning it to the wrong program could conceivably cause the same symptom on all four tires. Beyond that I don’t know what could.

34

Actually, my low pressure warning system is very sensitive. It warned me of a slow leak before it became visable

With modern tyres a tyre has to be very low before it shows by looking.

35

The pressure was down just over 10 PSI. My system uses the wheel speed sensors, and 10 PSI is apparently enough to create sufficient change in rolling circumference from the initialized setting to trigger the system. Perhaps it’s designed that way because of the 45 aspect ratio tires, I really don’t know.

36

Hello, I have the same problem, I have rotated the tires twice,had the car aligned and the dealer tells me that because I have 27,000 miles they can only give me $100.00 toward continental tires, which are the tires that are on the car right now. I have leased the car for 16 months and have never had to replace tires this soon. safetysue1@msn.com