My wife’s 2018 Jeep Cherokee was wearing the inside front tires badly. So I took it to get alignment and new tires. The garage which has been around forever and always seemed very reliable, put new tires on and checked alignment. They said the alignment was fine. It was right on factory specs. They also inspected the car and said everything was great. They have no idea why the tires started wearing so bad on the insides. The cords were showing. This Jeep seems to be a real pain.
I am going to guess which I don’t like to do . But it could be that the tires were not rotated as often as they should be and the tire pressure was not checked on a regular basis . Also do you keep the tires at the correct pressure ? The tires if they were original to the Jeep may not have been the best for your type of driving . Why do you say the Jeep is a pain , have you had other problems ?
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How many miles on those tires? Is this a Cherokee or a Grand Cherokee?
Some vehicles will scuff the inside edge of the tires during sharp turns, parking lot abuse. What was the tread depth of the tires?
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[Update: I accidentally replied to Tester. His tire wear image was spot on, but I meant to reply to Shaun Michael, the OP.]
Hi Shaunmichael:
Based on your description, it sounds to me like you have an alignment problem. It sounds like negative toe, but you really should have the alignment checked again, at a different place. And be sure to explain why you’re concerned, based on the wear of your previous tires.
They were the second set of tires. Uniroyal tiger paw all season. The tires would have passed inspection if the insides were not bald. I had the tires rotated every 5000 miles. The last time they told me it was starting to wear the inside edges. So I figured I would get new tires and alignment before winter. I was checking the brake pads and took the tires off and saw they got way worse fast. It was slightly worn on inside edge on the back tires which were recently rotated to back. The fronts were horrible and they were recently on the back and looked fine. That’s when I decided to get the alignment done.
Hit any potholes or other road damage that might have affected alignment? Two sets of ties in three or four years is excessive wear unless you are putting 20,000 miles or more on the Jeep each year.
The car has 67,000 miles. These tires have just over 40,000 miles on them. I never drive it. It’s my wife’s. It did pretty good with the tires until just in the last couple months. Something caused it to start wearing very fast on the front edges.
Are the tires sized correctly for the vehicle? That info probably appears on your driver’s side door pillar. If the tires are too wide they might contact parts of the suspension system during cornering, going over bumps, etc. You might crawl under there and see if the inside edge of the tires seem to be overly close to something.
Sometimes tire shops won’t have the correct size and will install a size they have in stock, thinking “close enough”.
so you have 40k miles on those tires and they are worn out. what is the tread wear rating on them ? 50k? just because the tire is rated for a certain mileage it does not mean they are going to last that long. thats under perfect conditions that they might last that long.
They are the factory size. I am pretty happy with the tread life I got. But considering how quick it tore up the inside edges in the last couple months, it seems like something is wrong. I didn’t measure the tread depth but if it didn’t wear the edges it would have been enough to pass inspection. I will have to closely watch the new tires.
Alignment racks need to be calibrated ever so often. I wonder if this has not been done and the Jeep is actually out of alignment even if the figures show otherwise.
Question. Is this facility a tire store that provides free alignments with the purchase of tires? If so, there’s always the possibility that the alignment was not even checked and the free alignment is more of a feel-good thing than anything else.
I hate to mention those nefarious reasons without knowing the facility so just consider it food for thought.
As for the inside tire wear that means too much toe-out or too much negative camber; or both.
This is a garage that does all kinds of work. They also sell tires. They have been around over 50 years. I never hear anyone ever complain about them. They seemed pretty sure the Jeep was aligned properly. I don’t know.
Improper toe setting will result in a wear that is relatively a straight line across the tire. Scuffing from parking lot maneuvers will be focused on the edge as seen below.
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The jeep tires looked just like those pictures.
IMHO published alignment specs are too wide - by half. The alignment needs to be within the inner half of the spec. This is especially true of toe.
Plus, many alignment shops think that if the vehicle manufacturer didn’t provide adjustment you can’t adjust - NOT TRUE!! It may require a camber plate or an eccentric bolt (Extra cost!) but every parameter CAN be adjusted.
So I think your first step is to get another alignment. Check BEFORE the work is done that they will adjust EVERYTHING to the inner half of the range - and that they will give you a before and after printout. If they won’t, find another place!
But, it sounds like there is another thing going on - and my best guess is that parking lot maneuvers are to blame here. Your wife needs to be more gentle when driving in a parking lot. Gentle turns and slow speeds! When coupled with too much toe, you can get that kind of wear!
She is not gentle at all.
Did they give you a printout of the alignment numbers?
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I tend to think your Jeep has an issue related to alignment. As mentioned, they should have a printout of that alignment and should have given it to you. No printout? Ask for it and see if they come up with it. If not…
Another point. They are a shop that does alignments and they “have no idea why the tires are wearing so bad…”?
If they cannot figure that out then they have no business doing an alignment in the first place.
I suggest another alignment at a different facility and make sure you get a printout. With printout in hand eyeball the toe and camber specs shown on the before part of it.