2014 Acura TSX.
I have an interesting wear pattern on my rear left tire. It has excessive wear (compared to the rest of the tire) in the center of the tire and on the inside (towards the center of the car) edge of the tire.
All tire Wear pattern charts mention center and inner edge as two different wear patterns. What is the typical cause of excessive center and inner edge wear on the same tire?
Go get a tire tread depth gauge, let us know the depths across the tire and how they compare to the other tires. When a tire gets near the end of its life, slight differences in tread depth really become apparent.
Have you ever had the four wheel alignment checked on the vehicle?
Tester
Agreed, alignment sheet is what we need to see…
Don’t those cars run a negative rear camber around -1.5 to -2.0ish anyway?? Add a little negative toe and you have your tire wear, even if in specs for the most part…
You should look at some of the rear BMW and MB tires…
Also, looks like those are asymmetrical tires, if so they do say this side out right?? lol
What tire pressure do you normally use?
I agree with all the above. Need more info and alignment is suspect.
How often do you rotate? Id like to see front tire pics
In the photo provided, it certainly appears as if the center tread blocks are the most severely worn, with only a tad more wear of the inside(toward vehicle center) blocks than of the outside ones.
Such would suggest long-term over-inflation, on wheels with moderate negative camber angle.
One more question, have you had the tires rotated recently? If so, the issue may not be at that wheel location. But a full 4 wheel alignment should take care of it no matter where the wheel was located.
But there may be another issue that caused the alignment to go out so if one wheel location is found to be way out of specs, then you need a qualified mechanic to look at and test all the components that could be causing the mis-alignment.
It could be due to a few things and you have to eliminate it yourself since you know your car best:
bad bushings on connections. If you have a bad bushing, it could throw the angle(alignment) of the wheel off. So ball joints, tie rods, bushings, etc etc, anything that can have play.
Improper tire pressure. Over inflation or underinflation can cause uneven wear. Always put the proper air pressure before you drive, not while after you drive because the tire heats up. The proper PSI is found on the door sill.
Major hit. If you hit a pot hole recently really hard, you could have a bent suspension part. Or if the car was involved in an accident, it could have a bent suspension part unbenknownst to you, but generally you can feel if the car isn’t driving straight due to an accident. This will throw off your alignment.
Alignment, unless you hit something really really hard to bend a suspension part, you don’t have to worry about alignment. Or, if you replaced some suspension parts and messed with the strut and knuckle, that may affect your alignment(camber).
Bad tires/unbalanced tires. Tires that arn’t balanced will wear oddly because of uneven spots.
Bad brakes. Anything that’s seizing or wearing unevenly(pads/rotors) will cause tire angle to change when you brake. The brake system is attached to the steering knuckle, which your tires are attached to.
All in all, this doesn’t look like too much of an issue. I’d drive it as is, but that’s just me, until I get new tires.
It appears OP has left the building!
I have to disagree with you on that part, alignments do go out of spec without bending anything or anything loose… I have had lifetime alignments on all my vehicles for the last 19 years and have done a lot of the alignments myself and they are almost always (but not every time) just a little bit out, if I didn’t keep up with them then it would have just gotten worse… I also saw thousands of customers with the same thing, some vehicles do hold alignments better than others, but also small potholes and normal driving does effect the alignment over time… BTW, I do mine every 5K miles…
On the flip side I have had cars towed in with blown out tires from hitting a large pothole and after new tires installed, check the alignment and it be in spec… lol
I have also seen vehicle that a customer just bought with less than 100 miles on their truck, come in to prepay for their lifetime alignment service and I would say, give me a minute and I will go check it to see if needed right now and it was way out (from being strapped down during transport most likely)… New vehicle prep doesn’t always include an alignment unless you feel a pull or the steering wheel is off on the test drive…
Toe is the fastest wear on a tire (normal inflation) and you don’t normally feel it, we call it the silent killer of tires… lol
And OP’s tire (in the pic) is down to the wear bar which means it is at 2/32 or less as well as the very inner edge is down to the secondary rubber, steal cords are next and that means DOT says it is unsafe for the road…
I mean the soft parts like the ball joints and bushings could move but the metal parts should not have moved. If it does move it should be negligent.
Another thing to consider is the accuracy of the measurement. Everytime you measure, your measurements could be off, that could include the professional machine, giving you different readings.
Generally, a car that hasn’t been in an accident will have good alignment. It may be out of spec, but nothing compared to if the car had been hit. If it drives straight and smooth, I wouldn’t worry about alignment as much as good tires that’s been properly balanced.
I don’t think MR305 understands the advancements made in modern alignment equipment.
Here’s the unit the son uses for alignments. And the readings are on the gnats a$$.
http://upstatehunterguy.com/HawkEyeElite/
Tester
The Hunter system is just based off of lasers and cameras and is easier for alignment technicians to work with in a high volume situation.
You can achieve the same accuracy and precision with a string(if you know what you are doing). Which is what multi million dollar professional race cars use. (youre telling me multimillion dollar companies can’t afford hunter alignment machines?)
But again, if the alignment is off really bad, you’ll be able to “feel” and see it while you drive. The thrust angle will be off and the mpg and tires will take a hit as a result, including drive comfort and fatigue. I highly recommend for those reading to drive a car thats been hit with a bad alignment and then drive a car with decent alignment. You’ll feel the difference right away.
Not if the wind is blowing or you have a big fan blowing, anything moving the string can through off an alignment… I have used both with multiple different head clamps for the wheels over the last 30+ years… Lasers aren’t affected by air movement…
I have driven many vehicles with +/- toe out of spec and you could let go of the steering wheel and the vehicle will track straight, all while wearing on the tires…
Now I can feel the toe off a little on my daily driver and it still be in spec, but I am more in tune than the average driver with my vehicles and I like to drive fast when traffic permits…
Those are just +'s and -'s between the string and laser system. One is geared for the high volume shop and one is geared towards a more practical and low volume approach.
Personally, if I’m having tire wear issues, the first thing I wouldn’t look for is alignment. But that’s just me.
We will just have to agree to disagree on the string vs laser alignment thing…
That makes no since at all, given everything is tight, I have found more bent struts and control arms and even a few bent wheel hubs, yes wheel hubs on an alignment rack… as well as bent frames/cradles that sometimes is very hard to see or next to impossible to see… The alignment rack is just another tool when looking for issues with a vehicle…
If you know how to read an alignment screen/print out, a lot of mechanics don’t, then it will show you a lot about the vehicle you are working on…
I want to point out metal creep (cold flow - Wikipedia: Creep (deformation)
In other words, metal parts move. And we haven’t talked about bolted parts slightly shifting in service.
To be honest after reading that Mr305 doesn’t even know what a throttle body is, I can no longer take him serious about him being able to understand anything much automotive related…
This was his response to my post to a different member asking for help…
Jokes on you. I don’t even know what a trottle body is. Lol…
