[Vwdiesel] Unusual tire wear question

[Tad]

Well, Patrick wins the Kupie doll... the car was severely duck-toed.
 Equally on both sides, so it still ran straight!  Alignment-joe says that
the suspension is still pretty tight, FWIW.

Question is, WTF did I do to it for it to be so far out(and equally on both
sides)?  Clearly it's been that way for a long time, because the rears have
the same wear problem so it's been wrong since long before the last
rotation, which was quite a while ago!

Camber was also slightly out of spec, but not adjustable.

On Fri, Jul 23, 2010 at 4:37 AM, Patrick Dolan <pmdolan at sasktel.net> wrote:

> Camber would have to be severe to show wear such as you describe on stock
> wheel/tire.  What you are seeing is toe wear.
>
> As things wear in the front suspension (i.e. lower ball joint, lower
> control arm bushings taking a set, tie rod ends) everything gets a bit
> sloppy.  However, when you go to Joe Blow the alignment shop, he throws it
> up on the rack with only static loads and things look just fine (but they
> will....or SHOULD be looking for slop before doing so).   Problem is, when
> you are driving down the road, the thrust of the front wheels causes the
> slop to go to one extreme - and for most modern front drives that means
> toeing OUT (that is a VW invention BTW, before 1973 Audi Fox, all FWD would
> toe IN under drive load).
>
> I have been away from the shop side for decades, but "back in the day" VW
> trained us to use a "press bar" that you would pre-load to a specified value
> and place where directed to simulate the drive (or coast for front of RWD)
> loads of various models.   If you can't (or if VW doesn't any more), you
> need to go through the entire suspension and make sure everything is as
> tight as it can get - THEN do your alignment.  I am not shy about running a
> fair bit of negative camber (for handling reasons if that is important to
> you).
>
> You don't need to do it very often.  Our Jetta has had one alignment and
> service in 230k kms - when I replaced the junk stock springs, struts and
> shocks with Bilstein/Eibach (around 50k) and still shows no tire wear and
> alignment stays on target.  Interesting, though, is that when I tried
> Michelin Pilot Exaltos on it the first time (same 30k kms) they feathered
> badly on the rear, but no other tire has ever worn irregularly in that
> position in spite of exactly the same (untouched) alignment.  Michelin were
> real jerks to deal with on the warranty claim (got discount on next set -
>  back to Bridgestone thanks to M. Bibidendum).
>
> Pat
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Tad <tadc at europa.com>
> Date: Thursday, July 22, 2010 5:07 pm
> Subject: [Vwdiesel] Unusual tire wear question
>
> > Hello all - 01 Golf GLS here, 164k miles, stock 15" alloys.
> >
> > So today I walked up to my car and the front wheels happened be turned
> > against the lock, showing the inside edge of the tread, and I
> > noticed that
> > the very edge of the inside shoulder is looking pretty worn.  I
> > checked all
> > 4 and they all show it to some extent, but the front passenger
> > side is the
> > worst.
> >
> > I've also had a nagging feeling for a while that the suspension is
> > feeling a
> > little worn/off, but nothing specific.  I know enough to know that
> > this is
> > probably the result of too much camber, but I wonder if anyone can
> > suggestwhat suspension component(s) might be worn and causing this
> > issue, or are
> > likely to need renewal at this age/mileage?
> >
> > Thanks for any suggestions.
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> >
>
>