[Vwdiesel] Unusual tire wear question

[Patrick Dolan]

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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