What does it mean when the inside of the front tire wears more than the outside? I just noticed this recently and the only reason I checked was because the front end has been feeling a little squirrelly when going over rough pavement. Both front tires show this wear pattern; fronts have a little over 20Kmiles.

The car doesn't seem to be out of alignment, as it doesn't pull or anything (on smooth pavement).

Is it possible the front end has gone out of adjustment? would this cause the wear I am seeing?

 

Inside wear is normal. Your fronts are probably DONE with 20K miles on them. You hsould have gone through 1 set of rears so far and your rears should be just about done as well.

If the above is true. Your getting normal tread wear. When you get new rubber put on it wouldn't hurt to get an alignment done. Can't hurt!

 

Inside tire wear is often just a characteristic of negative camber. If you have 20k miles on the fronts I would imagine they are getting close to a point where they will need to be replaced.

In the future on the new set of tires, halfway through their life span you can have the front tires puled off their wheels and put onto the other front wheels. This "rotates" the inner side of the tire to the outside, but keeps the unidirectional tire revolving in the correct direction. This is one way to even out the normal wear of negative camber.

I would always suggest an alignment when new tires are put onto the car.

Chances are good if the alignment was correct; you would have seen this same type of inner wear on the back tires when they were replaced. Now if you have 20k miles on the rears and they are S-02s, I would run out to the car now and make sure they are not completely bald on the inside...

 

RUN DON'T WALK! He would be corded by now if he had 20K!!!

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Pinky
[B]RUN DON'T WALK!

 

thanks guys.

And yes, my 2nd set of rears (got 11kmiles out of these) is all the way down to the wear bars - but that's when they start getting fun!