Troubleshooting Car Problems Premature Wear on Tires
Troubleshooting car problems: Premature wear on tires
Premature wear on tires may indicate problems either with the inflation of the tire or the alignment of your car.
Look at your tires head on. If the center of the tread is worn lower than the outside edges your tires are most likely over inflated. The average tire pressure should be around 30 to 32 pounds per square inch. If you are running your tires some 5 pounds per square inch over the recommended pressure then your tires just like an over inflated balloon are pushing out in the middle causing that premature wear in the middle of the tread.
Now if you are looking at your tires and you see both outside edges are worn more that the center of the tread. Then you have the opposite issue than with center tread wear, that is to say that your tires are most likely chronically under-inflated. Again average tire pressure should be about 32 pounds per square inch, if your tires are running consistently at 27 pounds per square inch or less than the outside edges of your tread is likely to be prematurely worn.
Look at your tires again, now if one edge or the other is worn on either one or both front tires or even the rear tires. Then you might have a misaligned car. Most drivers have done the driving alignment test where they briefly let go of the wheel and sees if the car drifts one way or the other. This really doesn’t test the alignment.
There are three parts of a proper alignment; camber, castor and toe.
Camber: Camber is the angle of the wheel, when viewed from the front of the car from the top to bottom of the wheel. If the camber is not set correctly then either the inside edge or outside edge of the tire tread will wear rapidly.
Caster: Caster is the angle of the turning pivot of the car. Incorrect caster is what causes your car to drift or pull to one side of the road or the other. Most cars have a caster that is set slightly to the right. Caster is the part of the alignment that has the least to do with tire wear.
Toe: Toe is the measurement in the difference in the distance between front and the back of the tires. They tires should angle in slightly at the front. Incorrect toe may cause a saw tooth wear pattern on tires.
Checking your tires pressure on a regular basis and having the alignment checked with every tire rotation will help prevent premature and uneven wear.
