Tire wear is not very complicated. It is easy to know what your problem is if you just look at the thread closely. Every tire has a story to tell. Tires wear for a variety of reasons. Worn suspension components, an out of spec alignment, and faulty tires or maintenance can cause your tires to wear out prematurely. A common question is “why are my tires wearing out?”.
Let’s first look at the type of vehicle. A modern car such as a BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Lexus, all have more of an aggressive set up when it comes to an alignment set up. These manufactures harness more aggressive positive toe. Positive will improve high speed stability and handling to give the vehicle a more responsive feeling. In return it comes with a sacrifice of a certain amount of tire wear. This can be considered normal wear for that vehicle. The sportier the car gets the more tires will possibly wear. If you would want to have better tire wear the toe has to be as zero as possible. Consult your service advisor to see what can be done to minimize tire wear.
Bad tire pressure
One of the biggest tire wear issues is tire pressure. If your tire acquires a nail the tire will lose pressure, having low tire pressure will wear out both sides of the tires. Any nails should be fixed immediately. If a tire cannot be fixed the spare tire should be installed or the vehicle towed. Having your tires over inflated will cause the middle of the tire. The correct inflation will provide the right amount of tire to be contacting the ground. This is so important to maintain good stability of the vehicle.
It is a good idea to check your tire pressure on a regular basis. Most vehicles nowadays have tire pressure monitoring systems that check the tire pressure constantly. The system will illuminate a tire symbol with an exclamation mark when a low pressure in one of the tires occurs. A quick walk around the car is always good practice to look for low tire pressures. A pulling in the steering wheel can also indicate a low tire pressure issue taking place.
Do I need a wheel alignment?
If your tires are wearing on one side of the tire it is a good idea to start with checking your wheel alignment. Most shops can offer a wheel alignment check at a fraction of the cost of an alignment. A bad wheel alignment can cause unnecessary tire wear and cost more in the long run. Most tire manufactures will give you a life expectancy of the tire you are purchasing. On average a tire can last anywhere from 40,000km to 120,000km. In order to achieve the maxim life of the tire the alignment must be performed and set to the required OEM specification.
Failure to do the alignment procedure will void most tire warranties. An alignment is a procedure of adjusting the suspension components in tune with the road surface. Driving the vehicle on Toronto roads wreaks havoc on suspension systems. A good idea is to have the front suspension checked prior to performing an alignment. Any worn or loose components should be replaced. Doing this in a timely manner is imperative to tire life and road safety.