ejis02

Hey everyone,

My '07 TL is all stock and I'm having extreme front inner tire wear that started when my car had about 80k miles (pics below). Each set of tires only lasts ~15k miles or so despite regular alignments and rotations. Please note that if it were just camber, the wear would be more gradual - this looks more like a sudden 45deg chamfer on the inner 1" of the tire. I've seen quite a few previous posts on this and it seems to be a fairly common problem (1st pic below is actually from a previous post but exactly what my tire looked like after a few thousand miles).

Everyone initially pointed to alignment but previous posters have confirmed their alignment was fine across many different shops and dealerships without solving the issue.

Some have pointed to the compliance bushings on the lower control arms and some have suggested replacing the struts but then the threads seems to stop. I can't find any thread where the solution was confirmed. Has anyone figured out if the bushings or struts may be the solution here?

Thanks!!

BROlando

Well....

Have you checked your alignment? Maybe yours is out. When is the last time you had it checked?

If you saw other posters and a lot of them pointed at worn bushings...did you check your bushings?

This car has shocks. Worn twin tube shocks have almost no affect on alignment or tire angle.

Worn shocks would manifest as cupped tyres...not unevenly worn tyres.

You would need to buy new tyres and have the car put on an alignment rack to check the alignment to start.

Your toe angle is off. Camber angle is likely off by a small amount as well.

Have them look for worn bushings. Replace what needs replacing.

thoiboi

Post your alignment sheet please

ejis02

Thanks, Roland. That makes sense - I'll have the shop check the bushings and plan to get an alignment once I replace the tires - I just don't want to run through more tires while trying to solve the problem like others have. I'll try to dig up my previous alignment sheet once I get home for reference. Just out of curiousity though, how could poor alignment cause such severe wear on only the inner 1" of the tire? Any wear from camber issues I've seen tends to be more gradual.

thanks again!

thoiboi

You're focusing on camber instead of toe

BROlando

A small amount of toe equates to a large amount of wear.

One way or the other...it seems the toe is out of spec.

The causes could be:
-Car just needs an alignment.
-Worn chassis components (ball joints/tie rods)
-Bent components
-Worn bushings

and a few others that are maybe less likely.

All the above issues will manifest themselves in different ways. These do take some diagnosing and some guessing.

In a lot of cases, if there is a question if a component is worn...its worth it to just replace it so you don't wreck another set of tyres.

ejis02

Thanks again - already a huge help! I had no idea.

so, unfortunately, I don't have the most recent alignment sheet but this is what it was when I replaced the tires the first time as a result of this issue.

BROlando

No problem!

At the time of that alignment, it looks like everything lined up. How long ago was that?

Any incidents since then? Curbs? Potholes? Other changes?

ejis02

So I had the same exact tire wear prior to that alignment. Got new tires that day and they lasted about 15k miles until the same issue. Got new tires and new alignment (don't have that report for some reason) and the pics of the wet tires in my original post were 17k miles later (today).

I'm hoping to get new tires and an alignment in the next few days but this is following the same pattern as those previous posters - they even went to multiple shops to confirm their alignment and still had the same wear.

thoiboi

The compliance bushings are notorious for premature death on our cars. Chances are that might be a culprit