Pics before i explain





I posted in bmw forums but not to many helpers so i posted a new thread here. Is this normal on bmws? My car is at 20k miles. Original tires to what i know. Is this all they last? I just found this out due to a nail which i was going to fix but ended up with a whole new issue. This isnt safe.

On the other hand i never shared pics here so here are a few to lighten my mood.

 

Let me guess, right front? I've torn the crap out of the inside shoulder of right fronts just like that over the years. Depends on the car.

 

naw man, left back

 

caster or toe. not sure exactly which one.

 

Is there way i can verify this?

 

^ take it to tire shop. You need new tire(s) anyway.

 

yeah i know about the tires but i dont wanan put new ones on and then take it to dealers. Its a 45 min drive.

 

+1. It most likely an alignment issue.

 

Alignment issue! This happened on the rear tires of my 04 RL too.

 

Well i hope so, thanks for the fast response. No one has responded at the bmw forum. Stuck up fuckers!

 

 

Can you wait another few days. Bring new tires and car to me I'll do it for free. Its Punjabi brotha here.

 

Post this on BMW forums.

 

yeah right, where you located?

 

Most likely toe.

 

Pittsburg CA.

 

Im going to get the alignment done tires and take it to bmw to have them take a look and make sure the toe, bushing etc isnt messed up.

 

I think Its not covered under warranty so I don't think so making a trip to dealer will be helpfull.. Its your choice.

 

Well if the alignment doesnt solve it then i will take to dealers to have them take a look if its bushing, toe or something. Its free lol

 

get new tires, balance them than go for allignment look at number when mechanic attach those allighnment "heads". Look for TOE thats what chews tires up most of the time.

It could be bushing. ask mechanic if you can take a look at it by yourself, because most mechanic's I ran into they all were A-holes...lol

 

alignment, it also looks like rubbing. Is there any wear on the inside of the wheelwell or on the suspension

 

Did you rotate them periodically? I neglected to rotate mine way back until one day on the ride home the rubber started coming off of the tire.

 

I thought it looked like rubbing too, right at the shoulder, but on a second look, it's seems to be way up off the shoulder. If it's alignment, it's pretty severe.

Overall tire wear doesn't look very good - a lot of wear, mostly the inside half for 20k miles.

Have you been rotating about every 5k miles? *Can* you ratoate the tires (if they are staggered and directional, you can't; at least not easily).

You should clean those nasty ass wheels from time-to-time too.

 

Strange...tire wear is mostly even through the whole tire except for the inside shoulder. I'm stumped on that one.... Does the RR have a similar inside shoulder wear pattern?

 

DAMN thats a nice car. Luxury to the max

 

Dude.
Do you ever have your tires rotated/balanced?

 

Do you have a maintenance plan? I think the alignment may be covered under free maintenance for the 4 years/50K...

 

BMW typically sets their cars up with a little negative camber, this way they handle better. If the car develops a bit of a toe problem the two minor problems equate to a more significant problem. That said, wear like that is common on large Bimmer's and 20k miles is far from bad tread life, obviously not great, but certainly not the worst I've seen. Another "problem" with BMW's is the specs for the alignment are with the vehicle fully loaded, weights in both front seats, full gas tank and weights in the back seat, if the vehicle is seldom fully laden this is not the best way to align the car load it as it will be used most often. I recommend finding a good alignment shop and then tell them the problem and how you have the vehicle loaded and replicate that when the car is on the rack. It will probably still be slightly out of spec. it seems as BMW's age(even just a few years) they develop a touch of incorrectable negative camber and with out spending a lot of money modifying the adjustments there is little that can be done. Also keep in mind an alignment that "feels good" may not wear tires well and vice versa. Alignments are almost an art and they require a lot of experience to achieve the desired effect.

 

^ fully loaded you mean pack the car up with people and all stuff you don't need in trunk?? Nah dude it isn't the way you are saying. Full gas tank is ok but "fully loaded" just bs. Car has to be free of any stress on its suspension(only weight of car) nothing else needed in car. And it has to free float on the plates on allignmint rack... I don't know what mechanic told you to "fully load" your car before you allign it.

 

BMW does not cover tires. Nice car however.

 

toe is out of spec
or you have neg camber

 

Here's my TL's right front tire. Toe was out.

 

No car company covers tires and brakes.

 

Bmw does cover brakes, rotors, etc. They do not cover tires, rims, alignment or balancing. The tires werent rubbing anywhere. I cant rotate them because the fronts are 245/45 while the backs are 275/40. Both the rears look the same except the right rear isnt this bad of a shape. Has inner wear but the threads havent started showing yet.

 

BMW covers the brakes. I am pretty sure the only thing they don't cover is the tires.

 

Acura has covered unnatural wear on tires. There was an issue with some suspension bushings (I believe) which caused rapid wear if you had big fat people in the back seats for long trips. That extra load changed the suspension geometry to be out of spec. The tires and bushings were replaced free of charge.

As far as the bimmer is concerned, that's a corporate wide design flaw with their use of such a large negative camber. All their cars look like they're squatting for a dump and it leaves little room for load changes or slight toe errors.

 

i had that happen to one of my tires once. it was due to alignment for me

 

BMW specs typically always require loading the car to a very specific weight, not saying I agree with it, but that is what their specs read and how they tune the suspension, an unloaded car has different suspension geometry then a fully loaded car. BMW likes their cars to handle well when fully loaded, even if at the sacrifice of tire wear. I've done around 3,000 alignments, I'm not some asshat who knows the theory and talks about it on the web, of all the alignments I've done, there were probably close to a hundred BMW's, I know what BMW specifies when you align one of their cars.

edit, added http://www.hunter.com/PUB/PRODUCT/OE...757T/5757T.pdf

 

That's an odd blanket statement to make, BMW certainly covers brakes on their no charge maintenance. Tires and gas are the owners expense everything else is covered.

Nissan certainly paid for a lot of tires on the 350z over the years, there are very few absolutes in the automotive world.

Hell the big 3 could turn around and be killing it in another decade!

 

definitely either too much neg. camber or the toe is out of wack...get that fixed asap or your tires will shred in no time