Strange tire wear issue?

[Beckta10]

Hoping the community can help me here:

2017 Ford Expedition, 51k, 275/65/18

I’ll try and make a long story short. Purchased the car 8/2018 with 29k miles. Tires looked pretty close to new. I was surprised.

December 2018, new steering rack installed by dealer. Car pulled to the right and uneven wear on outside of tires quickly showed up after install. Drove about 400-500 miles in this condition because we traveled out of town immediately after the rack was installed.

Frustrated with the situation, we immediately went to another dealer and had the work corrected. Front Tires were already visibly screwed up by this point so we decided to drive them as long as possible before replacing.

Fast forward to now, outer and inner edges on 3 out of 4 tires are worn badly. One tire looks fine. Tires have been maintained at factory recommended pressure all this time, with the occasional swing down 3 lbs or so, but never anything drastic or for an extended period of time.

More information, the 3 bad tires were manufactured the 38th week of 2016, the fourth was manufactured the 47th week of 2016. Vehicle was made early November 2016. Tire jack equipment has appearance of being used and along with the different manufacture date on the good tire being after the car was made it appears the prior owner had a flat at some point and had the tire replaced.

Vehicle was in what was described as a minor accident prior to me buying it.

I cannot figure out why 3 out of 4 tires have the inner and outer edge wear when I’ve been maintaining pressure for the last 15 months of ownership. The tires were not messed up when I bought the vehicle. Does anybody have any idea what might be going on? I’d like to get the problem corrected before putting a new set of tires on it.

Thank you and let me know if I can answer any questions.


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[JExpedition07]

Have you had them rotated every 10k miles?

 

[Plati]

What tire size? full ... From tire.
Picture?

Had an alignment ?

 

[Beckta10]

Did my best at a picture since it’s dark right now.


1. Rotated every oil change.
2. 275/65/18 tire size
3. Alignment 2 weeks after I got it (supposedly, that shop was garbage) and again after the rack was replaced. The second alignment was done by the shop I trust.



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[mquick5]

Inner and outer wear is usually just a sign of under inflated. What caused the rack to go bad on a 17?

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[Beckta10]

Here’s another picture of the same tire



And here is my one good tire




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[mquick5]

Looks like you need a full set of tires. I'd of done this before the 2nd alignment.

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[bobmbx]

Thats a toe issue. Since you say it was in an accident and apparently passed an alignment, I'd take a look at the tie rods/control arms to see if they're bent (just to be sure). Bad ball joints can also cause accelerated and uneven tire wear.

 

[Beckta10]

Thats a toe issue. Since you say it was in an accident and apparently passed an alignment, I'd take a look at the tie rods/control arms to see if they're bent (just to be sure). Bad ball joints can also cause accelerated and uneven tire wear.

If any of those were the case would it cause wear on both the inside and outside? Honest question because in my mind it seems it would only do one or the other but I’m not expert and I’m looking to be educated.

Thank you!


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[762mm]

If these are the original tires, then that's probably a big portion of your problem. Manufactures tend to sell new vehicles with the cheapest "demo" tires they can find, which typically wear out very fast.

The other thing is that I have no clue how you can wear out a tire mounted in the rear like that... other than pressure being too low or bad rear ball joint? For the front, have the shop re-check the toe in / toe out settings and hardware, it's what's typically responsible for edge wear.

 

[bobmbx]

If any of those were the case would it cause wear on both the inside and outside? Honest question because in my mind it seems it would only do one or the other but I’m not expert and I’m looking to be educated.

Thank you!


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A loose or worn suspension component can allow the tire to lean one way and then the other. Anything that can cause/allow the front wheels to point in different directions is suspect, including the bearings. It doesn't take much. Toe, camber, and castor are the 3 dimensions that must be correct, otherwise tire wear will occur.

I'm just suggesting some things that you might want to have checked.

 

[Beckta10]

A loose or worn suspension component can allow the tire to lean one way and then the other. Anything that can cause/allow the front wheels to point in different directions is suspect, including the bearings. It doesn't take much. Toe, camber, and castor are the 3 dimensions that must be correct, otherwise tire wear will occur.

I'm just suggesting some things that you might want to have checked.

Thank you for this information! It did a great job of setting things straight in my head. I think I need to find a reputable shop to check these things for me. If only I knew of one close to me so I could get a second opinion from my normal shop.


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[1955moose]

That tire that you took pic of with that wide patch of wear on the outside, is usually a camber issue. A toe in/out adjustment being off will have a wear patch of no more than 3 inches, sometimes less. The camber looks to be positive, at least on that wheel. Also the fact your SUV was involved in an accident is a red flag. Your going to need an experienced body shop look at your vehicle. A regular tire shop usually doesn't have the staff or equipment to handle accident vehicles. Good luck, hopefully you don't have to get attorneys and such involved in this problem.

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[762mm]

When I did my alignment on my old Explorer many years ago, the shop had lasers to align the wheels to perfection, plus they supplied customers with a printed report of all the settings before and after the alignment.

When it comes to these things, it's best to pick a place which specializes in front end alignment, not "general mechanics" where alignments is an afterthought service they provide.

 

[Plati]

?????

https://www.purnellbodyshop.com/saf...gnment-differ-from-a-regular-wheel-alignment/

Can you get a Carfax that will disclose anything about the accident it had?

 

[762mm]

?????

https://www.purnellbodyshop.com/saf...gnment-differ-from-a-regular-wheel-alignment/

Makes sense... if the frame or control arms are slightly bent, it would throw off the other measurements.

 

[bobmbx]

Makes sense... if the frame or control arms are slightly bent, it would throw off the other measurements.

Yep. Your run of the mill alignment assumes the structure is perfect. Although it would be highly unlikely you could get a spec alignment if the frame is bent.

 

[762mm]

Yep. Your run of the mill alignment assumes the structure is perfect. Although it would be highly unlikely you could get a spec alignment if the frame is bent.

I'm not sure, I'm not expert on alignments - much less on after-collision alignments, lol!

Here's a good video on checking toe in / toe out yourself. You check the front in relation to the wheels in the back, essentially. Only thing is, the suspension should be loaded (wheels on the ground) when doing this :

 

[762mm]

I think Scotty might have the answer to the "after collision alignment" question:

 

[rjdelp7]

An alignment is only as good, as the guy doing it. Dealer mechanics are lazy and paid per job, not hourly. Corners are cut, like taking a test drive, after replacing a steering rack or making sure the steering wheel is perfectly centered. The shop that screwed up, should be paying for those tires.