A Duh question on Tyres

yop

Lads,
A bit of blonde one, if tyres are wearing more on one side of the wheel than the other does it mean it needs to be tracked or balanced??

I am getting tyres from Eiretyres and don't want to get rode for puttting them on or tracked.
When a tyre is put on a wheel it is balanced using lead weights isn't it?

Thanks

crosstownk

Definitely not balance. If both tyres on the same axle are both worn on the same side (both insides or both outsides) then it needs to be tracked. If only one tyre is worn then it may need the camber adjusted.

peasant

A badly balanced wheel doesn't really show any visible signs, but you can feel judders in the steering at certain speeds.

Seth Brundle

Is this with both (front?) tyres or just one?
If its just one then its tracking

Worth a read: www.carbibles.com/tyre_bible.html

crosstownk

kbannon wrote:

Is this with both (front?) tyres or just one?
If its just one then its tracking

kbannon, if you mean that if one (front) tyre is worn then it's unlikely to be tracking and more likely to be camber. Tracking usually affects both wheels.

Seth Brundle

You are correct. Im not with it at the mo!
Tracking is if the inners of both tyres wear unevenly compared to the outers of both.

sundodger5

most cars will wear tyres unevenly. most people only notice the bald bit when the rest of the tread is down to the minimum (or below usually) uneven tyre wear can and is caused by road camber also the way the car is used. i.e if you drive in a city with a lot of roundabouts the weight of the vehicle transfers to the outside edge of the front left tyre = more wear (do every second roundabout the other way round to even this out:) ). more wear also on to the driving wheel with the shortest drive shaft due to more torque to that wheel.
technicals aside. a good tyre depot should check the tracking for free. they also should have no problem in showing you the before and after readings with tracking gauges attached to the car.
tracking on the roads we have will drift out of spec over time as it is affected by potholes,climbing kerbs, speed bumps etc.

colm_mcm

surprised paulk04 hasn't been on advertising himself yet......

Seth Brundle

colm_mcm wrote:

surprised paulk04 hasn't been on advertising himself yet......

He will not get the chance!

yop

Lads, thanks for info, both fronts are wearing on the outside.
I do notice a shudder alright at about 80 (On the motorway )

crosstownk

yop wrote:

Lads, thanks for info, both fronts are wearing on the outside.
I do notice a shudder alright at about 80 (On the motorway )

In that case get them tracked and balanced.

boomer_ie

Sorry to hijack this thread, but a similar wearing issue....

On one tyre only (rear pax side tyre) its wearing on the outsides of the tyre (ie inside and outside of the same tyre is worn but the middle of the tyre looks ok), the garage is blaming "lack of air" in the tyre but I am not convinced as the tyres have always had sufficient air in them, and if it had been lack of air in the tyre wouldnt it not have work evenly?

I have noticed a rattle from the area (mentioned on a thread here ref Ford Focus Estate) but the garage say its a separate issue.

sundodger5

I suppose it would depend on what the rattle is. If it turns out to be play in a suspension component then this may throw out the camber/rear wheel alignment. having said that i have seen focus's wear tyres fairly odd but usually on the inside.
if you have play then the same applies as my post above re roundabouts and the way the weight of the car will switch. the possible play will make this worse.

Marcus.Aurelius

could be bushes too.