Strange Tire Wear...help

[chibow]

Hello all. I was outside today cleaning my AWD Maggie when I noticed substantial tire wear on the outer portion of both the left and right front tires. The I had an alignment about 4000 miles ago where there was no sign of uneven tire wear. Since then however I have had the car in for service 3 times which include, the replacement of the front left strut, the replacement of the left front cradle bushing (both were replaced by the dealer while trying to identify a bang coming from that corner), and for the low speed AWD shudder (which the dealer could not duplicate because the problem only happens at low speed).

What could be causing the uneven tire wear? Help!

[PSJanis]

i have a bit of the same wear...mostly because i powerslide and the way those tires beg for grip, but even on normal turns sometimes the car understeers a little, i assume pullin the tires weirdly and causing that wear.

[Magnacharged]

You don't mention whether or not you had an alignment done after the front end parts replacement.

This most certainly needs to be done after any parts are replaced. Some mechanics think they can put the replacement parts back in exactly the same place, but that's just not good enough any more.

[chibow]

The replacements were done at the dealer and the detailed repair order says they did an alignment. Now if that actually happened or not...do you think I have some complaining to do in regards to the dealer?

[rogerdoger]

Ive had 3 sets of tires do the same thing. My alignment is correct. Im guessing its just some quirk in the way the suspension travels. If it starts to be noticeable, I rotate them to rear for a while.

I guess you could correct it by altering the camber or toe specs. It would have to be by trial and error though.

[Magnacharged]

The replacements were done at the dealer and the detailed repair order says they did an alignment. Now if that actually happened or not...do you think I have some complaining to do in regards to the dealer?

I think I'd be complaining.
If they do a new alignment and the problem is still there, then you'll know your base line to take your investigation farther.

You owe me $.02

[crhemi]

Do you rotate your tires?

[TheBeastMaster]

I had the exact same problem. The outer edges shot, but the rest fine. It has to be the camber angle of the tire. I had heard that after 2006, the alignment specs were changed by DCX for 2007 models and up. Maybe it was due to ths, idk.

[MAGRT06AWD]

I too just noticed the same wear pattern on the front outer shoulders. I had the stock contiseals replaced by dealer for $80 to goodyear's (stock size-wear 700, Traction A, Temp C) before I accepted the new car, and I rotate the tires every 6k.

Since I'm at 34k miles and come off 3year/36k warranty this month, when I brought car to dealership last week for annual inspection & oil change, I had the mechanic check all front end parts. He said everything was tight & O'k, but for the tire wear. He recommended a full four wheel alignment, and 4 new tires because he said our AWD cars are so tight in specs, that I would need 4 new tires to do a good alignment. I told him, at best I'd replace only two, since it is only one tire showing excesive wear (Front drivers side). The tires are rated for 70k miles, and I'm only half way thru them, other than this excessive wear on one tire.

Next week I'll be taking the car in for an alignment to my standard mechanic shop, since he said that he can do the 4 wheel alignment with the current 4 tires, and I'll give him the updated Dodge specs for the alignment data listed under a TSB for our cars. I'll also ask the mechanic to demount the worn tire, and reverse it on the rim (since they are blackwalls) and put the worn part of the tire to the inner shoulder, so that the other shoulder of the tire may have a chance to wear down, just in case the alignment is not totally corrective.

I'll give an update on the wear pattern in several months, if someone asks. The TSB is 0200407, and it lists only the updated alignment data for our Rear and AWD cars, but not any parts that need to be replaced or are defective.

[Valleybull]

I've had a number of problems with the outside tire wear, eventually I found a dealership who was willing to adjust the toe outside of what is in the specs and it seems to have cured it.