Uneven Left Front Tyre Wear

[Tham]

My Corolla KE70's left front tyre is wearing on the

outside. This happens even after new tyre

replacements. Doesn't appear to be a tyre fault.

 

The steering has been aligned several times with

camber adjusted to specifications.

 

Both outer tie rod ends look ok. The left inner tie

rod had been replaced not too long ago, and the

right one still looks alright. The left lower arm bush

still looks good and the ball joint too. The rack is a

little worn, but is still in fair condition and free play

has been tightened.

 

Front shock absorbers have been replaced recently,

and both front coil springs still seem strong, the

height of the left one similar with the right one.

 

In fact, all steering and suspension components

still look good. The chassis and crossmember look

in good shape too.

 

The wheel alignment man, mechanic and even air-

conditioning man are scratching their heads and told

me to "just leave it alone, not worth changing any more

parts considering the age of the car".

 

Any opinions ?

[Rollaboy2608]

possibly wheel bearing? you never mentioned whether you had adjusted it or checked its condition?

[Boost+k]

what alignment settings do you run? normally wear on outside would mean the left hand has more toe-out or caster, alot of alignment places have told me caster is not adjustable on a ke70 but it is you just have to point it out

[Tham]

possibly wheel bearing? you never mentioned whether you had adjusted it or checked its condition?

 

Yes, I never thought of the wheel bearing.

 

The left one was replaced about a year ago. The mechanic

checked it for wear by spinning the tyre just two weeks ago,

but didn't really check it for free play.

 

I forgot to ask this tyre man whom I went to yesterday to

see if it needed tightening when he removed the left tyre.

 

Thanks.

[LittleRedSpirit]

My friend, welcome to the tyre shop curse.

 

I used to get alignments done at a 'tyre place', you know, generic Bob Jane etc. That was until I had a pair of brand new 235/45/17s destroyed in less than 9000klms. I gave up on the tyre shops and found a mechanic capable of precise adjustments. He uses a manual machine to align. He is not so big on poorly calibrated lasers. Just find a good mechanic who can do it properly, and stay away from tyre specific shops. At the end of the day they want to sell more tyres (Yes, I'm a cynic).

 

Also, most alignments will arrange varying settings left and right to compensate for the fact you will be driving on a road which isn't perfectly level, but in fact cambered up to 4 degrees left. They attempt to make the car track straight in these situations. I don't like to do this, so I had my mechanic reset everything to perfectly even left to right, because I prefer to feel the road, whatever is going on, and I believe the car will have a better handling balance left to right.

 

You don't hit one particular right hander really hard all the time do you? Try some XT130 corona Lower control arms for a degree and a half of negative camber.

[Tham]

what alignment settings do you run? normally wear on outside would mean the left hand has more toe-out or caster, alot of alignment places have told me caster is not adjustable on a ke70 but it is you just have to point it out

 

 

I never knew caster could cause such tyre wear too.

I'll get this tyre man whom I went to yesterday to see if

it can be adjusted tomorrow. I believe though that he,

like most other local alignment shops here in Malaysia,

will say that caster is not adjustable in a KE70, like most

other cars. Most don't touch the caster during alignment,

like you say.

 

Here's the alignment specs based on this tyre man's computer

settings (an FMC Visualiner machine) :

 

Caster : Min: 1 deg 30 sec, Max: 2 deg 30 sec.

(Not sure what my readings are, not shown in the printout.)

 

Camber: Min: 0 deg 35 sec, Max: 1 deg 35 sec (Negative, I believe).

Left camber 0 deg 43 sec, Right 0 deg 53 sec.

(The left camber was at 0 deg 12 sec a few years ago, so

he used a hydraulic jack to push it in. This is how they

usually do it over here. Seems a crude way, and known

to damage the shock absorber and wheel bearing.)

 

Toe-in : Min: 0.0, Max 0.6 (in mm, I think).

Left 0.3, Right 0.5

 

Kingpin: 8 deg 20 sec.

 

 

This is what I found in a KE70 book (one of those

Charlton's manuals) recently :

 

Caster: 1 deg 50 sec

Camber : 1 deg 9 sec

Toe-in: 0 to 2 mm

Kingpin: 8 deg 6 sec

 

Thanks for your help.

[KE30_KE35_KE55]

for the ultimate wheel alignment If the car is driven with only one occupant, get the alignment done whilst siting in the car

[towe001]

My friend, welcome to the tyre shop curse.

 

I used to get alignments done at a 'tyre place', you know, generic Bob Jane etc. That was until I had a pair of brand new 235/45/17s destroyed in less than 9000klms. I gave up on the tyre shops and found a mechanic capable of precise adjustments. He uses a manual machine to align. He is not so big on poorly calibrated lasers. Just find a good mechanic who can do it properly, and stay away from tyre specific shops. At the end of the day they want to sell more tyres (Yes, I'm a cynic).

And not forgetting that some of them just reset the alignment back to standard even if you've asked them to set it to what you want.

[Tham]

My friend, welcome to the tyre shop curse.

 

I used to get alignments done at a 'tyre place', you know, generic Bob Jane etc. That was until I had a pair of brand new 235/45/17s destroyed in less than 9000klms. I gave up on the tyre shops and found a mechanic capable of precise adjustments. He uses a manual machine to align. He is not so big on poorly calibrated lasers. Just find a good mechanic who can do it properly, and stay away from tyre specific shops. At the end of the day they want to sell more tyres (Yes, I'm a cynic).

 

Also, most alignments will arrange varying settings left and right to compensate for the fact you will be driving on a road which isn't perfectly level, but in fact cambered up to 4 degrees left. They attempt to make the car track straight in these situations. I don't like to do this, so I had my mechanic reset everything to perfectly even left to right, because I prefer to feel the road, whatever is going on, and I believe the car will have a better handling balance left to right.

 

You don't hit one particular right hander really hard all the time do you? Try some XT130 corona Lower control arms for a degree and a half of negative camber.

 

 

Thanks for the info, LittleRedSpirit.

 

Will keep it in mind. Yes, most of the tyre shops here

in Malaysia aren't really competent. The one I went to

yesterday said the cause of my problem was underinflation.

 

I was thinking that would cause both edges to wear ?

I set my pressures to 26-28 psi, and he pumped them

up to 30-32 psi.

 

My friend was telling me some time ago that he knew

of a mechanic who does manual wheel adjustments,

just like yours. Hardly any mechanic in Malaysia who

knows or can do this. I'll see if I can find this guy later.

[Tham]

for the ultimate wheel alignment If the car is driven with only one occupant, get the alignment done whilst siting in the car

 

Thanks, will check that out too.

[Boost+k]

the 0 degree @ Second measurement is a new one to me... i have always just had readings like 3degrees... never at a second? i will look it up and compare.

The caster is the rod that goes from the lower arm forwards to the beem under the rad, it has 22mm nuts on it and rubber bushing in the middle. sew if you can see it to point out to the mech.

and the camber is postive from factory i believe

 

and from those specs you have less toe-in on the left... i always run even toe, this might be to make it track straight tho?