Outside tire wear...process of elimination

[16v of E30]

Ok, so ive been noticing as of late that my summer tires that have been on for all of 2 weeks are wearing really heavily on the OUTSIDE.

I have begun to eliminate the possible reasons without getting an alignment.


yesterday i took two 4ft levels and placed them against the rims on either side to check for extreme toe in alighnment. i measured the distance between the frontside of the two levels and then the backside of the two levels and they were within 1mm of eachother, with the frontside being 1mm narrower in distance from the rear measurement. I am going to assume that it is pretty much not giving me the extreme tire wear i am seeing.

secondly: under braking i am experiencing vibrations in the steering wheel. i believe that this is caused by old warped rotors, which i have replacements for in my box of goodies.

now i am also under the impression that under braking, your front tires will tend to toe in a bit, as your rear wheels toe out under accelleration. Yes?

Ok then so now i am thinking that because of the vibrations under braking, it has caused my control arm bushings to deteriorate, allowing the CA to toe in MORE than usual under braking. Yes?

So now Im thinking that because i have left this so long, my CAB's are shot and need to do them now with my rotors and pads... Yes?

What do y'all think?


...and yes i just said "y'all..."

TANKS mang.

[jlevie]

In almost all cases vibration under braking will be caused by uneven pad deposits on the rotors or worn suspension. Only in very rare cases will the cause be warped rotors.

The toe you measured sounds reasonable, so the next question would be what the camber numbers are. You should also check for wear in the control arms, bushings, tie rods, bearings, and upper strut mounts. Oh, and check tire pressures. If too low you'll get excessive outside edge wear on the fronts.

[16v of E30]

aligned and changed the rotors, problems solved. smooth as a whistle now.