Alignment and tire wear Question

[mryakan]

Ok, so I just noticed the outer edge on my left tire is wearing off unevenly and there is a bit of feathering which means my toe alignment is off. I barely notice it while driving, mainly on the leftmost lane of the highway the car veers off a bit to the left.
Anyway I booked an appointment to get the alignment corrected, but the earliest is in 10 day. I will probably drive around 400-500 miles by then, so I am just wondering if that would take the life out of my tire and if I should try to drive less, or is that distance not too significant with this small alignment issue. Experiences/opinions?

[kensill]

The feathering usually means the tire has not been rotated. The alignment should fix the tire wear on the inside as long as it is only on the inside...gl

[M62pwrdE38]

A few hundred miles isn't going to make any drastic changes to your tires or abnormally accelerate the wear that is already there. From those pictures it looks like the edges are almost gone anyways, so don't expect an alignment to really pro-long the life of those tires as it isn't going to take all the contact away from those spots.

[GunnerNell]

^ Yep, what they said. Start saving now for your new tires 'cause an alignment won't fix these. It'll drive better afterwards, although it might be a little noisier.

[mryakan]

Thanks guys. I know the tire won't magically get better, I just am hoping it won't get much worse. Judging from the pictures, how much mileage do you think is left on that tire?
All the others seem in good shape and I am hoping they all last till my lease is up a year from now. Keep in mind I will be putting my winters on this Nov and they will stay on till April, so we are talking 6-7 months max. Worst case scenario, I will put my still new original 16" tires back on the original 16 wheels and use them till lease is over, but am really hoping these last.

[GunnerNell]

Man, if I could predict that, I'd be at a casino somewhere. How much, how friskily, do you drive? Two quick thoughts -- if you can stand it and if your highest priority is keeping the summer tires alive longer, put your winters on early and keep them on an extra month or two. Yes, you'll burn out your winters, but depending on your next car, they might not be of use to you anyway. Two, it will be the hotter weather that will eat the tires up faster, so if you have to choose, put the winters on in Nov., but keep them on thru May, leaving you only two of the hotter months for your summers. Oh, and here's another thought. There's plenty of tread in the center of that tire. Maybe you could ask your alignment guy to set it up in a way that will keep that edge alive a bit longer. I'm not sure how much is possible or if it is, what that may do to the car's handling characteristics, but a good alignment guy should be able to give you some ideas about that. And finally (yes, I promise), I'd bet you'll be able to find a pair of used tires on this forum for cheap, if it turns out you need to replace that one before turning it in.

[mryakan]

Thanks for the tips. I was hoping someone had some experience like this, so not much predicting, but more comparing to past experiences. I do take corners pretty aggressively, does that exacerbate the uneven wear or is it mainly the misalignment at fault?

[M62pwrdE38]

I would say that the alignment is probably the primary cause, but without seeing the angle readouts its impossible to be 100% sure. You probably have a bit of toe-in and maybe not enough negative camber. You might be able to milk those tires for another 3-4k miles or more.

[LuxoM3]

Your toe is out...

TOE tends to be the issue about 99% of the time with alignment... even more so when your car (assuming no crashes) likes to wander around on the freeway, to the point of almost pulling you.

Good toe - like for the rear of the tires, tends to wear out the tires evenly and gets you good handling
Bad toe - like on the front of the car, has all sorts of odd wear patterns that sometimes look like camber...wearing of say an edge... feathering isn't necessarily bad... where the tread blocks are slightly raised... usually on the outside edge... you are cornering hard...

But feathering that borders of scalloping... deep wear in odd spots, shows toe off REALLY bad.

FWIW - BMWs tend to like around ZERO to slightly positive (pointing-in) toe for the fronts ... which lets your car be more responsive (0) or high-sped stable (-.010..).

and slightly positive toe in the rear (-.20) to help keep the rear planted.

I personally get an alignment about once a year when I get new tires - obviously to get the most tread life and for handling.

EDITED - thanks to M62...

[M62pwrdE38]

Originally Posted by LuxoM3

Your toe is out...

TOE tends to be the issue about 99% of the time with alignment... even more so when your car (assuming no crashes) likes to wander around on the freeway, to the point of almost pulling you.

Good toe - like for the rear of the tires, tends to wear out the tires evenly...
Bad toe - like on the front of the car, has all sorts of odd wear patterns that sometimes look like camber...wearing of say an edge... feathering isn't necessarily bad... where the tread blocks are slightly raised... usually on the outside edge... you are cornering hard...

But feathering that borders of scalloping... deep wear in odd spots, shows toe off REALLY bad.

FWIW - BMWs tend to like around ZERO to slightly negative (pointing-in) toe for the fronts ... which lets your car be more responsive (0) or high-sped stable (-.010..).

and slightly negative toe in the rear (-.20) to help keep the rear planted.

I personally get an alignment about once a year when I get new tires - obviously to get the most tread life and for handling.

Negative toe is pointing out. Pretty much every BMW has specifications that require toe-in or positive toe.

[LuxoM3]

Thanks for the correction - I get lost on near sighted and far sighted too.

[GunnerNell]

Now that you mention it, which is far-sighted and which is near? I have one of 'em, but .... ??

[mryakan]

Thanks. I had 3 alignments done last year within a couple of months, just bad luck and back roads. This year I though all was ok until I noticed the wear. It has been roughly a year since the last alignment so it would have been due for one anyway. Yeah I know it was a toe issue, that seems to be the case all the time as I seem to only hit pothole while cornering hard . I tried to file a claim with the city last year, but they rejected me twice .

[mryakan]

So my alignment turned out to be all messed up. After looking at the left front toe, no wonder the tire was wearing out like that. The funny thing though is I didn't feel it was off by much and kept doubting myself until I saw the tire . Damn Ottawa roads . Here are the before and after charts:

[M62pwrdE38]

Honestly, those readings show that your alignment was BARELY out. 0.06 degrees is hardly any at all, not anywhere close to enough to cause your type of tire wear. I would keep an eye on air pressure and make sure it isn't a little low. Those before readings weren't bad at all.

Edit: after looking at the alignment charts again, I see next to the vehicle description that it says in parenthesis "customized." This usually means that the technician manually changed the specs. I don't think that's enough negative camber in the rear, it is possible that the technician changed the specs to a higher camber setting to avoid adjusting that angle to save time and make it look like it was fine. I could be completely wrong about this, as there are many different alignment machines out there. I don't want to accuse or throw anyone under the bus, but from my experience whenever a specification is changed in the alignment machine, it will show on the printout as "custom" or "modified."

[mryakan]

Thanks, anyone else have input on this custom thing? I guess I can call and ask!

[GDnimr0d]

i would say its toe deffinately if you want to fix it make sure when you get the alignment spec sheet that the toe is zerod out or even a little toe'd out

[mryakan]

Originally Posted by M62pwrdE38

Honestly, those readings show that your alignment was BARELY out. 0.06 degrees is hardly any at all, not anywhere close to enough to cause your type of tire wear. I would keep an eye on air pressure and make sure it isn't a little low. Those before readings weren't bad at all.

Edit: after looking at the alignment charts again, I see next to the vehicle description that it says in parenthesis "customized." This usually means that the technician manually changed the specs. I don't think that's enough negative camber in the rear, it is possible that the technician changed the specs to a higher camber setting to avoid adjusting that angle to save time and make it look like it was fine. I could be completely wrong about this, as there are many different alignment machines out there. I don't want to accuse or throw anyone under the bus, but from my experience whenever a specification is changed in the alignment machine, it will show on the printout as "custom" or "modified."

Called the dealer and the SA told me that customized means that BMW has an updated alignment spec which the tech had to adjust in the machine or something like that. I am not familiar with how these things work, so does that make any sense? I asked and he assured me that it was not the tech making adjustments on his own.