I'm not sure if this is the right place for this but,,,,
My front tires seem to be wearing out on the outside edge and I don't know why.The tires are aprox. 1 year old.I also had the front end checked and frontend alighnment done at the same time.It also had new inner and outer tierod ends,done about 2 years ago.So what do I need to do to fix this.Do I need to get struts?If so what is this going to cost?
Unfortunitlly i have bigger tires on the back than on the front so I cant rotate them. (Thats my fault!!)
Any Ideas??
Thanks.

I am no expert, but whats your camber set at? also, if you like to take corners hard, a lot, that may do it also...
just my $0.02

I had the exact same problem as you, the previous owner said he had the car aligned before I bought 7 months ago, so a couple days ago a went to the local Mieneke ( which is run by actual car guys in my town ) and guess what, the camber was way off, in fact the whole thing was so off it 3 hours to get it right, I think you need to find a different alignment shop.

Bad struts can also cause wear on the outside edge of the tires, and the "bounce" test won't necessarily reveal anything. I'd check camber first though. You might be able to eyeball it from the front of the car.

thanks guys I'll have it checked out again..When they put the new tires on they said that the alighnment was good(it was set when the tierod ends were done) And I was suprised they didn't say it was off just so they could charge me more.Maybe they didn't check it at all??

I had the same problem
how r ur brakes?
go in astraight line around 40mph
then brake hard is the steering wheel puling?
thats what caused my car front right tire to go bald on one side

Really?? Cuz my brakes pull pretty hard sometimes (but not always, wierd eh?). Perhapse I should do something about it

well the brakes are new,pads, rotors,bearings, calipers, and lines.(I did have a brake problem at one time,not now. My best guess is struts.So whats this going to cost to have these put on compared to doing it myself?

Well, a shop near me quoted me for shocks, struts, and ball joints at about $300 out the door. I beleive for just shocks/struts (OE replacement) it was $150.

go to sears for struts n shocks...they always have specials
like buy the shocks n free labor ect

I know not everybody likes getting their hands dirty, but if it were me, I'd spend that $300 on a set of badass adjustable struts and do it myself, rather than paying $300 for mediocre replacement struts and labor.

Oh, I didnt mean I was about to pay that much! O coarse I would do it myself...and 300 was fer ball joints and struts.

I too had exactly the same problem you're having - probably worse!

I drive "spiritedly" which means that I take my corners fast. I'm sure that this contributes to the problem.

I had really excessive front tire wear on on the outside of both tires. It was quite pronounced.

I do my own alignment (using my own tools) so I know if the job is done correctly. Initially I had set my 1991 Z28 to factory specifications - Camber 0.30° ± 0.50°; Caster 4.80° ± 0.50° and Toe 0.00° ± 0.20° (in other words, pointed straight ahead).

After reading a lot of posts here early last year about this same problem, someone was kind enough to post the alignment settings to use for Camaros driven aggressively to eliminate or at least reduce the problem. It seems that the factory settings are not good if you drive agressively. Ever since I made those adjustments my front tires have worn normally (flat). Using the factory setting yielded a lot of wear after only ~ 10K miles!!!

The settings are:

CAMBER: - 0.5° (note that this is a negative number!)

CASTER (RIGHT): + 5.0°
CASTER (LEFT): +4.5°

TOE: +1/16"

Note: When I adjusted my Camaro, I did not make a differentation between the two caster sides. I adjusted both sides of mine to -5.0°. This results in both struts being adjusted all the way toward the rear. Note that this adjustment will not affect tire wear.

Also note that I have received conflicting reports of adjusting the toe for performance use, from +1/16" to -1/16" and -0.25° for easy driving. I currently have mine adjusted to 0°, or straight ahead. I have a hunch anything over 0° will contribute to excessive wear.

Hope the above helps. It helped me.

//Stu

I would agree that the camber/caster settings on these cars would greatly reduce the amount of uneven front tire wear.

But consider some other things:

Weight distribution, these cars are VERY front heavy

Tire pressure, low pressure can also give you the same problem.

Tire wear rating, how many miles are your tires rated to last.


I've noticed outer front tire wear since I've owned my car. At around 50k miles the outer edges were bald and the rest of the tread was thin. Didn't complain since these tires were rated to last 50k miles. Put new ones on and still see the same trend.

I respectfully disagree. The information I posted is my experience of eliminating the uneven wear problem by readjusting the alignment to the settings as I posted for performance use.

The tires I had the problem with were Yokahama P245/50ZR16 AVS S4-z which I had mounted/balanced and aligned myself using my own tools. I had < 10K miles on them when I noticed the uneven tire wear.

I rotated the tires so the rear tires (which were wearing correctly [evenly]) were now on the front. I realigned my car (to the specs posted above) and 20K miles later (30K total on these tires) and the tires are wearing perfectly even from side to side.

The three points you mentioned have absolutely nothing to do with the problem being discussed - specifically uneven tire wear only on the OUTSIDE edges of the tire.

1. Excessive weight will only cause tires to wear more rapidly. In itself, it will not cause only the outside edges of the tire to wear.

2. Overinflated tires will cause only the middle portion of the tire tread to wear excessively.

3. Underinflated tires will cause both outside edges of the tire to wear excessively, not just the outside edge.

The life of a tire ("...tire wear rating...") has absolutely nothing to do with an incorrect wear pattern.

If I were a betting man, I'd bet that your alignment (camber and/or toe) is causing the uneven tire wear you spoke of (regardless if this wear is occuring after 10K or 100K miles).

//Stu

I autocross my car, which I would consider severe duty...

I had amazing tire wear on the outer edges of my front tires about half-way through the season last year. In addition, the car was pushing like a dump truck all of a sudden. As it turned out, the rear sway bar end link bolt broke off and the rear sway bar was "flapping in the wind".

You might want to take the 60 seconds to check this too.

that happened to me also, but thats just because my car has 130K. Man, and was it a bitch to remove that bolt! (the bolt head snapped off, and the nut was rusted solid to the bolt...)

i have a 90 rs 305 it allso weres the outer ege i put iroc rims
new 245.50 r16 tires,tie rod ends,idler arm,drag link ball joints
iroc sway bars all new energy bushings all the way around
and 2 factory alignments at 2 diffrent places
u till me were the problem is
later rob

Robert,

I think you just told us where your problem is.

As I posted a few posts above this one, my excessive front outer tire wear disappeared completely after I followed someone elses advise posted in this forum for NOT aligning it according to factory specifications, but to the specifications I listed in my post above this one.

It worked for me and several others that followed these spcifications for performance use.

//Stu