Alignment

After air pressure, the most common cause for premature tire wear is misalignment of the front and/or rear wheels.
If the tires are not pointing in the same direction as you are driving down the road, one or both of the tires must slip slightly sideways. That is about the same for tire wear as sliding around every corner you come to. The tires must be parallel to each other or serious tire wear will be the result. This alignment setting is called "toe-in or toe-out". It is measured in hundredths of a degree and it doesn’t take much of a toe error to be "out of alignment". A pothole on the road or some other obstacle that impacts a tire can easily knock the front end out of alignment. Parking next to curbs by the “braille method” where the side of the tire bonks the curb or a parking bumper can also easily cause problems.

Another cause of excessive tire wear is misalignment due to a "camber" error. Camber is a measurement of the lean in or lean out of the top of the tire. If the top of a tire is leaned in towards the center of the vehicle, it is said to have "negative camber". Conversely, if the top of the tire is leaned away from the center of the vehicle, it is said to have "positive camber". Obviously, if the camber is too far off in either direction, excessive tire wear on one edge of the tire results. Some vehicles are designed to have some negative camber to enhance cornering abilities. Unfortunately, that comes with a price and that price is inside edge wear. Part of the problem for motorists with negative camber wear is that the outside of the tire can look to be in good condition while the inside could be completely worn out and dangerously close to a blowout.

These days, with the high price of gasoline, another problem with misalignment is inefficient fuel economy. If the tires are not correctly aligned, it takes more power and therefore more fuel to push the vehicle down the road. Excessive fuel consumption is the result.

For these reasons, we recommend regular tire inspections to check wear levels and wear patterns. Most misalignment conditions will show in abnormal tire wear. A badly misaligned vehicle can easily cut the tire life by two thirds. Normal wear and tear of the suspension parts or bushing deterioration caused by oil leakage on rubber bushings can cause gross misalignment problems, as well.