front tire wear

[VAVX]

good morning gang, i was hoping for some help with a quick question/poll...

i have a '00 vx, and one week from my 30k service, i notice severe wear on inner front tires, with a good amount of thread exposed on front right. i keep my tire pressure where it needs to be, and haven't done any off roading since feb., and most of my miles are hwy/commuter, except for winter when i head for the mountains. even had alignment checked, tires rot. and bal. right after that in march.

anyone else seeing this? ... coincidentally, the mechanic i had to go to (dealer didn't have tires in stock) told me there was another '00 in today with exact same issue... which got my mind racing a little.

otherwise enjoying my vx fully, and will be back in the mountains of wv next month regardless.

[Cptnmorgan]

I'm having a similar issue, but my wear is on the outside of the tire. I think mine is due to upsizing the tires to 265/75/16's

[VAVX]

yeah, this has made me wonder about changing the size. just got back from the shop and the mechanic said that the alignment was off, but nowhere near what he expected to see based on the tire damage.

he suggested i take it to the dealer and contact isuzu consumer affairs about the problem b/c it's a safety hazard. it's going in for 30k service next wed., so i'll chat with them about it.

makes me nervous that they had another vx in with exact same problem... hopefully just coincidence.

[Navigator]

Quick question, do you rotate your tires every 5000 miles. Odd that only the fronts show wear on the inside edge @ 30,000 if all four have been shuffled front to back and right to left every 5000. The type of wear you speak of is normal if you don't rotate or have poor balance or allignment of your wheels, which should also bee checked and fixed at time of rotation. Hope this helps.

[VAVX]

thanks for the response navigator. i'm rotating every other oil change, or roughly every 7-8k miles, since day one. that's what my local dealer recommended.

i also thought it odd that only the front two were showing wear. it was weird too, that they all seemed fine through the summer. but i do travel a lot and i guess having all that extra weight can rough up the alignment. i've put 20k on it since last december.

if they don't find anything next week, i guess i'll just have to keep a close watch.

[Tone]

What air pressure are you running? I doubt the dealer or Isuzu is going to help you on this matter though - sorry.

[Daver]

extra wear on the inner side of the front tires is a common problem with the stock alignment/suspension specs.

Since I upgraded my tires to a 1" larger diameter the problem doesn't seem nearly as apparent, but we'll see I suppose.

-Daver

[Quest]

Tire wear on an inner edge is in practice often due to a toe-in problem. All you would have to do is hit a curb hard enough. Did you notice the steering wheel get suddenly off-center at any point? I wonder if the mechanics who did the 30K service went for a joyride. Anyway, 2 other points: I just KNOW somebody's going to argue and say it HAS to be camber, but they would be wrong. Ask an alignment shop if you don't believe me. Also, if certain front end bushings get worn or damaged a standard front end alignment may not fix the problem due to the inability of modern alignment equipment to take the slop into account. Remember the really old alignment machines where the front tires went onto giant steel rollers? There was an advantage to that system: it measured actual behavior with front end slop (technically only with rear wheel drive, though). Do as much of your own thinking as possible, as not all alignment people are the geniuses one might hope for.

[addition] One way to check for loose bushings/bearings is to use a jack to put one front tire on about 4-6" of wood and then move the jack to lift the other front wheel into the air [front sway bar should be connected]. Make sure the ignition key is turned one click to unlock the steering. Grab the suspended (hanging) wheel at the 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock positions and wiggle hard (push with one arm and pull with another, then rapidly alternate). Do you feel any movement? Do you hear any clunking? If so, get an assistant to help locate the problem. Ideally, repeat entire procedure with wood on opposite side (mostly to help detect problem with opposite wheel bearing).

[VehiCrazy]

I had the same thing happen. I didn't think of checking the alignment, since it was a brand new car!!! You would think that would be good to go from the factory. But it wasn't, I didn't realize it until around 20,000. I had to pay to have them do an alignment job, turns out it was way off. Really made me mad. Basically trashed the tires. Oh well, lesson well learned!!

[Teckhardt]

I had the same problem and it occured over a short period of time - less than 5k miles.

Should the alignment be done to different specs than factory?

[ScottinMA]

Originally posted by VehiCrazy
I had the same thing happen. I didn't think of checking the alignment, since it was a brand new car!!! You would think that would be good to go from the factory. But it wasn't, I didn't realize it until around 20,000. I had to pay to have them do an alignment job, turns out it was way off. Really made me mad. Basically trashed the tires. Oh well, lesson well learned!!

I have an O1 and thought that something was wrong right off the bat. Turned out that all four wheels had not been balanced properly and it was out of allignment as well. So it can come out of the showroom all screwed up.

Scott

[Cptnmorgan]

I retract.......See Tone's post below

God I love these forums!!!! :jump:

[VAVX]

i try to keep them right around 30 PSI. and no, i never noticed the steering/alignment shift all of a sudden... not while i've been driving it anyway -- no one else drives it, but i was the victim of a rear end bump and run in the parking lot at work. i guess that could have messed something up.

the bridgestone brochure i got at the shop recommends both back to front and right to left for 4 wheel dr vehicles. i was under the assumption that the isuzu dealer would know how to rotate my tires... hopefully they're doing it correctly. however, i have run into several isuzu dealership employees that know next to nothing about the vx.

i'll pose some of these questions to them wednesday when i'm up for 30k service and see what kind of answers i get.

thanks for all the feedback.

[Tone]

Only directional tires (as indicated by the arrows on their sidewalls) cannot be rotated side to side. It IS correct to criss/cross and front/back rotate to even wear and extend life on most all other radial tires (this assumes same size front and rear which we of course have). 30PSI on a 35 PSI max tire will cause them to wear a bit faster but not substantially.

[VAVX]

got my 30k service a couple days ago, and talked with my service rep about the problem... they didn't find anything out of the ordinary, and just recommended rotating the tires every 7500m, and doing alignment stuff a couple/few times a year. i guess it's worth it to pay an extra $150/year for a couple more alignments if it prevents spending $600 every 10k miles on new tires...

i guess we'll see!

thanks all.

[iownvx]

Hi,

Any update on this subject? I just had my tires 1st time rotated at 16k miles and there were uneven wear on both front tires (inner side of both front tire were almost worn out). Stock tires, rims and no mods to suspension system. On freeway truck goes pretty straight and does not pull to one side, and steeling wheel does not shake either.

Is this an indication that camber alignment is needed. Is this covered by manufacture warranty?

Thanks.

[psychos2]

could this be incorrect ride height? i read a TSB somewhere about the correct ride height . do not remember what it was. if the ride height is incorrect will it cause problems with the alignment? yes it can!! shawn
here is an article i found:

Height must be right
Some of today's alignment equipment also can diagnose ride height, which is critical to proper alignment and suspension geometry. Ride height is the angle that all wheel alignment angles are built around and should be kept within manufacturer specifications for optimum performance of the entire steering, suspension and driveline system. XXVehicle modification is another area of concern. When vehicles have been modified from the manufacturer's original design, factory alignment settings may no longer apply. Aftermarket wheels may have different offsets than the original wheels. Altering tire sizes may upset the spindle's distance from the ground, which can have an effect on scrub radius. Raising or lowering vehicle height may alter the suspension and steering systems' geometry during deflection and cause excessive toe change or stress some parts beyond their limits.

Weak, sagging springs can force the entire steering and suspension system to go out of proper alignment, which spells problems for any vehicle. A correct alignment with a sagged suspension can still produce tire wear and handling problems during dynamic operation.

With the sensors attached to each wheel, raise the vehicle under the frame or unibody to the correct height and observe the readings. If the alignment problem is solved, repeat the demonstration for the vehicle's owner and recommend spring replacement.

Air and hydraulically suspended vehicles may have a specified procedure that is necessary to achieve the correct alignment height prior to adjustment. On some air suspension systems, it is first necessary to allow the air in the air spring to reach shop temperature prior to alignment.

If a large difference exists from the shop temperature to the colder outside air, the vehicle height can change during alignment, affecting the readings as the air in the bladder expands. Coil springs are available to replace leaking or failed air spring suspensions on applications such as the Lincoln Town Car, Mercury Grand Marquis and Ford Crown Victoria.

Failure to detect incorrect chassis height can often lead a technician to a wrong diagnosis, such as attributing the lack of adjustment range to a bent frame.

[Raque Thomas]

Had similar issues - but not wearing on one side, mine got "stair stepped" around the edges of the tire causing a thumping noise. Had the alignment checked and tires balanced as soon as I noticed this, but the problem has gotten worse. It's been in 3 times for alignment because the steering wheel is still slightly off center. This started around 9K miles, and I now have 25K on it. I decided to just live with it until I get new tires, but I'm worried that the same thing will happen to the new ones. Izusu nor any of the shops I've been to can give me a resonable explanantion as to why this happenned.