Which part of the suspension or steering would cause the tyre to wear like this:
This was a brand new Continental tyre in December 2017 and the tracking was set by a Land Rover main dealer. At the time they raised no concerns about not being able to set it correctly.
As far as I can tell the rest of the tyre is wearing fine and the tyre pressures are checked regularly. I've not checked the other side - I should do that.
The ball joints would be one possibility that comes to mind, easily checked by lifting the wheel off the ground and checking for play (easiest to do with a helper to move the wheel whilst you watch what if anything allows it to move).
If both fronts are the same, it's caused by too much toe in, if it is only the nearside you need to slow down a bit more for roundabouts. Seriously, one of our company vehicles was going through nearside front tyres at a ridiculous rate but it was the one used by the person that covered Milton Keynes and not bothering to slow down for the hundreds or roundabouts was what had caused it.
Strange you should say that - I've heard exactly the same thing from other people that live here, tyres just don't last here as long as elsewhere. Though the worst culprit I've known for it was one of my neighbours who managed to catch two tyres on a roundabout here, rip the sidewall out of both of them and dented the alloy wheel so badly it had to be replaced.
The excuse was that acceleration uses more fuel than driving at a constant speed. So why use fuel getting up to speed only to slow down a couple of hundred yards later.......
Had a quick look at the other tyre - both edges see fine.
I'll check the ball joints this weekend.
If it was roundabouts wouldn't you expect the inner tyre on the offside to be worn too (but less so than on the nearside)?
I would imagine it's more to do with the speed and roundabouts. The near side tyre would cover more distance on roundabouts though. Assuming you went round them rather than through them of course. I'd think the near side tyre would have more load on it as well which would increase wear as well.
Is it possible to have too much tow in on one side only?
I do make a point of going ROUND roundabouts rather than through them (and it's not unheard of for me to take them without much slowing down if I can get away with it) but I've driven all my cars the same way and not had this problem. The P38 is much heavier than anything I've had before though!
It does drift slightly to the left, not sure if that's relevant to this though.
The wear on the tyre will cause more drag on that one so it will drift to the left. You can't have more toe in on one side than the other or you would simply have to steer more to the right to keep it straight so the toe in on both sides is the same. That tyre is still legal so I'd be inclined to swap them front to rear (or even diagonally if they aren't directional) to even the wear up and stop it reaching the point where it is no longer legal while you investigate the cause. I'm surprised you seem to have as many worn bits as you have. You car is one of the very last so I doubt it has done any huge mileage compared with some (mine for instance), my ball joints were replaced at around 320,000.
Mileage is currently at 131,925. Not a low number but I guess it's technically "low for the year".
I do have to point the wheel slightly right to stay straight.
So, is uneven tow in possible but not a good idea or simply not possible to achieve? I'm wondering if the tow in on the nearside is wrong and causing it to wear like that.
Am I right in thinking it can't be a camber issue as it's a live axle and the hub is bolted directly to the axle?
Daft questions, but is your steering wheel straight. Not talking about 4-5 degree. I mean more
RutlandRover wrote:
Mileage is currently at 131,925. Not a low number but I guess it's technically "low for the year".
I do have to point the wheel slightly right to stay straight.
So, is uneven tow in possible but not a good idea or simply not possible to achieve? I'm wondering if the tow in on the nearside is wrong and causing it to wear like that.
Am I right in thinking it can't be a camber issue as it's a live axle and the hub is bolted directly to the axle?
The toe in would be controlled by the longer steering link - its tied to the distance between the front wheels, so it can't be only one side (as you'd steer to correct it it would wear both tyres not just one of them as Richard said above).
Balljoints though if you regularly hit rough surfaces (another thing common in MK) can take a pounding - mine were bad enough to fail MOT at 170k (on a Disco but they are the same bits). Though would expect on the outside edge would be down to the top one not being right, which would be unusual as the bottom one is the usual one to fail (top one gets swapped at the same time as you have to remove it to replace the bottom one, so you'd fit a new one at the same time)
I'd be inclined to do what Richard says with the wheel - swap it, and see if your steering issue goes away, if so its the tyre causing it now its worn, then monitor what happens with that wheel as far as the tread wear goes.
and get the tracking checked. It's actually set for very slight toe out (0 degrees 5 minutes to 0 degrees 15 minutes) so if someone has set it to parallel then it is toeing in slightly.
tanis8472 wrote:
Daft questions, but is your steering wheel straight. Not talking about 4-5 degree. I mean more
With the wheel pointing straight it drifts to the left. I have to steer it slightly right to drive straight. I've not measured the angle but its not a huge amount.
I'll swap the wheels around at the weekend and see how that goes.
Gilbertd wrote:
and get the tracking checked. It's actually set for very slight toe out (0 degrees 5 minutes to 0 degrees 15 minutes) so if someone has set it to parallel then it is toeing in slightly.
As it was done by an LR main dealer I assume it was done correctly.
I'll have a nose through RAVE and see what the procedure is.
Although its not supposed to be necessary with live axles both ends its probably worth forking out for a Hunter or similar four wheel alignment check just in case there is something seriously weird going on. Allegedly many KwikFit branches have Hunter equipment and will do the test for free. Not sure that I'd trust them to adjust things tho'.
Unlikely to be anything odd but I'm prejudiced mostly because pretty much everything folks bring me to fix or diagnose is odd.
Clive
Actually, that tyre looked much the same at the summer camp. Have a look here https://rangerovers.pub/topic/1254-radius-arm-bushes-and-possible-meet?page=6 and if you look at the pictures I took, right click on them, select View Image and then click on the image to zoom in. So your dodgy radius arm bushes could have been the cause. If it was, swapping the wheels around should make it track true now they've been changed.
Clive603 wrote:
Although its not supposed to be necessary with live axles both ends its probably worth forking out for a Hunter or similar four wheel alignment check just in case there is something seriously weird going on. Allegedly many KwikFit branches have Hunter equipment and will do the test for free. Not sure that I'd trust them to adjust things tho'.
Unlikely to be anything odd but I'm prejudiced mostly because pretty much everything folks bring me to fix or diagnose is odd.
Clive
I originally paid for Kwik Fit to do the tracking for me as I had them mount my new tyres (bought the online from Camskill) but it wasn't right.
I then took it LR who said they have no idea how KF managed to do the tracking as the nuts were rusted and seized solid. They had to work quite hard to free them off and get them moving. Once LR was done with it, it DID feel and drive better. LR charged considerably less than KF too!
Gilbertd wrote:
Actually, that tyre looked much the same at the summer camp. Have a look here https://rangerovers.pub/topic/1254-radius-arm-bushes-and-possible-meet?page=6 and if you look at the pictures I took, right click on them, select View Image and then click on the image to zoom in. So your dodgy radius arm bushes could have been the cause. If it was, swapping the wheels around should make it track true now they've been changed.
Yeah, I've been noticing the wear for a while. Should have looked in to it sooner!
I have not long bought a DIY wheel alignment tool. It is called a Trackace and works with a laser beam:
http://www.trackace.co.uk/
I can recommend it. Bit fiddly to set up the first time round, but when I got the hang of how it works it is now easy for me to check the alignment.
I wanted to measure the toe out after I had replaced the bushes and ball joints on the front.
The reading I got was reproduceable which proves it is accurate.
I was just testing the tool out the first time and and I got 30' or 0.5 deg toe out. Then after using the car a few days, when I was ready to crawl underneath on the drive, I measured it again with the wheels in different places and got the same reading. I adjusted it back to within spec , 5'-15' toe out. The tool needs about 1 metre of space on the drivers side to operate.
FYI one full turn on the track rod adjuster is 0.5 deg or 30'.
I paid about £72 for it and figured it would pay for itself after 2 uses.
That's a bloody good deal. I've checked tracking in the past with two lengths of wood and a tape measure, didn't work very well though. When I changed my steering link rod last year I did it by working out which way it was pulling. I adjusted it as close as I could to the same length as the one I was taking off, then drove it down the road. As the nearside wheel is attached to the steering box, that won't have moved but the offside one will have done. If I needed to steer to the left then the offside wheel was obviously pointing too far to the right so I kept tweaking it a bit until it drove straight again. A bit hit and miss but it worked although it wouldn't have done if I'd changed anything between steering box and nearside wheel.
It is only made of plastic with a lightweight aluminium pole but it does the job.
Not all sellers include a case but this one did:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TrackAce-Laser-Toe-Gauge-Best-Price-On-Ebay-With-Blow-Moulded-Case-RD2201BM/231601872125?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649
It will probably sit in the garage unused for the next 5 years.