5 Causes of Inner Tire Wear
Few situations are more annoying than having to buy a new set of tires just because a certain section of the tire has worn down faster than the rest of the tread. As tire prices continue to rise, this can become a costly problem.
Few tire wear problems are as noticeable as inner tire wear (which is even more serious than outer tire wear). Countless drivers face this exact problem every year, and many of them have to deal with the root cause of the dilemma.
With a little knowledge, repairing inner tire wear is usually easy. We will go into detail about what causes inner edge wear on tires and how to deal with such issues.
What causes inner edges of tires to wear out?Tires wear out on their inner edges for a variety of reasons. However, most of these are related to underlying issues with steering and suspension. If you can properly address these issues, this annoying and irregular wear pattern will usually subside. The most common causes of internal tire wear are:
1) Incorrect camber angle
Camber is a measurement of the inward or outward tilt of the tire as viewed from the front or rear. When you experience internal tire wear, negative camber is often the culprit.
If your vehicle has negative camber, you will usually notice that the inside of your front tires are wearing down as they are more likely to make contact with the road surface. The same is true if you notice that the inside rear tires on a vehicle with four-wheel independent suspension are wearing out.
2) Improper Toe Angle
“Toe-in” is seen when both tires appear to be pointing inward towards each other. Conversely, “toe-in” is seen when the tires appear to be pointing outward. Vehicles with high toe-out often experience accelerated wear on the inside of the tire. This is because the inner segment of each tire is effectively dragged along the road surface to some degree. This causes premature wear of the tread compound in the part of the tire that needs to absorb the most friction.
3) Worn Ball Joints
Worn ball joints are also a major cause of uneven tire wear. Worn lower ball joints are often the cause of accelerated wear inside the tire. Ball joints use a ball joint design to attach a vehicle’s control arm to the steering knuckle. When new, the ball joint serves this purpose because it has little to no play.
As the ball joint ages, normal friction can loosen the ball joint and create some play. This play allows the steering knuckle itself to move outward unintentionally, with a similar effect on the corresponding tire. Thus, a worn-out lower ball joint can change the vehicle’s camber angle and cause internal tire wear.
4) Control Arm Bushing Wear
Wishbones act as the connecting link between the vehicle chassis and the steering knuckle. The purpose of these bushings is to prevent excessive play that can negatively affect the camber angle.
As control arm bushings age, they gradually begin to wear down. This wear causes excess play at the connection between the control arm and the vehicle chassis, changing the camber setting of the corresponding wheel end. As a side effect, tread wear is unlikely to occur evenly and often results in the erosion of the inner tread of the tire.
5) Wear or damage to suspension components
A car’s struts and springs do more than just absorb shock from road vibrations and the occasional pothole. These components also play a vital role in maintaining the vehicle’s stock ride height.
Unfortunately, as a vehicle ages, springs tend to sag, effectively reducing the vehicle’s ride height. Additionally, any kind of big impact can cause the strut towers to tilt, causing the camber adjustment to move out of specification.
The result is often uneven tire wear. Fixing such an issue typically requires replacing components or adjusting the affected springs.