One tire wearing on inside edge - What's the most likely culprit?

Just last week, put a nearly complete front-end rebuild on my car, and
got it aligned. All seemed well - It handles better, the steering wheel
is actually straight (No, it wasn't pulled and repositioned - I was
there for evey minute of the job, and manually centered it myself before
the mechanic who did the alignment so much as picked up a tool) for the
first time since I've owned the car, and in general, drives a WHOLE
bunch better, except that I'm still wearing the inside edge of the
passenger-side tire.

Items replaced:
Tie rod ends (inner and outer)
Idler arm
Pitmann (or is it properly spelled "Pittman"? Either way...) arm
Lower control arms/Bushings/Ball joints
Sway bar links/Sway bar mount bushings
Fresh tires

Only thing that COULD be replaced that wasn't was the strut mounts,
which, according to the factory manual specs, and testing procedures,
show "good as new", the strut cartridges themselves, and the radius-rod
bushings, which seem to be A-OK.

Wanted to do the strut cartridges while I was in there, but ran out of
time, so the old (but far from worn out, if the "bounce test" is any
indication - They allow the car to finish part of the final "up" swing,
then settle back down to normal position almost immediately after I stop
bouncing the corner of the car)

Yet I've still got the inside of the passenger side tire wearing
rapidly.

So, is it a bad alignment? Something else?

And if a bad alignment, which adjustment is the most likely culprit?

I'm noticing a tendency to get some squeal (not hideously bad, but
enough to be fairly obvious, at least to me) from the right front on
medium-hard cornering to the right - Significance, if any? There is no
corresponding squeal from the left on turns to the left, like there was
just before this project was done (when *BOTH* front tires were wearing
severely on the inside, and both squealed quite badly on turns to the
coresponding direction) This little detail suggests to me that this
wheel may be toed out a bit more than what's correct? Or am I barking up
the wrong tree?

--
Don Bruder - - New Email policy in effect as of Feb. 21, 2004.
Short form: I'm trashing EVERY E-mail that doesn't contain a password in the
subject unless it comes from a "whitelisted" (pre-approved by me) address.
See <http://www.sonic.net/~dakidd/main/contact.html> for full details.

"Don Bruder" > wrote in message
...
>
> Just last week, put a nearly complete front-end rebuild on my car, and
> got it aligned. All seemed well - It handles better, the steering wheel
> is actually straight (No, it wasn't pulled and repositioned - I was
> there for evey minute of the job, and manually centered it myself before
> the mechanic who did the alignment so much as picked up a tool) for the
> first time since I've owned the car, and in general, drives a WHOLE
> bunch better, except that I'm still wearing the inside edge of the
> passenger-side tire.
>
> Items replaced:
> Tie rod ends (inner and outer)
> Idler arm
> Pitmann (or is it properly spelled "Pittman"? Either way...) arm
> Lower control arms/Bushings/Ball joints
> Sway bar links/Sway bar mount bushings
> Fresh tires
>
> Only thing that COULD be replaced that wasn't was the strut mounts,
> which, according to the factory manual specs, and testing procedures,
> show "good as new", the strut cartridges themselves, and the radius-rod
> bushings, which seem to be A-OK.
>
> Wanted to do the strut cartridges while I was in there, but ran out of
> time, so the old (but far from worn out, if the "bounce test" is any
> indication - They allow the car to finish part of the final "up" swing,
> then settle back down to normal position almost immediately after I stop
> bouncing the corner of the car)
>
> Yet I've still got the inside of the passenger side tire wearing
> rapidly.
>
> So, is it a bad alignment? Something else?
>
> And if a bad alignment, which adjustment is the most likely culprit?
>
> I'm noticing a tendency to get some squeal (not hideously bad, but
> enough to be fairly obvious, at least to me) from the right front on
> medium-hard cornering to the right - Significance, if any? There is no
> corresponding squeal from the left on turns to the left, like there was
> just before this project was done (when *BOTH* front tires were wearing
> severely on the inside, and both squealed quite badly on turns to the
> coresponding direction) This little detail suggests to me that this
> wheel may be toed out a bit more than what's correct? Or am I barking up
> the wrong tree?
>
> --
> Don Bruder - - New Email policy in effect as of Feb. 21,
2004.
> Short form: I'm trashing EVERY E-mail that doesn't contain a password in
the
> subject unless it comes from a "whitelisted" (pre-approved by me) address.
> See <http://www.sonic.net/~dakidd/main/contact.html> for full details.
I'm not a front-end specialist, but have been around such
problems/procedures for a # of years. Many front-end guys tend to
compensate, during alignment, for many roads being 'crowned' which puts the
right roadside lower than the left to let water run off to the right. They
adjust the right camber (out at the bottom) such that it would make it pull
slightly to the left on a perfectly flat roadbed. This makes it, hopefully,
end up not pulling at all (as felt thru the steering wheel) when rolling on
crowned roadbeds.
Perhaps it is "out too far on the bottom". HTH, & good luck. s

Toe will affect both sides equally. If only one tire wears more on the inside you most likely have too much negative camber.

Don Bruder wrote:
>
> Just last week, put a nearly complete front-end rebuild on my car, and
> got it aligned. All seemed well - It handles better, the steering wheel
> is actually straight (No, it wasn't pulled and repositioned - I was
> there for evey minute of the job, and manually centered it myself before
> the mechanic who did the alignment so much as picked up a tool) for the
> first time since I've owned the car, and in general, drives a WHOLE
> bunch better, except that I'm still wearing the inside edge of the
> passenger-side tire.
>
> Items replaced:
> Tie rod ends (inner and outer)
> Idler arm
> Pitmann (or is it properly spelled "Pittman"? Either way...) arm
> Lower control arms/Bushings/Ball joints
> Sway bar links/Sway bar mount bushings
> Fresh tires
>
> Only thing that COULD be replaced that wasn't was the strut mounts,
> which, according to the factory manual specs, and testing procedures,
> show "good as new", the strut cartridges themselves, and the radius-rod
> bushings, which seem to be A-OK.
>
> Wanted to do the strut cartridges while I was in there, but ran out of
> time, so the old (but far from worn out, if the "bounce test" is any
> indication - They allow the car to finish part of the final "up" swing,
> then settle back down to normal position almost immediately after I stop
> bouncing the corner of the car)
>
> Yet I've still got the inside of the passenger side tire wearing
> rapidly.
>
> So, is it a bad alignment? Something else?
>
> And if a bad alignment, which adjustment is the most likely culprit?
>
> I'm noticing a tendency to get some squeal (not hideously bad, but
> enough to be fairly obvious, at least to me) from the right front on
> medium-hard cornering to the right - Significance, if any? There is no
> corresponding squeal from the left on turns to the left, like there was
> just before this project was done (when *BOTH* front tires were wearing
> severely on the inside, and both squealed quite badly on turns to the
> coresponding direction) This little detail suggests to me that this
> wheel may be toed out a bit more than what's correct? Or am I barking up
> the wrong tree?
>
> --
> Don Bruder - - New Email policy in effect as of Feb. 21, 2004.
> Short form: I'm trashing EVERY E-mail that doesn't contain a password in the
> subject unless it comes from a "whitelisted" (pre-approved by me) address.
> See <http://www.sonic.net/~dakidd/main/contact.html> for full details.

--
Mike Walsh
West Palm Beach, Florida, U.S.A.