Strange Tire Wear

jrod332 · August 2, 2010

My front tires on my 05 silverado has a different tire wear than I have seen before. Its on the outside edge of the front tires only. A mechanic friend of mine told me possible bad shocks. I wanted to replace them anyway so I did that. Rotated the front tires to the back and they smoothed out. Now the tires I have in the front now are doing the same thing. Cant be shocks. Could it be ball joints or tie rods? Jacked the truck up today and everything seems pretty tight. The upper ball joints on both sides dont hold much grease, but have no movement.

EDIT: Forgot to describe the tire wear. The outer edge is kinda choppy. Each little piece of tread or whatever you want to call it is slightly angled from one side to the other as you look at the wheel.

jrrod2004 · August 2, 2010

My front tires on my 05 silverado has a different tire wear than I have seen before. Its on the outside edge of the front tires only. A mechanic friend of mine told me possible bad shocks. I wanted to replace them anyway so I did that. Rotated the front tires to the back and they smoothed out. Now the tires I have in the front now are doing the same thing. Cant be shocks. Could it be ball joints or tie rods? Jacked the truck up today and everything seems pretty tight. The upper ball joints on both sides dont hold much grease, but have no movement.

I have the same thing, my mechanic told me right tie rod and ball joint was likely gone...i didnt let him look at it though.

mine is at 58K

dlewis1111 · August 2, 2010

My front tires on my 05 silverado has a different tire wear than I have seen before. Its on the outside edge of the front tires only. A mechanic friend of mine told me possible bad shocks. I wanted to replace them anyway so I did that. Rotated the front tires to the back and they smoothed out. Now the tires I have in the front now are doing the same thing. Cant be shocks. Could it be ball joints or tie rods? Jacked the truck up today and everything seems pretty tight. The upper ball joints on both sides dont hold much grease, but have no movement.

Trying not to insult your friend here...... Outer edge tire wear on both tires is alignment. Sounds like your camber angle and or toe is off. Bad shocks cause the tire to cup and if not replaced will ruin the tires and wear out other suspension and steering components. The tire literally bounces as it goes down the road and the result is uneven tire wear over entire alternating sections. How many miles are on the truck? Is it lifted at all? Have you ever had it aligned?

gnet158 · August 2, 2010

The Alignment is out becuse the ball joints are probally shot. I went to align my old truck and the shop said they couldn't do it because the ball joints where shot. In my case it was the lowers, I had them replace the uppers since they were there.

That was on my 02, and the lowers were $400. Good luck!

jrod332 · August 2, 2010

I have about 110,000 miles on it and its not lifted. I have had it about 2 years and haven't had it aligned.

jrrod2004 · August 3, 2010

I have about 110,000 miles on it and its not lifted. I have had it about 2 years and haven't had it aligned.

Yep, I would say ball joint at that point....

Majorleaguebass · August 3, 2010

I have about 110,000 miles on it and its not lifted. I have had it about 2 years and haven't had it aligned.

Yep, I would say ball joint at that point....

same here....whats up Mike????

jblakeney · August 3, 2010

It sounds like it is out of alignment..... I bet you even picked up a noise with the tires..... Check out cupping

If that looks like your issue wheel bearings or its out of alignment.

It can be tight and out of alignment!!

Jbo

jrrod2004 · August 3, 2010

I have about 110,000 miles on it and its not lifted. I have had it about 2 years and haven't had it aligned.

Yep, I would say ball joint at that point....

same here....whats up Mike????

Whats up Justin, long time man.

mdauwald · August 3, 2010

I have outer edge tire wear with only 10K miles. The problem is that the wear occurs on the rear tires not the front. I keep 20 inch tires inflated 34-36lbs. Can't figure it out since there's no alignment for the rear. Since both tires wear on the outside it's not like the axle is mounted crooked or something. I would think bearng slop would show on both the inside and outside edges so I'm lost. Before I take it in I'd like to know what the fix would be but can't figure it out.

jrrod2004 · August 3, 2010

I have outer edge tire wear with only 10K miles. The problem is that the wear occurs on the rear tires not the front. I keep 20 inch tires inflated 34-36lbs. Can't figure it out since there's no alignment for the rear. Since both tires wear on the outside it's not like the axle is mounted crooked or something. I would think bearng slop would show on both the inside and outside edges so I'm lost. Before I take it in I'd like to know what the fix would be but can't figure it out.

Tires mounted improperly??? I am assuming that you are still under warranty.

kdixer · August 3, 2010

A quick tip...

One way to see if yout toe is way out:

Back up about 20 feet in a straight line

Get out and look at you front tires while facing the front of your vehicle

If they look like this....\ /.... after backing up, then you have alot of "toe out"

If they look like this..../ \.... after backing up, then you have alot of "toe in"

If they look like this....| |....after backing up, then your toe is pretty neutral

jrrod2004 · August 3, 2010

A quick tip...

One way to see if yout toe is way out:

Back up about 20 feet in a straight line

Get out and look at you front tires while facing the front of your vehicle

If they look like this....\ /.... after backing up, then you have alot of "toe out"

If they look like this..../ \.... after backing up, then you have alot of "toe in"

If they look like this....| |....after backing up, then your toe is pretty neutral

Interesting....thanks

kdixer · August 3, 2010

I had to manually align a nissan truck like that once. I had several alignments done and it would not stop wearing tires on the outside. So I would pull forward and backwards and noticed the tires would pull in at the bottom while going forward and push out at the bottom while backing up. So I adjusted the tie rods until there was minimal difference between backing up and pulling forward. I was trying to make the tires stay like this...| |. After my adjustments it stopped wearing the tires and I never had it aligned again.

There was nothing wrong with the truck other than I had cranked the torsion bars up and added leaf springs to the rear.