Help reading tire wear?!?

[GoneYukon]

I need some help from everyone. I have a terrible scalloping tire wear problem on the front tires. First some background: '02 Yukon XL 2WD, 45k miles when I got it, now 62k, never wrecked (I know this for sure), all normal maintenance done at proper intervals, but nothing replaced mechanically.

 

The story...

I noticed when I got the truck that the tires were scalloped on the inner side pretty badly. The tires were fairly new with a good amount of tread left overall. My first action was to get an alignment and rotate the tires figuring that this was simply never done. The rear tires were not scalloped.

 

It has been 6 months since I had the alignment, and I have noticed the the tires were scalloping again, but really didn't take action. I am preparing for a new set of rims/tires and want to eliminate the problem before I do that. From what I have read it sounds like something is worn mechanically (ball joints, bushings/bearings, etc.).

 

What should I look at first? How should I diagnose this? Has anyone experiencd this? I searched the forum, but nothing like my situation. Thanks for your help!!

[topo4u2]

Hey GoneYukon,

This is a tough question cause there are many things in the front end that can cause this wear. The first thing that comes to mind is shocks. You can visually look at them and see if they are leaking oil or do the bounce test or mabye bushings are gone in them. You could also have worn parts issues. To be honest unless you are very mechanically inclined or know alot about front ends I would suggest going to your local garage (hopefully one you can trust ) and get a frontend inspection. Like I said its very hard without seeing it what the issue could be. It would be cool if you could get a pic of one of the tires and show us the wear you have...might help a litttle.

Cheers.

[firstruck]

Are they Goodyears? if so that explains it right there!

[GoneYukon]

I HATE GOODYEARS!

 

No, they're Firestone Wilderness.

 

No leaking oil on the shocks either. The truck passes the bounce test too. I'll take it to my mechanic this weekend, but I wanted to get everyone's opinion first.

[GoneYukon]

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[Bump]

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Just joined forum today. 2001 yukon XL 4x4 original wilderness did the same, wore out on inside fast, put two new

wal-mart goodyears on front same problem. Talked with local chevy shop foreman, he said, every 4 wheel drive does this, short/long doesn't matter ( they reccomend rotating every 6000 miles CRAP ). Talked with good local tire man, he said all do this, started looking and talking to others that have this vehicle, they didn't pay any attention or had tires wear out in 30,000 miles. Took to trusted alignment shop, they said frontend was close to gm specs but they brought the top out just a little to try and correct. Went back to tire man had 4 new firestone destination le put on, only 200 miles now everything seems good. What I was told by the tire man, the goodyear was made for wal-mart (lets be sure and get those prices down on what we think is a good brand name to heck with quality). My experience with the goodyear (20,000 miles at most), car darted all over the road and pulled to the right bad plus loud. Firestone, no pull no darting and quiet

[fossil]

Good wheel alignment shops from my experience are very hard to find and far and few in between and guys that know and care how to do them even harder to find. I'd say from your post you didn't get a proper job on the alignment and something was overlooked in the front end.

[Guest chevydeerhunter]

What I was told by the tire man, the goodyear was made for wal-mart (lets be sure and get those prices down on what we think is a good brand name to heck with quality).

 

I don't mean to hijack this thread, but your Wally World quote sparked my attention. A couple of years ago, I bought a case of Winchester shotgun shells from them. The first day out, I missed so many birds, it was pathetic. I decided to take my gun into a local gun shop so that the smitty could check it out. He said there was nothing wrong with the gun and asked what type of ammo I was using. He tried to look up the batch codes in the Winchester catalog, but they didn't have the number. He finally called Winchester and they informed him that Wal-Mart has special ammo made for them that is a lot milder for lack of a better word and cheaper to boot. So the pellets weren't making it to the birds fast enough. I bought a similar box of ammo from the gun store and mixed them in with the Wally ammo. I blindly loaded my gun with three shells and I'll be damned if I couldn't feel and hear the difference! I don't trust much as far as quality from Wally World after that incident.

[BRZ71]

It is definatly a 4WD thing. They do all wear that way, but if you can get a good alignment guy like was stated earlier, he will look at the tires and make adjustments for the wear. One thing though, once tires start to wear a certain way they generally continue to wear that way no matter what you do. So if they were scalloped real bad they will stay that way, also if your shocks are good out of balance tires will cause that kind of wear sometimes. I have always rotated mine every 5 to 6000 miles on a 4wd. I have found the larger tires on them don't keep their balance very well as they wear and I get them rotated and balanced, but I buy the lifetime rotation and balance with the tires.

[GoneYukon]

back to the top...

 

No one has anymore feedback?!?

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Just joined forum today. 2001 yukon XL 4x4 original wilderness did the same, wore out on inside fast, put two new

wal-mart goodyears on front same problem. Talked with local chevy shop foreman, he said, every 4 wheel drive does this, short/long doesn't matter ( they reccomend rotating every 6000 miles CRAP ). Talked with good local tire man, he said all do this, started looking and talking to others that have this vehicle, they didn't pay any attention or had tires wear out in 30,000 miles. Took to trusted alignment shop, they said frontend was close to gm specs but they brought the top out just a little to try and correct. Went back to tire man had 4 new firestone destination le put on, only 200 miles now everything seems good. What I was told by the tire man, the goodyear was made for wal-mart (lets be sure and get those prices down on what we think is a good brand name to heck with quality). My experience with the goodyear (20,000 miles at most), car darted all over the road and pulled to the right bad plus loud. Firestone, no pull no darting and quiet

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

 

 

Thanks for your replies... finally

 

I took the truck and got it aligned. All adjustments were well within spec of GM recommended. The type of wear that I experienced was not due to camber as you suggest. The wear was scalloped. Too much negative camber would produce even wear on the inner treads, not scalloped. Personally, I think that the issue is toe. I've only had the new tires on there for a few hundred miles and there is no tell tale signs of improper wear, but that may change. If they start to wear I'll take it back and have the toe brought in a bit. Otherwise, I'll blame the problem on shi++y Firestone tires. The old tires were were balanced, bearings are good, shocks are good and nothing mechanically was abnormally worn so that would tell me alignment is the probable cause.

 

Interestingly enough I was driving through a parking garage and noticed another 2WD Yukon XL with tires that had the exact same problem. Don't we all look for trucks with the same problem when we have one?!? The tires were on the back and the 20" rims were aftermarket so there is the small chance those variables had something to do with the abnormal wear on this truck, but I doubt it. The tires were scalloped just as badly as mine. Since there is no alignment on the rear wheels (except 4W steering models) the tires were obviously rotated to the rear from the front. Coincidence? I think not.

 

These two 2WD trucks can't be the only ones with this problem. C'mon people chime in. Even if to say, "My tires are fine, back off!"

 

[Ape0r]

It is definatly a 4WD thing.  They do all wear that way

 

Mine doesn't! Not that its an SUV.. had the front tires cup on both sides in the first 8000 or so miles, kept them dead at 35 psi.

 

These days I run ~40 front and ~37 rear.

 

Stock Goodyear Wrangler ST's.

 

Wet traction is for s**t, but I'll be damned if they aren't wearing slow. 33k and they look like they'll be good for at least another 33k. Not bad for stockers if you ask me!

[BADGERMAN]

Just because the alignment was within GM specs, doesn't mean it is right.

 

I had a 97 GMC EC that wore out tires faster than I could put them on. I had an alignment done on it and they said they put it within GM specs, but the problem still

was there.

 

So I took it to a friend that does alginments and he said it was within specs, but on the very outer limits of the specs. He took a little more time than normal on the alignment and he got it as close to perfect as you can get. Surprise no more tire wear.

 

It pays to know someone that actually takes pride in making sure that things are right.

[TOTALRECALL]

Hi - 2002 reg cab 8 foot bed 4X4 with the Firestone C rated tires. Heavy wear on the outside. Bought at 25,000 miles, had a reported front end crash from carfax, had it aligned afterwords and several folks told me, oh the GM wear problem, the 4X4's do that, wear on the outside.

 

The shop did take some time with it and made their own adjustment on one side. Dont' drive it a lot, only 28,000 now after a year. I don't know, when I had my 88 Monte Carlo SS, which I had for 13 years, I gave GM credit over Ford for having the best tracking and tire wearing car on the block.

 

The car fax report didn't show any airbag deployment, looks good, drives pretty good, but unlike my Monte Carlo, any road variation seems to pull the truck one way or the other.

 

Eventually will let a body shop do some measurements just to check the frame, but I was amazed when the alignment guys made their oh GM comment.

 

Who knows.

 

Mike