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Bad front tire wear - stock suspension

Geosh

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I’ve got a 2019 GT that I’ve put about 17k miles on now. I switched out the wheels and tires about 12k miles ago and yesterday day noticed that the inside section of tread on both front tires are worn down to the chords. The rest of the tire isn’t even to the west bars yet. This is a daily driver and isn’t tracked or driven all that hard.

Took it to the dealer today and they said toe was almost in the middle of spec and that the only thing that was towards the limit was camber, but they can’t adjust that to be less aggressive. It’s still in spec though apparently.

Are these cars inherently rough on front tires in stock form? Is there anything I can do to adjust it to be a little nicer on tread life?

I’ll post pics of the alignment sheet when I pick it up this afternoon. Just a little disappointed in the crappy tire life, and now more hesitant to throw expensive tires on it.

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Replicator

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Having the toe moved to the toe-in side of the spec will help with ITW.
 
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Geosh

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Ford said it’s all good. If I want to flatten out the camber, then it will be $450 to wobble out the strut holes to allow more adjustment apparently. They didn’t seem concerned about the tire wear.

Not entirely thrilled with my visit

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Zrussian13

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My front tires on the gt always wear the inside edge out first and alignment is in spec. 12k miles seems really quick for front tires though. I drive the car pretty hard and still usually average about 25-30k. The rears are a different story...
 

NTXChris

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Don't worry too much about your camber specs; toe is what contributes to that sort of inside shoulder wear.

The dealer will only try to get it into the "green" spec like your sheet shows. You'll need to find a local alignment shop with good quality equipment that's willing align to specs that will minimize that kind of wear.

*Edit: Aaaannd looking at the alignment sheet, the front end is still toed out, which won't do anything for your tire wear. To reduce inside shoulder wear, you are looking for 0 total toe, or (very) slightly positive toe IN.
 
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Dfeeds

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As stated, all these people know how to do is put it in the green. The new alignment will actually make your problem worse. You want positive toe in. The positive toe will help offset the tire wear of negative camber. I had wear, on both tires, with -0.05 and 0.01. The new alignment has both sides at 0.05 toe in.
 
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Geosh

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As stated, all these people know how to do is put it in the green. The new alignment will actually make your problem worse. You want positive toe in. The positive toe will help offset the tire wear of negative camber. I had wear, on both tires, with -0.05 and 0.01. The new alignment has both sides at 0.05 toe in.
I don’t know who’s the bigger idiot: me for not knowing is positive or negative was toe in, or them for telling me it was toe out (originally 0.01 on both sides) and they fixed it. Looks like they did it backwards from what I asked for. I said I thought it needed to be more toe in based on the tire wear. They insisted it was 100% camber causing the wear.
 

Replicator

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I don’t know who’s the bigger idiot: me for not knowing is positive or negative was toe in, or them for telling me it was toe out (originally 0.01 on both sides) and they fixed it. Looks like they did it backwards from what I asked for. I said I thought it needed to be more toe in based on the tire wear. They insisted it was 100% camber causing the wear.
Camber wear is much more consistent across the tire. Your wear is definitely toe. I would take it to a real alignment shop and ask for .05*- .10* positive(toe in) on each side.
 

Dfeeds

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I don’t know who’s the bigger idiot: me for not knowing is positive or negative was toe in, or them for telling me it was toe out (originally 0.01 on both sides) and they fixed it. Looks like they did it backwards from what I asked for. I said I thought it needed to be more toe in based on the tire wear. They insisted it was 100% camber causing the wear.
Them. It's perfectly okay and understandable for you to not know or get it mixed up. You were right to recommend toe in.

I recommend seeking out a more qualified shop, if you're not planning on having the dealership fix their goof. I found a performance shop, by me, to do my alignment. It was pricey but the tech was incredibly knowledgeable and did a fantastic job explaining certain aspects I didn't fully understand. The added bonus of knowledge more than made up for the extra price of admission. Conversely, I recently was stuck talking to a 19 y/o Ford tech (son of my girlfriend's friend) who didn't even know what an ASE certification was.
 

GT 550

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Ford said it’s all good.
:rolleyes:

They're talking utter bs. No way it's camber and no way it should wear that much when the rest of the tyre still has that much tread. They need to fix it. Prob worth not persisting with that dealer unless you have a good relationship with them and the tech is prepared to accept that toe in is +ve which some of them get wrong.
 

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Cory S

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That's a super easy fix to do yourself as well.
 

Cobra Jet

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As was stated - many of the Service Centers and "mom-n-pop" shops only do exactly what is seen in the image of the alignment results . . .

Which is. . .

"yep, it's in the green, it's all good" and they pass off the car to the customer - and many customers also see "green" and believe the same, it's all good... but is it...

Half The time, the "green" can be as bad as if it were just "red"....

Also to note, tire wear can also be reduced by:

1) Always checking air pressure - Check tire pressures at least at the end of every week or every 2 weeks. Tire air pressure changes not only based on actual tire temps as the tire is driven on BUT also changes with outside air temps (or changes in seasons). Just because you're not getting a low tire pressure warning light on the dash, doesn't mean the tires pressures are equal in all 4 OR that they can't be within proper spec. The TPMS sensors in all modern wheels have a tolerance spec that allows for air pressure fluctuation BUT won't "light up" until it hits that max "low" tolerance psi.

2). Along with checking tire air pressure - over inflation or under inflation can cause tire wear issues too. Again, tire pressure changes with temps. The warmer the tire whether sitting in a driveway or being driven on, tire pressure rises. If the door decal says 32 or 34psi, that's a COLD reading. Fill the tire to that psi when it's "cold" or say at least 70* outside. Even if the actual tire psi is say 32 cold (before driving), when the tire heats up from driving that psi could actually get to 35-37, which is normal. Over inflation of a tire raises the center contact patch off the road as well, which also causes premature tire wear too. So if say the cold psi was 36, when that tire heats up, it's now pushing closer to 40psi or beyond, which isn't good when driving long term on over inflated tires. The more the center contact patch is raised off the road surface, the greater risk there is for hydroplaning when it's wet out, loosing traction during colder weather, etc.

2) Rotate, rotate, rotate.... Many people don't rotate their tires at all. If the tires were rotated at X-intervals, tire wear such as you're experiencing (even with a bad alignment) could still be reduced to a more "even" wear on all 4, rather than 2 being totally destroyed. When doing an oil change, rotate the wheels even if the tires don't "look" bad... Most folks seem to do oil changes every 3-5k, so rotate the wheels based on that base interval.

If it were me, I'd search out a performance shop or actual "alignment" shop that can and will get your alignment within better specs OR even to your own specs.
 
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boB

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When you switched wheels and tires did you switch them to the same specs as original?
 
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Geosh

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When you switched wheels and tires did you switch them to the same specs as original?
Technically no. I went from 18” wheels to 20”. But offsets and overall tire diameter in the front were just about the same.


And to the previous post, I check air regularly. I also can’t rotate because of the staggered setup I’m running.
 

boB

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I asked because with the wear in such a small stripe it looks like something may be rubbing but with the same size/offset that is not likely and you would have heard it. I am out of ideas. For reference here is a photo of my right front tire (taken from behind): the wear is consistent, the camber is -1.5, and although it only has 6000 miles that includes an hour at Daytona so that has to add some mileage. ;)
Wish I could help more, good luck with a different alignment shop!

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