Hey guys,

im having some tire tread wear issues. My passenger side tires are wearing more on the outside and overall more than the driver side.

here are pics of my front driver and passenger.

is this simply an alignment issue or is there more to the story? I was always under the impression that if it’s alignment, then both sides would wear the same way.

any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Might want to check your hub bearing and ball joints. Easy check is to jack it up on the trouble side and put on jack stand for safety. Then grab the wheel and see if it has any play. Try wiggling (pulling) top and bottom and front and rear. Check that and let us know.

 

Thats a camber issue so most likely wheel bearings or ball joints as sig said. Do what he said and report back.

 

Hey guys so I did that and there didn't seem to be any play. Would it take a lot of force to feel that play or would it be pretty evident with minor pressure?

 

a fair bit of force for the ball joints, its best to put a lever under the wheel to see if you can observe any movement in the ball joints

less so for the wheel bearing, its more about carefully feeling for lateral play

you may also have a worn tie rod end on that side, if its too easy to move with the hand

 

An alignment check would show if it's a camber or toe-in issue.

 

Another question, how old are those tires? I see what appears to be age/heat cracks....

 

maybe 1-2 yrs old.

 

If just the toe is out, then that's correct. If, as others have said, there doesn't seem to be any play in the ball joints, you might want to get your camber checked. If your static camber* is off on one side enough to give you that sort of tire wear, you should be able to see it looking straight at the front of the vehicle.

*Static camber is just the camber angle with the vehicle standing still. Camber changes as the suspension compresses in a turn, especially if you have slop in the ball joints or elsewhere.

 

I’m not going to be able to address it before our trip this weekend, so I need to put my full size spare on.

I gotta question though, my spare is the same size but it’s on a 15” rim instead of 16 like the rest and the tread pattern is different.

would it be better to put it on the front passenger where the worn tire is, or putting it on the rear passenger and move the rear passenger wheel to the front passenger ?

does it matter 1 way or the other?

we are going camping in the eastern sierras for 5 nights.

 

spare can not be the same size and also fit a 15" rim if the others are on 16" rims