Is this a common problem on these vans? I have a brand new set of 50k mile tires on the front and after 4k miles, the outer edges on both sides are surprisingly worn.

Front brakes are smooth and the front end does not vibrate. I notice a slight oscillation of the steering wheel when going over bumps at speed.

Alignment or does this sound like a problem others have had?

 

You need an alignment. That's camber wear.

 

Alignment or you're trying to impersonate Mario Andretti.

 

could also be dirt and mud build up around the wheel rims knock any of that off if still presites. u need wheel alignment

 

Simple, you have too much toe in. Something around 1/8" toe in will wear the outside edges of both tires and this alignment issue will not be visible to the naked "trained" eye. Toe setting and tire wear pattern should never suddenly change. If this issue didn't exist before, you likely have one of five possible issues: 1) bad control arm bushing or 2) bad outer tie rod or 3) bad inner tie rod or 4) bad ball joint or 5) somebody messed with your tie rod adjustment or replaced a steering part without doing a realignment.


Positive camber will not noticeably wear the outside tire tread edge unless the camber is 2 degrees positive or something extreme. Plus both sides of the vehicle would need to have the same extreme positive camber issue which would never happen even from crash damage. The tires would show a crazy angle when viewed from the front like an old English sports car. No, camber whacked out that extreme would be impossible unless somebody put a 4" lift kit on your van.

 

check for scuffing of the tire it will be smooth if u rub one direction and rough in the other direction. tht is also called feathering. if you rub from outside to inside across the tread and its smooth and rough the opposite direction that is too much toe in. it is difficult to see the feathering on the tire with the naked eye. do this to both tires. i would have to say though i think it is more of a camber issue but i could be wrong.

UTI student who just got out of steering and suspension

and the steering movement when hitting bumps is cause the van has 0 caster not positive or negative which will give u bump steer

 

The shop said the control arms were bent because they could not adjust them where they needed to be. Here are the alignment results. Comments?

 

My assessment, no charge:


first of all, forget about the rear because it has no effect on front tire wear. The vehicle has a solid rear axle and the rear is not adjustable.


Front Caster:


caster values will have no effect on tire wear unless you are continuously racing in tight circles at 1g. If caster is unbalanced left to right by more than 0.5 degrees, the steering wheel will pull to one side all the time but it will not wear out the tires. Your caster values are good and also well balanced right to left. It is not adjustable without some special eccentric bolts for the lower strut-to-spindle mount or special work to shift the top strut mount around which they didn't do.


Front camber:


the front camber values were near zero and well balanced. No problem here before or after. The half degree imbalance before was likely because they failed to bounce the van after parking it on the machine. It is not adjustable without some special eccentric bolts for the lower strut-to-spindle mount or work to shift the top strut mount around which they did not do.


Front Toe:


BINGO!!! Your toe was out by 1.5 degrees (too much toe in) so they readjusted it, setting it near zero. Problem corrected exactly as I suspected. This took them 10 minutes to crank the outer tie rod bolts one turn each side. No more tire wear.


PS: Their comment about the lower control arms both being bent is a total BS joke. Nothing is wrong now.

 

You are right about the control arms...

Dude on the phone told me that's what they changed but I looked at the work order and it indicates both struts were changed.

What do the OEM struts look like or what markings are on them? These say Sensa on them and appear new.

 

Probably aftermarket Monroe Sensa-Trac struts. Your alignment problem causing the tire wear has been repaired because they properly reset the toe according to the "after" measurements.


There would be no reason for the toe to change when they did the strut job unless it included the replacement of an inner or outer tie rod. The tie rod adjustment is normally not messed with when struts are replaced unless they are idiots.