Took the Mag in because the tires were wearing on the outsides. I figured it was an alignment issue. The dealership performed an alignment and said it wasn’t to bad but not enough to cause the tires to wear unusual. Tech stated that the tires ARE wearing normally, but they needed to be rotated more often. WHAT, normally?! My wife picked up the car, so I was not present to question the tech, but at 12,000 miles I don’t expect the tires to be worn like this. I figure at 20,000 miles the outside of the tires will be bald. This can’t be what Continental expects out of their tires.

 

I have 8100 miles on mine....they look real good. However, I am in the
habit of rotating my tires whenever I change the oil. Maybe it's more
often than recommended, but I figure I will get more use from the tires.
Sometimes I wonder if the tire manufactures recommend "extended"
rotation schedules to sell more tires. Just a thought.

Rex

 

Did you rotate them at 5,000? Or is the Outside wear from 12,000 miles on the front wheels only? I myself find a 60,000 mile tire to only last slightly more than 20,000 miles. That was before the RT. My previous vehicles could not break the wheels loose when not on ice. I have a feeling I will be getting new tires at about 10,000 miles or so. 12,000 miles is not that bad. I contribute the Freeway On and Off Ramps for most of my tire wear, damn clover-leafs and long windy Off Ramps...

My point being that if you did not rotate them as scheduled, you may not have a 'leg to stand on' in your battle for the Dealer to replace your tires.

Oh yea, my RT does not have any kind of Steering problem that has been previously listed on this forum. It is very hard for me to believe the Steering issues that I read about, because this damn car could drive itself, with a few well placed slots in the road. While driving with hands off the wheel, the car follows every little crease in the road. Road is straight, car goes straight. Road has a slight left to right shift, like the Pavement Laying Machine Operator swerved to miss a raccoon or something, my Magnum will shift to the left, then right back to the center of the lane, right where the curve in the road is at. I have never had a car drive this nice....

 

Yes the tires have been rotated by the dealership at the scheduled intervals. So both front and rear tires are worn.

They also said they “believed they fixed” our issue with steering vibration when turning by performing a caster adjustment.

We still have the vibration.[:@]

 

my previous car G35 had the same problem - excessive wear on the front tires; both inner and outer edges, inner much more.
i had multiple argument with dealer and car aligned twice. it was always " up to specs". during all that skirmish i identified few reasons for such a wear pattern. 1) suspension geometry. agressive suspension which improves handling does it at a cost: front wheel caster causes tire edges work much harder [feathering effect] in turns, especially if you also have habit of decelerating on the entry and gunning it at apex.
2) i've also found that higher than recommended pressure increases wear ( smaller footprint) although it gives much more responsive steering. 3) find an independent shop and heve them set up the car exactly to specs - not "within" - tolerances are pretty wide.

greg

 

90% of the time inner and outer edge wear is a result of under inflation, anybody who told you differently is an idiot and does not know enough about tires or alignment to be giving advise.
Using fancy terms like "apex" and "caster" when you don't understand them makes you less informed than the guy you are attempting to advice. Caster has no bearing on tire wear. It is the measurement of spindle inclination. Aggressive geometry (which the LX platform does not have nor does the G35) has no impact on tire wear. Some vehicles have aggressive alignment settings which will cause premature tire wear. Increased caster (caster is not a setting that gets set "aggressively) will not cause tires to feather at all-ever. Most people slow prior to corner entry and accelerate out....it's called normal driving.
Increasing tire pressure above manufacturers spec rarely causes tire wear, most manufacturers run tires a little low to give them better ride comfort (see Firestone/Ford Explorer for evidence). I always run my customers tires with more air than the door sticker. Running more air pressure does not cause a smaller footprint; proper pressure can only be determined by measuring tread surface temperature across the face immediately after stopping. The dealer will provide the best factory alignment possible as we change recommendation periodically and the outside industries are not kept up to date.


I changed some of your original text to correct for grammatical errors and spelling Greg, sorry.

 

Oh mama! dodgemech, you did worked yourself up! didn't you?
...and getting personal. bad boy!
le me quete you bac to straigten some details; they DO mislead public.
[...THE EFFECTS OF CASTER

Caster is the angle to which the steering pivot axis is tilted forward or rearward from vertical, as viewed from the side. If the pivot axis is tilted backward (that is, the top pivot is positioned farther rearward than the bottom pivot), then the caster is positive; if it's tilted forward, then the caster is negative.

Positive caster tends to straighten the wheel when the vehicle is traveling forward, and thus is used to enhance straight-line stability. The mechanism that causes this tendency is clearly illustrated by the castering front wheels of a shopping cart (above). The steering axis of a shopping cart wheel is set forward of where the wheel contacts the ground. As the cart is pushed forward, the steering axis pulls the wheel along, and since the wheel drags along the ground, it falls directly in line behind the steering axis. The force that causes the wheel to follow the steering axis is proportional to the distance between the steering axis and the wheel-to-ground contact patch-the greater the distance, the greater the force. This distance is referred to as "trail."

Due to many design considerations, it is desirable to have the steering axis of a car's wheel right at the wheel hub. If the steering axis were to be set vertical with this layout, the axis would be coincident with the tire contact patch. The trail would be zero, and no castering would be generated. The wheel would be essentially free to spin about the patch (actually, the tire itself generates a bit of a castering effect due to a phenomenon known as "pneumatic trail," but this effect is much smaller than that created by mechanical castering, so we'll ignore it here). Fortunately, it is possible to create castering by tilting the steering axis in the positive direction. With such an arrangement, the steering axis intersects the ground at a point in front of the tire contact patch, and thus the same effect as seen in the shopping cart casters is achieved.

The tilted steering axis has another important effect on suspension geometry. Since the wheel rotates about a tilted axis, the wheel gains camber as it is turned. This effect is best visualized by imagining the unrealistically extreme case where the steering axis would be horizontal-as the steering wheel is turned, the road wheel would simply change camber rather than direction. This effect causes the outside wheel in a turn to gain negative camber, while the inside wheel gains positive camber. These camber changes are generally favorable for cornering, although it is possible to overdo it.

Most cars are not particularly sensitive to caster settings. Nevertheless, it is important to ensure that the caster is the same on both sides of the car to avoid the tendency to pull to one side. While greater caster angles serve to improve straight-line stability, they also cause an increase in steering effort. Three to five degrees of positive caster is the typical range of settings, with lower angles being used on heavier vehicles to keep the steering effort reasonable....]


this is quote from "popular" article found online. this is a link http://www.ozebiz.com.au/racetech/theory/align.html
no coments on this one.
oh yes, experience of the effect of the overinflation on the tires did cost me 3 sets of tires ($ 800-1000 a set) trashed after 15K miles.
you're wellcome to emanate your belfer's attitude (no offense) - i'm still gonna keep 32 psi

respectfully,
greg

 

yes, my spelling sucks. i guess its called dyslexia.
... still, mananaged to finish college...

pardon my delayed reaction, but what exactly is "... measurement of spindle inclination..."
isn't that a camber? or i'm missing something..

 

i agree as a dodge tech,most tire wear problems are caused by under inflation.
They also have a camber problem due to hub failure that in my opinion should be a recall!

 

Not sure how any of the other RT's are being delivered....mine
came with the Conti's and when I got home....the look of the
tires wasn't right for me....got my pressure gauge out....22.5 PSI
at all four corners. [:@] Needless to say...my compressor was
not sitting idle for very long.