I have a 2000 Durango, and am having tire wear on the inside of both front wheels. I put new BFG A/T's on 1 year ago, and didn't do an alignment. Tire wear was pretty good over the last year, but a little uneven. I rotated tires every 6000 miles. Last month I had some brake work done, and decided to have a 4 wheel alignment done also. I got the vehicle back and immediately noticed it pulled to the right. I drove it for 2000 miles and noticed significant wear on the inside lugs of the driver's side front tire, and a little wear on the inside of passenger's front.My wifetook it back to the shop and made them re-perform the alignment and rotate the tires. I have 2000-3000 miles on it now since the last alignment, and am noticing severe wear on the inside of both front tires. Both sides have about the same amount of wear. The vehicle feels good driving down the road, no pull either way. The inside lugs are definately less tread than the middle and outside lugs. The wear is also a "sawtooth" wear, but the saw tooth wear goes circumferentially, not left to right.

Does anyone have any experience with this same sort of wear? I know I have seen plenty of Durango's out there with uneven tire wear. I really wonder if the Camber suggested by the manufacturer or tire shop is not proper for this vehicle, because before the alignment, tire wear was pretty good. Any ideas are appreciated. Thanks.

 

Camber is a likely culprit for excessive inside wear. Do you know what camber setting they used when they did the alignment (+/- how many degrees)?

 

The tires is what your problem is. You installed new tires one year ago, and right off the get-go, they started wearing uneven. You been driving and wearing the tires uneven. So now, you got the truck aligned, within factory specs.(with tires that are worn incorrectly) and now the tires is what is pulling the truck every which way. Your going to need replace the tires asap, OR when you do replace the tires, GT the truck realigned.

BTW, if the shop didn't tell you what i just stated, i wouldn't go back there.

 

Ben, teamimage, thanks for the replies.

Actually, the tires wore really good for the first 16,000 miles. I had some slight uneven wear, but if I kept the tires rotated, overall they were wearing nicely. I had the vehicle in for a warranty brake job and decided to do the alignment to see if I couldn't get them to wear even better, and within 2500 miles I was noticing significant wear. So I know my issues came up since the alignment.

I had the vehicle back in Saturday for another alignment. I was able to get one of the technicians to admit that they found out about 3 weeks ago that one of the front sensors was out of calibration on toe by about 1.5 to 2.0 degrees. They did the re-alignment and to no surprise, I was toe'd out .75 degrees each wheel for a total of 1.5 degrees. What was surprising is that the camber was right on the money (set to spec at 0 deg). The wear I was seeing was mostly on the inside 1/4 of the wheel. It was cupping there also. The other 3/4 of tread wasn't seeing much wear including any saw-cut like wear typically representing toe issues.

So, the shop thinks that will fix the problem, I think I still may have some wear on the inside since we didn't adjust camber at all. I took it to drive a while and see if I see more wear, but since all four tires already have wear in that area, I don't know if I am going to be able to see it for a long time.

Ben, the tires still have probably 1/2 life left, but now because of the wear, they are really road noisy. Should the shop be responsible to put new tires on now since their machine wasn't calibrated, or since there is life left they have no responsibility for road noise? Or should they only be responsible for a discount when the life is used up or not responsible at all? What is your opinion?

Thanks for the replies.

 

As far as responsibility goes, I would say they are responsible to a certain extent because it was the malfunction in their equipment that made the tires wear unevenly. Are they legally liable? Maybe, maybe not, and you'd spend more than the price of tires dragging them into court. I would probably complain to the shop, and see if they will give you some compensation. Talk to the manager and see if he'll split the cost of a new set of tires. If so, that is good customer service and they'll probably earn your business in the future.