Tire wear

[rayaa]

my 2003 MM has 9882 miles on it- i am the original owner. front tires are shot- excess wear on inner & outer edge. rear tires are shot- wear in center. i have rotated them (side to side) and i dont do over 100 mph (very often). nor do i leave a trail of goodrich at every stoplight.

is this the norm? anyone else see such poor mileage out of their tires?

dealer checked alignment today for me due to the wear- said i was right in specs.

looks like tire rack will be shipping me new ones soon.

BTW- anyone know if a good (equal or better) tire on the market?

[RF Overlord]

rayaa:

Well, less than 10,000 miles is NOT normal...I know some have had wear issues as early as 17,000...I personally got almost 30,000 out of mine...but they are definitely not long-lasting tires.

Your dealer is probably using the factory alignment specs, which are wrong; that's why the extreme front inner wear...(excessive toe-out). I can look up the correct specs when I get home, or hopefully someone else will post them for you first...

As far as the rear centre wear, it's been pretty well accepted by the membership here that increasing the pressure over the factory spec of 32 seems to solve that issue. Yes, I said INCREASING...I believe the new magic number is 36 lbs...someone correct me if I'm wrong.

[jgc61sr2002]

[QUOTE=RF Overlord]rayaa:

Well, less than 10,000 miles is NOT normal...I know some have had wear issues as early as 17,000...I personally got almost 30,000 out of mine...but they are definitely not long-lasting tires.



Bob - That's because the Bunny Lady drives it. :D

[MarauderMark]

Alignment specs (http://www.mercurymarauder.net/forums/showthread.php?t=15169&highlight=alignment+specs)


Tire pressure (http://www.mercurymarauder.net/forums/showthread.php?t=14413&highlight=rear+tire+pressure)

Hope this helps.

[jabird56]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that you are not suppose to rotate radials from side to side....

[Petrograde]

My OEMs lasted a little over 20K,... But,.. I first noticed some extreme tire wear (front inner) around 14K, an alignment cured it. The rears were pretty much toast ,... only 'cause I do leave trail of Goodrich everywhere! :P

Sounds like you need a front end alignment. I'm almost afraid to ask,... ok, here goes,.. What tire pressure you running at?

[FastMerc]

Rotation of radials can be done it is the only way to get life out of them,not to rotate is a myth.I use to work in the tire service industry.Everything Ive owned hade radials Ive gotten good miliage out of them.Keeping the alighnment in check is a good idea also.

[jstevens]

My rears lasted until 15,000 but thats cuz I like to light'em up.

Anyways, please help my confusion.
Is everyone saying the specs in the Ford book for alignments are incorrect?

[Donny Carlson]

looks like tire rack will be shipping me new ones soon.

BTW- anyone know if a good (equal or better) tire on the market?
Try the new tread design. TAF, can you help the man with particulars?

[Donny Carlson]

rayaa:

Well, less than 10,000 miles is NOT normal...I know some have had wear issues as early as 17,000...I personally got almost 30,000 out of mine...but they are definitely not long-lasting tires.

As far as the rear centre wear, it's been pretty well accepted by the membership here that increasing the pressure over the factory spec of 32 seems to solve that issue. Yes, I said INCREASING...I believe the new magic number is 36 lbs...someone correct me if I'm wrong.
Whoa, 30k? That's pretty amazing. I did good to get 20K out of each set, and they were in dire need of changing each time. I think these tires are good for about 15K of life, the remaining 5K is iffy. My second set had decent tread except for the inner area, which was a goner. AND this was with the improved alignment specs.

RE Tire pressure increase. Tried it - 38-40 PSI. Nada. Still wore out in the middle, though is was more even than before. Oddly me left tire did not wear as bad.

Every, and I mean EVERY MM I've seen at Team, no matter what the setup, has premature inner tire wear. The coil-overs on Todd's and Marty's may perform better, but that remains to be seen.

[carfixer]

The inside edge wear of the front tires is caused by 2 things: negative camber and negative toe (toe out). Caster is not a tire wearing angle. The outside edge wear can be caused by excessive toe in and aggressive cornering.

Factory camber spec is -.5 degrees +or- .75 degrees
Factory toe spec is -.15 degrees +or- .20 degrees
(BTW, this info came from their website which is updated periodically and may differ from previously published material, such as cd's and paper manuals)

That means your alignment could have -1.25 degrees of camber and toe out of -.35 degrees and still be in the "green". This will wipe out the inside edges in <20K miles IMO.

All of the MM's I've aligned (about 10) had at least -1.0 degrees of camber and always toe out of -.10 degrees or more from the factory. That's why almost all MM's you see have excessive inside edge tire wear.

For best tire wear, here is what I use on all MM alignments:
Camber: 0 to -.3 degrees.*
Toe: Zero degrees.
Caster: 5-6.5 degrees positive with .3 degree lead on the right side.

*Camber can affect cornering feel. The more negative camber you have, the better it will handle corners. Most drivers will never feel the difference, especially on the street.

[Smokie]

What he ^^^^ said, Carfixer did mine and saved my from tires from an early grave, I wound up with about -.4 camber and they wear well and I notice no lack of handling.....very happy with results.

[O's Fan Rich]

36k.... 3rd set.
Yeah, they wear fast. Buy low when you can.

[Tallboy]

What he ^^^^ said, Carfixer did mine and saved my from tires from an early grave, I wound up with about -.4 camber and they wear well and I notice no lack of handling.....very happy with results.Roger that. Carfixer did mine as well and the alignment continues to be spot-on. Front tires are now wearing normally.:)

[AJAX]

i got about 15,000 out of my second set of frts steel hanging out on the inside 6/32 tread remaining rears will make 20,000 iam sure only run 26 psi inrear to keep wear even seams to work i bout 2 new rears today from a wholesaler for 64.00 each plus tax iam going to run same size all the way around. as my car doesnt have traction control. dealer told me they all eat frt tires makes me wander if the camber is correct. i am taking to a frt end specialist for alignment. car has always wanted to road walk all of or interstates have gooves worn in the trafic lane.


my 2003 MM has 9882 miles on it- i am the original owner. front tires are shot- excess wear on inner & outer edge. rear tires are shot- wear in center. i have rotated them (side to side) and i dont do over 100 mph (very often). nor do i leave a trail of goodrich at every stoplight.

is this the norm? anyone else see such poor mileage out of their tires?

dealer checked alignment today for me due to the wear- said i was right in specs.

looks like tire rack will be shipping me new ones soon.

BTW- anyone know if a good (equal or better) tire on the market?

[427435]

I've been tracking wear and pressure since I got my car in June because of the posts here. I took the originals off a couple of weeks ago to put Blizzacks on. There were 20,000 miles on them at the time. I didn't look closely at the fronts (they appear to have a bunch of miles left) but the right rear was 3/32 in the center and 5/32 on the edges. The left rear was 5/32 center and 6 to 7/32 on the edges.

When I put them back on this spring, I'll put the left on the right and right on the left and see if I can get 30,000 out of them.

The first 1500 miles were at 34 psi and the rear centers were already 1/32 thinner. I then dropped the rears to 28 psi, then 26, and then 24 the last few thousand miles. If I can get 30,000 miles (by rotating), I'll be happy. Contrary to some early posts, rapid center wear means tire pressure is too high-----just like it always has. The problem with our rears is they are BIG tires with almost 2000 lbs per tire load capacity, and there's less than a 1000 lbs load on each of them. I even tried 22 psi but didn't like the side wall deflection and went right back to 24.

Keep the pressure in the mid-20's and rotate from right to left. The rotation is evidently OK as it says to do it in the MM manual.

[B.C. Bake]

Ok petrograde asked first!!! But front tires inner and outer tread wearing but not the middle....uuuuuu what is the tire pressure------ just woundering:rolleyes:

[2003_MM_FYRE49]

Just because you can't rotate the tires front to rear, unless you've put the same size tire on all 4 corners, I treat the tires like I do my AWD Mountaineer. They get rotated left to right every oil change (3000 miles) and so far I am showing very little wear on the tires.

[427435]

Ok petrograde asked first!!! But front tires inner and outer tread wearing but not the middle....uuuuuu what is the tire pressure------ just woundering:rolleyes:

Inner or outer wear on the front tires means an alignment problem.

[AJAX]

yesterday we mounted two new rear tires 245 55 18 on the frt rims. aligned car with more camber than what factory called for stood the tires up straighter he gave the car a little more toe than stock cause he was afraid it might road walk with the bigger tires. iwas great drove better than ever car is not noticable. the rear tires are realy cheap 64.00 ea . the can be rotated now. its not really noticable that the tires are taller on the frt. my viberation at 78 to 80 is gone smooth as silk at 80.


my 2003 MM has 9882 miles on it- i am the original owner. front tires are shot- excess wear on inner & outer edge. rear tires are shot- wear in center. i have rotated them (side to side) and i dont do over 100 mph (very often). nor do i leave a trail of goodrich at every stoplight.

is this the norm? anyone else see such poor mileage out of their tires?

dealer checked alignment today for me due to the wear- said i was right in specs.

looks like tire rack will be shipping me new ones soon.

BTW- anyone know if a good (equal or better) tire on the market?

[teamrope]

The inside edge wear of the front tires is caused by 2 things: negative camber and negative toe (toe out). Caster is not a tire wearing angle. The outside edge wear can be caused by excessive toe in and aggressive cornering.

Factory camber spec is -.5 degrees +or- .75 degrees
Factory toe spec is -.15 degrees +or- .20 degrees
(BTW, this info came from their website which is updated periodically and may differ from previously published material, such as cd's and paper manuals)

That means your alignment could have -1.25 degrees of camber and toe out of -.35 degrees and still be in the "green". This will wipe out the inside edges in <20K miles IMO.

All of the MM's I've aligned (about 10) had at least -1.0 degrees of camber and always toe out of -.10 degrees or more from the factory. That's why almost all MM's you see have excessive inside edge tire wear.

For best tire wear, here is what I use on all MM alignments:
Camber: 0 to -.3 degrees.*
Toe: Zero degrees.
Caster: 5-6.5 degrees positive with .3 degree lead on the right side.

*Camber can affect cornering feel. The more negative camber you have, the better it will handle corners. Most drivers will never feel the difference, especially on the street.


Thanks again carfixer!

[Marauderjack]

24 PSI got me only 12K on the rears!!! Replaced under warranty by my dealer :argue:

The next set went 34K with pressure at 40 PSI and now I am running 45 PSI to see if that will help?? BTW, the fronts show no inner wear at 40+ PSI....:confused: Kind of rough but it corners like it's "on a rail"!!! :banana2:

I wonder what would happen if I put the fronts on the rear and a size smaller up front?? I think the ABS/TC would be happy but what would it look like and would it effect performance?? :confused:

Marauderjack :beatnik:

[grzellmer]

The inside edge wear of the front tires is caused by 2 things: negative camber and negative toe (toe out). Caster is not a tire wearing angle. The outside edge wear can be caused by excessive toe in and aggressive cornering.

Factory camber spec is -.5 degrees +or- .75 degrees
Factory toe spec is -.15 degrees +or- .20 degrees
(BTW, this info came from their website which is updated periodically and may differ from previously published material, such as cd's and paper manuals)

That means your alignment could have -1.25 degrees of camber and toe out of -.35 degrees and still be in the "green". This will wipe out the inside edges in <20K miles IMO.

All of the MM's I've aligned (about 10) had at least -1.0 degrees of camber and always toe out of -.10 degrees or more from the factory. That's why almost all MM's you see have excessive inside edge tire wear.

For best tire wear, here is what I use on all MM alignments:
Camber: 0 to -.3 degrees.*
Toe: Zero degrees.
Caster: 5-6.5 degrees positive with .3 degree lead on the right side.

*Camber can affect cornering feel. The more negative camber you have, the better it will handle corners. Most drivers will never feel the difference, especially on the street.

Sorry to bring this thread "back from the dead". Going to get the front end aligned tomorrow and wanted to send a "Thanks" to Carfixer.:bows: Hopefully my new set of BFG's won't end up with steel belt peering from the inner edge of the front tires. (Unlike the last ones.:eek: )

[joemama]

I have also noticed wear on the inside of my front tires. Is it too late to re-align the tires? Will this prevent further wear? Thanks much.