I always have outside wear problems on my front tyres (AUII). Every pair of tyres after being balanced always have the same result. Outside seems to become baldy quicker than the rest of the tyre.

I do a lot of miles a day.

Bridgestone tyre people reckon I need camber adjustment. (I suspect the front of the car may have been in collision, prior to me purchasing it).

Do Ford AUII have camber shims or bit of bulldust from the Bridgestone to drum up business?

I was only aware of toe in and toe out adjustments using the tie-rod.

Any advice / info is welcome.

Thanks

Yep the camber adjustment is done by putting in or removing shims behind your upper control arm.
If the camber adjustment is out one if the symptoms is funnily enough tyres that scrub out on the edges.
Sounds like you have wasted a few tyres for nothing.

Matt_jew,

Thanks for the quick reply. I don't recall my car having any shims. Last year all the bushes, were redone due to very noisy squeaks from worn bushes. Tie rod ends replaced. Upper and lower control arm removed to replace bush as well as lower ball joints. New shocks and springs.

Camber shims hmmm, I guess one needs a machine to read how many shims one needs to get the correct tolerance. Sounds a bit complicated. I guess that job would be best done by a tyre mob, Bridgestone or similar?

Yep, I certainly have wasted a few tyres due to shim problem.

Cheers

Need to make sure the stub axles aren't bent either.....seen it before, where the upper part of the spindle was bent out of alignment.

Go to City Suspension at Springwood. Have a chat to the guys there and ask for their opinion.

Most tyre places just check toe-in and thats it. Although technically I guess you could say its a wheel "alignment", in that the wheels are aligned, there are much more to it than that.

Bald on the outside edge is a sympton of cornering too hard. The tyre sidewall rolls over and scrubs the outer edge of the tyre. This is why lower profile tyres corner better, they have less sidewall to deform. Adding camber helps fix this as the tyre starts off leaning inwards, helping to counteract the cornerning forces. I usually run between 1-2 degrees of camber on a daily driven car. Adding camber involves taking out shims though, not adding them. Castor adds camber as the wheels turn, so is the best of both worlds in a way.

Another band aid fix that I use on my 16's is adding more tyre pressure. It helps the tyre keep its shape, and raises the centre of the tyre more, keeping the weight off the outer edge. I run 44Psi hot 40ish cold) in mine. Theres really no disadvantage bar comfort, to adding more pressure. Higher pressure gives more grip in the dry, much better in the wet, more feedback, better wear, better fuel economy, its pretty much a big overall win.

cjh,
Good point, never thought of that one.

67RCE and snap0964,
Good idea about trying City Suspension, I'll give them a call some time son.

rainoffire,

I've been driving for a lot of years and have not taken a corner too hard, I always slow down. Tyres have been inflated to specifications to conditions at the time. i.e. normal everyday driving or carrying heavy payload (adjust tyre pressure accordingly).

Some roads I travel have a lot of hairpin bends, especially Gatton-Withcott Road, nearly 3 years after the flood, the road is still crap, doesn't help when you get heavy trucks on this already damaged road.

I could not see any shims on my car. I've raised the tyre pressure to 44 psi in the past, still had same problem, ride was rough...4 hour drive in one direction on 44psi did not last long, took it back to 36psi, ride was smoother after lowering psi.

The baldness is not just on the edge but goes a bit further inwards. I'll take a photo and post it here in the next day or two.

I more meant cornering too hard for the way your suspension is set up. ie if you have not enough camber. I would say its unlikely you have positive camber which would cause that wear pattern even when driving straight. More likely it is close to zero.

About 6 months before I fitted my 19's, I had a wheel alignment, and I told them to reduce the camber to I didn't scrub the inner of them when I put them on. They ended up dialing in 0.25 degrees, and at the time, my 16's had inner edge wear. Over the next 6 months before I changed rims, I ended up wearing the outside edge of my tire away, pretty much the equivalent of the first outer tread block. This sounds like what you are desribing to me, I would say your suspension is similarly set up. A good wheel aligment would fix it, assuming nothing is bent! I would hope they would check that while doing an alignment.

G'day rainoffire,

Ok, now I know what you meant to say, thanks for clarifying. I've only been going to Bridgestone Tyres at Underwood to have this work done, I was given a report (lost the paper). Three times I've been to that place over 2 years. I had all tyres replaced with new ones once. The odd times two separate occassions, damn bolt went straight through the side (between side wall and where tyre begins to roll), I was p****d off , just spent $140.00 on that tyre then another $80.00 to get it repaired (sent to factory, they told me). Hole was too big for them to patch instore.

I wanted to check the steering after the alignment, I went for a drive on a road with minimal traffic, took my hands momentarily off the steering wheel and yep, it wanted to crab towards the left...I don't know if that's the design of Ford or whether something is faulty.

I purchased the vehicle 3 years ago as is and was tld it was owned by a retired a lady who no longer required it as she has gone caravaning around Australia (seller (son of mother) tells me). There was no mention of any past damage or accidents.

After purchasing this vehicle I went through the glove box and found a bit of history and logbooks for this car...it was once a company vehicle (business), then purchased by a family (private use). then read an entry from an insurance company vehicle said "damaged in front" driver was family member (daughter).

I would have assumed the insurance company would have had the vehicle repaired and straightened before releasing back to the owner.

Cheers

The alignment is designed to follow to the camber of the road and slowly pull to the left when you take your hands off the wheel.

G'day Matt_jew

I understand that might be the case, unfortunately mine was not slow it was more instantaneous. That still would not cause outer tyre wear - scuffing.

Photo will be uploaded later today.

Cheers

On the original UCA mountings (AU's), the "shims" were spot welded on.....I remember having to remove them during a wheel alignment, either altogether, or fitting a thinner one......most of the time, this was on the XR's.

cjh,

Interesting, Are these shims suppose to be located behind the upper control arm?

Yep.....like I said, the factory fitted ones were spot welded in place......replacement ones were slip-in fit ( after undoing the nuts a bit).