My rear tyres wear nice and evenly. I only use Continentals.
However, my latest front tyres have done 15,000 miles and have 4mm tread in the middle and outside, but only 1mm on inside. This happened on the last set of tyres and I checked the front wheel alignment with a modern laser system and my old Dunlop alignment tool then and it was OK (ie parallel).
I've just checked the alignment again on a laser system and its still OK.
I've set out to measure the camber (ie angle from vertical) of all 4 wheels with the method in the photos.
Basically 6mm difference in the horizontal dimensions at the rim is 1 degree. The rears measured 3.0 and 3.2 and the fronts 5.9 and 7.7 mm. Rears were done as a control, and are certainly believable. So basically there is 1.0 degree of negative camber on front and 0.5 degree of negative camber at rear.
Has any body got measured their camber?
My thoughts are that the extra mass of the MJ engine makes the suspension flex a little more, and also puts a bit more stress on the thin tyres.
Does the Haynes manual have camber values ?

I've had completely even wear during the ~80.000km I've put on my MJ, over three sets of tyres.

The OEM Continentals on 13" steel wheels wore completely even across the thread, replaced at 50.000km.

The latest 30.000km have been done on two sets of tyres: Michelin Alpines on the 13" steel wheels and Michelin Energysavers on 14" alloys. Both sets have completely even wear currently.

I did have a problem with inside wear initially, but got wheels aligned and not a problem since...

I changed my wheels over today and the tyres on both sets of wheels are fine and evenly worn...

Wear in the top strut bushes - a common problem on even nearly-new 500's - would throw out the camber. IIRC it's possible to fit them the wrong way round; some new cars were delivered that way from the factory & they also wore out front tyres at an alarming rate.

Pandas seem particularly prone to premature tyre wear. From personal experience, tracking the car dead parallel helps.

And if your car is wearing its tyres evenly, I'd suggest you don't let anyone mess with the geometry, even if it's 'theoretically' out of alignment.

Even wear on my MJ despite it being about 0.3 deg toe out. Doesn't pull to either side so I left it alone.

When I first got my MJ Panda in Nov 2010, the tyres were wearing on the inside edges at the front and the outside edges at the rear (?). Switching the rears to the front ended up with tyres badly worn on both edges, but at least I got more miles out of them.

When I had new front tyres fitted in September 2011, the tracking was checked and was found to be only slightly out. Nevertheless, since it was adjusted, the wear appears more even. The tracking does seem to me to be a more critical setting on the Panda than other cars I've had.

We had RHS front tyre wear on the inside edge. 07 reg 23000mls
Our local Specialist found that the RHS front was aligned behind the LHS front but the setting was although they were in line. He made adjustments and all is fine.

Thanks for all your replies and votes on the poll.
I've now got a Haynes manual which specifies the Panda front camber as
-52 minutes plus or minus 30 minutes.
Interestingly the 500 has a front camber of -30 minutes plus or minus 30 minutes.

I've rechecked the front with a spirit level and this measured the average camber as just over 1 degree, the same as I measured with my plank and square.

So my tracking and camber seems to be to specification, but my tyres are still wearing unevenly.:bang:

I'm now trying to corner a little slower, as I can occasionally get the front squealing.

At least try and keep in on 4 wheels

I do try and keep my speed up on bends and roundabouts and generaley see even tyre wear.

richardllew said:

So my tracking and camber seems to be to specification, but my tyres are still wearing unevenly.:bang:

Click to expand...

That's because the specification has such a wide tolerance - the car can technically be 'in spec' but still sufficiently misaligned to wear the tyres prematurely and/or unevenly . Also any wear in the suspension components will likely make the problem worse.

Better control of manufacturing tolerances in the factories (and better component quality) is what's needed here.