Technical Excessive Inner Front Tyre Wear

[HornetUK]

Re: 1.4 tyre wear

Steering is fine since tracking.

Looking around the illegal tyre guides I see its ony 3/4 width in the centre that needs full tread, so where mines wearing slightly on the inside wouldn't make them illegal.

The dealer seemed to think 12k and that amount of wear was a no go for any form of contacting Fiat UK by them.

If it stops raining I'll take a photo and post on here of the two fronts inside wear.

 

[ostell]

Re: 1.4 tyre wear

Uneven tyre wear shouldn't happen. Full stop. Mine had both front tyres wear on the inside in 10,000 miles. Fiat replaced both without charge, which suggests they know they have a problem.

Garage said that this was normal wear for this type of car!

But then I've no confidence in the garage.

 

[Chrisuk1983]

Re: Tyre wear

I had the dreaded tyre wear problem on my august 2004 1.6 3 door. The dealers carried out a "modification" and applied to Fiat to pay for the tyres. Fiat stated that my car was outside the chassis range that was effected and refused to pay for the repairs and the tyres. The dealer stated that my car was effected by this fault and agreed to replace one of the tyres FOC and charged me cost price for the other. So far the new tyres are showing no signs of uneven tyre wear.

 

[fiatranger]

Re: Tyre wear

Sorry for my ignorance or laziness to search other threads on this topic - BUT - what was this "modification" - anybody shed some light ?

 

[Chrisuk1983]

Re: Tyre wear

They said it was something to do with the suspension bushings - they me be a tech about that can help.

 

[NumanR]

Re: Tyre wear

The operation was to shift the front wishbone against the bushing so that bushing gave more support.

 

[Argonought]

Re: Tyre wear

The operation was to shift the front wishbone against the bushing so that bushing gave more support.

NumanR, couple of questions on this if you've got the time.

A: In your experience would you say that it's entirely reasonable that many early Stilos (pre 04) could have no tyre wear problems at all even though unmodded?

This is an Oct, 02 5 door JTD that appears to have normal tyre wear. Any sign of the mod?

B: The only obvious adjustments I can see are for camber and tracking. How can you check if it's been modded?

Thanks.

 

[NumanR]

Re: Tyre wear

There are no adjustments for camber on Stilo, only adjustment is front tracking. It is totally possible that pre 2004 vehicles would not have tyre issues, to be perfectly honest many customers do not drive the vehicles in the manner required to cause the tyre wear. I have monitored 100's of Stilo's and since 2004 I have not seen a problem, I have studied many four wheel alignment figures and the commonest problem on the front has been due to damage, thats not to say there wasnt vehicles that did have legitimate problems but a fair proportion had readings that required a front strut or wishbone to be changed and that is not down to manufacturers problems but due to damage. Finally there are no visible signs that any modifications are made due to the fact that its a repositioniong procedure rather than anything replaced.

 

[Argonought]

Re: Tyre wear

Finally there are no visible signs that any modifications are made due to the fact that its a repositioniong procedure rather than anything replaced.

Apart from this procedure is it feasible to have the newer suspension components fitted to pre 2004 models or are the parts simply incompatible?

 

[Neil Barker]

Tyre wear again

Looking at my tyres today (215/45/17 on my Abarth), they're pretty much worn down on the inside and will need replacing pretty soon.

Now this may be a tracking issue, but I do wonder about the dreaded suspension issue. Mine's a later model Stilo and I was under the impression this was essentially cured on 54 models etc.

The present fronts are Avon ZZ3 and I'm not at all impressed with their wear - they're only 7000 miles old and on the part of the tread that's not wearing due to tracking etc, they're down to about 3mm at best.

Any suggestions as to this suspension issue ?

 

[Deckchair5]

Re: Tyre wear again

Besides wearing your tyres out, I'd be pretty cheesed at the lack of grip as you're skating on only half your tread. It's almost always tracking so have you had your wheels tracked accurately and reliably recently? Bear in mind the figures they originally gave for Stilos has been amended

I had track rod end shot to pieces when I bought mine, the front wheel was actually waggling about and it still wasn't burning off the tread irregularly so the tracking has got to be way off to burn tread like you're experiencing or, less likely, you have major suspension/steering alignment problems

 

[NumanR]

Re: Tyre wear again

If the part of the tyre that is not worn is down to three millimetres in 7000 miles, then you are driving fairly hard, new tyres generally have between 7 and 8 mm of tread and the legal minimum is 1.6mm over the central 75% of the tyre, the outer 12.5 % on each side of the tyre is allowed to be bald. It sounds like you could have an issue with tracking but the wider wear may just be down to driving style etc. Get a good four wheel alignment done. I have Goodyears, the same size on my JTD and they have about 6 mm left after 7k miles.

 

[HornetUK]

Re: Tyre wear again

My 04 1.4 only has the wear on the inner drivers wheel, but it falls outside the 75%, in that 75% area I have about 5-6mm on inside. The outside 1cm is down to about 2 to 3mm. This is now at 14k.

 

[StiloBoy]

Re: Tyre wear again

I've done 22,000 on a set of 15" Dunlops! Rotated the tyres at about 16,000miles. 3mm on the back, and 5mm on the front! Plenty to get me through the winter, and finally get my alloys on in the sprint.

I was looking into the Avon ZZ3's, so your not happy with wear rate, but they are softer compound tyres, but whats the grip like? and do they sound pretty quiet? (thats one of their design point)

 

[Neil Barker]

Re: Tyre wear again

I was looking into the Avon ZZ3's, so your not happy with wear rate, but they are softer compound tyres, but whats the grip like? and do they sound pretty quiet? (thats one of their design point)

Oh, they grip alright - can't recall it ever really losing traction in the dry with them.

I genuinely though, do not hammer my car/tyres and I'm not at all impressed with their wear rate. These tyres are knackered because of the tracking issue, but if that hadn't happened then they'd still be worn out in about another 3-4000 miles, giving a lifespan of just over 10,000 miles.

I'm looking into a pair of Kumho tyres now, having read very good write-ups about them in their sector.

 

[Deckchair5]

Re: Tyre wear again

If you've only got a third of your tyre in contact with the road then it's going to wear out 3 times faster than normal. It's probably nothing to do with your driving style. Where you've lost 5mm on one side in 7k miles should have been 1.6mm across the whole tread in 7k miles which puts you in the "more acceptable wear" band

 

[Neil Barker]

Re: Tyre wear again

As an update, I had my car's tracking done today - both front wheels pointing outwards dramatically. Thanks crap roads / speed bumps

Also, when I was looking around for tyres at my usual source (http://www.mytyres.co.uk)

I also had a look on Ebay - go to the automotive section and enter your tyre size, eg 215/45/17 and you might be amazed at some of the deals to be had. Got two Kumho tyres in the aforementioned size for 115 quid plus 12 quid delivery. Only took a day to arrive, too.

 

[timr69]

Re: Tyre wear again

I've done 22,000 on a set of 15" Dunlops! Rotated the tyres at about 16,000miles. 3mm on the back, and 5mm on the front! Plenty to get me through the winter, and finally get my alloys on in the sprint.

I got 26k out of my original P6000s after rotating them at about 12k.

The only problem with having such worn ones on the back is the lack of grip they'll have in the snow compared to the fronts.
The back of mine actually got blown off course by a gust of wind last winter while driving down a perfectly straight piece of road that had a light covering of snow. Since I was driving quite quickly (about 70ish) I got a fairly massive fright and 2 new tyres (and new pants ) ASAP after that

 

[Acordis]

Re: Tyre wear again

Just fitted 4 new Toyo Proxes T1-S tyres to my Abarth. The Pirelli P7000 had just about made 16K.

My God what a difference. GRIP!!! Never knew what it was before. Ride is much improved. Dry grip and grip on a damp surface is 100% better.

Toyo tread pattern is very similar (read identical copy!! ) to the Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3. Tyres are unidirectional (as were Pirellis). They are a few quid cheaper than the Goodyears but just as good as Toyo are very keen to get some market penetration (Toyo are Japanese). They set me back £90 each including new valve and balancing. Can be hard to find but can give a contact for those of you in the Cheshire / North West area.

 

[StiloBoy]

Re: Tyre wear

I've got a 53 plate and i've never had a tyre wear problem, but i think its also partly down to engine size, the 1.6 and above weigh a good bit more than the 1.2, and partly down to driving style.