Technical Excessive Inner Front Tyre Wear

[twincamms]

Tyre Wear

As my wife pulled off the drive last week I noticed my tyres were wearing heavily on the inner edges.

These tyres have covered 4000 miles and are the third pair in 16000 miles. I took the car off to my local dealership, Stoneacre FIAT, and they were very helpful.

They did the front suspension modification under warranty (third year) without any question. The service manager asked me to copy all my tyre invoices and alignment check prinouts and that he'd forward them onto FIAT to make a claim for me. I've done this and I'll fill you guys in when I get a response.

The dealer has done his bit, now it's down to FIAT UK, this should be interesting.

 

[Shminkypinky]

Re: Tyre Wear

Exactly the same as me (apart from your dealer sounds a bit more helpful then mine) anyway sent my tyre and wheel alignement invoices to FIAT UK, who although took a very long time were quite helpful. Took me about 3 months but they paid for my new tyres and my wheel alignment around (£230).
Be patient and keep ringing (weekly) for updates as they are slow, you will get your money back though!!!!!

Good luck!

 

[Scorg]

Re: Tyre Wear

had the suspension mod done last june here, didnt cure the problem. decided rather then wait on uncle arnold and fiat to look into this (they took a month to reply in the first place and washed their hands of it) decided to get the tracking checked localy, ws a complete mess apparently. 10k miles and two bloody expensive dunlops totaly buggered on the insides, Cheep tyres going on this car now im afraid

 

[poggy]

Tyre Wear

Did anybody see the report in What Car about a Stilo driver who had 4 sets of tyres in 18 months because the edges wore off. Fiat swapped the car for another one for only a few hundred pound.

Might be worth consdiering if you have the tyre wear problem.

 

[cmc]

Re: Tyre Wear

yes I did. I was going to scan it and link it at the weekend when I'm back home. I read the original complaint from her ages ago as well. I took the original article down to my dealer and argued until I got a new rear axle and contribution to new tyres. They had to give in the end.

cmc

 

[1.8Stilo]

Re: Tyre Wear

Umm... ill have to find this article?! What issuse was it in as ive only had my 17" a few months and noticed the tyres have started to wear excessifly! and then my dealer will have no excuse; thing that annoys me is i opted for expensive tyres :bang: maybe ill jus go for the cheapest i can next time!!

 

[activematt]

Re: Tyre Wear

Cant say ive ever had any problems with tyre wear, whether be it on the original wheels or the new ones, be it standard ride height of lowered..........must just be one of the lucky ones

 

[James Abarth]

Re: Tyre Wear

My Stilo in at Ancasters Catford today for clutch judder (see "Boot Jam" post) - they also found that both front tyres are worn down on inside and need replacing plus tracking reqd. My mileage aprox 11300 - apparently Fiat have a sliding scale of contributions. I feel my input should nil and have stated this - now it's down to Fiat UK - any consensus?

 

[twincamms]

Well................................

I've still had no response from them and the dealer is dragging his heels so I've written to FIAT UK myself for a second time!

When you get your tracking done, FIAT spec says it should be set at -9, the expert at the tracking place said he has seen many Stilos with the same problem, he started setting them to a +10 and he doesn't see those ones back. He believes it's an error in the setting values and says that loads of them come out of the factory without any kind of calibration!

I'll let you know in a 1000 miles or so......................................

 

[Deckchair5]

Re: Tyre Wear

At the moment I don't seem to have any problems with tyre wear after 36k so there's hope for Stilo owners yet that it may not be all that suffer. Just what is the "suspension mod" that people refer to?

 

[cmc]

Re: Tyre Wear

right guys hope this works and you can actually read it! This should give us all the amunition we need to talk to your freindly dealer and convince him that there is a problem and it's not just that we're all bad drivers.


[img=http://img164.echo.cx/img164/8767/scan0001large9og.th.jpg]

cheers

cmc

 

[cmc]

Re: Tyre Wear

Have a look at this guys (also posted in Stilo technical).

[img=http://img164.echo.cx/img164/8767/scan0001large9og.th.jpg]

sorry to post twice guys but just in case anyone misses it!

Cheers

cmc

 

[Deckchair5]

Re: Tyre Wear

I jacked my car up for the first time yesterday and tested for play on the steering (like you do whenever it's up) and found a track rod end gone. That would explain the pull to the left when changing gear and slight knocking on bumps.

MY POINT
A real 3-5mm of play at the tyre edge and STILL the tyres are wearing down evenly. So for the tyres to burn off they would have to be severely out of track. So check your tyres regularly until you're sure they're running right. Don't wait until you can see bits of metal sticking out the tread. I wouldn't be at all surprised if tracking was designed to be left to the dealers to do and they just didn't bother to check it before supplying a new vehicle.

Incidently, I've always tracked my own tyres with nothing more complicated than a piece of string and a ruler. Anyone still do it that way?

Never had a problem tracking tyres myself. Only problem I ever had with tracking was when I took it to a garage! Car felt like it was on ice afterwards and steering wheel was way off centre. Went straight back. Lasers? Pah! The equipment's only as good as the monkey using it

 

[mauricemerseysi]

Re: Front Tyres wearing on both inside edges

h i guys i have just been reading your comments on the wear of tyres inside edges i have got a stilo 1.9 jtd with YOKOHAMA 215/45 ZR17 87W my car has done 18000 mls it is sept 2003 and the tyres they say the tracking was not that far out to cause the amount of wear, any one help with the cure please, i would like to go back to the dealers with this prob: only if i know what i am talking about so any input i would welcome cheers Maurice (Southport)

 

[Deckchair5]

Re: Front Tyres wearing on both inside edges

There's only a couple of things that will cause inside tyre edge burn out, the most common is tracking. The others aren't really adjustable although they can be out. But when we say tracking there are the components which, if worn excessively, will cause the tracking to be out. Items like wheel bearings, track rod ends, worn steering rack, worn suspension swivel joints could all cause wheel alignment problems.

If there's no play in the steering or suspension then the tracking is the most likely cause. You've got some chunky tyres on there so that's a big load on the suspension parts and load equals accelerated wear.

You say the tracking wasn't out much. What was it? Out much compared to what? The Fiat specs? Check the steering and suspension for play and have a 4 wheel alignment check carried out

To Barbarian
I've got 36k miles on all my 205/55 R16s original tyres. So yours, you could say, are only half worn at 17k. Mind you, it depends how you drive

I would have thought the steering felt awful if you are just running on the inside edges

 

[mauricemerseysi]

Re: Front Tyres wearing on both inside edges

Hi guys since my last post i have had 4 new 17in tyres fitted by a good tyre company and a 4 wheel alignment check they said it was well out of sync: now when i drive my car the steering wheel is not in a central position is this norm after what i have done? all so asked my fiat dealer about what has been said regards wear on both inside edges of tyres and is there any modication to the steering they said not had any complaints and no mods out for the stilo jtd very confused at the mo any remarks on this please (m)

 

[Deckchair5]

Re: Front Tyres wearing on both inside edges

No it's not normal. Take it back and tell them if it's significantly out.
They haven't tracked the wheels right to the steering wheel. It should run as straight as a cat with its ass on fire. You'll probably find other things like the self cancelling indicators won't cancel now in one direction (Yeah I know all new Volvo drivers do that anyway but hey you care don't you!). On older cars you could just take the steering wheel off and reposition it but there's too much going on on modern steering mechanisms like air bags and steering position sensors.

Also make sure you have the right amount of steering available to you on full lock left or right ie turning circle could be affected if they haven't centred everything up as the rack may run more in one direction than the other

 

[flashman]

Re: Front Tyres wearing on both inside edges

i've just got my 05 plate jtd stilo and was wondering if this fault affects all stilos. Only done 2500 miles and tyre wear seams normal to me, however the steering pulls off to the left if you hold the steering wheel dead centre. Constantly adjusting ever so slightly to the right. Does this mean i've got problems in the post so to speak? Dealership is a long way away and next service along way away do u reckon doing nothing could cause biger probs?

 

[Deckchair5]

Re: Front Tyres wearing on both inside edges

Depends how much the pull is. All cars will drift left slightly on a cambered road. If it does it on a dead flat surface then check the tracking assuming tyre pressures etc all ok. 2500 miles isn't long to tell but if you're really on the ball and you run your hand across the width of the tyre then if it's not running right the tread will feel sharper going one way than the other showing the tyre not tracking right. When it's really bad you can SEE it being sharper one way

Mines done 36k with no tyre wear problems just keep watching and checking. Ought to be part of everybody's weekly checks, Most important bits on the car

 

[thepottleflump]

Re: Tyre wear

Common problem, get down your dealership and get it fixed. If you have the receipts that them along to prove you have a major problem. Put it this way I did 32000 miles on my front set of tyres so a new set every 10000 miles is not normal.

There was an article in Autoexpress, also somewhere on this site so print that out too. The dealership will know about this problem even if they don't admit straight up.