Technical uneven tyre wear....

[phil182]

hi guys,

had some significant wear on the front drivers side tyre (inside edge) and the rear passenger side tyre (outside edge).

been for a 4 wheel laser alignment check and all is well...both the tyre place and fiat say they cant see anything wrong but when i speak to the dealer it definitely feels like they are fobbing me off....

any ideas?

 

[Most Easterly Pandas]

So why would the tyre place be fobbing you off also then

The wheels balanced ok

 

[phil182]

no, the tyre place is not, they were straight up and said the wheels are spot on.

fiat didnt want to know, saying uneven wear is normal with thin tyres and they should of been rotated at the service interval to counteract this. im going to ask them to show me where it says all of this in the user manual....

 

[Most Easterly Pandas]

no, the tyre place is not, they were straight up and said the wheels are spot on.

fiat didnt want to know, saying uneven wear is normal with thin tyres and they should of been rotated at the service interval to counteract this. im going to ask them to show me where it says all of this in the user manual....

So if both say everything is spot on then how can Fiat be lying / wrong but the tyre place not

They're either both right or both wrong surly?

 

[pandissimo]

"im going to ask them to show me where it says all of this in the user manual...."

They will point you to page 171, and recommend that you should have gone to Specsavers.

 

[Most Easterly Pandas]

"im going to ask them to show me where it says all of this in the user manual...."

They will point you to page 171, and recommend that you should have gone to Specsavers.

I thought it was probably in there, but didn't dear comment as I wasn't 100% sure

 

[pandissimo]

My own 1.2 Dynamical Skydome had worn the f/NS down on the crown. Looks like the previous owner kept it 20% over inflated for 12000 miles. It's legal, so it's on the back now. It only takes 15 minutes to swap' em using the standard jack. I don't think I've owned a car in the last ten years where the manual hasn't recommended rotating the tyres front to back at 15K Km.

 

[jrkitching]

no, the tyre place is not, they were straight up and said the wheels are spot on.

fiat didnt want to know, saying uneven wear is normal with thin tyres and they should of been rotated at the service interval to counteract this. im going to ask them to show me where it says all of this in the user manual....

.

Uneven wear is normal with misaligned wheels and/or worn bushes, bearings & links. The width of the tyres has absolutely nothing to do with it.

From other posts, it seems this is a common problem on the Panda - both because of poor quality control in the manufacture of the components which define the geometry and because the cars aren't tracked properly in the factory. My own Panda started to scrub the inside edges of the fronts & I found it was set to about 2mm toe-in. Following suggestions in other posts, I set it to track dead parallel & it's been fine since .

The first thing to do is to jack up each wheel in turn & carefully check all the front & rear suspension components - if any of these are worn, it won't even be possible to measure the geometry properly, much less do anything about it.

If the fronts are wearing unevenly, you might find that tracking it parallel solves the problem. Uneven rear tyre wear probably means replacing components as there's no scope for adjustment - I understand that FIAT have in some cases changed the rear subframes under warranty.

Rotating tyres is generally deprecated within the industry & fixes nothing; it merely evens out the excessive wear amongst all the tyres so that you have to replace the whole lot prematurely. Uneven tyre wear is not normal & needs to be addressed by fixing the problem that is causing it.

 

[phil182]

exactly!

fiat seem to think that as there is no obvious fault that i should live with uneven tyre wear and smooth it our by rotating the wheels. they specifically said that thin tyres are prone to uneven wear, its ******** IMO.

the tyre fitters say that the wheels are perfectly aligned and basically fiat have no other answers. there is some shoddy manufacturing going on IMO.

 

[KozmoNaut]

exactly!

fiat seem to think that as there is no obvious fault that i should live with uneven tyre wear and smooth it our by rotating the wheels. they specifically said that thin tyres are prone to uneven wear, its ******** IMO.

the tyre fitters say that the wheels are perfectly aligned and basically fiat have no other answers. there is some shoddy manufacturing going on IMO.

It's especially odd considering how my Panda has had completely even tyre wear on all four corners over the course of nearly 80.000km and three different tyre widths. There shouldn't be such large differences on what are ostensibly the same cars.

Can it have something to do with RHD/LHD? Do manufacturers change the suspension tuning when converting their cars?

 

[Most Easterly Pandas]

exactly!

fiat seem to think that as there is no obvious fault that i should live with uneven tyre wear and smooth it our by rotating the wheels. they specifically said that thin tyres are prone to uneven wear, its ******** IMO.

the tyre fitters say that the wheels are perfectly aligned and basically fiat have no other answers. there is some shoddy manufacturing going on IMO.

Your not following what I'm saying - Yet again I ask, if the tyre place has said everything is aligned then how can there be a problem with the car??!

There either isn't an issue and everything is correctly aligned, or the tyre place is using rubbish equipment and there is a problem and things are out of alignment.

 

[Pandablues]

Yep, our Dynamic likes to chew the outside edge off it's N/S front as well as pulling to that side. Fiat checked twice and say it's fine and then after a phone call from me complaining of the same fault, told me to get it checked by an indie, if they could find anything then "bring it back".
Two, separate checks, some nine months apart, no faults found and some £60 later.....I just buy a new front tyre every 8000 miles.........

 

[phil182]

are you saying that a wheel alignment check verifies that all suspension and steering componentry are OK?

 

[jrkitching]

are you saying that a wheel alignment check verifies that all suspension and steering componentry are OK?

Depends on how comprehensive the alignment check is and the competence of the person doing it. Also, the manufacturer's published geometry settings for the Panda have a wide tolerance, so the car could technically be within limits yet still sufficiently out of alignment to wear the tyres.

 

[Pandablues]

are you saying that a wheel alignment check verifies that all suspension and steering componentry are OK?

Who? Me? No, I'm saying I buy a new tyre when I need to, i.e. slightly before it becomes illegal or sooner, depending on how flush I am or bad the weather is.

 

[David Bliss]

I had this problem with my tyres in the first year. When I first noticed the problem it had worn the offside front tyre and rear nearside excessively at 9000 miles. When I looked at the garage's service report it showed the figure but did not draw my attention to it, which I thought was poor practice. When I queried it they just said it was common. At the time I felt that the car was rather 'skippy' and on smooth tarmac the tyres would squeal when going round a roundabout. I did flag it up on the forum at the time but got no useful responses. I found a solution for my car anyway - I increased the tyre pressures to 35 psi (which is slightly above the recommended figure). I kept a careful watch on the tyres and noted that the excessive wear seemed to have ceased, and the squealing stopped. I changed two tyres at 24 000 and the other two at 30 000., which I think is an acceptable mileage.

 

[phil182]

Depends on how comprehensive the alignment check is and the competence of the person doing it. Also, the manufacturer's published geometry settings for the Panda have a wide tolerance, so the car could technically be within limits yet still sufficiently out of alignment to wear the tyres.

a wheel alignment check does what it says, they do not inspect everything else while they are on.

why are you making excuses?? if thats the case the tolerances are **** and fiat should do something about it!

 

[jrkitching]

a wheel alignment check does what it says, they do not inspect everything else while they are on.

You get what you pay for. A wheel alignment check may not be the same as a full geometry check. This article may help you understand which of the setttings may be causing your problem:

http://www.familycar.com/alignment.htm#Cas

why are you making excuses??

No one is making excuses. We're simply trying to help you understand why your car is wearing its tyres unevenly despite two different garages having told you your wheel alignment is within limits.

if thats the case the tolerances are **** and fiat should do something about it!

Once again, you get what you pay for and the Panda is a cheap, cheap car. That said, I'd agree FIAT could do better - the 500 is built in the same factory & doesn't seem to suffer from this problem.

FIAT warranty is just possibly the worst in the industry & trying to get them to do something about this is probably going to be like bashing your head against a brick wall :bang:. I've said this before, but setting the car to track parallel may help with the tyre wear problem.

 

[somyunguy]

We have a .1.2 Dynamic.
Our problem is outside tyre wear on the rear tyres only. The vehicle is seldom laden and i get the impression that this wear is caused by cornering and associated scrub.
Considering going to 165's , she has been to a number of wheel alignment centres and they all say everythings in spec.:bang: