Extreme inner tire wear
 

Hi guys,

Anyone have any ideas about the likely culprit for this?

Volvo V70, 2009.

The tire in question (in the pic) is barely 8 months old. The other tire is the same.

I swapped the engine in May (tranny came out with it, so removed driveshafts etc too). Ended up replacing the N/S shaft as it was on its way out, and inner and outer tie rods and hub got replaced too. Control arms looked pretty worse for wear both sides but kept them as couldn't source new ones easily.

Passed its MOT in June, so the wear has occurred since then.

Is there a way to adjust camber on these? Could the control arms be to blame?

Cheers!

Have you taken to get the tracking checked/adjusted. If not, I’d suggest that’s your first task.

I agree with TeamG.
If you ever replace or interfere with suspension components you should always have the wheel alignment checked /adjusted afterwards at the earliest opportunity.

I took it to halfords for new rears and asked them to do tracking - they charged what id expect to pay without tracking, so I asked if they had done it and the bloke said yes, but he didn't see confident. Perhaps I should take the car back and demand an explanation.

A wheel alignment must be all 4 wheels , they line up each wheel to the centre line of the car. which should straighten the steering wheel too. A common cause of this wear is low tyre pressures , 38 psi please !

Low tyre pressure does cause edge wear, but generally on both outer edges of a tyre.

Wear on the inner like this is a serious amount of toe out, or excessive negative camber. The toe out is more likely though, could be combined with low tyre pressure as well.

Best go to a place that does proper 4 wheel alignment. You should get a print out of the results before and after if the place is any good. This should include the thrust angle (front to rear alignment) plus the camber and toe as a minimum, showing you where the results sit relative to the desired settings.

In my long experience with volvo its tyre pressures causing the inner edge to wear first. , but obviously the wheel alignment has to be right first.

Thanks guys. Took it to the local wheel chaps (not halfords), they did a 4 wheel alignment and talked me through it all while it was on the 4 poseter. Confirmed that one wheel was toe out and one toe in, but with 3-4 degrees difference (not cancelling each other out).

Point taken on tyre pressure. I usually drive a Land rover and run a bit lower. The new tyres are up around 40 psi, and you can already see that the contact with the ground is much more central.