Front Tire Wear

[trev230]

Need some insight here..

2011 X 50i M Sport with Dynamic Handling and Active Steering

In 22,000 miles I've almost worn through two sets of front tires. They are wearing on the outer edges. I've had the vehicle aligned three times and everytime they check it..they say it's fine. I have it aligned at a local Firestone near my home. The mechanic that works there I've known for almost 20 years and he is an outstanding mechanic. I'm starting to think something is off with their settings or something isn't being accounted for (like an option package on the vehicle, etc..) Not real sure.

I've owned a lot of vehicles and have never had one wear the front tires this quickly. I know it's a heavy vehicle with active suspension and big heavy 20" wheels with runflats. Some excessive wear is normal but this has got to be too much.

I'm thinking of just taking it to BMW and paying them the jacked up rate for a dealer alignment.

Has anyone had this same problem?

[P1]

What brand tires are you using? Are they OEM tires? Dunlop? Bridgestone?

[PAX5]

Strictly an alignment problem ...!

Don't have to go to a BMW dealer to solve this problem ... unless you like paying exorbitant prices.

Do a search. Topic has been discussed ad nauseum.

If you still have questions after reading all of the post, ask.

[mitch808]

Its an alignment issue by itself or a worn suspension component causing the alignment.

What were the final alignment settings? Its usually on a print out. You want toe set as close as you can get to 0.01. No more than 0.03.

[Doc GTO]

The factory alignment is crap and wears tires out quick..... BMW has to put a ton on toe-in on our trucks because of how wide the tires which can tramline. I did a custm alignment on mine and the truck actually handles better and should reduce wear significantly.

[PAX5]

Originally Posted by Doc GTO

The factory alignment is crap and wears tires out quick..... BMW has to put a ton on toe-in on our trucks because of how wide the tires which can tramline. I did a custm alignment on mine and the truck actually handles better and should reduce wear significantly.

Why don't you share the details of this custom alignment and tell us how it was done ...

[Doc GTO]

Originally Posted by PAX5

Why don't you share the details of this custom alignment and tell us how it was done ...

The stock alignment has WAY to much toe-in front and rear and then a crap load of rear negative camber. Enough for my race car but not my daily.
Example:



My goal was 0.00-0.01 toe front and rear. Everything else in the front is fixed for the most part. The front camber settles in at -.7 to -.8

Rear toe set as mentioned above and I reduced the negative camber from -2.5 to -1.0.

You will get more tramlining on the highway but if you have owned performance cars in the past, nothing new.

The turn in is much better. Lets put it this way, it finally wants to turn in! LOL

This should reduce the front outside wear and inside rear wear by a ton.

[CrashRat]

Similar issues, I just got back from Discount Tire. Went up there for a patch after my wife somehow managed to pick up a razor blade, and after getting it in the air we discovered the rears were massively worn on the inside edge. Tire shop blamed it on aggressive camber settings from the factory, says all the European stuff does this. The inside edge of each rear tire (Deuler RFT's) is completely wiped out, yet I still have 6/32" tread remaining across the rest of the tire. I bought the truck used 800 miles ago so I'm thinking I might throw some super cheap Saffiro's or something on there to experiment with over the next 15-20k miles or so until I make sure this isn't going to happen again. I'm fortunate to have access to the equipment I need to mount/balance my own tires, so at least it won't cost me $80-100 to dismount/remount.