Wheel wear inner edge

[pineapples]

I have noticed some severe inner wheel wear on the front, both sides are identical, looks like camber wear but apparently this cant be adjusted? The depth of the tread indicators is basically the same for all 3 of the main grooves, this is the second set of tyres that have done this and are less than 20000km.

Any thoughts?

[brad]

The camber is adjustable if you move the subframe but as you take from one side you give to the other.

If it's the RH front with the inside wear it's probably a toe out issue. You really won't know until you get it on the rack.

What tyre pressures are you running?

I'd recommend somewhere but "NSW" is a fairly big place

[alexaescht]

Hmm interesting. My sister's Polo had this issue not long ago, the wear on the front tyres looked the same as yours. The tyre shop did a front end alignment (which as we know is only toe) and so far so good with the new set of tyres.

[brad]

What part of "camber can be adjusted by moving the subframe" don't you understand? It's in the workshop manual.

There are many ways to change a wheel alignment without having an adjuster.

[alexaescht]

What part of "camber can be adjusted by moving the subframe" don't you understand? It's in the workshop manual.

There are many ways to change a wheel alignment without having an adjuster.

I do understand that. What I wrote was not all that succinct. I was trying to say that the average tyre shop probably won't be moving the subframe to fix an issue caused by incorrect toe.

[amazeer]

In a polo I believe that excessive neg camber on one side would equal excessive pos camber on the other.

Camber problem would be even wear around the tyre. The bottom photo looks like there is more wear on the trailing edge of the block, which indicates excess toe out problem. If so its an easy fix even for chain store wheel aligner/tyre shops.

[jebusv20]

I've seen this before on my first set of tyres for my Polo. On my car it ended being 5mm total toe out, which is about 10 times more than it should. My wear was like this after 5000KM though, I'd look in to getting a new allignment, ask for the sheet.

[dtulloh]

Inner Front tyre wear

I've seen this before on my first set of tyres for my Polo. On my car it ended being 5mm total toe out, which is about 10 times more than it should. My wear was like this after 5000KM though, I'd look in to getting a new allignment, ask for the sheet.

My mechanic discovered that I had this problem and resolved it by moving the subframe, working with a tyre specialist to get the alignment. They did before and after measurements and they got it near to spec through trial and error.

I believe this happened as the dealer had the subframe out when repairing the DSG under warranty.

[Martin]

I have noticed some severe inner wheel wear on the front, both sides are identical
The depth of the tread indicators is basically the same for all 3 of the main grooves

Looks normal to me, same thing happened on my Octavia (got 55,000km out of the front tyres)
As both sides are the same and groves are all the same depth this confirms everything is ok

It's probably castor wear from a lot of sharp turning using a lot of steering
Castor induced negative camber works the inside edge of the tyre

This wear can chew through the inner edge and into the core of the tyre prematurely ending the tyre's usable life
The solution is to flip the tyre over on the rim half way through the expected life/km

By all means have the toe-in checked

looks like camber wear but apparently this cant be adjusted?

Takes a lot of km for camber to do that - toe hurts more quickly than camber

Your polo would not have enough negative camber on the front to cause this wear
I ran -1:45 camber on the Octavia for 55,000km and got the same result as you
Your Polo probably only has 1 degree of negative camber at the front

The Mazda3 SP23 has -2~-2.5 degrees of negative camber at the rear
After 30,000km it bevels the inner edge of the rear tyres
But that's twice the likey camber that the front of your Polo would have

I have seen UK posts claiming that the Polo camber has 3 possible positions
The shock is offset in the top hat/mount
So unbolting the shock top mounts and rotating the threads into the next hole would change the camber
I am somewhat skeptical - the top shock mounting holes in many FWD cars are not symmetrical, there is only one viable installation option
But hey - check it out - maybe get lucky

this is the second set of tyres that have done this and are less than 20000km.

Check with other Polo owners on tyre range/life
(Smaller wheels revolve quicker, a lot of highway km may result in low km from the tyres?)
If 20,000km is low for the Polo try a different brand/model of tyre

[JonW]

My GTI wore like yours in approx 25k kms, the adjustment was totally out on one side when you look at the platronics test the dealer does. i had new tyres and (I guess since it was at the tyre place) a toe alignment and it was fine after. The subframe on my car had been out quite a bit lol... but the dealer maintained Id hit a pot hole. sigh... I knew I hadnt but what can you do...

[pontiff]

Just got back from a wheel alignment as I found that the drivers side tyres inner edge was down to the canvas (I know.. I should monitor them more).. Anyway the results are :


Tow Before LH/RH
Tow After LH/RH

-2.6mm +0.9mm
+0.4mm +0.3mm

Camber Before LH/RH
Camber After LH/RH
-0.41deg -1.13deg
-0.43deg -1.13deg



As we all know the camber is not adjustable but that would at least explain the wear given the factory parameters are +-0.30.

I have not had an accident, ran up any gutters at speed aside from the odd unforeseen pothole.

So my question is, while there is no official camber adjustment mechanism aside from moving the subframe (which I don't want to do), is there ANY adjustment at all that people have been able to find? Any of the bolts give a little or similar? Could the top strug mount have moved / started to collapse which could cause this?

Any suggestions on what to try to resolve this?

[Martin]

1 degree of negative camber won't wear out the inner edge
I run 1.75 degrees negative (after market control arms) and can do 45k~55km on front tyres
(I do get uneven wear - the inside does wear faster than the outside but it's mild)

It won't be possible to make a 1 degree adjustment at the top of the strut
It takes 1mm of adjustment at the bottom and a LOT more at the top to make a 1 degree change

Worth checking your LCA bushes
You can loosen the strut to hub bolts, apply a big lever to pull the top outwards, tighten while still pulling
You can often get half a degree that way which would get you close

It's more likely that the 1mm toe out is the problem - toe out is nasty
The left front was also a mess, toed in by a lot, looks like both wheels have been through a pot hole
(With each side being way out I would have expected you to be driving with the steering off center)

[OUR6R]

Well all I can say is get used to it. I have a 2010 6R Comfortline with the 17" wheels and I get exactly 20ks out of a set of fronts. I've had countless Toe adjustments as a full geometric wheel alignment can't be done due to the subframe system. I've had VW align the subframe and nothing is ever improved. As yours mine wear the inner edge of the tyres evenly so simple deduction tells you the frame is equally aligned or one would wear more than the other. My 4 year of investigation and adjustments have improved nothing.

[Mitchh]

Sorry to highjack but i feel like my question is some what related.

I recently got some new tyres put on, first set since the factory rubber, and ever since i've had a wobble/vibration above 80kph. I did not get a wheel alignment as i wasn't sure if i should since the steering wheel was straight and the car didn't pull in any direction before the new tyres went on. I took it back and they found 2 of the wheel were out by 5-10 grams so they fixed that up but i still have the wobble. It's fairly bad, kinda like corrugated road bad.

Could it been wheel alignment? Or something else perhaps, like brake rotors being different masses from one side to the other? Or something completely different again.

Cheer guys

[Martin]

So, once you sort this out, don't go back to that tyre shop...

Assuming the balance is now right, two things to check

Have they lost your hub centric rings?
Only applies if you are using after market wheels with a different hub diameter

Need to check the wheels for lateral run out which will cause vibration

(I guess it's possible you may have a bad wheel bearing - which would be unusually early)

A wheel alignment won't fix a vibration