Tyre wear

Rotate your tires more often, every 6000 miles or so.

"nick"  wrote in message

Hi.

My 2007 Sonata 3.3L just had an MOT (annual governmental compulsory
check-up) and passed. Not bad for a 5 year old car with no previous failings
(except an electrical switch)

What was pointed out was that the inner edge of the right hand front tyre is
feathering, that is wearing more than the rest of the tyre. The rest of the
tread looks good with even wear. The left had tyre has good even wear all
over.
The garage thought this is not an alignment problem as alignment wear tends
to show on both tyres.

Anyone have any ideas what would cause this, and is there a way to correct
the issue?
Part of the MOT test was to check wheel bearings, and these were good.

Is this the "drive" wheel on a Sonata where you would have tire spin. Of
course, one would think that routine rotation would spread the wear around
unless the rotation is simply front to back. I remember the dreaded MOT from
days in the UK in the mid 80s when I was assigned to RAF Mildenhall.

Thanks for any help.

---
Nick

The "toe in" and caster/camber ( if adjustable) are individually adjustable
for each wheel as far as every car I,ve ever owned. Even the rear wheels..
Why on earth couldn,t one tyre be out of alignment?. Especially the one
nearest the gutter when parking!.

Caster and camber, yes, toe-in, no.  Since the wheels are linked via the
tie rod, you can't change the toe-in on just one wheel.

There is a tie rod on each end of  steering arms though.  Does adjusting,
say the left hand side,  throw out the RHS?

Yes.  The two wheels are linked together in the plane of motion.  If the
rod connecting them gets longer, then the toe-in changes as the toe-in
is, by definition, the angle between the two wheels in the horizontal
plane.  It doesn't matter whether you lengthen the rod on one end, the
other end or in the middle, the only thing that matters is the length of
the rod that links the two wheels.  Yes, I realize that the "rod"
nowadays consists of a tie rod on each side and, with rack and pinion
steering, the steering gear in the middle.  However, the sum total act
as a single "rod" that "ties" the two wheels together.  If  you lengthen
the tie rod on just one side, the effect on toe-in is the same as if you
had lengthened the tie rod on the other side.  The only thing that
changes is that you will now have the steering wheel misaligned when you
are driving straight down the road.  The only reason that you need to
adjust the tie rods on both sides is to keep the steering wheel centered.

My old Chevy truck that uses the old recirculating ball steering gear
really does have only rods between the two wheels: a tie rod on each
side and a connecting rod in the middle.  The steering gear connects to
the connecting rod in order to steer the truck.

Camber and Caster on a MacPherson strut?


The "toe in" and caster/camber ( if adjustable) are individually adjustable
for each wheel as far as every car I,ve ever owned. Even the rear wheels..
Why on earth couldn,t one tyre be out of alignment?. Especially the one
nearest the gutter when parking!.

Sounds like a bad alignment.
A good shop should be able check alignment and find out
why just that one wheel is out of spec.

nick wrote:

Sounds like a bad alignment.
A good shop should be able check alignment and find out
why just that one wheel is out of spec.

The Elantra probably has a Macpherson strut system, so unless there is some
adjustment on the tower, there is no adjustment for camber and caster --  
just toe in.  Wonder if something is bent on that strut.

Those were my thoughts, too.  Lower control arm is bent or
a bushing is bad.  May have to slot if not too bad.

On Fri, 30 Dec 2011 10:08:52 -0600, Paul in Houston TX


Not sure if this could be the cause but my '04 Sonata had a bad wheel
bearing. The dealer caught it but I had my local mechanic change it,
at half the price. This is the first time in many years any car I've
owned had a bad bearing and I was amazed at the repair. The bearing
itself isn't replaceable. They had to replace a whole assembly that
had the wheel bearing in it. The bearing itself isn't accessible. When
I used to replace bearing, it was a pretty cheap fix.

--
cheers,

Nick

Nicholas E J Pike


The front suspension is dual wishbone.
The MOT is very thorough and would find faults like wheel bearings and
component damage.

I dont know, but, the next time you need tires,  look at the Michelin
LX tires .... they wear very slowly like steel and really grab. I have
them on my 2002 SantaFe . Best set of tires ive ever owned and quiet
too.