Tyre wear

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

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.

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.

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.

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!.

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.

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.

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.

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.