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Question about tracking

During service mechanic noticed that one of the front tyres was wearing on the inside. Fair enough get the tracking sorted.

But he says Im better off switching those tyres to the back now otherwise they'll keep wearing in the same place (even with tracking sorted).

Now I might be wrong but tracking just means the wheels are not aligned correctly so one side or the other gets scrubbed a bit yeh? So if its corrected then one side will no longer wear unevenly.

I guess you might end up with maybe 1mm more wear on one side but then what'll happe when tracking is right. Surely the rest (centre) of tyre will wear down to meet that level.

Or am I wrong?

Reply to
paulfoel
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Incorrect tracking won't wear one front tyre, it will affect them both, more or less equally.

Sounds reasonable.

Mis-aligned tracking means either the front of the wheels are too close together, or too far apart. To keep going in a straight line, the steering wheel is moved away from its centralised position, and each wheel *has* to be mis-aligned by the same amount, giving essentially the same amount of wear to each tyre.

If you have *significant* wear to an edge of only *one* front tyre, the likelihood is that you have an alignment problem that is not tracking.

I'm afraid so.

Chris

Reply to
Chris Whelan

If the problem's toe - and toe alone - then, yep. Even if it's only one side that's actually out, you compensate by driving with the steering off- centre, else the car doesn't go in a straight line.

If the problem's camber or castor, then one side may well wear unevenly or faster.

Reply to
Adrian

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