Tyre wear question.

[Jesus-Ninja]

When I did the brakes recently, I noticed that the inner shoulders were both noticeably worn - one of them showing canvass (although there was some evidence that this side may have been rubbing on a dropped arch liner). New tyres were ordered and fitted. After driving to work (about 60 miles) I felt the temps. The front tyres were both warmer on the inside.

The obvious culprit is toe, but I've just checked it, and I'm actually toeing in by 15 minutes. Toe in would give outer wear, right?

The other possibilities are:

Camber: but it's double wishbone, so dropping the height doesn't have the same amount of effect as it would on a McPherson strut. I've run much greater camber on the S14, and never had this kind of wear.

Track: It runs a little extra track owing to the spacers fitted at the front, but I can't see how that would make a difference.

Finally, it's worth noting that there's been no significant set up change since I changed the steering rack, which was almost 2 years ago to the day. At that point I had the tracking done, and it felt a bit dead, so I toed it out a touch. This also induced bump steer, so I dialed it back again. Everything else has been the same in for that period: ride height, track. The tyres had been on about a year. The previous set wore evenly.

[Nick Mann]

I found on my previous VR4 that the rack ends (tie rods) were slightly worn, so although my tracking measured fine, I reckon it changed with movement of the car and caused significant inner edge wear. It took me a long time to diagnose the issue - the movement on the rack ends was small enough that it went through 2 MOT's before it became an advisory on the third. Changing them solved the wear issues and made the car feel more surefooted, even though the tracking was set the same. (I had the tracking redone a few times prior to changing the rack ends, as the inner shoulder wear was costing me a fortune in tyres!)

[Jesus-Ninja]

Cheer for that. Had a good nosy and there's possibly the tiniest bit of play in the OS TRE, but it might even be my imagination. I do have a spare one, so that could be the next port of call.

I've taken the spacers off the front to see how that changes anything. I had them on there to accommodate Brembos, but I don't think I'm going to go down that route, as I have other plans, brake wise.

I'll just have to live with weak offset at the front for now

[Nick Mann]

I think the tiniest amount of play does cause the issue. I am pretty sure that is why mine went through a couple of MOT's before it was picked up on, and even then only given an advisory. I did 15 to 20 thousand miles with the issue, which was there before I bought the car, and it was only three years later when I changed the rack ends that the issue was resolved. I'm not saying that this is your problem, just that I had a similar issue and it turned out to be something that had gone unnoticed for a long time!

[Jesus-Ninja]

Changed a rack boot yesterday for the MOT, so of course had to remove the TRE. No lateral play, but a little bit of vertical slop. The tiniest bit, but I changed it anyway. Maybe that'll help. While the boot was off, the inner joint exposed and the TRE disconnected, I was able to have a good nosy at at least one of the inner joint. Seems fine. Will check the other side in due course, but here's hoping I've found it

[Dom B]

Mine had similar wear on the inside edge when tracking perfectly, it turned out to be the inner bush on the straight suspension arm all chewed up and allowing it to move under acceleration and braking.