Tire shaving to fight premature camber wear?

[LorraineS]

Originally Posted by Repoman

For the most part we as X owners are plagued by premature wearing of the rear tires on the inside. I was tooling around on the net and read about tire shaving. It mentioned that tires can be shaved to fit a particular camber setting for longer wear. Idea is that the tire is always riding on the entire tread instead of more weight focused on the inner edge.

Anyone heard of or have any experience with this? I just got a new set of cheap tires for the rears so I might consider as this set is as good any to experiment with.

IMHO, do not try this as my brother tried it on his x3 and few weeks later had to give it in for service repairs. From what I heard, this has to be done only on cars that have a very good pickup (better than the X)

[FSETH]

Originally Posted by refplusten

I took my 2001 4.4i X5 w/ sports package to the dealership to get the wheels aligned because the very inside 3/4 inch of my tires where burning off while the outside looked absolutely untouched. BMW (Bavaria BMW in Edmonton, AB) said that they aligned it to spec (which wasn't much of an adjustment) but it continues to wear out the rubber on the inside. They also said that it could be a worn out part but couldn't tell what specifically was worn so they offered to to start putting new parts in piece by piece at my expense to see if anything helped but couldn't guarantee me that anything would work... this didn't instill any confidence in me from these guys.

I looked on bavauto.com for this rear camber kit but only could find a camber kit for the front.

I know lots of people have had the same issue but has anyone ever fixed this problem? Speculation is not helpful.
I'm considering selling it because it's too expensive to put a new set of tires on every year just to wear out the inner 3/4 inch and leave the rest of the tire virtually untouched.

There isn't one part or one change that will fix everyones issue. If you can't get you X aligned to spec by a qualified shop, then you need to start trying to figure out why that is in your specific case. Your issue may not be the same as the next persons. Will it not align to spec on just one side, both sides, etc? Unfortunately, if you can't get it to spec by a qualified shop, something is broken, bent, etc. and you will have to find what is wrong.

Also, how many miles did you get out of your last set of rear tires and what tires did you have on there? Some tires will last longer than others. Did you maintain proper pressure the whole time? I mean, I can say that the insides of my rears were nearly worn down to metal and the outsides looked good, but then again, this was after 40,000 miles, which is completely acceptable.

[rph74]

The insides of the tires will wear out faster when aligned to spec. My 540 also does the same thing. The negative camber is what gives BMW's better handling.

The only solution that I can think of while still maintaining the excellent handling is to periodically take the tires to a tire shop to have the tires flipped--moving passenger's side tire to driver's side and vice versa. I was told it would be $17 to have it done. That's a small price to pay to get 15,000 + extra miles out of your rears!

[JCL]

Originally Posted by rph74

The insides of the tires will wear out faster when aligned to spec. My 540 also does the same thing. The negative camber is what gives BMW's better handling.

The only solution that I can think of while still maintaining the excellent handling is to periodically take the tires to a tire shop to have the tires flipped--moving passenger's side tire to driver's side and vice versa. I was told it would be $17 to have it done. That's a small price to pay to get 15,000 + extra miles out of your rears!

The problem with that theory is that many people have experienced regular and even tire wear with the stock camber settings. Yes, camber helps handling but it doesn't necessarily wear out tires faster. Toe settings are much more likely to be the cause. See the many references in the posts above.

[PMPNX5]

Warning for crappy iPhone pics. Lol.
Looks like I'm going in for an alignment.

[PMPNX5]

Other side.

[rph74]

Originally Posted by JCL

The problem with that theory is that many people have experienced regular and even tire wear with the stock camber settings. Yes, camber helps handling but it doesn't necessarily wear out tires faster. Toe settings are much more likely to be the cause. See the many references in the posts above.

Very interesting info. Well, I just had the alignment done at my local BMW dealer, so hopefully I will have even wear on the X5 now. If it works, than I will have the 540 done also.

[omodos]

Originally Posted by PMPNX5

Other side.

hi there got the same tires as you diamaris and similar wear did you ask at alignment garage if you could get them flipped?so inner worn edge is on outside?

[omodos]

Originally Posted by Fraser

Should be no problem, the Sport didn't come with bigger brakes just firmer suspension(but same ride height), the special 19-inch staggered tyre and wheel package and some cosmetic stuff. What year model is your 3.0d? Note that the size is 235/65R17. You should already have a 17-inch spare?

Fraser hi again , what profile tire can i whack on if i get 18" alloys?

[Fraser]

Originally Posted by omodos

Fraser hi again , what profile tire can i whack on if i get 18" alloys?

Standard tyre size for the 18s is 255/55.