Rear tire wear 2005 X5

[aspenpup]

Re: Rear tire wear 2005 X5

It seems like just a few months ago I replaced all tires and now I see the RETURN of the inside edge of each rear tire worn down to the belt. The outside edge has nearly 90% tread left.

The wear seems to be a bit uneven. I hear about the camber being an issue but this irregular pattern seems to indicate something else, but on both sides? I guess I should look at my bushings/control arms? Any thoughts about this tire wear. All 3 pictures are of the same tire.

I was ready to take to alignment shop and tell them to set the camber different to prevent this type of wear.

[TriX5]

What tire pressure do you use?

[Sundayjumper]

I know the X5s have a tendancy to wear the inner edges but that is ridiculous !

Someone suggested the upper control arms could be a big factor in this - and I agree with their logic - so check those out carefully, and the rest of the suspension too. At the moment I think an alignment check will just tell you what you already know, that it's knackered

[tmv]

BMW sets up rear suspension that way to help with handling and stability in sudden manuever. Experience alignment shop should be able to help somewhat.

[aspenpup]

I run the air at 35 psi. I think BMW must have ownership in some tire companies since I am getting about 20k miles on a set of tires rated at 60k.

I thought my issue was just alignment until I noticed the irregular wear pattern. I will roll under and check the bushing and see if stuff is loose down there.

My wife drives this car and we park it in the garage. I have noticed a rubber smell when she comes home at night so some nasty friction is going on while driving down the road.

I rotated the back to the front so I can get a few more miles out of these before they go down to the metal belt. Actually, there is a few spots I can see the metal so I really need to get new ones. This is the first car that I have experienced a major alignment issue. Actually, scratch that, I had an S10 Chevy Blazer that had alignment issue but it was on the front wheels.

[mrbmwx5]

Good mech. shop can dial out that crazy negative camber to 0.05* it almost straight up like the front wheels... Run your tire at 40psi to help the inner wear..
I ran my 20's with 315 wide and have no issue after 30k miles.

[mywidebody02]

the least i could get out of min was 2

[OZE53]

Mate i had exactly the same problem a little while back on my 19's, however not quite as extreme as yours. I also have an 05'. Luckily i needed new rubber anyway ( went with Bridgestone dueller HP sports which im really happy with just quietly ).
Anyway, my alignment was quite a way out and i had the camber reduced to negative 1, this seemed to work without pushing out the toe.
Its only been a few months but i do a fair bit of driving and wear is pretty even at the moment, im going back to the alignment shop in a month or so for a check up to see if everything has stayed reasonably in spec so ill let you know. Even with negative camber, from research i did on this forum it seems it may wear a little prematurely but not as bad as your photos suggest.
I'd definitely check out your control arms and bushings.
I should mention that when i had this problem that i also got alot of help and advice from forum members so a big thank you guys. Good luck

[wigner]

Wow!!
My wife's X5 had the same problem. The camber? whatever, my dealer guy said it was -2.4 and they adjusted it to -1.5 for both. and everything is going down evenly.

[TravsX5]

When i bought my 02' 4.6 it had a BRAND NEW pair of rears on it (they still had the titties on them). First thing we did was take it on a 3k mile road trip, and when we got back they looked just like yours. I was so ticked off, ordered a new set of rears from tirerack and had them drop shipped to my favorite tire shop. They checked the alignment and it was "within bmw tolerance" which was something like -2.7 on each side. I had them take every ounce of negative camber out of the rear to get it as close to 0.00 as possible. They got me to -.5 and -.7 and thats mechanically the limit of the rearend on my X5. That set of rears ran me almost 50k before the whole thing needed new rubber again.

btw, i run max pressure in my tires. And I kind of cheated a little at the end of that last sets life span. I over inflated by about 10lbs to make the tire dome and get it off the shoulder of the tire. Good bad.. whatever.. it got me about 5k more miles before i just didn't feel comfortable driving on worn rubber any more.