Rear Wheels Inside Wear
 

I've done some searches and haven't really seen any pictures of this so I thought I'd post here and see if I can get some opinions.

I have an 08 4.8i with only 10,420 mi on the Dunlaps. I was filling up at the gas station and noticed this very bad wear on the inside of the tires. I snapped a couple of pictures for you guys to see.

You think I should be concern? I've read a couple of post on here of folks getting 35K on the runflat Dunlaps. I understand the rear camber is set at near -2.0 but to get this bad of wear seems strange to me with this low miles.

Any ways just wanted to get some opinions on here from the community. Check it out!

Get an alignment with your new set of tire. If the camber is indeed still at -2.0 degree, then I'll bet that you're toe-out. Just -2.0 degree camber should NOT cause this excessive wear. Same thing happened to my first set of tire...had it corrected the toe setting on my next set and it wore evenly since.

dkl, would it be best to have the dealer do the alignment?

It shouldn't matter if you can find a competent tire shop. I had mine done at a local tire shop as the dealer wanted $350 :yikes: Call me cheap...but that's crazy money for a simple 4-wheel alignment. The alignment still held up true after going through 1 set of tires, which worn very evenly (went in for an alignment after having new tires installed a few months ago, but everything checked out fine...so no need for any further adjustments...therefore, no charge - sweeeeeeeeet).

Just found out dealership is running a special on 4 wheel alignments. I'm going to give that a try and maybe get some more miles out of these Dunlaps.

I had similar wear in the rears on my 22" Sumitomo Tires.... 20K miles and needed a new pair of rear tires...

What's toe-out.?.:)

Yes. And that is normal wear, that's just how it is on these cars. I'm not saying it's good, it's just par for the course.

Once again, X5 Meister takes the cake. Fact is and according to Ted's BMW, Mercedes, Audi who is a CERTIFIED BMW Mechanic, the rear toe-in on all X5's is, in his words: "EXCESSIVE" And to further quote: "Always has been and he does not know why." He says the wear is especially noticible on "soft" tires and tells me I have perhaps 30,000 miles on my brand new 22" tires.

Alignment Report
 

Well you guys were right!

I went ahead and posted the alignment report done by the dealership and as you can see things were not that way off as I would have thought.

The first couple of pictures you see on this thread are the right rear tire and the one I'm most surprise to see that nothing was off as far as the camber & toe.

I guess it just a combination of X5 aggressive stance, soft tires, and horrible FL roads! :cool:

I guess I should start looking for either a different make of tire and/or saving for the next similar set! Thanks for the help.

You could always try picking up a set of Rogue Engineering camber plates to correct the negative camber a bit, which would possibly cause the toe to change in the direction you want?

typically, toe is designed into the stock alignment specs to

1. increase high speed stability - the tires facing towards each others push the sides of the car towards the center (in). if you neutral out the toe, the vehicle can wander more at higher speed.

2. reduce squirm on acceleration - when you accelerate, the rear wheels tend to go to toe out. when rear bushings go, your toe changes even more, which is why the rear seems really loose on acceleration.

making your toe more neutral in the rear will improve your wear, but at a cost (stability)

Bridgestone Duelers Run-Flats are GONE!
 

Ok folks here I am at 32,320 total miles on my 08 X5 and needing my 3rd set of tires!! :( Check out these pics of my Bridgestone Duelers runflats that I switched to after the Dunlaps. I'm entertaining the idea of going with Non-runflats this time around to maybe stretch out the wear of the tires.

I'm also wondering if this is about normal for owing a X5? As far as only getting about 15K to 20K worth of miles on tires. It just doesn't seem right! Thanks for the help

I just don't understand this level of tyre wear. I got 49,500 miles out of a set of 19 in Michelin Damaris. All even wear and there was still life in them, just got fed up waiting to replace them. The suspension is standard Sport suspension on a 2005 X5 (with the rear camber). I hear that the new X5s eat tyres but on the E53 can last a long time. I always keep a close eye on the tyre pressures, 32 psi all round apart from when i have a load on.

I try to drive it like a rear wheel drive car, slow in, straighten up accelerate out, it handles well and sits it tyres four square. If I try to pile in to corners too fast, squeal round and boot it too soon, well it is going to chew them up. The cars do weigh the best part of 2 tonnes, so a little mechanical sympathy is called for. Physics will win in the end.

These are just my observations, but I find some of the tyre wear rates on this board hard to comprehend.

BTW, those tyres look under inflated, arched in the middle, could just be the way the picture is taken, but that can really increase inside tyre wear, especially with the camber.

That's just the angle of the picture. After going through the Dunlaps so fast I'm pretty religious with the proper tire pressure. 32psi in the front and 35 in back just like OEM recommedations.

If you have nothing loaded 35 in the back could be too high. If it is just you 32 psi in the rear is fine. Mind you that doesnt explain the inner wear. Run flats on my 335d had the same problem, so i ditched them and went to ps2s. Night and day for ride and grip and wear. Handling more progressive, but slightly softer.

my tires was like this after ca.20.000 miles

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5152/...b303f0ca_z.jpg

It's actually pretty simple:

With the camber on a BMW you need the TOE set to minimum. (What happens, is that with the camber AND the cross toe, the inner edge of the tire is just brutalized.)

On page one someone posted their alignments...the toe is HORRIBLE. 0.08, 0.10..way to high.

But, you say, how can this be?? It is in BMW spec...

Answer: BMW spec is terrible. People dont realize this, and just have dealers "check the alignment" and blindly follow the print out. Really bad idea

Have the TOE set to 0.01 on both rear wheels and your tire life will triple. Set the front to the minimum too. Tell them what you want, demand that they set it precisely. (How do you think we set up race cars? "just somewhere in the range will be fine"... nope)

It really is that simple.

A

Another option to help add to your tire life is to have your rear tires dismounted and flipped around. You want the insides of your tires to now be on the outsides of your tires. It cost me $18 bucks and I did it after 5,000 miles.

Even just that little mileage caused a measurable difference in tire wear. It wasn't immediately noticeable to the naked eye, but using the old Lincoln Head Penny trick as my tire depth measuring device showed a marked difference. Did on my 540 and I plan to do it on the X5 too.

Here's mine after around 17,000 miles.

Hi ard & rph74,

thanks for the tips I will take those into the shop on Monday. I went ahead and placed an order for the Dueler Sports Non-Run Flats this time. I'll ask them to change the toe to those specifics and see if I get some better mileage out of these new set! I appreciate the help!

Hey 8ball, I see the inside wear starting up on your tires there as well. Take it for me it may be that you only have 5-8K more miles on them. Hopefully I'm wrong though! I got 22,589 miles on the Bridgestone Duelers sports that I posted above.

I replaced them yesterday with same thing but went with a Non-Runflat version to save a few bucks, we'll see how we do with these. I'm going to the alignment shop today and see if we adjust the rear some so that I can get some more miles out the tires.

Ya, I for got to add about 2,000 miles to that. I had them on my other X5 for a couple of months before switching them over. We'll see how far I make it; I'm pretty much stuck with this tire though but no complaints I love the wheels.

Hello great ppl! My 2003 4,4i (sport suspension)has exposed wires on my almost brand new RFTs.went for alignment and they say all is good wit the specs, replaced front and rear shocks, now I am blaming the rear lower control arm bushings. So is it possible to get better separately the bushings without having to order the whole rear lower arm? I am in southern Africa(Botswana) recommend the store for me.thanks!

"good with specs"?!??!? Please post up the ACTUAL ALIGNMENT NUMBERS.

The shop should give you a print out.

I suspect they have it set to a lot of TOE IN, which is still technically "OK" but will ruin your tires.

You must have these numbers, doing anything else is a foolish waste of money.

What would be the best setup for the oem 17" 235/65R17 and non-sport suspension(e53 4.4 2001)? My winter tires are 17" and summer tires are 20" 275/40R20. Should the alignment be different, and if so,what is the best setup for 20"?

Same recommendations. Minimize toe, follow BMW camber recommendations (mid range)

20k of even wear on the Dueler Non-RFT's and loving them. (25mm spacers in rear, FWIW). Buddy who owns a speed shop just bought a new alignment machine.... might have to throw it up on the rack and gather some data.

Curious on condition of control arms for those experiencing rapid wear.

Been debating if this is safe or not and nobody knows, finally bit the bullet and did it, but I am guessing there is something different about the outside of the tires that have OUTSIDE and INSIDE on them?

Yes! Technically if tire has "outside" labeled on them they are "corner specific" ~ i.e. the tread is set up specifically so that the tires shouldn't be flipped from right side to left. So when you have this, along with different size tires front and rear...there's no where to rotate them to!

ok thanks for the feedback and i shouldn't be hijacking this post just commented on comments made on it regarding flipping the same tire on the same alloy/rim..... apart from the tread direction and risk of aquaplaning(not good) just wondered if there was a difference in side-wall strength between the side of the tire labelled inside and the sidewall labelled outside, did some digging around and found only some goodrich tires being mentioned as having some tires with an increased wall strength on the outside.....

I had this problem for 3 sets of tires. The one thing I never thought to change up was the brand of tire. The last set that made me frustrated at the inside wear was Kuhmo. Very soft rubber on those.

Since the x5 has the on purpose reverse camber it will weigh down on that area more. The Bridgestone I bought last have not had a problem at all. It was the tires the whole time and not my alignment as I also first thought.

Well said. I run 2.5 deg of neg camber on my track car, and no inside uneven wear. My rear toe is almost 0.

Soft or hard tires....won't matter, will just vary the time it takes to happen, if the alignment is out.
Bill