Front tire wear
 

this weekend i noticed the front tires are wearing out a lot faster on the outside than the rear tires or the inside of the tires. I bought these tires new Summer 2011 and probably put 15000 miles on them. I have actually rotated them at 7k miles. Now the only thing that i have done lately to the front suspension is changing the sway bar links... So before i take it in for alignment, is there anything i should look at (consider changing) before i do the alignment. :dunno: Thanks

An alignment will help let you know if you have bad control arm bushings and or ball joints.

+1 to what big "J" said.

Do you have any maintenance history aside from the sway bar links? It could be a number of items that are worn out and causing the tire wear; ruling out ones that have been changed recently in some acceptable time frame should narrow that list a bit.

Mine had always been wearing that way (a bit more wear on the outer edges) since new. It's probably due to the toe-in OE settings. Have your toe setting checked if the wear is excessive. If I recalled, there's no camber setting for the fronts, other than moving the strut mounting nuts/bolts.

If both tires are wearing (not cupping, just wearing) on the outer edge of the fronts then I would look to aggressive cornering as a likely cause, on top of any suspension issues. A heavy vehicle like the X5, understeering, will wear outer edges first.

Thanks for all the input guys.. the steering shakes at 55-60mph and goes away above that. I got the tires balanced and that didn't fix the issue, I had the rotors checked and was told they were fine. I will check the ball joints.. (anyway to check without taking it out?) JCL, thanks for the input, but my wife is nowhere near the aggressive driver and since it's the daily, i don't think that is the cause... but i need to prehaps look at what cupping means.

Example of cupping.

http://www.xoutpost.com/303875-post1.html

Thanks TwinPoppa, I actually google it up as well and the wear pattern on mine is not cupping. It is just even wear on the outter side. Taking it in for alignment this weekend. Btw I called tirebarn to get an alignment and they told me they don't have the right equipment for German cars. Something about German cars requiring a certain amount of weight and full tank of gas etc.. etc.. according to their equipment.. Never heard that before.

Technically, I believe, there are such requirements. I've had several alignments (none at a dealer) and no weights were used.

Does this mean everybody should do as I do? Not necessarily. Just sharing my experience.

Regarding your front tire wear, hopefully it just needs an alignment. As JCL pointed out, outer front tire wear is usually just from aggressive cornering. Hopefully, it doesn't uncover other faulty parts.

I am planning to change the control arm bushing (i can easily move it a couple inches)and the ball joint then get the alignment done. Does the bushing and ball joint need to be pressed it or can I just slide them in? Just trying to prep the tools before I start the job... Thanks