Outer Edge Tire Wear?

[rickatups]

hey guys ..... what is your take on this??

95 LS 400 with 127,000 miles and original front end (as far as I can tell), including struts ..... I got the car with 101,000 miles on it .....

my tires in front are wearing sooooo bad on the outer edge, both right and left tires in front. I know I need to change out the struts for sure, although it is amazing how good the car still rides ....... and the lower ball joints seem to have a small amount of play, particularly the right side ...... sometimes if I hit a pot hole just right, you can hear a hard "clunk" sound ...... otherwise it stays quiet .....

As I go down the road, you can clearly hear the front tires whining loudly almost as if they are out of round. Actually these tires only have about 4000 miles on them so far. If you look at the outer edge of the front tires, you can see that there is cupping on the outer edges, thus the noise I hear when the car is in motion ....

I am thinking that by changing out the struts and lower ball joints, everything will be ok again ..... but what do you think? The little voice in the back of my mind is telling me I should probably change out the upper control arm bushings / ball joints as well .....

what am I overlooking ?

I HATE overlapping labor. I do not want to tear back into this front-end again because I did not change out some other part that I should have done the first time I had it all apart, you know?

I should also mention, that my alignment is ok ... the car stays totally straight on the road and does not pull to one side or the other at all.

what has your experience been??????

if you were me, based on what you have already been through ... how would you approach this situation?

really appreciate a moment of your time ......... !!

thanks!

[Lexusfreak]

Moved to the LS forum.

[aarman4]

If you ball-joints and any part of your suspension are worn, especially to the point of clunking, your tires will show it. Although when my balljopints needed replacing, the damage was on the innner-edge of the tire, not the outer.

Until your suspension is tight and secure, your tires will wear improperly.

I hope this link helps you out!

Tire Wear patterns

[1990LS400]

If by "struts" you mean shock absorbers, shock absorbers often last far longer than 127,000 miles - often to well over 200,000 miles.

Have your strut bars or the strut bar bushings been replaced? The strut bar bushings rarely last more than 100,000 miles. If you are paying someone else to replace them it can be cheaper to replace the entire strut bars rather than have them press in new bushings. I had mine replaced at about 85,000 miles on my current LS and was surprised how much the replacement tightened up the front suspension.

You say that your alignment is OK because the car does not pull to one side. Have you had your alignment checked by a pro? Ask the person checking the alignment to check the condition of the variouis front suspension components.

[flop170]

sounds like positive camber to me...

[eatingupblacktop]

As 1990LS suggests, take it in for an alignment check. My guess is too much toe in.

Aside from alignment and suspension issues, low pressure in the tires combined with aggressive turns will also scrub off the outside edges.

[Mike Floutier]

I've recently bought my 2002 LS430 with 150k miles and have much the same tire wear problems as the OP. The alignment is fine although I may experiment with opening the toes a little to see the effect - I can pick up very new part-worn tires for £20 which would be useful for experimenting.

I liked your common sense suggestions eatingupblacktop; it's easy to focus on just the geometry. One possibility for this type of wear that intrigues me is the use of tire dressing (do you call it that over there? - spray on stuff for making them look very black and shiny). I don't use this stuff but I noticed when I tried it that it seems to "clean" by dissolving the surface layer of the rubber.

My car was previously used "professionally" which means that it was probably subjected to this rubber dissolving fluid on a daily basis. I've also noticed that it's very common for the valeter to cover not only the sidewall but also the easily visible area of the tread; ie the very part that we're seeing this exceptional wear on.

Could it be that this valeting process is actually weakening and eroding the outer edge of the tires and causing this wear pattern. Naturally this will be happening in conjunction with the other "wear factors" mentioned.

My plan is to put on a good part-worn tire as a replacement for the worst one and, with no other alteration, see what happens; all it will cost me is £20 and it may tell me a lot.

Will let you know how it goes.

Regards,

Mike