98 V70 T5 Front tires wear severely on outside

Post by **songzunhuang** » 17 Sep 2014, 19:58

I was getting the oil changed on my car when I mentioned to the independent local mechanic that all my front tires seem to wear badly on the outside edge.

Without even a micro-second's thought, he said "You need new inner tie rods". Thus began my research into inner tie-rods.

I live in a mountainous area and thought that my daily commute over the twisty roads was the cause of the outside edges of my front tires wearing so badly. You can literally see the layers of rubber on the outer edge. An inspection of the inner part of the tire shows that the tread is still pretty good, matching the tread depth of the middle part of the tire.

So the question is twofold.
1. Does this sound like a worn inner tie rod problem or an alignment problem?
2. If I replace the inner tie rods, why not replace the outer too? They seem to have even more parts susceptible to wear (rubber bits).

What do you all think? I wanted to get some feedback before I go and replace everything. Thanks.

Post by **erikv11** » 17 Sep 2014, 21:30

I don't know why the mechanic would suggest inners are bad without checking anything. Maybe he already saw something, etc.

You are right, maybe you both are right: the alignment is off, presumably toe is in too far. Could be the inners, could be the outers, could be both ... could even be bad ball joints in the control arms (OK less likely given the pattern). Or, could simply be out of alignment, can you remember it ever being done? Were the struts or the outer tie rods changed recently?

One way to proceed in this kind of situation is to take the car to a trusted shop and have the alignment checked. Not sure I would go back to your indie for this one, based on the above report ... something like Goodyear can be fine, but really you want a shop that can properly check 4 wheel alignment. Anyway, if any parts are bad they will tell you before they align it. No bad parts, then get an alignment and you are done. If there are bad parts: you can decline the alignment and the repairs and DIY it, or have the shop do them. Watch out for junk suspension parts though. Or you can check yourself: get it in the air, pry around a lot and check for any play. There should be none. But an experienced eye can go a long way here.

As for (2): I would do them all, if the inners are bad. Buy TRW, Lemforder or genuine Volvo parts. The $14 tie rods are worth about ... $14.

Post by **rmmagow** » 18 Sep 2014, 07:29

Strong agree with erik here. My V70 destroyed a set of front tires in less than 6000 miles. I had had the control arms replaced, both sides, but never thought I needed an alignment (or ran out of money) after doing that. Turned out my toe was way off and all I needed was toe to be set and now the tires are wearing evenly. The car didn't feel bad, steered normally etc but toe was way way off. Bad tie-rod ends, inner or outer will do this too since the tie-rods are used to set toe. Remember, if you do one side, do the other too.

Post by **songzunhuang** » 02 Dec 2014, 00:42

Just a follow up to this thread. I ended up replacing the outer tie rods and the end-links on both sides. I noticed that my inner tie rods were pretty solid with no play. The old parts I replaced were pretty worn and the rubber bellows were all torn. I'm hoping that this fixes my tire wear problem. I haven't gotten the alignment yet. I am going to wear out the old tires before getting new ones and getting the whole thing aligned.

I did play with the toe-in and alignment a bit using some methods I saw on YouTube. It seemed pretty easy, but also pretty in-exact. I was able to get my steering wheel straight while the car was tracking straight ahead. Everything feels fine. I guess time will tell.

Post by **JRL** » 02 Dec 2014, 05:04

Rotate your tires

Post by **erikv11** » 02 Dec 2014, 08:36

Good call from JRL. If you are going to just wear them out anyway, might as well wear them evenly. You'll get more life out of them.

Post by **abscate** » 02 Dec 2014, 08:50

If you want to rotate for uneven edge wear, you have to demount them of course. I believe it is considered bad form to change the direction of rotation of a radial ply tire, that is, swap them from side to side.

On edit...the above is undocumented up internet fable aka bull excrement.

Swapping front to back will help.

Post by **erikv11** » 02 Dec 2014, 09:07

My rotation scheme is to switch sides when I move them to the back, then I move the back ones straight ahead.

Post by **abscate** » 02 Dec 2014, 09:10

That old advice might have been good back in the day of Jimmy Stewart,

Okay, I have to go find my metal oil spout with the puncture tip to open up some Quaker state cardboard tins of oil.

Post by **erikv11** » 02 Dec 2014, 11:41

LOL, nice irony. So you're joking (again!) right? That practice from the early days of radial tires is no longer relevant so should not be perpetuated even in jest. A cross rotation is the most commonly recommended scheme for radials today, as long as you are not running directional tires.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/ ... ?techid=43&
http://www.michelinman.com/tires-101/ti ... ation.page
http://www.tiresafety.com/maint/maint_content.asp
Etc.

But I do note the recommendation from some of those pages for FWD is to cross them as you move them forward, then move the front ones straight back, not quite the same as I suggested up above ...