Solved What causes excessive inner tire wear?

[Brian Daugherty]

I'm new on here, but have searched the forum for things in the past.
I've had my Explorer for a long time and she's showing her age, knock on wood, but starts when I need to go.
I had noticed the I had high and low wear on the inside of the front tires, a friend said it was called chopping, probably caused by bad shocks.
But now just the drivers side has worn to the point you can see it's almost bald.
I'm gonna guess it's a ball joint or tie rod end but not sure how to determine the cause? Thanks for looking and hope I can help someone with the strange things that have happened to me and my explorer!

 

[BrooklynBay]

Welcome to this forum! Check the alignment.

 

[UtahX]

I would throw in balance and rotation.

 

[koda2000]

These trucks are tough on ball joints so that's certainly a possibility. However there are lots of other front suspension components what will contribute to uneven tire wear.

- worn shocks
- worn inner and/or outer tie rod ends
- worn control arm bushings
- worn upper and/or lower ball joints
- worn out hub bearing assemblies (4WD/AWD models)
- wheels out of alignment

If you are not able to assess the condition of all the above you should take it to a qualified alignment shop and have the technician examine each of the components and the alignment. If he finds wear, don't bother doing an alignment until the worn item(s) are replaced.

If you haven't kept up with maintenance on your vehicle over the years, you are about to possibly need to pay for it all at once.

 

[Brian Daugherty]

I'm not gonna say the maintenance schedule has been perfect, but I think I can check most of that stuff in the drive way. We live on a gravel road and teaching my daughters not to mash every pothole is a challenge!

Every time I tell them to avoid them or at least slow down, all I hear is my old man telling me "boy you're gonna knock the front end out of it!"

 

[J_C]

I'm gonna guess it's a ball joint or tie rod end but not sure how to determine the cause?

Lift the front wheels off the ground, then grab the tire and wiggle it to check for bad hub bearings. Take the tire off and get under the front end to wiggle (or have an assistant turn the wheel) while you're doing so to the tie rod and ball joints. Keep in mind that if the steering wheel is turned while the engine is off, it may get air into the system that needs bled out later with full steering wheel turns stop to stop with the engine on.

Shocks, you should notice too much rebounding from suspension movement (wheels on ground, not up in the air), though if you haven't had yours replaced in the last 50K mi or several years then I'd go ahead and do that while you're inspecting the rest. Bad shock wear will tend to cause uneven cupping rather than even wear around the circumference, though it might be harder to tell the more wear there is.

 

[koda2000]

The best way I've found to check for ball joints wear is to jack the front wheel just off the ground (an inch is plenty) by using the jack hook on the front of the lower control arm. Then take a piece of 2x4 and place it on the ground next to the tire and lever the tire up/down using a large pry bar, using the 2x4 as the fulcrum. If there's any play in either the upper or lower ball joints you'll be able to see and feel it.

 

[Halford1]

I replaced the rods behind the tires because the grease were coming out of them and the tires were worn inside. I also replaced shocks. Had the alignment aligned. That solved my problems.

 

[RandomNerd2000]

A more accurate way to get results on a front end test is to get as close to the lower ball joint with the jack as you can on the LCA, and that takes all the pressure off it. In my case, inner tire wear was caused by bad ball joints and tie rod ends.

 

[imp]

@Brian Daugherty
Now, having seen the perplexing results of your questions:

Park the vehicle on as flat and level a place as you can find. Check the level, if unsure, you can use a Carpenter's 2X4 foot square, a device you might already have.

Move the vehicle forward holding the steering wheel straight ahead while it is on this desired location several feet to equalize loads on all tires. Now take the square, and carefully slide it with one edge flat on the pavement, towards and up against the front tires' sidewalls, one at a time, the square held vertically through the center of the wheel. If space is present between the square and upper edge of the tire, CAMBER is negative. NEGATIVE CAMBER causes tire wire on the inside edge of the tire. In cases of extreme camber, the wheel's lack of "squareness" with the pavement is quite obvious to a view from the front, about 20 feet away. imp

 

[Brian Daugherty]

@Brian Daugherty
Now, having seen the perplexing results of your questions:

Park the vehicle on as flat and level a place as you can find. Check the level, if unsure, you can use a Carpenter's 2X4 foot square, a device you might already have.

Move the vehicle forward holding the steering wheel straight ahead while it is on this desired location several feet to equalize loads on all tires. Now take the square, and carefully slide it with one edge flat on the pavement, towards and up against the front tires' sidewalls, one at a time, the square held vertically through the center of the wheel. If space is present between the square and upper edge of the tire, CAMBER is negative. NEGATIVE CAMBER causes tire wire on the inside edge of the tire. In cases of extreme camber, the wheel's lack of "squareness" with the pavement is quite obvious to a view from the front, about 20 feet away. imp

A more accurate way to get results on a front end test is to get as close to the lower ball joint with the jack as you can on the LCA, and that takes all the pressure off it. In my case, inner tire wear was caused by bad ball joints and tie rod ends.

Sorry it's taken so long to get back but after changing the sway bar links, they were shot, licked into some almost new tires and wheels. So I went to the shop to have an alignment done and they told me everything was fine but my shocks were trashed. They told me that they were still able to allign the tires and I went to the parts store and got the shocks and replaced them. Rides like a new truck! Thanks for all the input!

 

[BrooklynBay]

Thanks for the update! Your thread is now marked solved.

 

[BTR]

@Brian Daugherty
Now, having seen the perplexing results of your questions:

Park the vehicle on as flat and level a place as you can find. Check the level, if unsure, you can use a Carpenter's 2X4 foot square, a device you might already have.

Move the vehicle forward holding the steering wheel straight ahead while it is on this desired location several feet to equalize loads on all tires. Now take the square, and carefully slide it with one edge flat on the pavement, towards and up against the front tires' sidewalls, one at a time, the square held vertically through the center of the wheel. If space is present between the square and upper edge of the tire, CAMBER is negative. NEGATIVE CAMBER causes tire wire on the inside edge of the tire. In cases of extreme camber, the wheel's lack of "squareness" with the pavement is quite obvious to a view from the front, about 20 feet away. imp

Given the sidewall of the bottom of the tire will be flexed outward MORE than the sidewall of the top of the tire, how can you use this type of measurement to evaluate camber? Due to the variances in sidewall-outward-flex at top vs. bottom, a tire having 0-degrees camber will have space between the square and the top sidewall.

 

[imp]

Given the sidewall of the bottom of the tire will be flexed outward MORE than the sidewall of the top of the tire, how can you use this type of measurement to evaluate camber? Due to the variances in sidewall-outward-flex at top vs. bottom, a tire having 0-degrees camber will have space between the square and the top sidewall.

@BTR
Squareness can be effectively seen by moving the square over beside the tire's "bulge". If in doubt, inflate to max pressure to minimize bulge. imp

 

[jpacker]

I'm new on here, but have searched the forum for things in the past.
I've had my Explorer for a long time and she's showing her age, knock on wood, but starts when I need to go.
I had noticed the I had high and low wear on the inside of the front tires, a friend said it was called chopping, probably caused by bad shocks.
But now just the drivers side has worn to the point you can see it's almost bald.
I'm gonna guess it's a ball joint or tie rod end but not sure how to determine the cause? Thanks for looking and hope I can help someone with the strange things that have happened to me and my explorer!

Having the same problem, i noticed the the rubber stops are making marks on the lower control arm, did you ever resesrch torsion bars?

 

[koda2000]

If you hitting the bump stops (the rubber things) during normal driving either your front suspension is too low (not very common) or your front shocks are worn out.