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Mini Cooper clubman 57 plate - Worn inner walls of tyres - ministripe
My mini has failed it’s MOT due to worn inner walls of back tyres (tread is absolutely fine). The same happened last year! The garage has previously investigated tracking but say they can’t adjust it in the way it needs doing. Has anyone had this and do you have any advice? I will change the tyres to get it through the MOT but need to find out the cause. Any suggestions please?
Mini Cooper clubman 57 plate - Worn inner walls of tyres - bathtub tom

How long have you owned the car, what's it's history, how many miles has it done?

Mini Cooper clubman 57 plate - Worn inner walls of tyres - brambobb

HJ talks regularly about speed bumps/humps and always recommends going over these with just the one wheel on the bump rather than straddling these as they can damage the inner walls of the tyres by doing this.

I don't know if you go over many of these but could this be a possible cause for your problem?

Mini Cooper clubman 57 plate - Worn inner walls of tyres - skidpan

My mini has failed it’s MOT due to worn inner walls of back tyres (tread is absolutely fine). The same happened last year!

There are only two ways that the inner walls of a tyre can wear. The first is to run them flat, the second is the tyres are rubbing on the suspension or bodywork.

But I suspect that the garage are simply using a feeble excuse to rob the customer, has the OP inspected the tyres and suspension?

Mini Cooper clubman 57 plate - Worn inner walls of tyres - ministripe
Thank you for your various answers. I’ve had the car for 8 years and it was approx 2.5 years old when I bought it from a mini dealer. It had 7,500 miles on it when bought and I average only 5,000 each year. There are loads of speed bumps where I live - a mixture of full ones and the cushion type. With the latter, I’d seen the advice about not straddling them and so drive one side on only. They’re run flat tyres. The garage is one I’ve always trusted but I’m struggling to see the cause - they can’t see anything rubbing.
I wondered whether anyone else has experienced this issue? Run flats aren’t the cheapest and it’s really annoying to have to replace them when there’s so much tread on them!
Mini Cooper clubman 57 plate - Worn inner walls of tyres - Ian D
Do you mean the actual sidewall is worn or the inner edge of the tread? If you mean the innermost inch or so of the tread when the rest has worn evenly it happened to me, seems to be speed bump related and driving over them evenly where the inner part of the tread is the main point of contact and so wears quickly
Mini Cooper clubman 57 plate - Worn inner walls of tyres - gordonbennet

You describe inner walls and not the shoulders or inner edges of tread wearing, which says to me the tyre inside is rubbing against something as the suspension moves, could be suspension leg or inner wheel arch or even inner lining soundproofing sagging when wet, though there ought to be some polished or worn surface to show where things are catching.

If i have read the post wrongly and it is indeed the inner edges, then are you keeping a close eye on pressures.

If there is no obvious suspension fault by examination, it's sometimes revealing to follow your own car over a varied journey and watch closely how the suspension behaves, ie what might appear to be sound shock absorbers are in fact allowing the tyres to bounce up and down constantly on the road...something i observed on Saturday whilst keeping a very decent distance from a poorly driven Corsa on the M6 roadworks near Coventry...also if the car is crabbing sideways that is not easy to spot unless you see it being driven.

If it's just a characteristic of the car and no obvious faults, then it would make sense to fit symmetrical (non directional) tyres when you replace and to rotate them regularly (maybe getting them turned on the wheel at half life point) in order to get some wear out of the rest of the tread width.

Mini Cooper clubman 57 plate - Worn inner walls of tyres - Andrew-T

It shouldn't be possible, but is there any misalignment in the rear subframe? A friend of mine noticed strange wear patterns on his rear tyres (quite a few years ago now) which were eventually traced to faulty set-up in the rear geometry.