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Vauxhall Zafira - Heavy tyre wear - Dave 68

My 6 year old Vauxhall Zafira recently passed its MOT test which included fitting 2 new front tyres. This is the third set of front tyres to to fitted in the last 10,000 miles ( ten thousand miles ) I am a careful driver and am aware of how to avoid speed hump damage etc.

The car is mainly used for the school run and a daily cummute to work of 5 miles.

In each case the excessive wear has been on the inside edge of the tyres. I always fit well known branded tyres.

The garage has checked balance, tracking and suspension components but can't find an explanation. They have suggested that perhaps the car had been in an accident before being sold to me by the dealer.

Any suggestions regarding causes and solutions would be greatly appreciated.

Dave

Vauxhall Zafira - Heavy tyre wear - Railroad.
A full steering geometry check could give you more of an idea and would be worth doing in any case. It'll check castor, camber, toe out on turns and king pin inclination. None of these however are adjustable, but if there was any damage resulting from a previous accident it should show up.

Failing that, go back to basics. Are the tyre pressures correct? Do you turn the wheels a lot when stationary, when parking or manoeuvring for example? If you do then this could be a cause. You do see a lot of people turning the wheels when stationary rather than anticipating the position they next want to be in and turning the wheels when moving. This will cause the tyres to scrub, and power steering makes it easy to do.

I'm still inclined to think you have a wheel alignment issue. I'd ask you garage to check it again and if possible get the technician to show you while he does it and explain the process.
Vauxhall Zafira - Heavy tyre wear - gordonbennet

I too think its wheel alignment, the scrub to wear out two set of normally driven tyres in 10k miles should be able to be seen by simply measuring the distance between the wheels front and back, you'd be surprised just how accurate measuring inside can be, i used to use two narrow gauge copper pipes one a sliding fit inside the other for measuring this way, easy DiY, assume parallel unless you know the correct figure, probably slight toe out is specified.

A useful guide to telling if your steering wheels are out of alignment whilst driving is to put one side of the car onto continual white painted lines on a wet road, usually the white line has less grip so the car should pull slightly one way or the other when one side only encounters less grip...undulating roads that exercise the suspension often produce similar wanderings if things are not right.

If the car had been in a serious enough accident to push the geometry out of line i think you'd feel it in normal driving, by steering pulling one way, the vehicle crabbing, or having too much or too little self centring action, and it would probably feel most unpleasant in the wet.

Other than that, do you have to negotiate dozens of roundabouts, modern cars corner very quickly whilst not feelingat all uncomfortable, as Railroad mentions tyre pressures are important.

Vauxhall Zafira - Heavy tyre wear - Peter.N.

If the wear is only on the inside edges of both tyres the problem has to be wheel alignment, the wheels are towing out.

Vauxhall Zafira - Heavy tyre wear - bathtub tom

I'd suggest you get your wheel alignment (not just tracking) checked at a different garage.

Vauxhall Zafira - Heavy tyre wear - old-school-tech

I have worked at a few garages where some mechanics are just too damn lazy to actually adjust the wheel alignment, and end up telling the manager of the garage that the wheel alignment (tracking) is ok.

Shockingly poor behaviour, and quite possibly not the fault of the garage itself, but the bone idle mechanics that work there.

get it checked elsewhere and make sure they actually do adjust it and don't just fob you off and tell you they have, Its too easy to get away with and you won't know about it until a few thousand miles later when your tyres have worn out.

Vauxhall Zafira - Heavy tyre wear - Dave 68

Many thanks to all of you for your expert helpful opinions. I myself suspected alignment or balance. I shall have these checked at a specialist tyre fitting company. I shall also explore all the other possible causes that you suggested.

Vauxhall Zafira - Heavy tyre wear - mfarrow
I ran my Astra (same chassis) with tyre pressures of 30 psi and ran into the same problem. Past experience of older lighter cars!

You need to use pressures as specified in the manual. I go with recommendation +2 psi.

Not had the problem return after 20k sad part-worn Michelins.