Tire feathering and noise

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So my car likes to wear rear tires, not sure if toe is bad but the alignment is good (see here). Last time I did a rotation I had to put up with "singing" tires for a thousand or two miles (a month?) before they wore down. Right now I don't have tire noise--but I'm at the 5k rotation time.

Question: if I don't rotate, and live with it, will the chopped tires start making noise? Am I better to rotate and live with a lower level of noise for a short period of time, so as to avoid actual tire roar later on?

[Background: car had an alignment about 8 months / 17kmiles ago, and they didn't find anything wrong with rear alignment. But the car chopped rear tires before, and now after aligning. I drive about 500 miles per week, all highway. Tires are nice RT43's, 195/70R14 on my 1999 Camry, which has 220k on it.]
 
Have you ever had the rear shocks replaced? How about the rear suspension bushings? An alignment won't reveal problems with these components.
 
Originally Posted by wag123
Have you ever had the rear shocks replaced? How about the rear suspension bushings? An alignment won't reveal problems with these components.

I did new Monroe quick struts not that long ago. 80k & 3 years.

No idea on bushings but it passes annual safety inspection. Just jack it up and see if the wheel has any play?
 
I don't think you could apply enough force UNLESS you had it on a alignmentr rack AND used a come-a-long

Likely LCA bushings are gone and they are moving around with road force.

OR your last service guy messed up the alignment.

If they are feathering on the outside edges, that toe correction at last alignment just pigeon toed the tires

NOthing new , almost 100% of aligments ive had have screed up the wear and steering.

I was to the point I was doing toe in my drive way using wear and steering indicators to make tweeks.

Worked better than a dope with a rack.
 
Ok, sounds like I might have worn suspension. Not sure what I can repair on my own in the garage...

The question still stands: if I ignore the tires and don't rotate, will they get real loud real quick? Should I rotate and accept short term discomfort?
 
I've definitely had choppy/feathered tires make noise. Had one set rumble like bad wheel bearings.
 
Usually means the shocks are no good. 80k is a lot on shocks

If you do replace them consider Sachs quick struts
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Originally Posted by slacktide_bitog
Usually means the shocks are no good. 80k is a lot on shocks

If you do replace them consider Sachs quick struts
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How does shocks impact toe? You mean, the struts are sagging? thus causing a change in toe? Kinda means the springs are worn.

I didn't think to check ride height after I did the struts; now that I have a garage I guess I could monitor that.
 
How bad is it? If it's minor and the tread life isn't all that bad, I'd just motor on. If you get 40k miles out of a set instead of 50k, and tires are $420, you're missing out on 20% of life, or $84 every 18 months or so,
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, not sure if it's worth throwing stuff at.
 
It is what it is, not sure how much it's worth spending on--it is a 20 year old car, and it's not going to be rust free too much longer, I noticed a bit of rust in a seam today.

I did give in and rotate. We'll see how much it sings. I can always wear earplugs.
 
My vote is for worn lower control arm bushings. They DO wear out. When the car is sitting still on the alignment rack it can be in-spec, but with the force of the car going down the road acting on the rear wheels, the worn bushings are allowing a positive camber change and causing the rear tires to tow out. This will cause the kind of tire wear that you are experiencing Supton. It is not a major cost repair, if you are handy you could do it yourself for under $130 in parts to replace all of the control arms on both sides (you could replace just the bushings themselves for less than half this amount if you have an arbor press).
 
A couple of thoughts:

First, the rear toe may be in tolerance, but I don't think it is good. My experience says that toe has to be within the inner half of the tolerance for tire wear not to be a problem. From what I see on the alignment sheets, the rear toe is outside the inner half.

Second, you should rotate on schedule. You want the tires to wear out at the same time. Plus, it reduces the risk that a pair of tires will develop irregular wear.
 
The rear toe may be showing green, but I would want the left and right to be identical. You have quite a bit of thrust angle there. Best if both rear tires were at .11 degrees. Feathering on the outside of the tire confirms this. Too much toe in causes uneven wear on the outside edge of the tire. If I was doing the alignment, I would set left and right rear to 0.10 toe in on each wheel.

That much thrust angle on the rear also causes uneven wear on the front tires IMHO.
 
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Fronts seem to wear fine. I'm hesitant to mess with the alignment, I did once and was rewarded with a car that wandered in any cross breeze. Right now it seems reasonable on windy days.

I didn't notice any extra noise today. Slight change in ride, probably have a front tire slowly losing balance, but no singing like I worried. Motor on!
 
Originally Posted by wag123
My vote is for worn lower control arm bushings. They DO wear out. When the car is sitting still on the alignment rack it can be in-spec, but with the force of the car going down the road acting on the rear wheels, the worn bushings are allowing a positive camber change and causing the rear tires to tow out. This will cause the kind of tire wear that you are experiencing Supton. It is not a major cost repair, if you are handy you could do it yourself for under $130 in parts to replace all of the control arms on both sides (you could replace just the bushings themselves for less than half this amount if you have an arbor press).

This past week it seemed to suddenly get worse, like needing sudden steering correction. While checking out the PS for issues I jacked it up to check balljoints (seem fine) and... LCA bushings seem to be toasty. Driver side is worse (seen below). Both have some play if I push a prybar into that area and pry (which I guess is the point of the rubber?) but driver side is rather easy to push around, at least to my complete lack of experience.

Edit: looks like Autozone has 'em for $83 each, or $133 each with ball joint. Not sure if I want to replace the ball joints or not, maybe I should pull both sides apart and see how they feel unloaded first. And of course, it'll probably need an alignment too.

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Every FWD car I have owned has worn the rear tires funny. It is a result of negative camber on the rear, combined with toe in on the rear, and the much lighter load on the rear tires. Car makers spec the camber and toe in to make the car more stable, and less likely to spin. The result is a tire that is always being dragged diagonally across the inside edge of the tread, leading to heel toe wear and feathering.

IF you can reduce toe on the rear, that will usually help, but can lead to twitchy handling.

The easier solution is rotate more frequently. You can replace rear shocks / bushings if you want, but the tires will likely still wear unevenly, given the factory alignment specs.
 
It definitely looks like the bushings are done for. Driver side is worse, but the other side does have some cracking. Ball joints feel fine though.

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Doesn't explain all the shaking of late though. I did a tire rotation and overnight the car has been acting like it has an out of balance tire. It'll shake at 25mph, 60, 70, anything over 80. But then it'll stop. It comes and goes. Just vary the speed a bit and it might quit, or come back. I looked and none of the struts are leaking.
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All four tires have 20k on them and have feathering going on now, and other funky wear, despite the alignment that I got when I got the tires.
 
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