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Odd front tyre wear issue


hickster
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Okay I'll admit it- I'm slightly stumped by this one.

Travelling back down south from the Christmas visits the car gets a slight vibration through the steering at motorway speed. Stop at the services; wheel nuts all tight, no soft tyres, nothing obviously loose (it was pretty dark by this time). Make our way home on back roads seems ok vibrates when drivers front is loaded up. Check the drivers front in the daylight- Holy sh!!!t

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Completely scrubbed down the inside :( . Car has also developed a rubbing sound going out of full lock (wheel and tyre not actually rubbing).

So- Don't seem to have lost any balances (not that it should cause this), balljoints seem ok- no vertical play in wheel, similarly bearing is silent with no play. Track rod end looks ok, my first thought looking at the wear was that it had gone out of track but no exposed thread or loose locknut. All the other tyres are fine so probably not the rack- but the noise sounds very rack/column like.

My best guess is upper or lower wishbone bushes (been too wet to crawl under the car) unless anyone has any suggestions? I'm going to get the local garage to have a look when they open up again- I'd like to get it sorted before though if I can.

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So far I can't find anything to suggest this is anything other than a tracking or camber issue, not sure how not hit anything with the front end I can remember. Either the rear is out of track after the TAB change or I damaged a joint changing the driveshaft perhaps. Think the most likely candidate is the upper arm or joint (pas. has been replaced recently this one looks pretty old though). As it looks like I'll have to get the tracking sorted anyway I think I am going to replace the upper arm, track rod end and lower balljoints anyway in preparation for a polybush fit out later in the year.

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Snapped spring?

Hmm hadn't thought of that, remember when they have gone on the golf it sounds like a bomb going off in the wheel arch. Might be bent seats or crumbling ends- would account for the camber wear. Need to have a look and get it on some level ground me thinks.

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Ok a bit of an update.

Still can't find anything obviously wrong (apart from the tracking which is definitely out). Seem to have fixed the high speed wobble by refitting the wheel- some of the grease I had sprayed a little too liberally on the driveshaft nut was holding dirt on the hub face. Also seem to have fixed the rubbing noise by removing the steering column surround an having a good spray around with WD40.

I think the wear has been made to look more camber related by my leaky nearside tyre (goes from 32 down to 20psi in about a week), the springs and mounts look ok.

Rather predictably the upper arm, lower balljoints and track rod end ordered from ebay all turned up incorrect :roll: (yes I did order the right ones). Waiting for bits now before I can get it tracked (still want to change the upper arm and rod end as they look like they have seen better days even if not completely shot).

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looks like camber to me

Thats what I thought looking at which is what confused me- the wear is all on the inside quarter and not feathered like tracking wear. Looks like I've been ragging it around on about 5deg neg camber! The local tracking place uses a Hunter which I think can detect chassis misalignment as well so should find out what up with it.

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camber doesnt usualy cause tyre wear...id say its the toe.... but get it aligned get it should know the problem... btw what size are your rimz.. most after market wheels or bigger tyres on standard usually rub on the inner arch on full lock.

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looks like camber to me

Thats what I thought looking at which is what confused me- the wear is all on the inside quarter and not feathered like tracking wear. Looks like I've been ragging it around on about 5deg neg camber! The local tracking place uses a Hunter which I think can detect chassis misalignment as well so should find out what up with it.

oh god not hunter, what a sack of #### to use, the pro align and hawk eye system's have got so many flaw's it;'s unreal, as all it take's is the car to be slightly of center and it'll put the entire system out and the car will drive worse than before. the best system's are any that clamp to the wheel rim. as the aligment happen's on the car, where as the hunter pro align and hawk eye align from a fixed point so if the car is off center so is everything else.

they retail at about £25k+, and 1yr down the line, another manufacturer is taking them in as part-ex against a wheel mounted system at £16K...

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