Uneven tire wear

[dgp123]

gotta question...

I have a set of almost brand new Nordman snow tires. They were on my car for only a couple of thousand miles last winter. I have since put on my all-season tires for summer.

Wile I had these winter tires on, my rear wheels were out of alignment and caused them to wear slightly uneven. You can't tell by looking at them, they look brand new, but if I run my hand across them i can feel that the outside lines of tread are higher than the rest.

Good to use them again this winter? Will they wear evenly after some time? Car is A4 quattro, I could probably make it easily with my all seasons on but it is nice to have a dedicated snow tire in VT. I guess my main concern is if putting these tires on again could cause the rear wheels to go out of alignment again.

 

[benjamming]

Has the car been aligned since then? How do tires make a car go out of alignment?

 

[wantin150]

Tires usually don't cause alignment issues. You should be fine using them again this season. Have you measured the depth across the tire to see what the differences are? Are the outside edges feathered?

 

[CapriRacer]

Consider what you just asked - that tires that are unevenly worn become evenly worn.

Well it doesn't really work like that. The tires may tend to get more even , but you shouldn't expect them to fix themselves.

EXCEPT - if you have a vehicle that developes a completely different tread wear pattern (Yours doesn't), then you might expect everything to even out. A good example is a normal RWD car where the front tires tend to wear the shoulders and the rears tend to wear the centers.

 

[dgp123]

what I was thinking is, the tread that is deeper will obviously touch the ground first when the car is sitting (know what i mean?) causing the slightly worn part to be elevated a bit. Wouldn't there be increased pressure/friction on the taller tread? Wouldn't this wear that tread down after time to even out with the lower tread? they are worn so that there is a slight diagonal slant from one edge to another. again, you can feel it with your hand but can't really see it

The car has since been aligned. The rear was 1/4 inch out of alignment and completely chewed through my summer tires in just a few thousand miles.

I guess my concern is, now that the car has been aligned, would the old uneven tires cause the wheels to settle back into those positions.

 

[dgp123]

the camber or toe angle here is an exagerated idea of what I'm looking at.

 

[alreadygone]

"I guess my concern is, now that the car has been aligned, would the old uneven tires cause the wheels to settle back into those positions. "


NO. It doesn't work that way.

Bob