Thread: Inner rear tire wear

As the title states, I've been having a hell of a time with inner tire wear. After 2 sets of rear tires on my 07 Grand Prix (GT), I took the car into the dealership for an alignment. That was about six months ago. As soon as the car was aligned, I bought new tires and had them installed. Just yesterday I noted wear still on the inside edge. Since the car is newer, I am skeptic of worn out springs or struts, but at this point I'm tired of wasting money on tires every 8 months. I've owned the car for a little over 2 years now. Any ideas?

Thanks,

Camrin

Originally Posted by sdavis11b

Do you have subs or heavy loads in the trunk? And are you lowered? If so, it would throw the camber off in the back and you would need camber bolts.

Nothing but the spare and odd and end crap back there.

Originally Posted by redlinepontiac

GM released a revised lateral arm kit for impalas, the newer ones had the same issue. i believe the kit would fit your car

I came across that post while searching for an answer. Would that fall under warranty, or am I paying out of pocket for that?

Thanks again guys (gals?),

Camrin

Bringing this back from the dead. I'm still having tons of issues with the tire wear. I've had it aligned again, to no avail. I'm starting to think it might be the suspension in the rear based on some uneven wear when I first looked at the tires about a week ago, and the fact that the car has over 100k on it. The wear seemed to be a "wavey" pattern, but that has since evened out. Here are some pictures of the driver and passenger sides:






Thanks again for the help. I'm extremely frustrated with the car in general, it's been nothing but one issue after another, but this is the biggest issue at the moment.

springs also wear as well so could be a few different things

could be ball joints ,i also had a wheel bearing that was so bad it caused tire wear just like that

There are no ball joints in the rear.

Also, are those tires bald?

Have you continued to buy the same tires?

Originally Posted by scottydoggs

id go back to the dealer and say thanks for fixing my alignment problem. as im sure you said, hey my back wheels are wearing on the inside........

That place is a disgrace. They told me good luck, more or less.

Originally Posted by matt5112

There are no ball joints in the rear.

Also, are those tires bald?

Have you continued to buy the same tires?

Let me make sure I'm understand you. You are replying to the guy that said that ball joints could be the issue, not making the statement that they look to be completely shot right?

The edge is worn through the steel in some sections, the driver's side seems to be the worst. The rest of the tire has plenty of tread left.

No, I've purchased three different sets of tires from three different places. This set seems to have lasted a shorter time than the others, but I don't know if that's because the tire brand or because whatever the issue is is getting worse.

I've read so many threads here about this, some saying this is normal for these cars, some saying that it's alignment and that you need to specify that the toe needs to be fixed when you go in, some that its control arms, etc. I'm just tired of dealing with it. Is there a specific type of place to take it, or certain tests I can do to figure this out? I assumed the dealer would be the best pace, and obviously that was a joke. I went from owning a first gen Eagle Talon that had very few issues, and such a huge cult following that the ones I did have could be fix easy, to trying and scrounge for even the simplest answers for this car. This community seems to be great, but there isn't much for the older generations as far as I can find. Again, thanks for any and all help with this.

What you have might just be camber wear.

Alignment with camber bolts might be the solution.

Until you get it on an alignment rack that will provide you a print out, its all guessing.

What I am questioning is how much is a lot of tread. I prefer actual numbers. Hence suggesting getting an alignment with numbers.

Originally Posted by matt5112

What you have might just be camber wear.

Alignment with camber bolts might be the solution.

Until you get it on an alignment rack that will provide you a print out, its all guessing.

What I am questioning is how much is a lot of tread. I prefer actual numbers. Hence suggesting getting an alignment with numbers.

There is a local place that I have read good things about, I'll check there.

Originally Posted by dsmuts

Did you ever rotate your tires or just run the backs until they needed changed? You need new tires on the rear right now before you have a blowout.

Those have been on the car for maybe 6 months. I know I need new tires, that's why I asked how to fix the issue.

I'm also interested in this, as my '99 has the same problem. Of course, it also has 265k miles, so a few things are worn. I did replace the rear struts and springs. So any help with the likely worn components is appreciated.

I will tell you this regarding front tires: If you are at a tire or aligment shop, and look on their chart of "typical problems" you won't find worn out balljoints listed. And that's the symptom of extreme wear on the inner edge of the tire. Most of the "out the door with more" tire places that include alignment will happily sell you new tires, realign, and never mention that your tires are vertically misaligned (toe). I had this happen on two sets of tires before figuring this out on my own, and had two blowouts.

About the only solution is to go to an alignment shop. If you have friends who race, they'll know the places that know alignment. Go there, and tell them your problems, and they'll fix it.

Does anyone have a rear suspension diagram they can share? I'm curious as to whats probably worn out on my car.

thx,

Sean

two lateral arms, one trailing arm, and a mcpherson strut.

Trailing are full trailing, not semi trailing.

In other words, it's all worn out. 'Wonder how much in parts that is to fix?