Uneven rear tire wear?

marcel_g · Oct 27th, 2009, 06:23 PM

My rear tires are wearing out a lot faster than the fronts, and they're wearing down on the outside a lot more than the inside.

I had work done on the rear brakes (parking brake parts all rusted and seized, rear wheel bearings shot) done a few thousand km ago, and until that point, I'm pretty sure that the front and rear tires looked about the same.

Why I mention that servicing is that they put the parking brake cable under the control arms, so I had to take it back, and they said they'd fired that technician. Now I'm wondering if there's anything in the rear suspension that could have been put back together incorrectly by that technician to affect the alignment and cause the rear tire wear.

Or do I just have worn out rear shocks? Seems kind of bouncy back there sometimes. Currently has 142K on it and not sure if they've been changed. I bought it coming off a lease last year.

thanks,
marcel

mgfiest · Oct 27th, 2009, 06:31 PM

That sounds like an alignment problem. I would contact the place you got the last repair and tell them what you have noticed on those tires. If they screwed up once, they may have screwed up a second time. If they do alignments get them to do one "free". If they don't do alignments, explain to them that there is an issue and you want it resolved at their expense.

If your tires are wearing that badly, then they need to be replaced. Again, they caused the problem, get them to fix it.

If they are looking to keep clientelle, they will fix this for you. Don't take NO for an answer... you are the one trouble by their mistake...

pulsar86 · Oct 28th, 2009, 04:01 PM

The wear you describe sounds likely to be to do with alignment. Worn shocks usually cause a patchy wear across the tyre with raised edges on the tread blocks. At you milage shocks are probably getting a bit worn. A suspension specialist can test them.

marcel_g · Oct 29th, 2009, 08:03 AM

Ok, thanks. I guess I'll have to take it back and get the alignment redone. The reason I originally asked, was that I just wasn't sure if there was any alignment adjustment on the rear suspension of an Xtrail. ( I don't think my old Pathfinder had such a thing. )

I just got some used snow tires with rims in good shape for only $200, which I was very pleased about, but I don't want to put them on if they're going to get wrecked too.

Will see what this garage will do for me, but if they won't I'll have to go somewhere else that can do the alignment.

marcel_g · Jan 1st, 2010, 10:36 PM

Got the alignment done. They charged me $100 for that. Took them 2 days to do it, claiming that they had to get the specs from Nissan. I suspect something in the suspension was badly screwed up and they had to get some new parts, and they were stalling. In any case, I no longer cringe going over bumps because the rear suspension now works correctly and doesn't 'bounce'.

Then when I got out everything to put on the snow tires, I discover that I no longer have a key socket for my locking nuts. The garage didn't have it, so I had to get a new set from Nissan. Won't go back to that garage again.

I just hope the bearings were put in correctly, or else I'll have that dreaded bearing problem crop up again.