Calling Tire Wear Experts: Diagnose this tire ware! (56k.. maybe)
 

Background:
1990 FC With two repaired front end damange. Little/no frame issues. Driverside balljoint may be going out, however since S5s don't have replaceable balljoitns-- its a slight pain. I've already lined up the replacement S4 parts, and just need to get some money on hand to get them.

Tires: Kumho Ecsta HP4 P205/60R15
Treadware: 360
Traction: A
Temp: A

I checked the PSI today when I was inspecting them, they all varied from 20-30. I filled them with air to the tire spec of 35 PSI.

Installation, ~7000 miles ago (Aug 2003). First rotation today.

I can't say enough how much I dislike these tires. Even the non-powered wheels have chunkage. Pretty disapointing. They however all season budget tiers, and I probably should have known better. I think they were only $200 for the set or so. Plus I thought I needed All seasons for the winter months that we just get cascaded into.

Both sides of teh front end have had collision. I don't have any clue as to the passenger side, as its from the previous owner. There doesn't appear to be any damage outside of body work. The driverside was done by me, Crap tires+ agressive driving + slick road + sharp corner + rain = slide into ditch. I went in hard enough to bend the spindle which has since been replaced. Albeit, that didn't cause any body damage, the fender itself was fine and clean until my roomate backed into my car. :(

Both fenders are being replaced with widebodies, which are in storage and need to be sprayed. The front bumper is also getting replaced.


My question: Is this tire wear due to lack of rotation (its been less than 10k miles on these), or some other reason? My first guess was the balljoint, but I'm not sure because its *not* only the driverside tire that has the wear, the passengerside does aswell. They both worn on the inside, the driverside was quite a bit worse. Or-- something else?

Now... on to the pictures...

Front End damage:
http://kenteth.rerev.com/temp/temp2/PICT0010.JPGhttp://kenteth.rerev.com/temp/temp2/PICT0009.JPG

Front End Tires: Insides of tires face eachother.
http://kenteth.rerev.com/temp/temp2/PICT0001.JPG
http://kenteth.rerev.com/temp/temp2/PICT0002.JPG

Rear tires: Welp, pretty obvious its an open-dif huh?
http://kenteth.rerev.com/temp/temp2/PICT0006.JPG
http://kenteth.rerev.com/temp/temp2/PICT0008.JPG

Check the alignment, that's the only way to really know what's going on. Anything else would just be a guess. Having different wear patterns on the outside and inside could be due to camber or toe being out of spec.

I had front inner wear on my dsm due to the car being lowered beyond factory camber correction abilites.

Hmm, well I had the car in the shop for a 4 corner alignment. They said they couldn't do it because the balljoint was going, and needed to be replaced before they coudl do an accurate alignment job.

Replace both balljoints at the same time.
Is that a fact that S5s have non-replaceable balljoints?

From the pictures, your tires looks fairly normal, for having an open diff.
Replace the balljoints, get a full alignment, and some good tires :D

I've been running Kumho Ecsta supra 712s on my TII, and they are great, grippy, and affordable. The Kumhos you are using are just fine for daily driving though, and are a great way to save some cash to put in towards other parts of the car.

Another reason S4 owners are proud...--are superior in their little ways. The only way around the non-replaceable ball joints (other than new LCAs) is to source out S4 LCAs, S4 Sway bar links, and S4 new ball joints.

The price of new S5 LCA's with the balljoint is somewhere around $400.

your left tire spins? i have an 86 gxl and when i burn tires i burn the right one usually.

I'd bet that the toe is pretty far out of spec. My previous car had too much toe in after lowering (idiot me didn't get an alignment) and it wore out the outside edge of both front tires. Definitely get an alignment whenever you can because it will just continue to get worse until the tire has to be replaced otherwise.
Patrick

Hey man I work for Nissan and we usually get two reasons for tires chunking like that. One, as someone already mentioned is toe, so you should definately get an alignment first thing, because thats the only way your going to know. Second thing is, if you live on dirt roads or roads where it is very bumpy or a lot of potholes, rocks, etc, pieces of tire can actually chunk off like that. But its not as likely as an alignment issue, get it checked!