wierd tire wear

[waynej]

This has me a little baffled, so I figured i'd ask you guys. My origional intent was to swap out my transmission this morning, but I realized that I forgot to order a new transmission mount. Instead of wasting the rest of the day, I gave the undercarrige a once over. While I was under the car i noticed that my drivers side rear tire had a gash in the inside wall, so I took the car down to discount tire to have them replace it. As it turns out it was a "cosmetic" gash and only "looked" bad. They DID say that the tire needed to be replaced though, but not for the reason that I took it to them. The tire was pretty much bald on the inside, but had normal wear on the outside. All of my other tires had even wear. My question is, how does this happen? The only thing that I can think of is that I had my struts replaced about six months ago and pep boys mis-aligned something. Could this be the problem, or could it be something else?

Oh btw, I'm new here, so, Hi all! =]

[2ManyZs]

Without seeing them, I'd say it's possibly too much negative camber caused by worn out bushings or it could be damage done from a previous owners careless driving...

Have the camber checked on both sides in the rear, and then you should have an idea where to start looking, whether or not it's on both sides or just one.

[waynej]

Thanks for the help! The car was origionally owned by my uncle, so I know the car is straight, so I'm going to go with bushings. Which brings me to my next question. Are we talking about the rear control arm bushings? Thanks again for the insight.

Wayne

[2ManyZs]

Yes, I was talking about the control arm and probably the spindle pin bushings as well.

But, before you do anything, have the rear camber checked. If there isn't a big difference from one side to another, it's remotely possible it was a defective tire, or something other than the bushings. Knowing what the camber is on each side in the rear will tell you more about where to start looking. No sense buying parts that aren't needed unless you just want to refresh everything at once.

[waynej]

Thanks for the help, I appreciate it.

Wayne