TRACKING

[CP26309]

One of my front tyres is 'feather edging'...My local tyre shop said they can do tracking on my car that has wire wheels but that they want me to provide them with 'Shims' for the front and the rear! Why? Don't they just twiddle with the track rods? Or am I missing something here?  

[TRseks]

The toe in/out is done with the track rods at the front but camber is done with shims, at the back toe in is with shims and the camber with arranging the different brackets. If it only need to adjust the toe in at the front no shims are needed, but maybe they think it’s necessary to adjust more than the toe in?

Edited November 3, 2019 by TRseks

[Peter Cobbold]

One tyre feathering suggests to me there's more needed than tracking. Normally too much toe-in will lead to equal wear on the outer edges of both tyres. Feathering of one might well be due to a worn wishbone bush - and that's why they wanted shims. But the correct cure is to sort the bush or other fault eg wishbone anchorage on chassis.

Peter

[CP26309]

It's the n/s front tyre which gets the most hammering especially around roundabouts...and it's the wheel that over many, many years has nudged the odd kerb so I would guess just alignment. But I'll get some shims in case. thanks.

[Peter Cobbold]

I myself would not leave it to a tyre fitter to diagnose a suspension fault. The TR front suspension has a well-known - ie very common - point of failure : chassis bracket fatigue failure, top  or bottom wishbones. Either can lead to feathering of one front tyre...and then worse if it is not repaired.

Peter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 6, 2019 by Peter Cobbold