Alignment question

Hey guys…I have a question. About a month ago I bought a new 2010 Tacoma, 2.7, regular cab, S/T, 4 X 4. I’ve put about 600 miles on it and just the other day I notice the front right tire was showing some slight wear on the outside edge. First, what caught my eye was the little rubber nipples (I don’t know what they're called) were still on all the tires except the outside edge of the F/R. Looking closer I noticed a bit more wear on the outside edge than what I noticed on all the other tires.

I took it in to the dealer and showed them. They agreed with me and scheduled an appointment the next day. After ½ hour in the shop the service manager said they measured everything and all the measurements were on spot (correct). They didn’t charge me anything and I know the service manager. He’s an honest kid. I know him and his parents. He told me, keep an eye on it for the next 3,000 miles and see if it gets worse. I asked him if Toyota would replace my tires if it continued to wear like it was now. He couldn’t commit.

Anyways, has anyone else seen this on their tires? If you have, what did you do?

Thanks!

 

my stock dunlops wore pretty bad on the outsides and my alignment was pretty much perfect. I'm hoping my new tires don't do the same thing. I still got 45k miles out of them and had a little ways to go before I just got new ones.

 

My stock dunlops were wearing fast on the outside. My alignment is verified spot on and I check my tire pressure at least once a week. So I aired them up 4lbs more and now they should be wearing slightly more in the middle

Either they'll balance out and I'll go back to my original air pressure of they'll wear out completely before then and I can get some better tires!

 

So, you think it's the tires. I was thinking that maybe if I asked them to turn the wheel out just a tad...it might fix the wear problem. Bad idea?

 

I think its just the tire. I'll take pictures of my old wheels/tires for you in the afternoon tomorrow to give you an idea of how mine wore.

 

Thanks...I'd appreciate it. I feel a little better knowing it just may be the tires and not the truck.

 

Haven't forgot about it... just haven't made it back to the house yet. May be tomorrow before I can get pics up. My nitto's seem to be wearing alright though.

 

Thought I would share my experience guys.

I noticed one day that my wifes 07' Pre Runner Quad Cab had terrible wearon the outside edges (~30,000 miles on stock tires). I never paid attention before because the car has always been regularly serviced at the local Toyota dealer. The outside of the tires were basically gone and very rough feeling.

I took the car to the dealer and they checked the alignment which had camber up around +1 and a little more toe-in than I am used to, can't remember the exact number. After talking to them about the alignment, they had no idea what to do since it was "in spec". Well, I got news for you, "in spec" is a pretty large range.

I eventually ended up telling them what I wanted the alignment set at ( I have my MS in Mechanical Engineering and some road racing experience). Not knowing trucks, here is what I went with:

Camber L=0.1 R=0.1
Caster L=2.3 R=2.4
Toe L=0.05 R=0.05

I don't like to set toe at zero on a road car as it gives you an unstable darty feeling at highway speeds. It's great for turn-in on a race car though!

After 5,000 miles its time for the first oil change/rotation and the outside edges are STILL wearing bad. It is better, but they are still visibly more worn than the insides and rough to the touch compared to the insides, which are smooth.

The only thing I can figure is that I need even less toe-in. Unless this could somehow be related to the suspension TSB and shocks, which I doubt.

Not to hijack your thread, but I think you may be in a similar situation.

Has anyone been able to get even tread wear on their stock tires and if so what alignment specs did you use?

Eddie