C5 tyre wear outside edge on all 4 tyres??? Help!

[mendedit]

Sure you have the correct rims, Offset ect,?

[C5Alan]

100% sure they are original to the car so should be ok I know this car from when it was brand new and had delivery miles as it was my dads and he wouldn't change anything

[mendedit]

OK.
Just seems odd for the callipers to be touching the wheel rim.

[boristhespie]

My C5's were both hard on tyres. The c5 is a large heavy car. I always stick to major brands as they seem to wear better. I too have had your problems.

I once wore out tyres and clearly the tracking was gone so I asked the garage to put on new tyres and to check the tracking, which was very bad and I felt it, anyway he put on the tyres but never checked the tracking. They wore out in just over a week.

The garage was mortified and replaced the tyres free of charge. But it shows how bad the tyre can wear under a c5.

[C5Alan]

Yeah the garage said it was just corrosion in the calipers pushing them out slightly not got round to doing anything about them yet I will once I get some time

I have had the tracking done a few times and it just doesn't seem to make much difference hence my thinking to adjust them out a but myself. It could be my driving I do a lot of town driving at as close to 30 as I can even round corners cruise control on and away I go for work delivering for pizzahut so can clock up 100+ miles in a night pushing it hard round corners. So if the car is set up a little more toe out rather than toe in when I corner it shouldn't wear as fast I hope

[Citroenmad]

The rear caliper does touch the inside of the wheels with some wheel designs. This is when the caliper is wedging out due to corrosion between it and the suspension arm. A fairly common problem and the calipers really should be removed and greased annually to prevent this, as it can result in new calipers being needed.

As for the tyre wear, it does seem very odd.

I know when I had my first C5, which is (it still lives here) a 2002 2.0HDi 110 SX - has the same wheels as your esclusive, the 15" 7 spokes - it was heavy on tyres and I scrubbed through the fronts quickly. I tend to go quite quickly around bends and found that the tyres would all too easily scrub over onto their sidewalls and the edges didn't last very long at all. I increased the tyre pressure by 2psi above normal and it did help. I don't drive it very often now and so its not put through corners like I used to, its tyres last a good while now, I think its last pair of front Goodyear Excellences (awful tyres!) gave it 16K miles. They were totally worn out by then though and the NSF edge had long gone. Replaced those and went back to Michelins, which have now done about 8K miles and still look new.

My two later C5s both have 16" alloys and much larger tyres with a lower profile. I still find they wear on the egde, especially my Toyo T1-Rs which I scrubbed through in 11K miles, some of that was on the rear! The edges were badly worn before the rest of the tyre, despite running them at the correct 36psi front pressure.

Since then I have always stuck to Michelins for the C5s, I got 18K from my last fronts and these ones are looking like ill get a similar mileage from them. Only my C5s wear on the outside egdes first, our other two are fine now I dont drive them much. So I guess its the fast cornering which really scrubbs them, as they are heavy cars and the geometry makes the cars corner on the tyre edges.

Have you checked the camber? Im not even sure if its adjustable actually, but a tucked in front wheel would make tyre wear much worse.

Have you had the tracking checked by a number of garages? I don't often trust them as they seem to do a rush job at times. I always do my wn tracking now, takes me an age to get it spot on with the wheel straight but I know its right then.

You could try and turn the track rod ends slightly, giving it a slight toe out, and see how that goes. Be sure to shorten them rather than lengthen, as that will give more toe in.

[citronut]

adjusting either side will affect the other side,

tracking cant be out on one side only,
even if/when one track rod has/had been adjusted way off of what it should be, when the car is driving in a straight line the wheels will ALWAYS cetralise/equal each other,
this means the toe in/out will be exactly the same on both sides of the car,
so the idea of adjusting one side a different amount to the other will just throw every thing out even further,

every adjustment you make one side should be replicated on the other,

[C5Alan]

You could try and turn the track rod ends slightly, giving it a slight toe out, and see how that goes. Be sure to shorten them rather than lengthen, as that will give more toe in.

Surely shortening will pull the bottom of the wheel in towards the car resulting in more wear to the outter edge. But if if increase the lenght it will push the bottom out so increase the inner tyre wear or balance out the wear over the tyre???

[citronut]

adjusting the track rod length brings the front or back of the wheel in and out, not the bottom of the wheel,

shortening them will toe the front of both wheels outwards so will wear the inner edges identically,
and lengthening them will toe the fronts inwards so will wear both outer edges identically,

also as i keep saying if you alter one side only this will still toe both wheels in or out by exactly the same amount,

read my last post above


regards malcolm

[C5Alan]

I must have missed you last post malcolm but I did both wheels the same and it seems my info from else where on the net has confused me a little as I have now adjusted both wheels one full track rod turn to lengthen them I will now have to go out and do 2 turns shorter will see how they run over the next couple of days as I don't have any more time at the min

[citronut]

ok no worries
trouble i can see now is to many different people have adjusted the tracking inside out and back to front and in so many different ways,

you should really start a fresh by centering the rack firstly, then adjust the tracking by equal turns to both sides,

i know the rack shopuld be centralised before preceding any further by for the life of me cant remember the process,

if all of this is done correctly the steering wheel shouls start of exactly straight, and still be exactly straight when finished,

[C5Alan]

well I have adjusted the wheels so the track rods are now shorter than they should be hopefully this will now give an even wear but we will see over the next few days

[Citroenmad]

You really do need to be careful with tracking, you will be surprised by how little movement creates a big difference at the wheel, due to the leverage effect.

Yes, shortening the track rods pulls the wheels to toe out, making them longer creates more toe in.

If your tracking is spot on the steering will be fairly precise and accurate, if not it will ponder about and be vague.

I adjust my own tracking but I have some tracking gear to do it. There is no way to confirm how your adjustments are going without some sort of tracking equipment. Or being inventinve and using a bit of string down the sides of the car or some method involving chalk on the floor Ive no idea!

If the tyres are wearing better then thats good, however keep an eye on the inner edges incase its now massively toeing out.