Excessive car tyre wear

[Jon-W]

Hi all,

God a bit of a strange problem with Excessive tyre wear on the rear nearside of my vectra - Perhaps someone here can give me some advice.

When I bought the car about 3 years ago from vauxhall (network q used car) the inside edge of the rear tyre was worn down to the canvas whilst the rest of the tyre had plenty of tread. I consequently got the camber, cast and alignment done and got some new tyres fitted but the problem has not been cured.

Anyone have any ideas on the next step to sort this?

Cheers

[Kickstart]

Hi

I would recheck those things first. While loads of things might cause wear most would do so by screwing up the alignments.

All the best

Keith
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Traxpics, track day and racing photographs - Bimota Forum - Bike performance / thrust graphs for choosing gearing

[doggone]

Various bits of suspension are worn out.
My brother's mondeo was doing this - after about 40,000 miles on originals he replaced them and was shocked they wore one side in 5,000 miles.

[the grim reaper]

Ideally I need a bit more detail, are the alloys standard? Are the shocks the originals? Are the wishbones original? Wear on one edge of a tyre tends to point to the geometry of the suspension or wheel having been altered from the original.

If you think of the wishbone of a car as a door being held open by a spring (the shock), if you change the length of the spring or the distance of the wheel from the hinge then you change the angle at which the tyre is contacting the road.

HTH

Cheers

Grim
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[Jon-W]

Yea - I would agree but it cost me about £50 last time. I have been told it could be a shock absorber problem. Apparantly a lot of the Vectra C's suffer the same problem.

When standing next to the car and looking down on the wheel arch the wheel appears to slope inwards into the wheel arch..again dont know if thats normal.

[Paxovasa]

Check the tracking
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Suzuki GSF600 K3 (in the fastest colour, black).

[Jon-W]

[Kickstart]

Hi

Sounds like it has negative camber, at least on that wheel. Is the other side the same?

I would doubt the shock would cause it. However various suspension bushes wearing would allow the geometry to go out. Most would be measurable when checking the cars geometry when static. Some might just allow the geometry to go out when under load such as when driving.

All the best

Keith
____________________
Traxpics, track day and racing photographs - Bimota Forum - Bike performance / thrust graphs for choosing gearing

[Paxovasa]

Driving over a kerb or hitting a big(ish) pothole can knock the tracking out

Although I suspect it will be a suspension issue in this case
____________________
Suzuki GSF600 K3 (in the fastest colour, black).

[the grim reaper]

[Jon-W]

[cagiva gezzer]

Whenever I follow a vectra i notice the rear camber is really high and it looks like the wheels are folding in.

From what you've described and a quick google on "vectra negative camber" shows up common problems.

Your £50 you spent on alignment wouldn't have touched the problem as they would have worked on the front end.

Springs on vectras are renowned for being crap, so it wouldn't surprise me if your back end is sagging and throwing the suspension out.

You purchased a car fron Vauxhall with a bald tyre, yet you still took it back to Vauxhall for a check and their advice . .
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"because one stroke isnt enough and four strokes waste two"

[Jon-W]

[Nb]

Jack the car up on the lower rear arm( not the jack points) and give the wheel a good shake with your hands in the 12 to 6 position. I see alot of vectras at work with rear tyres worn out due to top Suspension bushes being worn out on the upper arm, and they can be hard to spot because garages normally use a two post ramp to lift the car,which leaves the rear suspension Not in it's normal state.

[Villers]

[MarJay]

Sounds like a suspension bush has perished changing your suspension geometry.
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Remember kids, bikes aren't like lego. You can't easily take a part from one bike and then fit it to another.

[Jon-W]

Yea I too have had warped rear tyres on more than one occasion. I have also had water collect in the bottom of the rear lights, which eventually turns to moss/mold. Also the front near side fog light misting up and yes blocked washer jets..broken wiper linkage (on more than one occasion) and when it was raining!

The above aside i still think its a nice car to own and drive and looks nice..despite the faults!

[Villers]

That was the biggest shame really, was a really nice car to drive when it wasnt in the garage!

When I went to see the vectra for the first time it was a toss up between that and a TDCI mondeo that they had too. I went for the vectra and had a shedload of problems. My dads mate bought the mondeo and it ran fine for 30k until it got the dual mass flywheel problem. Think I was destined to lose either way, maybe gods way of telling me to go back to hot hatches!!
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