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[nate93]

Hi all,

I have a 2011 335i E93 with sport suspension, and I am at about 58K right now and running all stock.

I have a crazy(very excessive) INNER Wear on the REAR RIGHT side tire. For example, it would go from 8-9/32nd to the condition as shown below in about 1k-2k miles.


I understand that open differential, which results more wear on the passenger rear than the driver side, but this excessive? The logical thing to do is alignment because negative camber and toe out is a disaster and might lead to this. Cool, done! As shown below, this is a report from a BMW Dealership Alignment that cost me a good chunk of cash:


I drove it for a month or 2 with new tires, problem still remains and still seeing that excessive inner wear on the passenger rear.

Okay, maybe the alignment was done poorly? So I got another alignment done, this time was by a different shop that only does alignment, and the guy seems to know what they are doing. I told the guy the story of my car with crazy inner wear, and then he performed the alignment and result is below:

He thinks this would help reducing the inner wear on the passenger rear. Now looking back at it, I am kind of questioning this result. What do you guys think? Oh and, yes inner wear on passenger rear is still CRAZY.

I do notice that a section of the circumference of the tire gets worn more than the rest. To explain what I mean, I drew a picture below: a short section that is shown red is worn more than the rest (yellow)


I am kind of out of options now. Please help!! I can't afford to get a new set every 2k mile.

Here are my thinkings:
1. I was thinking, reduce camber to -1.5? would my stock set up allow my rear to increase to positive that much?

2. Should I invest in a new set up, aftermarket camber rod? anyone with this experience?

3. Both tech who did my alignment said that my suspension looks good, but why inner wear is still CRAZY? But notice I said "looks", they looked at it and test drove it for a bit, and they didn't remove the wheels to inspect it or anything. Is there a way to properly check it? please share and I will lift my ride up and check.

Anyone who had this experience and was able to achieve better wear, please share. It will save me a lot of headaches! Thank you all!

[TheeGovernor]

Whats the condition of your rear shocks? Wheel bearings?

[weehe126]

Check the toe arm bushings for excess wear. If those worn out you will never keep a consistent toe angle even if you get a good alignment.

[Tambohamilton]

That doesn't look like wear from bad geo to me (the outside wear does). Could the tyre be rubbing on a suspension component or wheel arch at some point in the travel? May be helped by worn suspension links, as others suggest.

I'm 99% sure the tyre is rubbing something under your car. Check in the wheel arch for areas which look polished from the tyre.

[nate93]

Originally Posted by Tambohamilton

That doesn't look like wear from bad geo to me (the outside wear does). Could the tyre be rubbing on a suspension component or wheel arch at some point in the travel? May be helped by worn suspension links, as others suggest.

I'm 99% sure the tyre is rubbing something under your car. Check in the wheel arch for areas which look polished from the tyre.

No it doesn't rub against anything under. if it doesnt, it would wear inner evenly through the entire circumference, but it doesnt.

I suspect some suspension or bearing component that is bad

[Tambohamilton]

My first suspect would be the wheel bearing.

Though I still can't see that the wear you're experiencing is caused by something other than the tyre rubbing on a component of the car, at some point in the suspension travel or with deflection caused by a bad component.

Good luck

[Volasko]

Did you ever figure out what caused this wear? I'm seeing some pretty excessive inside wear on my PSS, similar to what you're seeing. The wear is so bad I'm at the steel belts on the inside section. About to change them out which is frustrating as the main tread still has lots of life.

[original gofastnow]

Tire wear on BMWs is frustrating to say the least.
I can pass on my rear tire experiences with my son's E90 335i and my E64 650i.

335i--With RFTs installed and rear camber set to factory specs the tires would wear on the inside 1/4 tread face at about twice the rate as the outside 3/4 tread face.
Switched to non-RFTs and set camber to minimum the chassis would adjust to which was 1.2 degrees and the tires now wear inside to outside nearly equal.

650i--This is another story.
Background: Two sets of RFTs lasted about 5,000 miles each set, wire cord showing on inside of both sets, both sides, with about 80% of tread remaining on outer 3/4 of tread face. This was with camber set within BMWs spec. Went back to shop and asked to get camber reduced and was informed by tech that the adjustment was already at the minimum (2.1 degrees) the chassis would adjust to.
So......purchased and installed new RFTs and a rear camber kit, took to align shop and the tech set the camber to 1.0 degrees. About 12K later the tire wear is great with only slightly more inside wear.
I think the combination of the ultra stiff sidewalls of the RFTs and excessive factory camber setting are recipe for tire manufacturers to be in love with BMW. Remember, BMW is not in the business of making your tires last, but to make your car handle very well. I did realize a slight reduction in turn-in response on quick flicks of the steering wheel, but nothing objectionable.

Just my two wheels worth.

Oh yea, My 650i tires before the camber kit install looked the same as the OPs did with the rubber missing on the far inside.

[dcorn]

My rear tires are wearing similarly to the OP, just not as extreme. The full tire tread is pretty close to the wear bars at this point, but there is a small strip at the very inner part of the tread where the cords are starting to show through. I remember having a similar situation happen with my 2007 E90 back in the day.

I'm putting non-RFTs on and getting an alignment next week, I'll ask them to check if anything is going screwy with the rear suspension.

[nate93]

Updating on the problem!

No, the problem still persists with my rear passenger. However, my front tire used to run RFT and I was seeing the same inner wear. After I just switched over to non-RFT, I am seeing no inner wear. So I think non-RTF might be the solution to my front tire inner wear. For my next rear tire, I am going with non-RFT and see if that helps.

After extensive research and checked on my alignment, I have found one working solution and something to try if it doesn't work. One, going away from factory recommended tires. If that doesn't help, then try to get aftermarkets toe and camber arms. Of course your alignment must be checked and make sure spot on before everything else.

[Tre']

My last set of tires wore exactly like that on the inside. I just attributed it to my car being lowered and the crappy roads on my route to work knocking my alignment off. I'm going to raise my coilovers a little and get another alignment and see what happens.

[aaddam2]

Any update on solution or root cause?

I am having similar issue, none of the bushing or arms seem to be loose, after alignments it seems to increase negative camber after driving for a bit. Firestone (lifetime alignment) was saying it could be due to rusty shocks, but no leaks found, and doesnt drive like a car with blown shocks. no weird noises or anything either. also toe seems to be straight as well.

I wonder if it something where dynamically changes when under load causing the wear.

[Tambohamilton]

No, shocks wouldn't cause that. Blown shocks can maybe cause cupping, but not asymmetric wear. That's a terrible alignment and/or worn suspension joint(s).

Got a printout of the alignment? If the neg camber increases after driving, the toe would also become more negative (toe out) which would exacerbate the issue. Sounds plausible, given the wear you've got.

[335i54n]

the e90 has bad dynamic rear camber, so any excessive swat cause inner wear, on top of that youre at basically 3/4 max neg on the eccentric. if an alignment shop can move those bolt to max positive and set the toe from there you should be a lot better off and rear shocks are cheap

[fodder031]

I have the same issue with excessive inner rear tire wear. Ate through to the wire braid on a set 2 years old. Changed the tires, along with full control arm replacement. Put new tires on, alignment, camber and balance done. All good right?... Wrong.... In a month the rear end felt slippery in the rain, took a look at them and same issue... worn hard on the inside. Back to the shop... mechanic was amazed. He did another alignment trying to figure out what was causing the wear.

Solution
The bushing on the tire carrier that was bad on both sides.
Replaced and all is good.

bushing is listed as #3 in this schematic.

[whyzee125]

Originally Posted by aaddam2

Any update on solution or root cause?

I am having similar issue, none of the bushing or arms seem to be loose, after alignments it seems to increase negative camber after driving for a bit. Firestone (lifetime alignment) was saying it could be due to rusty shocks, but no leaks found, and doesnt drive like a car with blown shocks. no weird noises or anything either. also toe seems to be straight as well.

I wonder if it something where dynamically changes when under load causing the wear.

Do you know for a fact that the camber is increasing? Seems to me, get an alignment, don't hit any potholes and come back a month later. Are you still in spec? That will almost certainly show you what's happening. If it's changed much, you have bad bushings or something was never tightened down. I also agree that you might be getting some toe out, as I've run up to 3 deg camber on my front and really never got excessive wear. My rears wear dead even at -1.8.

[Tambohamilton]

Camber unless extreme (>5deg) really doesn't cause that much wear. Toe is very very sensitive by comparison. Bear in mind that if you have negative camber and toe in, it can actually cause inner edge wear; you can't always rely on the wear side to tell you which way the toe is.