Driver-side front tyre wear

[toxicspark]

I own a 2007 TS2, which is fitted with the standard Toyo R27 185/55/R15 82V.  Bought it last April at 10k miles for £7.5k.

It's now at 13000 miles and I've noticed that the service history shows the o/s front changed at 5k.  I assumed this was a puncture but now when I  look at that tyre it is much more worn than the rest.  Rears are about 5mm and n/s front at 6mm.  O/S front though is about 4mm - which is odd considering this is the newest tyre....  The wear is most obvious on the outers.

Now it could be that they didn't stick a new trye on when they replaced it.... but it seems more likely that it's just wearing faster. 

It's driven by the missus and so I didn't get round to checking pressures for 3 months, when I did they were all low esp. that one.

So.... that leaves two option:

1- Some tracking issue...how would I quickly check this?
2 - It was simply run underinflated for 6k and so is more worn on the shoulders - now that I'm keeping it checked this may not be a problem anymore...

So questions are really:

1 - Anyone know of this being a general problem?
2 - How would I quickly check tracking?
3 - What's a good cheap tyre depth guage to get - I could then do a more thorough check across te entire width?

Any help appreciated - thanks.

[Smthers]

As you probably know, wear on both outside edges of a tyre suggests under-inflation.

Both of the original toyo's on the front of my '08 TS2 had pronounced wear on both the inside and outside edges. I'm not convinced this was due entirely to under-inflation, but I suspect that the stiff sidewalls on these tyres put a lot of pressure on the shoulders of the tyres = more wear on the outside edges. And don't forget stiff sidewalls = more road noise - I note that some on here have noticed significantly less road noise when they have replaced their toyo's with another brand.

Coming back to the front offside tyre wear. The excessive wear here *might* be due to a corroded alloy. If the alloy has corrosion where the tyre meets the rim you could be losing air since corrosion interferes with the air-tight seal you normally get between the tyre and the rim.

Check both the inside and outside alloy rims. When I had my fronts replaced the fitter (local trusted independent) found a balancing weight had been clipped to the inside rim of one of my alloys. This had damaged the lacquer and may allow corrosion to creep in at some point. You might have one of these clips on your front offside. These clips are bad news for alloys - any decent tyre fitter will only ever use self-adhesive weights.

I've rambled a bit, but hope that helps.

[toxicspark]

Thanks for that - I think we're going down the same lines then. 

I'll measure the depth across the full width of all tyres and compare.  If the centre to outside ratios are the same then it'll be overwear on that one tyre for some worrying reason.  If the centre is wearing less then it'll be underinflation as you suggest - either for a bad reason or just badly cared for.  I'll check for those weights and other damage as well.

Thanks.

[toxicspark]

Right, well I've measured the depth on all the tyres and the front is 5.6 all the rest are 6 (or 7 for the n/s front) The drivers-side is worn evenly across.

I can now only assume that the front n/s is a newer tyre and may be the one that was replaced (manual says o/s was replaced) but has since been rotated.

Other than that is there any process that would wear one front tyre evenly?

[hockeyshooter]

Other than that is there any process that would wear one front tyre evenly?

Your geometry must be out (toe-in, toe-out, etc.)