What problems have all of you experienced with tire wear on your 2004 F150 (non-Heritage model)?

I have 31,000 miles on my 2004 F150 STX Regular Cab and will soon need new tires.

The first problem started approximately at 24,000 miles with excessive wear on the inside of both front Continental tires.

A visit to my local FORD Service Department rendered a service bulletin to replace the upper control arms.

After the service bulletin call was performed the tires began to wear excessively on the outside edge. The service department said the alignment inspection found that the front-end was within factory specifications and they could not do anything about the excessive wear.

 

Ford trucks normally have quite a bit of outside tire wear on the front tires. The front right tire tends to get the worst of it. Just normal wear for a Ford. Also, some people's driving habits will also cause excessive outside wear.

With that many miles on those cheapo Continentals, it's time to replace them and start off fresh.

 

I agree with Worland. Those tires are CRAP!!!! I have a 05 supercab 4.6 stx 4 wheel drive and I pitched those tires little under 9,000 miles. You couldn't keep the tires balanced plus for some reason they made the bed shake and you could feel the vibration throughout the entire truck. Handling was horrible. I put a 265,70 17s Goodyear Foretera Silent armor tire on my truck. Great all around, plus the aggravating bed shake everyone experiences is to a minimal.

 

First thing, go somewhere, anywhere but the dealership for an alignment!

Ask around and find the best game in town and get it done right. Then, you can watch the tire wear patterns. Then, go back and fine tune it w/o waiting for hours to get the work completed.

Ask some of your local off road stores and see who has experience on more exotic cars and lifted trucks. Often, these are the guys you want to talk to, not some underpaid low ranking Ford mechanic they threw in the alignment bay fresh out of school. Most of the time, dealerships will only adjust toe and not even look at camber and caster.

It wont make a difference if you are running expensive tires or cheap crappy tires.. if your set up wrong up front, no matter what tire is there, its gonna wear. Trust me on this, I am on my 3rd set of tires after 5K miles! I had the Continentals first (tossed them after 900 miles due to feathering) then when to Dueller Revos and pulled them after 3K miles (same reason), then finally ended up with BFG KO's. I have had 6 alignments in 2 months. I finally found a shop that knew what they were doing and wear is much better. I still wear on the outside edge, but its acceptable for a 4x4 and I tend to corner hard. The BFG KO's work well with their 3 ply sidewall and running at 40psi helps. A stiffer sidewalled tire for a heavy vehicle.. hmmm, makes sense to me!

At the time, there was no TSB for the upper control arms. I bet replacing them now will help my wear even more. Now that you got the new upper control arms, take it to someone who can align it right. I think I'll go get my new control arms now too, thanks for the heads up!