Front Suspension Question
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Junior Member
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 4
Likes: 0
From: Austin, TX
Front Suspension Question
1999 F150, 2WD, 4.6L V8, 112,000 miles
For the past 20,000 miles or so my driver front tire has been wearing and scalloping on the inside edge. I have been rotating the tires every 3,000 miles to minimize the effect on any one tire. About a month ago I finally went and got an alignment done and had them check the ball joints (since my brother’s ball joints were shot at about 100,000 miles). They did the alignment and said that the ball joints only had a little slop in them and should still be good for another 50,000 miles). I believe that the alignment stopped the scalloping problem, but the tires are still wearing hard on the inside edge (all the way through on one tire).
Then yesterday, when I was doing a brake job on the truck, I supported the truck by the frame to the same height on both sides, and noticed that the rotor on the drivers side was about 12" off the ground while the rotor on the passengers side was only about 7-8" off the ground. And when I put the drivers side wheel back on you could easily see that the tire was angled outward (negative camber) even with no load on it.
I have never done any suspension work before and was hoping that someone could point me in the right direction as to how to fix this. What components should I be looking at? What controls the camber? Should I just take it to a shop?
Sorry that was so long.
Thanks for any help!
-Doug
For the past 20,000 miles or so my driver front tire has been wearing and scalloping on the inside edge. I have been rotating the tires every 3,000 miles to minimize the effect on any one tire. About a month ago I finally went and got an alignment done and had them check the ball joints (since my brother’s ball joints were shot at about 100,000 miles). They did the alignment and said that the ball joints only had a little slop in them and should still be good for another 50,000 miles). I believe that the alignment stopped the scalloping problem, but the tires are still wearing hard on the inside edge (all the way through on one tire).
Then yesterday, when I was doing a brake job on the truck, I supported the truck by the frame to the same height on both sides, and noticed that the rotor on the drivers side was about 12" off the ground while the rotor on the passengers side was only about 7-8" off the ground. And when I put the drivers side wheel back on you could easily see that the tire was angled outward (negative camber) even with no load on it.
I have never done any suspension work before and was hoping that someone could point me in the right direction as to how to fix this. What components should I be looking at? What controls the camber? Should I just take it to a shop?
Sorry that was so long.
Thanks for any help!
-Doug
Senior Member
Joined: Jan 2000
Posts: 3,205
Likes: 3
From: Along Lake Erie
No pic here....
Couple of things to check. The first thing I would suspect would be the alignment. Second, you can't gauge it by how it sits in relation to the concrete unless youknow for sure that the concrete pad is 100% flat and level. Third, check the suspension and steering for any obvious signs of damage.
Something is definately off there. Any good alignment shop should be able to diagnose the wear issue on the tire. If the inside edges are wearing prematurely, the usual suspects are the tie rods or ball joints. Does the vehicle track straight ahead when you release the steering wheel? Does it pull to one side? Is the wheel off-center? If you hold the wheel straight, does the truck track straight, or veer to one side?
-Joe
Couple of things to check. The first thing I would suspect would be the alignment. Second, you can't gauge it by how it sits in relation to the concrete unless youknow for sure that the concrete pad is 100% flat and level. Third, check the suspension and steering for any obvious signs of damage.
Something is definately off there. Any good alignment shop should be able to diagnose the wear issue on the tire. If the inside edges are wearing prematurely, the usual suspects are the tie rods or ball joints. Does the vehicle track straight ahead when you release the steering wheel? Does it pull to one side? Is the wheel off-center? If you hold the wheel straight, does the truck track straight, or veer to one side?
-Joe
Technical Article Contributor
Joined: Dec 1997
Posts: 9,417
Likes: 11
From: Windsor,Ontario,Canada
Springs and shocks sag at different rates. Just because one is lower than the other doesn’t mean that something is wrong. Unless you centred the truck perfect it will hang to one side. Once the tires start to scallop they are useless and will continue to wear out. Rotating them only wares out the other good tires faster. Put the wheels back on and go to a competent shop and have it inspected. About the tires: just run them till they are crap. They will never come back so start saving for new ones. 
JMC
JMC