Diagnose Problems from Tire Wear

Your tire wear pattern can tell you a lot about any problems you might be having with the wheel/tire/suspension geometry setup. The first two signs to look for are over- and under-inflation. Whilst this used to be a problem on older tires, modern radials have much stiffer carcasses but even so, you might still be able to spot the following:
Here’s a generic fault-finding table for most types of tire wear if you can spot them:
Problem Cause
Shoulder Wear
Both Shoulders wearing faster than the centre of the tread
Under-inflation
Repeated high-speed cornering
Improper matching of rims and tires
Tires haven’t been rotated recently
Centre Wear*
The centre of the tread is wearing faster than the shoulders
Over-inflation
Improper matching of rims and tires
Tires haven’t been rotated recently
One-sided wear
One side of the tyre wearing unusually fast
Improper wheel alignment (especially camber)
Tires haven’t been rotated recently
Spot wear
A part (or a few parts) of the circumference of the tread are wearing faster than other parts.
Faulty suspension, rotating parts or brake parts
Dynamic imbalance of tire/rim assembly
Excessive runout of tire and rim assembly
Sudden braking and rapid starting
Under inflation
Diagonal wear
A part (or a few parts) of the tread are wearing diagonally faster than other parts.
Faulty suspension, rotating parts or brake parts
Improper wheel alignment
Dynamic imbalance of tire/rim assembly
Tires haven’t been rotated recently
Under inflation
Feather-edged wear
The blocks or ribs of the tread are wearing in a feather-edge pattern
Improper wheel alignment (faulty toe-in)
Bent axle beam
*There is an interesting “but wait” issue with the centre tread wear example above. This effect can happen even when the pressures have been religiously maintained and might be due to centrifugal throw out of the centre of the tire carcass rather than under inflation. This problem would most likely show itself on high performance vehicles with wide section tires. I’ve had a couple of emails on this particular topic, so go ahead and think it over, and either stuff a question in the forum or contact me directly if you have any better ideas.