Unusual Tyre Wear for my Santro GLS

Glad that it got fixed. I don't know about salvage cost - but I guess it is just another "heading" (pretext) to have to pay less money for the claim!

AFAIK the insurance cos. take the responsibility of the salvage and not you. They either auction the old parts or let the dealer keeep for a meagre sum. Guess the dealer is trying to make you pay for the salvage, ie what he has to pay to the company is being paid by you. You must investigate this aspect. I dont remember paying for salvage. They have charged me for the new parts, and how can they do for the old ones too?

Recently I went to a place where wheel alignment and balancing are done. They told me the following:

1. Generally the cars come with a factory setting of a little positive toe for the front wheels (i.e. front side slightly inwards). But for most of the new Maruti cars (Swift, Dzire, Ritz and SX4 especially), this is seen to lead to wear out of the outer side of the front tyres. So for these cars the alignment is to be ajusted for a slightly negative toe (-0.20 each).

In fact he showed me a somewhat new Dzire which was brought there. The outer edges of the front tyres were wearing out.

2. There is no need to do frequent wheel balancing for tubeless tyres on alloy wheels. The balancing has to be done only when we turn the tyres on the wheel (inner side becomes outer side) or changing tyres.

Is this information correct? Will the car lose stability while driving straight if we keep it with negative toe?

Tomy

1. Toe settings which are optimal for your car are specified in the user manual. Do ensure you get it done as per those readings and not the ones in the alignment machine. As you have seen it yourself, the problem is evident in the swift rather than Ritz, SX4 etc. This is due to a tie-rod problem. Cars with this problem will get free replacement of tie-rods as well as the tyres under warranty. Havent seen this problem in ritz or Sx4.

2. Wheel balancing is necessary if the wheel-rim relation is altered, like when the tyre is changed, or tyre removed and put back on the rim etc. Otherwise its not necessary unless you have an issue with wobbling, or high speed vibrations etc. 

EDIT: Also, its better you get the alignment checked if the wheel suffers any bad hit, or if there has been a probem with steering response. Sometimes, tyres can wear out within 1000 km if there has been a problem with the alignment. A full fledged laser alignment costs 300 rupees, but a worn out tyre ten times that!

Thanks, Sankalp.

As per manual, the toe speified for front wheel is 0 to 12'.

Is there any harm if we set the toe for 0 (zero)? i.e. no toe-in or toe-out. This is in the recommended range (0 to 12')..

The following site says that slight toe-in (positive toe) is required for straight line stability, and slight toe out is better for easy turning.

http://www.ozebiz.com.au/racetech/theory/align.html

As per the above site, for street cars slight toe in is recommended since straight line stability is more important.

Will there be any issues with zero toe?

By the way, I also read in the following site that for front wheel drive cars, a slight toe-out is recommended for front wheel since it tend to toe in while accelerating. Similarly slight toe-in is recommended for rear wheel drive since it tends to toe out while accelerating.

http://www.niumotorsports.com/formula/Learn/Suspension/suspension.pdf

Tomy

IMO, a slight toe-in is normal because most passenger cars are not used for racing (where handling becomes more important than straight-line travel). That said, zero toe should not make much difference at typical speeds of upto 70 kmph - in day-to-day driving we do not turn/corner at such speeds.

I agree with Rohit's statement. It is okay and will not make much change in our conditions. I get zero toe for all cars. Somehow I didn't understand the accelerating part. I dont think there will be so much flex in the suspension so as to alter toe.

Thanks Rohit & Sankalp.

In that case, I think I will also stick to zero toe. I dont generally overspeed, or do unnecessary abrupt turns. So I can give maximum priority to minimum wear & tear.

@ Sankalp - Regarding the accelerating part, that is as per the second site mentioned. Dont know if it is correct. Basically in a rear wheel drive car, the car is getting pushed from behind and the front wheels tend to stay on the road (resisting it) when accelerated. This will tend to give a toe-out. Similarly, for front wheel drive, the wheels go forward and the car tends to lag behind, leading to a toe-in. But as you mentioned, if the suspension does not have that much flexibility, then the whole thing will behave like that only theoritically (no measurable change).

Tomy