My friend has an '02 Saturn Vue with 275k on it. He just had a shop replace his left lower control arm, put two new tires on front, and it was supposedly aligned at the same time. That was about one month and 3,000 miles ago. In that time, the tread on the inner rib of both tires is just gone, and the tread itself looks like it's been scrubbed away. The inner part of the tire is the worst, and then it progressively fades to the outer edge. Both front tires show identical wear, it's like the tread has just been scraped off. Even the outside edge is probably down to something like 4-5/32nds of tread.
Here's a picture of one of the tires:
The front struts and rear shocks are admittedly shot, but at least visually the camber looks normal. I've done some reading, and toe out seems to be one thing that can cause this (in addition to negative camber). Worn suspension components can also be a cause. I drove the car today and was expecting horrific pulling, etc. but in driving it I couldn't feel anything obvious that would make me question the alignment.
I'm taking it back with him on Saturday to the shop that did the control arm, alignment, and new tires. My thought was to have them check the alignment, and then I'd really press for them to replace the tires at no cost to him, and fix the alignment. Am I crazy to think a set of tires should last more than 6k? He's not an aggressive driver at all, I've never seen such unbelievable tire wear in my life!
What does the hive think?
