Front tire wear and need for alignment
 

Hi,
What's the tire wear for others on the forum for their front tires? I had the OEM dunlop and recently switched to the Continental DWS 205/50/16. I put about 3K miles on the new tires. I know the DWS has a lot of side wall flex, so because of the engine weight, the tire smooshes down a lot. I'm noticing a lot of wear on the outside edge of both front tires. This is the same wear that I had with the original Dunlops. The rear tires are fine. The Dunlops did the same thing but the tire wear was fairly even so I'm thinking this is just the way that the tires wear out on a Fit and even doing an alignment won't help. I'm willing to do an alignment if necessary but if it's not going to help, why spend the money.

What psi are you running your tires at?

I rotate my DWS' every 5k.

I'm running them at 38psi, a little on the high side. It's not extreme wear on the edge but when you compare them to the rears, you notice that the edge does have wear on it especially on new tires but then when you look at the tire, you know why, the tire bends from the engine weight and that edge is touching the ground when the car is parked.

I do plan on rotating every 5k to even out the wear. But my main concern is, will an alignment even help. I'm thinking this is a Fit issue because the original Dunlops had the same wear in the edges when on front. Or maybe my car is out of alignment the whole time.

I'm a cheap bastard, but after spending hundreds for a set of new rubber, spending $70 or so to make sure they're pointed right seemed a good investment.

The original dunlops on mine fell off the shoulders as you describe. By 30K they were toast. The ones that had been on the front for 20K were bald on the outside. The ones that had been on the rear for 20k still had good tread.

When I had the tires replaced the shop that did the alignment said it was pretty out-of-wack (technical term I guess). They didn't provide the report as their printer was out of ink. I suspect it was out-of-alignment from new.

It tracks much better and gets better mileage. I suspect the new tires helped (Michelin Energy) but the alignment may have helped more.

Get them aligned.

Seems like it can't be a psi problem--if you're running it at 38, being on the high side, it would wear more in the middle rather than the sides.

My tires look practically brand new after ~20K and rotating every 5k.
I think an alignment is in order.

My Dunlops went only for 28K, could of squeezed another 5k out of them but rainy season is starting, so I decided to just get new ones. I didn't rotate that well either on the Dunlops. If you guys aren't getting the wear on the slight wear on the outer edge, then I guess I'll go in for an alignment.

Too early to say for me. Put them on 7k miles ago and rotated the first time about 500 miles ago. No visible wear issues.

Rotating with oil changes doesn't work so well if you're getting 10-11K per oil change. I've vowed to rotate every 6K or so this set.

In addition to tire wear, there's the car's performance as far as tracking and mpg. I think it's worth it when putting on new tires.

Yeah these tires cost me a lot so I've been taking care of them. I probably paid $30 more at my local shop but they do lifetime rotations for tires purchased thru them. It was worth it and at every 5k interval, I'm there.

I ended up buying the Conti DWS at American's Tire Co/Discount Tire. They matched the tirerack.com price so I was happy and they give lifetime balance and rotations. Didn't get the road hazard though. Since I bought it there, they don't offer alignment.

I made an appointment with the Honda dealer for an alignment. I usually go with an independent but I recently moved to the area and the local Honda dealer is fairly competitive with service. It'll be $77 after a mid-week discount. Pep Boys was $75 and they had a $10 off coupon on the website but I figure the dealership has probably seen more Fits than Pep Boys, so I'll pay extra $12.

Thanks for the advice, I'll post if my specs were off or not once I get it done. I noticed that Good Year Tire has an offer where they do an alignment check for free but I figure no matter what, they're going to say you need an alignment..haha.. so just do it.

It will help if you correct toe. Generally too much outer tread wear is indicative of too much toe-in.

If you have even a little mechanical ability you can adjust the toe yourself by stretching an elastic cord all the way around the Fit at the center of the hub level and correcting toe with wrenches. .
You can adjust the toe on both sides to be the same, about a matchstick thickness at the front sidewall; putting a paper match between the sidewall and the cords and adjusting to have the rear sidewall of the front tire just touch the stretched cord. Do the same on both sides.
Now the Fit suspension is designed to have more positive camber with compression so if your cornering hard a lot you'll still get more wear on the outside edge.
Your 205/50x16 tires also contribute because the lower profile needs higher pressure on the order of 42-44 psi to get the tire profile correct.
Otherwise the outer sidewall 'folds' more and that contributes to outer edges of treads wearing more. Course nothing is flabbier than the sidewalls on OEM Dunslops.
PS the elastic cords are obtained at any fabric shop for a couple of bucks. Tie a loop at the ends so you can easily attach them to a convenient place under the car. Thank NASCAR circa 1955 for that handy method.
Camber is not readily adjustable except by lowering or less offset on a Fit (OEM has wheel centerline inside hub face) and caster is more difficult
cheers.

So what's the verdict?

I ended up cancelling the alignment. I put a strip of duck tape on the car and it wore out evenly, so I think alignment is good. This fit just eats up tires.

Hard cornering can eat up the edges as well.

Take the car to Sears. They have a new service lane alignment inspection system by Hunter. It is free and takes less than a few minutes.