What To Do If Your Tires Are Wearing Down On The Inside

If you happen to notice that your tires are wearing down on the inside of the tires there are a few different things that can be going on with your vehicle to cause this.  I will outline the most common causes for your tires wearing down on the inside so that you can pinpoint what could be causing this to happen and get it fixed.

There are going to be two main causes of tire wear which are the amount of air that you have in your tires and the alignment of the wheels on your car.

Reasons Why Your Tires Are Wearing Down On The Inside

1. Camber Angle

Camber adjustment is the adjustment angle that allows your tires to sit flat on the road. If you have too much positive camber or negative camber that is where you will start to see wear on either the inside or outside of your tires depending on which way the wheels are adjusted.

If your wheels were out of alignment with too much positive camber this would mean that the tops of your tires would be sticking out further than the bottom of the wheel and tires. This will cause the outside edge of your tires to start to wear down unevenly when compared to the rest of the tire.

If your wheels were adjusted with too much negative camber this would mean that the tops of the wheels would be angled inwards towards the car and the bottom of the wheel would be sticking out further than the top. This will cause the inside edge of your tires to start to wear down unevenly and quicker than the rest of the surface of your tires.

A popular trend now is to adjust your camber with excessive negative camber to give your car a unique look.  This will ensure that the inside of your tires is worn down quickly and effectively lowers the handling capabilities of your car.  If your tires do not sit evenly on the surface of the road the less effective they will be at being able to grip the road and the more likely they will be to lose their grip in a turn.

If you want to see what the different camber adjustments look like in a video I’ve included two links below that show you how too much positive and negative camber would look on a vehicle.

incorrect toe settings, worn ball joints, tie rod ends, control arm bushings or worn or damaged springs that will need to be replaced before the alignment.

2. Toe Settings

The toe settings of your wheels are another common cause of tires wearing down on the inside.  If your toe settings are off you’re the front of your tires may point outward or inward causing excessive wear on the inside of your tires.

If your toe settings are causing your tires to be pointed inward like in the above picture this will cause the inside of your tires to wear down quickly because there will be more forces pulling on the inside of your tires.  With proper toe alignment, your tires should be facing straight forward, not inward or outward.

3. Worn Ball Joints

Another common reason for tires wearing down on the inside is worn ball joints.  If your ball joints may be worn down and not doing their job properly.  Ball joints are designed to connect the upper and lower control arms to the wheel hubs of your car.  Over time ball joints can start to wear down which increases the play in your suspension which then can lead to excessive wear in the inside or outside of your tires.

The most common symptom of worn ball joints is sound from your suspension when going over bumps.  Another common symptom of worn ball joints besides tire wear on the insides is a sloppy steering response.  If your steering response doesn’t feel the same way as it used to you may have worn ball joints.

4. Worn or Damaged Springs

Worn or damaged springs can be another reason for tires wearing down on the inside.  The springs on your car are designed to work in tandem with your shock absorbers absorb shocks from hitting bumps or potholes in the road.  If your springs are worn or damaged your shocks won’t work as effectively and won’t be able to provide consistent contact with the road surface which can lead to excessive tire wear on the inside of your tires.

If you have over 100,000 miles on your car you may want to look at getting your shocks and springs replaced as shocks and struts are typically only designed to last about 100,000 miles before they need to be replaced.  Some shocks are designed to be lifetime parts but most shock absorbers will start to wear down over time.

5. Tire Pressures Are Too Low

Another reason why your tires may be wearing down on the inside is that you have been driving around with underinflated tires.  Driving with underinflated tires for a long time will cause more wear on the outsides of your tires because the sidewall of the tire will not be as tall and will cause the outer edge of the tire to come in contact with the road surface.  However, if your tire pressure is low it’s more likely that both the inside and outside of your tires to become worn over time.  Not just the insides of your tires.  If just the inside of your tire is worn it’s likely not an issue of tire pressure.

What To Do If Your Tires Are Wearing Down On The Inside

1. Wheel Alignment

The second major cause of your tires wearing down unevenly is improper wheel alignment. If you have not had your vehicle’s alignment checked in a while it would be a good idea to take it into a tire shop to have them check it over to make sure that they are all properly aligned.  There are three main adjustments that can be thrown off over time by hitting potholes and other bumps in the road, those three adjustments are toe, camber, and caster.

To get your wheels aligned you can take your car to a mechanic or tire shop to have them perform a wheel alignment on all four wheels.  Most modern tire shops will put your car on a wheel alignment machine that will tell the tech which tires need to be aligned and what adjustment (camber, toe, or caster) needs to be performed.

2. Tire Pressure

If your tires are under-inflated or over-inflated this can cause your tires to wear down unevenly over time.  That is why it is important to check your tire pressures from time to time to make sure that they are properly inflated to the rating specified by the vehicle manufacturer.

If you regularly over-inflate your tires you may begin to notice that this center patch of your tires will begin to wear down quicker than the outer edges of your tires.  This is because if your tires are over-inflated the center of the tires will bulge out farther than the edges of the tires which will cause you to ride on the center patch of the tires instead of across the whole surface of the tire.

If you have a bad habit of never checking your tires regularly you may find that your tires will become under-inflated over time.  If your tires are consistently under-inflated this can cause the center patch of the tires to recess towards the wheel which can cause your tires to wear on the outer edges of the tire quicker than on the center patch.

Fixes for both of these problems will come down to ensuring that your tires are consistently inflated to the proper PSI specified by your vehicle manufacturer.  Some people will read the PSI rating of their tires and inflate their tires to the max PSI listed on the sidewall of the tire, this is a bad idea.

You want to open up your door and look on the door sill of your vehicle and you should see a label that specifies what pressure both front and back tires should be inflated to.  The vehicle manufacturer may want the front tires inflated higher or lower than the back tires so keep that in mind, they may not always want the same PSI pressure for both front and back tires.

If you go over the specified PSI rating for your car you are going to run the risk of over-inflating your tires and you will have a rough ride because of how stiff the sidewall of your tires will be.  If you inflate your tires below the specified PSI rating then you run the risk of under inflating your tires and causing excess wear on the sides and sidewalls of the tires.

If you have checked your tires and they are inflated to the proper PSI specified by your vehicle manufacturer and your tires are still wearing down unevenly you would now want to check your vehicle’s alignment.

3. Wheel and Tire Balance

As you may or may not notice when you get your new tires on the tire shop will mount your tires to your wheels and then put them on a machine to inspect how well the tires are balanced.

Once the machine is able to get a reading on what areas need an adjustment the tire person will then mount wheel weights to help balance your wheels to allow them to rotate without vibrating.

If your car steering wheel is shaking and vibrating you want to get it fixed you can read my other article about the common causes of steering wheel shaking and vibrations. If your wheels and tires are not properly balanced this can also cause your tires to wear down unevenly.

To prevent this from happening on your vehicle you would want to make sure that you have your tires rotated and balanced at least yearly if not more depending on how much you drive.

As your tires begin to wear down they will begin to weigh differently as they are no longer in the same condition as they were from the tire factory. This can be fixed by having your wheels and tires rebalanced, most shops will offer this service for free when you take your vehicle in for an alignment.

4. Inspect Tire Tread Depth

When your tires come from the manufacturer they will have fresh tread on them, as you start to drive on your tires they will begin to wear down.  There is a certain depth of tread that you should have on your tires to allow them to do their job as far as being able to grip the road and push away water from the surface of the tire.

One way to test out if your tires are below the minimum tread depth is to take a penny with Abe Lincoln on it and stick it between the tread of your tires with Lincoln’s head facing toward the tire tread.  If you are able to see Lincoln’s head fully then your tire tread is low and it is recommended that you replace your tires.

If your tires are beginning to wear unevenly this may mean that part of your tire tread may be fine while part of your tire tread may be low because of how the tires are wearing.  That is why we will start to get into the causes of why your tires can begin to wear unevenly.

Suspension Wear

If your suspension has started wearing out this can also be a cause of your tires wearing down unevenly.  If you hit a major pothole and that causes parts of your suspension to change their geometry this can throw off the alignment of your vehicle and cause one area of your tires to be worn down quicker than other areas.  

I’ve seen videos of people that have replaced their shocks and struts on their vehicles and when they go to pull off the old ones one of them was bent at an angle. While this may not be dangerous per se this can definitely cause your suspension alignment to be thrown off and cause your tires to start wearing down unevenly.

What you can do if you start to notice that it is just one tire or the tires one side of your vehicle is put your vehicle on a lift and start to inspect the suspension of the tires that are wearing down unevenly.  If you notice that a suspension component is bent when it looks like it should be straight you can reasonably conclude that this may be a cause of your uneven tire wear. You can then look to replace your bent suspension component with a new suspension component depending on what is bent.  

Another sign that some pieces of your suspension may be bent is if your tire shop cannot put your car’s wheels in proper alignment like how the car came from the factory.  If the tire shop is not able to set your wheels alignment in proper spec this could definitely be a sign that some part of your suspension is bent as it has thrown off your natural alignment.  

If the tire shop does mention that this is the case with your car you can begin to look at the suspension components around the area that they mentioned they were having issues with.

How To Align Suspension

If you are wondering if you can adjust your suspension yourself and save a bit of money the answer is yes, but you will need some specific tools to be able to read how your wheels need to be adjusted.  I personally have never attempted to adjust the alignment of the wheels on my car so I can’t attest to how difficult it would be but from the short videos on Youtube, it doesn’t seem that difficult to do.

I usually just take my car to a tire shop for alignment when I notice that my wheels are pulling one way or another.  The tire shop can check the alignment of my wheels using a digital readout that will tell them which wheels need to have their alignment adjusted.  I prefer to just take my car to have the alignment done by professionals so I don’t have to worry about messing it up on my car.

If you wanted to take a look at a couple of Youtube videos that show you how to adjust your alignment on your car I’ve included two below, one showing how to adjust the toe angle of your wheels, the second showing how to adjust the caster and camber angle of your wheels.

Toe Adjustment

Caster Camber Adjustment

What To Do If Your Tires Are Wearing Down On The Inside – In Conclusion

If you start to notice that your tires are beginning to wear down unevenly you will want to take action quickly as sitting around and hoping it just fixes itself is likely not going to happen.  Lucky for you most of the causes of tires wearing down unevenly can be fixed relatively cheaply by either you, a qualified mechanic or a tire shop professional.

Hopefully, now you have a better understanding of what can start to cause your tires to wear down unevenly and what you can do to help prevent that from happening on your vehicle in the first place.