2000 Camry with 400824 miles. Tires wearing on the inside only. Last 4 sets were different brands. Always have 4 wheel alignment having used 3 different shops with the same results. Last set installed camber kit but still have inside tire wear. Any one else experiencing similar results?

 

How are your struts or other components? Strut bearings can cause this was well.
Are all four wearing on the inside?

 

Having 4 different tires can cause wear problems.

Check suspension bushings.

Make sure the rear tires are not offset, meaning both pointing left or right.

Is the car being aligned with significantly less weight then when driven?

 

All 4 are wearing on the inside only, and the wear happens only on the front. Normal wear is observed on rear. All 4 tires are matching, but there have been 3 different brands in total except Goodyear . (Goodyear Extenza, Sumic, Hankook, Goodyear Avia II). When the struts were installed I also installed new strut mounts. The excessive wear was observed before and after new struts were installed.

Only one person in car. Struts have 132362 miles. Rear tires are not offset.

 

Front tire inner wear is more normal so perhaps not a tire mix issue.

Suggest looking at the photo's in the link and compare to your tire. Note differences between toe and camber wear.

Tire Wear Patterns: What Do They Mean?

Barring issues of worn or bent parts, the factory alignment specs can still cause tire wear issues. Might consult with a shop that does frame straightening and may know more about the in and outs of fine tuning alignment then a tire shop.

 

Thanks JP. Those pics were better than the ones hanging on the wall at the tire shop. My wear is, according to those pics, toe wear. If the tire shops are setting the toe to spec then we need to change/tweak accordingly. I'm going Monday to the tire shop so I will discuss this data and hopefully we can improve.


***UPDATE***
Well, here you go. This is why fixing the problem is so difficult. See statement below:


Toe-related tire wear is easy to recognize, as it is fairly distinct compared with other types. Excessive toe-out will cause a feathered wear pattern on the inside of the tire tread; too much toe-in will wear on the outsides. Toe-related wear can be distinguished from camber-related wear as it is at a much smoother angle and may spread over half the tread of the tire. This contrasts with camber-wear, which is usually only in a narrow area near the shoulder of the tire and abruptly disappears.

Read more : http://www.ehow.com/about_5763124_causes-toe-wear-tires_.html


Compare this statement with the pics and they contrast. So which issue do I have? My tires look like the "Toe" pic but as described above is a "camber" problem. Two totally different issues...

 

Camber wear would extend more across the face of the tire. See photos in the link below:

https://www.google.com/search?q=camb...2F%3B816%3B612

 

Thanks JP. The attached pic is not my actual tire but is almost identical to the wear I'm seeing on my tires. After thinking about the "big picture" a little more, I believe a better way to answer my question would be as follows: If someone came into a tire shop with this situation and the background knowledge previously discussed, what would be the most logical thing to do? What parts would a seasoned technician replace to make this condition go away. If I can get that question answered I will know what to do next.

 

Who installed the camber kit?

Most alignment shops would not do this. If the camber was out of spec they would state is not adjustable.

If you have an accurate depth gauge or small scale measure tread depth across the face. If a camber issue, the tread depth should (in theory) vary from 0 inch at the inner side to max inch on the outer.

If a toe in issue would guess much of the tire would have the same tread depth. The wear only occurring only at the inner tire tread.

 

My rears had the exact same wear pattern. It was my struts. I put new struts in, issue went away. And congrats on over 400k on the Camry! With 132k on the struts, I'd consider replacing them.