Different Types of Tire Wear and the Reasons Behind It
Christian Dale
Product Marketing Manager at Anyline
Tires don’t wear down evenly. However, by looking at how a tire is worn down, it is then possible to identify the cause of the problem and fix it. Sometimes, the differences are not big enough for the eye to capture, though. That’s why the use of a tire tread scanner is so helpful. It does the work of providing detailed information in seconds.
Different Types of Wear
The following are some examples of the types of wear commonly impacting tires and the causes of them.
Toe Wear – Tow wear happens when there’s excessive wear along the outer or inner edge of the time. It’s often caused by an alignment problem. That means the tires are either facing in or pointing outwards. An alignment is necessary to fix this problem.
Camber Wear – This type of wear occurs on the outer or inner edge of the tire but differs from toe wear by the shape of the wear pattern. In this situation, the tires are not pointing inward or outward. Rather, they are tilting, causing a slightly different pattern. In this situation, an alignment of the tires is necessary to improve proper function.
Center Wear – Center wear often shows as excessive wear on the center of the tire. This often happens due to overinflation of the tire. That means there’s too much air in the tire, causing it to wear down too quickly.
Edge Wear – Edge wear occurs along the sides of the tire, typically occurring on both sides at the same time. This typically occurs when there is too little air in the tires, and proper inflation is necessary.
Cupping Tire Wear – A bit more of a complex problem, cupping tire wear occurs when the suspension and balance system is worn, bent, or compromised in some other way. In this situation, it’s common to see a diagonal scalloping pattern on the tire. Also, it’s typical to notice this type of wear when driving, as the tire may seem to bounce more on the road instead of maintaining constant contact with the surface. Uneven wear patches tend to occur due to the tire experiencing changes in force. These tend to happen about three to four inches across the tire tread.
This often is due to worn or damaged parts, misalignment of the tires, or a combination of these factors. All of this leads to difficulty for the vehicle to maintain force against the road, causing damage to the tire.
Why Does This Information Matter? How Is This Typically Diagnosed?
It’s essential to understand what’s occurring with the tires because it’s a direct reflection on the safety of the vehicle. When there are areas of uneven or unexpected wear on the tires, that often means there’s a repair needed. However, service technicians using manual tread depth gauges or just a quick look at the tire can miss things. The tire wear is so uneven in some situations that it is easy to pinpoint. Other times, it’s the small differences that can provide valuable information.
Consider that, on a 20 cm section, the deepest and shallowest point can be as much as 0.5 mm. By measuring only three points, the technician may think that the tire is safe when it’s actually highly dangerous.
What Is the Solution?
To get an accurate measurement, it’s critical to measure more than three points. With a 100.000 measurement of points, by comparison, it’s possible to detect uneven wear horizontally or vertically. This provides a far better understanding of the tire condition.
Introducing the Anyline Tire Tread Scanner - 100,000 Points to Tell the Truth
The Anyline Tire Tread Scanner measures 100,000 points from a 20 cm tire section. This gives a far better understanding of the tire condition. It also gives recommendations to your tire technician if the tire needs to be changed. It is fully customizable, giving you the option to highlight the lowest and highest values. The Anyline Tire Tread Scanner measures 100.000 points in 5 seconds from a 20cm section.
Take Aways
- Tires don‘t wear down evenly. Sometimes, the difference is so big that you can easily see it with your eyes, but many times, the difference is not noticeable to the eye
- Visually inspecting or measuring 1 to 3 points with a tire gauge is a poor way of understanding the true condition of the tire
- By measuring 100,000 points from a 20cm section of the tire, you get a truer understanding of the tire as you can now more easily detect tire wear
- Anyline Tire Tread Scanner does exactly that. It measures 100,000 points from a 20cm section in seconds
