[Man vs Wild]

I just got my truck back from the usual 10,00km service for my Coopers tyres. I have just clicked over 60,000kms in total and I was told that I have only 10,000kms to go before they become illegal. I have an 80,000 km warranty on them and have followed the servicing every 10,000kms. The problem is the outsdie of the tyres are scrubbing and this is causing the ecxess wear. To fix this I was told I need to get bearings replaced at the diff as the Patrols are set up for left hand drive and camber. This will realign the wheels to suit Aussie conditions. Apparently there is no other adjustment to fix this.
Is this true? or am I being told some porkies to get more work done. Either way I will be up for $300+ each tyre after the pro rata is factored in from Coopers.

 

[camo75]

not sure about the left hand drive story they have spun you and i dont even know if they would get a lo more business spining such a story. I have had my Copper ATR on my Patrol for over 100,000km and they have a little bit of life in them yet.
I would be checking for play in your front wheel bearings and steering and if that was ok find someone who can do a wheel alignment on your forby.

 

[TB45_Bruce]

not sure about the left hand drive story they have spun you and i dont even know if they would get a lo more business spining such a story. I have had my Copper ATR on my Patrol for over 100,000km and they have a little bit of life in them yet.
I would be checking for play in your front wheel bearings and steering and if that was ok find someone who can do a wheel alignment on your forby.

x2 and ask yourself why they left it till now to tell you. I would not go near them again. They have demonstrated the value of their warranty (zero), after they have extracted servicing charges.

As well as alignment, slightly low tyre pressures combined with enthusiastic cornering will cause scrub even on a properly aligned trol. If you have taken the vehicle back every 10,000Km, then you are probably not the type to run with lowish pressures, but that leaves the driving as a valid question.

I would never go back to my tyre man every 10,000Km as it is so time consuming and expensive. In addition it covers up alignment problems. I would rather just rotate front to back at about the half life of the tyres. That way you can see what is happening due to alignment, driving style and tyre pressures and take corrective action.

And no, I don't buy Coopers!

 

[A4B]

I To fix this I was told I need to get bearings replaced at the diff as the Patrols are set up for left hand drive and camber.

So are they trying to say , Nissan swapped the steering wheel and everything else to right hand drive, but forgot to swap the front wheel bearings over, and they are different from left to right sides ???

 

[Man vs Wild]

Apart from the early k's I have been driving on the bitumen. I don't screach around corners and drive I responsibly. Originally I was tossing up between BFG and Cooopers. It was thae warranty that tipped me to Coopers.
I have been seeing the same accredited tyre shop for the servicing. It wasn't them that told me of the problem. It was the guy from Nissan when I picked up the Patrol from a service.
Patrols and other 4WD's are not set up for Austrlain cambers and are 1% off in the opposite direction (insert technical waffle here). I can't undo what has happened, but do I need to get a second opinion or get the diff fixed. I still can't understand what the diff has to do with it.

 

[Bulbous]

Hmmm! - left hand drive?
Oz is left hand drive is it not? same as Japan. Surely the issue would be the other way around, and effect vehicles with RHD.
Watching with interest.

 

[Swerve]

Sounds like BS to me.

Just sold my 03 troll and the BFG's AT's had 70k on then and were all even, never rotated and no wheel alignments, just always good. Maybe moved once front/ rear

 

[02Troll]

Have the same issue with the front tyres wearing on the outside edge, I also drive with care and no hard cornering. I noticed it on the first set of tyres from new, then had BFG AT's showed the same and put 2 new BFG's on the front about 30K ago, they showed the same, just paid $20 a piece to reverse the tyres and hopefully this should get 75K out of them in total.
I have read somewhere that there is a camber issue with some vehicles that can be corrected, still need to look into it more, but I don't buy the wheelbearing story.

 

[Morejandal]

Hmmm! - left hand drive?
Oz is left hand drive is it not? same as Japan. Surely the issue would be the other way around, and effect vehicles with RHD.
Watching with interest.

We take LHD as the steering wheel on the left hand side of vehicle, not that we drive on left side or road. Our vehicles are RHD.

 

[Jacket_1985]

sounds like crap.

 

[truckster]

Both of my Patrols have suffered from the same thing with outside of front left wearing

I think if you search for KING PIN there is a solution in there

 

[Don]

When he said the "bearings at the diff" is think they were talking about offset king pin (pivot) bearing housings (or similar) to alter the lh camber not the wheel bearings

Regards Don

 

[usually]

The wheels hardly camber when cornering(works amazingly well off road) and when you take in to account the amount of roundabouts in Australia, and the fact that the left wheel takes the wear on a right hand turn(even when driving slowly) it will wear faster... Patrol isn't the only 4wd to suffer from this...

 

[Green-Ti]

Yeah this is true.
I did a full knuckle rebuild to rectify a leaking innner axel seal some time ago, in this i replaced the king pin bearings with standard ones(wish is didn't). The bearings i took out were offset to compensate for the Camber issues (learnt this after the fact) that some patrols experience. I Only did one side and the other is still on the list... But The result is exactly as you have described front left tyre completely scrubed and rooted on the outside, inside is fine. I stopped getting the tyres rotated because i figured Cooper will just blame me or the car and I thought one rooted tyre is better that all 4, all of the other tyres are wearing nicely. The catch 22 is, I can pay someone to do a proper wheel alignment which will involve replacing the standard kingpin bearings with offset ones again, but the because of the axel displacement that results i will have to put up with leaking axels seals/knuckles, which leaves me exactly where i was befiore i touched the thing. So I'm screwed either way, but don't know what is worse. Tyres are certainly expensive but i really hate leaking knuckles, grease oil and **** get everywhere and stinks as it boils off the exhaust. So thats probably where you are at, probably best to get the camber done properly if you're going to get new tyres but be prepared you might end up with leaking knuckles.
Cheers

 

[TB45_Bruce]

Yeah this is true.
I did a full knuckle rebuild to rectify a leaking innner axel seal some time ago, in this i replaced the king pin bearings with standard ones(wish is didn't). The bearings i took out were offset to compensate for the Camber issues (learnt this after the fact) that some patrols experience. I Only did one side and the other is still on the list... But The result is exactly as you have described front left tyre completely scrubed and rooted on the outside, inside is fine. I stopped getting the tyres rotated because i figured Cooper will just blame me or the car and I thought one rooted tyre is better that all 4, all of the other tyres are wearing nicely. The catch 22 is, I can pay someone to do a proper wheel alignment which will involve replacing the standard kingpin bearings with offset ones again, but the because of the axel displacement that results i will have to put up with leaking axels seals/knuckles, which leaves me exactly where i was befiore i touched the thing. So I'm screwed either way, but don't know what is worse. Tyres are certainly expensive but i really hate leaking knuckles, grease oil and **** get everywhere and stinks as it boils off the exhaust. So thats probably where you are at, probably best to get the camber done properly if you're going to get new tyres but be prepared you might end up with leaking knuckles.
Cheers

I think what you have written is true (didn't know about the seal problem), but.....

If you keep a bit of extra pressure in the front tyres,
if you make sure the toe-in is on the low side of spec,
if you corner slowly (well not regularly hard anyway)
if you rotate the front tyres to the back at half life (because the back tyres will always wear in the centre)

then I find that the tyres wear pretty evenly at end of life

 

[LycraMooseKnuckle]

It was the guy from Nissan when I picked up the Patrol from a service.
Patrols and other 4WD's are not set up for Austrlain cambers and are 1% off in the opposite direction (insert technical waffle here). I can't undo what has happened, but do I need to get a second opinion or get the diff fixed. I still can't understand what the diff has to do with it.

he is showing his ignorance/stupidity there.

The patrol has a different chassis and different front axles depending on whether they are LHD or RHD.

Wearing the front left prematurely is just a trait of the patrol's front end. They aren't designed for handling! You will probably find that LHD patrols wear out the front right in much the same way. Probably a bit less often though as the RHS of the axle is stronger (shorter tube, so less chance of bending which results in camber and castor changes).

 

[mowerman]

I have the same problem and had the same problem with a Jeep Cherokee so go figure as the Jeep is predominately a LHD car. I just swapped the tyres around and yes but sets of tyres are Cooper STT's. Might get something different next time. Not sure what though.

 

[LycraMooseKnuckle]

Its more a solid axle design thing than a LHD/RHD issue.

 

[mystic]

If the outside of both the front tyres are scrubbing it's a toe-in problem, not camber. Incorrect camber will certainly cause tyre wear, but it will normally be smooth, and not cause wear on the opposite wheel. Run your hand back and forth across the tread to see if you can feel any feathering.

Even if the toe-in has been corrected earlier in the tyre life, it will still show a wear pattern as the damage has already been done.

 

[kitiara]

wow, I was wondering why my left front tyre was bald on the outside and the others were normal (low on tread, but normal)

Got an appointment for new tyres on Sat.... going back to standard 17" rims. Nearly had a heart attack at the price off 22" tyres, why the previous owner fitted the damned thing I don't know