Uneven Tire Wear? Check Your Suspension

Over time, your tires naturally wear down, but how they wear can reveal critical issues with your vehicle. When checking your tire tread, don’t just look at overall depth. Instead, inspect each tire individually for signs of uneven tire wear, where one tire — or even one part of a tire — wears faster than the rest.

Uneven tire wear is bad because of the excess stress that’s put on one tire, or one spot of a tire. This reduces the tire’s expected life, forcing you to swap out that tire sooner than normal. In the most extreme cases, uneven wear on your tire’s treads can cause a sudden blowout on the road, damaging your vehicle. 

One of the most common and often overlooked culprits that cause uneven tire wear is your vehicle's suspension system.

What Does Uneven Tire Wear Look Like?

When you inspect your tire’s treads, you first look at the tread depth and note how much overall tread has been worn down. Most modern tires will have a treadwear indicator to help with this. 

As you inspect your tires, look for signs of uneven wear or tread wear. Look out for:

• Center wear: A vertical band around the middle of your tire that’s smoother, or more worn down, than the rest of the tread (this is called center wear).
• Toe and camber wear: One side of the tire tread is more worn than the rest of the tire, or the tire looks unevenly formed. Toe wear looks feathered more feathered, while camber is uniform on one side.
• Edge wear: Both sides of your tire are more worn down than the center of the tire (called edge wear).
• Cupping or scalloping: Smooth, or more worn-down, patches on your tire, often appearing as wavy or uneven wear on the tread.

So, how do you prevent this uneven treadwear? Let’s first explore what usually causes uneven tire wear.

What Does Uneven Tire Wear Feel Like?

Uneven tire wear symptoms include:

• Vehicle tends to pull to one side while driving.
• Vehicle vibrates and shakes, especially at higher speeds.
• Steering feels off or less precise.
• You hear unusual tire noises.
• Braking takes longer to stop or more difficult to control.

If you notice any of these signs, get to your mechanic. They will check your brakes, tires and suspension to identify the culprit.

How Bad Suspension Affects Tires

If you notice uneven patches of excess tread wear or damage on your tire, your vehicle suspension could be the problem.

Your vehicle's suspension is a complex system of springs, shock absorbers, joints, and other linkages that connect the car to its wheels. The goal of a suspension system is to ensure that all four wheels are in contact with the road, even when on uneven surfaces and bumps. A suspension that’s functioning correctly will result in a smooth driving experience. 

However, a suspension that’s worn down or damaged does not evenly distribute the car’s weight across all four wheels. A poor suspension will be especially noticeable when driving over an uneven patch of road or a bump, as your car will bounce unevenly. But not all suspension issues will be noticeable to the driver, and if you’re seeing uneven tire wear, you should still have your suspension inspected.

Car suspensions do take a long time to wear down. A suspension system can last anywhere from 50,000 to 100,000 miles, depending on your driving habits, the conditions you drive in, and how frequently you drive with excess weight (such as towing something). It can be expensive to replace a vehicle’s entire suspension, but you can also have your suspension inspected to see if there’s one part that is causing an issue. For example, struts and shocks tend to wear out before other suspension parts. 

Car suspension problems are not the only causes of uneven tire wear, which we explain next.

How Over/Underinflated Tires Affect Treadwear

If you noticed the middle of your tire is more worn or the sides of your tire are more worn, your tires are likely over- or underinflated. 

As you drive on tires that aren’t properly inflated, more weight is put on the sides or middle of your tires, resulting in more strain on that particular area.

Learn more about under- and overinflated tires here. We explain how to check if your tires are properly inflated. 

How Wheel Alignment and Tire Balancing Affect Your Tires

If you notice one side of a tire is more worn than the other, it could be an issue with your wheel alignment. Tire balancing issues, however, usually cause vibrations or unevent tread patterns. 

Wheel alignment and balancing are crucial to distributing the weight of your vehicle evenly across all four wheels. An uneven distribution of weight will put more strain on one side of your tire. Over time, your tire tread will wear more on one side or, in extreme cases, the tire will deform because of the weight that’s been put on it. 

You can learn more about what you need to know about wheel alignment and tire balancing here. We explain when you should align your wheels and balance your tires. 

How Tire Rotation Can Reduce Treadwear

If all four of your tires are wearing down faster than expected, or if two particular tires are wearing down faster than the others, this could be because of your driving style. Or, you may need to rotate your tires more often. 

Tire rotation is where the positions of your four wheels are swapped so that if your car tends to put more stress on the front, back, or side as you drive, the tires all wear down evenly over time. 

You can learn more about tire and wheel rotation here. Tire rotation is a great strategy for increasing the overall lifespan of your tire treads! 

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