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MG MGF Technical - Toe in/out and front tyre wear

I want to set the TOE IN/OUT as recommended by the dealer. Its a standard height car.

BUT - I don't want a repeat of my bad inner tyre wear on the front tyres (the backs are wearing evenly).

In theory, should the standard settings give even front tyre wear or do you have to revise the front settings to get this even front wear?

(ps - I've trawled the archives but would appreciate the latest consensus)
GJ

If your front tyres are wearing on the inside I would recomend to set the front wheels to toe in say 0deg 5min which should cure it. My car did it until I made this change and the car was at standard height at first. If you are not having the problem you may as well leave it as it is. I preferred the handling with a toe in setting also.

My personal belief is that Rover made a Typo in the workshop manual but then did not have the nerve to admit it. They just let us destroy our tyres so that we could pay twice market price for crappy NCT3s every five minutes. It was good revenue for MG dealers in other ways because they could charge you 30 quid to pump your car up and then up to 100 quid just to reset the tracking, every couple of months if you came in regular enough.
Tony Escort Driver

Rob Bell's website will probably be of some help to you - plenty of useful info there regarding uneven tyre wear...

http://www.mgf.4mg.com


And a little in the new MGF/TF FAQ at...

http://www.dotcomoff.demon.co.uk

Also home of the F'ers Gallery and MG Dealer Guide. :)
Paul Lathwell

I also believe Rover made a mistake, I had my car set to the original toe out at the front and had the usual tyre wear problems, when I went back to the same wheel alignment place a year later the guy told me the spec was now 10min toe IN all round.

Time will tell if this has cured the problem.

Cheers

Alastair
Alastair McLeod

It isn't the new standard spec, but a total front toe-angle of 0 degrees 10 minutes (or 0 degrees 5 minutes per wheel toe-in) should cure the tyre wear problem Alistair.
Rob Bell

I had the same problem and, having found a garage who knew how to set steering geometry, took a printout from Rob Bell's website.

The result is not only a cure to the tyre wear problem but a cat that goes round corners better.
Brian

<<The result is not only a cure to the tyre wear problem but a cat that goes round corners better.>>

Our cat goes round corners quite well but we just gave him Whiskas!
:¬)

Bruce
Bruce Caldwell

Miaaow,,,,,,

Ted
Ted Newman

Nailing the cat's toe to the ground would certainly ensure a tight cornering circle...

;o)
Rob Bell

OK, so I hit the wrong key. The CAR goes round corners better, I hate cats!

Interesting thing was that when I asked our local tyre fitter if anyone in town had laser alignment equipment his reply was that only the big chain tyre fitters had them and he would not trust those ******s to get anything right.

His opinion, which I respect, is that a skilled mechanic with basic equipment does a better job than an idiot with the most modern of electronic gadgets.
Brian

Hahahahahaha...Rob's reply was damn funny.

-sorry- rather sleepy but was amuzzzing

I think I should try this setup when I fit new tyres in a month time.
Hanah Kim

Brown and Gammons set mine, and their toe settings were very similar to recommended MG-R settings. However, their alterations made the car drive much, much better and after 20K the fronts are worn nice and evenly.

So I don't know what that means - perhaps it means that *IF* other parameters of wheel alignment are set appropriately, then the standard Rover settings are o.k.???
David Bainbridge

I had my wheels set 'very carefully' by my local tyre man using a laser 4 wheel system to 5mins toe in all round (I have compliance washers). Ran the car for a year checking the setting from time to time and I still got wear on the inside edge of the fronts. The suspension is normal height and the camber is within tolerance. The rears wore in the middle of the tread but the pressures were set as standard.

My son who helps run a car body shop checked my wheels on a 'normal' tracking system and declared them to be toeing out by 5mins! He is well used to aligning bodies, suspension etc of bent cars so he knows what he's talking about. He reckons he would never use a laser system.

Bruce
Bruce Caldwell

This thread was discussed between 03/10/2002 and 08/10/2002

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