Dad's 166 is munching front tyres

[gregmund]

Hi,

I'm hoping one of the friendly souls in the Alfa forums can help.
My Dad has a 166 2.5 v6 - he came to visit today - I inspected the car (like you do) & imediately marched him & it off to the tyre place as the OS/F tyre had worn down to the canvass around the edge of the inside shoulder

It's quite a high mileage example (126k), but the tracking is spot on (we had them check that first) - the NS/F tyre was also 'feathered' on the inside shoulder - but fortunately we've caught that side early.

I gather that it is likely to be worn suspension bushings causing the wear? Can anyone advise if it is a common fault on the 166 & how easy it is to put right (I'm assuming at teh very least it will mean putting new bushings in - but don't know what that involves on a 166!).

Other than the extreme tyre wear it is an awesome car!

[Twin Turbo]

The 166 is a relatively heavy front wheel drive car, so front tyre wear is likely to be heavy.

Still, as the 156 front suspension is a known weakspot (more creaky than inducing tyre wear) I wouldn't be suprised if the 166 suffers alike.

[pwig]

There are very few 'common faults' on 166's as they are not common enough to have common faults! So, in answer, I don't know!

>> Edited by pwig on Wednesday 18th May 20:42

[pdV6]

The whole of the current Alfa range (especially the nose-heavier V6 models) like to eat the inside edges of their front tyres unless the tracking is spot on.

A quick cheap & cheerful toe adjustment at your local tyre shop will probably 95% cure it.

{edited to add:} Failing that, a "proper" geometry check at a specialist might be in order.

Also consider that the tracking might be spot on because it was re-set after the tyres had worn. Keep an eye on the new tyres for a bit to see whether they're wearing more evenly...

>> Edited by pdV6 on Thursday 19th May 09:24

[gregmund]

Thanks folks,

pwig said:

There are very few 'common faults' on 166's as they are not common enough to have common faults!

& that's definitely part of the appeal.

The tyre place reckoned the tracking was spot-on & needed no adjustment - so a call in to the place with the laser guided rig is on the card me thinks!



>> Edited by gregmund on Thursday 19th May 18:49

>> Edited by gregmund on Thursday 19th May 18:50

[pwig]

Well if you were up north we could do it for £80.

[Avocet]

At that mileage it could be a variety of things as well as just normal wear. My wife's 156 always eats its front tyres on their inside edges and I've been told all 156s do. Its not dramatic. If the inside edge is at the legal limit, the outside edge will be at (say) 3-4mm so its no big deal. Maybe the 166 has similar geometry. IF, on the other hand, the inside edge is bald and the outside edge is still almost as new, you probably do have a problem. My 164 did this to me a few times before I found a worn track rod end. They are spring-loaded on a 164 (don't know about the 166) so finding the wear by hand isn't always easy. I ended up just buying a new part in desperation. When I took the old one off the car and tried to compress it against its spring in the vice, the new one had very little movement and the old one had several mm of axial movement. This cured the problem. Also common on 164s are the inner front wishbone bushes - especially the big soft one at the back of the wishbone. Again, I've no idea what the 166 setup is like but all these things can upset the tracking - even if you set it up on a very accurate alignment machine, it will just move as soon as you drive the car away!

[Alfa Mad]

The fact both tyres are away suggests it is more likely tracking, rather than a bush or balljoint. But not necessarily!
I'd definitely have the front suspension checked properly first. I think the front suspension is similar to 156s, so at 126k, I'd expect the top wishbone inner bushes to show signs of wear.

Other than that, is the equipment properly calibrated? Go somewhere else just to be sure and have a proper geometry check/adjustment carried out.

I certainly wouldn't accept that 'all these cars do it'. All the ones I do wear the fronts spot on- but I'm pretty pernickity.

>> Edited by Alfa Mad on Wednesday 25th May 22:55

[correlejco]

I recently sold my 2.5 166 and had no problems with tyre wear. I put Nokian tyres on when I bought it as they have always provided a good compromise between cost, grip and wear, especially on heavy FWD cars.

They wore out about half the tread in 10000 miles, reasonably even across the tread. I tried not to lean into tight bends / roundabouts to the extent of audible scrub, but didn't hang around on fast bends.

Inside edge wear is common on many FWD set ups. If inside wears 10mm and shows canvas, and outside wears 7mm and still has a bit of tread, then
a) there's not necessarily anything wrong, and
b) they should have been changed a long time ago!

[CorseChris]

Not familiar with the 166, but my 155 ate front tyres with the inner edge totally bald, outer edge untouched. In the end, it was a sum of problems. Tracking, tyre pressures, bushes in the wishbone, track rod ends. Tracking problem was initially down to muppets at the tyre place. Pressures need to be kept at the high end of the scale and I went through 2 sets of 'bones before buying some Powerflex polyurethane bushes and fitting them to yet another new set of 'bones. Since doing that, I now get nice, even wear. Took a long time and 3 sets of tyres to find all the problems though.

The bush thing is, I think the most common problem. They are just too soft and seem to age really quickly, and allow too much forward movement of the wheel under power, causing lots of toe-out. As soon as you take the power off, the bush relaxes and back it comes, so it's hard to spot.

The 164/Thema design was better as the 'bone had a wider spacing for the bushes so was a bit less susceptible. Another thought is the front subframe. Again, I don't know the 166, but the 155 subframe is U shaped - i.e. it is open-fronted, and I just don't see how that can avoid some movement under load, playing havoc with the geometry.

Just my own wacky ideas you understand.....

[Aaron C. Reskew]

Many Alfa's run ridiculous amounts of negative camber which also exacerbates the tyre wear.
£80 for laser alignment is excessive. I got mine done recently for £30.
Best to check the bushes too.