[Zlov]

The near side rear tyre of my 147 has worn flats on the inside edge. The wear pattern is not at all even, with the inner edge looking like a 50p piece. Any idea what could cause this? The off side rear has done the same number of miles but is fine, and I can't detect any obvious play in the bushes.

My old 916 GTV used to do the same thing to both it’s rear tyres; is this just an Alfa thing? I know there a lot of threads on here about inner tyre wear, but I can’t find anything about the strange wear patterns I’m getting.

 

[Chris M]

I had this on a 156 but only with the original Goodyear Eagle F1 tyres. Sounded terrible, like a wheel bearing was going. Never had it with other makes of tyre on the same car. If the inner edges are wearing you may need to get 4 wheel tracking done. There is a limited amount of adjustment on the rear alignment.

 

[_The_Editor_]

Get the rear end on an alignment rack.

Bushes in the rear arm will wear to the point of producing negative toe angles, but not enough to cause any play in the arms.

Just had to do this myself, after my inside rears wore with that distinctive castellated/stepped tread pattern.

 

[Joe H]

I had this on a 156 but only with the original Goodyear Eagle F1 tyres. Sounded terrible, like a wheel bearing was going. Never had it with other makes of tyre on the same car. If the inner edges are wearing you may need to get 4 wheel tracking done. There is a limited amount of adjustment on the rear alignment.

You may have two problems. Alignment should sort the inner edge wearing but the flat spots could be a dodgy damper (shock absorber).
Having said that I had the 50p look on an Avon on my first 156. It really did sound like a wheel bearing but the damper was fine and replacement tyres wore down normally so the garage suspected a faulty tyre.

Joe

 

[TOX1C]

There is wear in the rear radius (transverse) arm bushes, the play allows the wheel to change camber causing the "50p" effect.

When I bought my SW the rears were as described, I took the car in for new tyres are there was so much play in the bushes that the fitters refused to fit the tyres, changing the arms cured the problem (and the wear).e

 

[gtv160]

The near side rear tyre of my 147 has worn flats on the inside edge. The wear pattern is not at all even, with the inner edge looking like a 50p piece. Any idea what could cause this? The off side rear has done the same number of miles but is fine, and I can't detect any obvious play in the bushes.

My old 916 GTV used to do the same thing to both it’s rear tyres; is this just an Alfa thing? I know there a lot of threads on here about inner tyre wear, but I can’t find anything about the strange wear patterns I’m getting.

I think this is called 'tread stepping' and there may be a number of causes. Have heard it often affects the rear wheels of a front wheel drive car particuarly one that is rarely laden in the rear. Look it up there are a lot reports of this on motring forums

 

[Zlov]

Thanks for the responses guys.
I've had the tyre replaced now and the tyre fitter said he'd seen the many times on FWD cars which had lost a balance weight off one of the rear wheels.
However, my car is very, very rarely loaded in the back and I live in a rural area with roads which knock the hell out of the suspension so I think further investigation along the lines above is in order.