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tires wearing on inside on drivers side

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Technical Discussion' started by philbeth, Oct 10, 2015.

  1. philbeth

    philbeth New Member

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    Have a 2009 Prius that was t-boned on drivers side over rear wheel. Has started wearing tires on the inside on the drivers side. Had alignment when it was repaired about 6 months ago. Had alignment checked a couple of weeks ago and was told it was right on. Any ideas about what could be causing this tire wear?
     
  2. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    I got hit exactly the same place. They had to replace the rear cross beam. It worked out ok in my case though: tires wearing ok. The smoking gun is obviously what you've described, excessive rear camber. Was it the body shop checking alignment by any chance, or his brother-in-law, lol.
     
  3. philbeth

    philbeth New Member

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  4. philbeth

    philbeth New Member

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    [QUOTE="philbeth, post: 2251798, member:independently. UOTE]
    No. Someone suggested having it checked independently. Everyone says the repair job looks top notch. Had a reputable shop do the alignment check and he provided a print out.
     
  5. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    Just for giggles: check if your rear brakes are dragging, on the off chance they had to disassemble the brakes in the course of the repair. I'm not sure how brake could be a factor, but I do know rear brake re-assembly can be tricky, and if a brake is dragging maybe it's causing the tire to scrub somehow?

    The simplest method would be to just feel the wheels right after an extended drive, if one side, or front vs back, feels markedly warmer.

    Next step would be to raise the rear (chock the front tires) and see how the wheels turn. A slight amount of drag is acceptable, but if they're really fighting I'd bet it's misassembled brake.

    Basically, you need to assure the pin on back of inside pad is in between spokes on piston face, AND ensure the pin stays there, gets firmly bedded in between the spokes, doesn't ride up. To accomplish that you want to assemble it in the right orientation, then repeatedly depress brake pedal to get it seated, before applying parking brake. Maybe even take it for a driver first, before using parking brake. The PB will try to rotate the piston, and if the pin's not firmly lock, it'll ride up on the spoke, skew the pad, cause lotsa drag.

    It's good practice to disconnect the 12 volt negative cable, before doing anything on the brakes, and reconnect only after the brakes are well seated, by brake pedal depressing multiple times.