Ridiculous feathering of front tyres

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Jim4eco

Member
Joined
Jun 5, 2017
Messages
15
Anyone else experiencing very pronounced feathering of the front tyres on their PHEV. (mine is a 2016 model, but only 14000 miles on clock). When I brought the subject up at the dealership during a service, I was told this was normal, due to the square shape of the tyre walls which was necessary for the tyre monitoring system to function properly. Also, if much driving is done in 'ECO' mode, this effectively makes the vehicle front wheel drive for better efficiency, thus producing more wear on outside edge. I run my tyres at the pressures for ECO driving, but do constantly use the ECO mode. Anyone else with any experience of this? I still appear to have a good 3-4mm tread across the tyre except for the extreme outside edge, which now has zero and appears to have very slight hairline cracking. The NSF is the worst, and service manager said this was normal.
 
The feathering is just a symptom of the tracking needing adjustment.
Your dealer is a lazy idiot.
ECO button does not make the car front wheel drive. It simply remaps the throttle pedal and tries to reduce the intervention of the ICE (petrol engine), it also reduces the efficiency of the heater or air conditioning.

You might find this useful https://www.richi.uk/p/mitsubishi-outlander-phev-faq.html?fbclid=IwAR2m-4gk4eXRI7ZfdH1snHb9bq6XMUwdQ91pnabK5KJr-vMNGDCrvcxeGgM

Have fun!
 
I've rarely read such bollocks. Switch dealers now.
This one couldn't service a pram.

There are no "pressures for ECO driving." The ECO button only shifts some parameters that influence fuel efficiency - minimally or not at all in my experience. It changes nothing in the drive train. 4WD has nothing to do with it.

Running the car with the tracking out of adjustment will wear your tyres down very quickly. This is costing you money as the tyres, by your description, are illegal already.
 
My mistake guys, the service garage stated the wear problem was the shape of the tyre wall profile being 'square' rather than rounded, which was necessary for the tyre monitoring system to function properly. The part I wrote about the ECO button producing two wheel drive, I had read somewhere else. Didn't mean to cause confusion....was the early hours of the morning when I posted it and wasn't thinking clearly...lol. When I wrote 'also' previously, that was me jumping from what the garage said to what id read, but it was poorly written. Apologies.
When I asked the service dept about swapping the front tyre to the back to extend life, they said they would need to do some kind of resetting/recalibrating so that the monitoring system re recognised the wheel/tyre and there would be a cost for each wheel.

So basically, no one else had any problems with tyre wear.

I have included pictures below. Rear tyre no feathering, OSF showing slight feathering and NSF showing severe feathering.

So consensus is, it is not normal tyre wear?
 

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cheers jaapv, I felt the same, but the manager fooled me initially as he knew it would be the nearside showing the most wear, before I had even explained to him the problem, so lulled me into thinking it was common.

Will go back to him now and ask for it to be put in writing that it is normal wear, so that I can challenge Mitsubishi themselves. Hate being fobbed off through being ignorant of the mechanics.


Thanks.
 
I would let a Tyrenet specialist do the adjusting in any case. I think Mitsubishi owes you a couple of tyres.
 
Looks to me like a combination of under-inflation* and bad alignment. Get a 4-wheel alignment from someone who knows what they're doing (i.e., not this idiot).

*—not necessarily less than the recommended figure in the door jamb, but under-inflated for your driving style. Add 10% and see how you get on (all four tyres must be the same pressure).
 
Hi richi,

I'm 38psi all round, regularly checked, but I do get slagged off by wife and friend for being 'joe slow' when driving(rarely above 50mph). I would have thought slow driving would have been better for tyre wear!

Any recommendations for 'alignment' specialists in Scotland? As it is, we don't even have many mitsi dealerships!!!
Any of the 'kwikfit' type companies any good?

Failing that, it looks like a longish trip to get it checked. :-(
 
38 sounds about right. If you go over 40 the car gets rather bouncy and uncomfortable.

Tyre specialists:

http://bfy.tw/NWb8
 
I had exactly the same on my 16MY. Turned out the tracking was way out, but I left it too late (as you seem to have done) and it cost me two new front tyres despite most of the tyre surface being in fine shape.
I going to get my 19MY checked in a few weeks to avoid the same again.
 
I’ve used Tyre City in Luton for years. They have the very latest laser full geometry machines and are very well trained.

When I first got my car (Feb 2016), I took it there and considering it had less than 200 miles on the clock some of the things they check were so far out the machine couldn’t even measure them!

The machine links to a TV screen in the waiting area so I could watch them bring everything back to where it should be, making the wheels point in the right direction. It took 20 minutes and cost £80 but I paid £200 for a two year, check as often as I want, contract. Due to the all round independent suspension, both ends of the car are fully adjustable.

The transformation was mind blowing, the car was more stable, smoother, quieter and I now get between 25K and 30K from a set of front tyres and I am what is known as a road warrior BIK refugee. My car is about to pass 100K miles at 38 months old and I have driven every single mile!

I am now on my second contract and I take the car to be checked after every service (every 5 months) and whenever I’ve had new tyres fitted. It is money well spent.

As others have said, find your local tyre specialist with one of these machines, get the car corrected and then see what Mitsubishi have to say about the (printed) results.

By the way, I religiously run my car at 38psi all round, I defy anyone to tell the difference from the ‘standard’ pressure.
 
As far as I am aware, the dealer is supposed to check and adjust alignment as part of the pre-delivery service.
 
Our original set of tyres made it to close to 50,000 miles - they were getting close to bald, but the wear pattern was pretty even across the tred.
 
Went back to the mitsi dealership service dept today. They stated I would have to take things up with Mitsubishi directly. In the experience of the service dept manager, every PHEV that comes in for servicing has very similar wear on them. My 14000 miles was 'actually' quite good. They had checked my alignment at the service, but they do not have 4wheel laser alignment. He felt it would make no difference overall, getting this done. The 'reason' for the wear, was down to soft compound Toyo tyres and the very flat top profile of the tyres which needed minimal resistance for the TPMS to work correctly. Normally tyres have rounder shoulders, but these tyres are selected by Mitsubishi for the low resistance. He stressed the importance of keeping all tyres the same all round but if sourcing others, they had to be suitable for the TPMS system functionality.

Going to run the two front tyres at 40psi to attempt to get a bit further mileage out of them before changing them, hopefully putting the wear onto the centre of the tyre and minimise the shoulder scrub. I'll get the laser alignment with the purchase of two new tyres.

Thanks for your comments folks.
 
I don't have Toyo tyres, but my Conti tyres lasted 40.000 km and were still legal when I changed them.
And they are denying the abnormal (misalignement) wear that is very evident in your photographs. Theyn are fobbing you off legally as well. Your contract is with them, not Mitsu UK. They bear primary liability,
Get away from those incompetents (or crooks) All tyres are suitable for TPMS.
In your place I would be seeking legal advice.
 
Jim4eco said:
My mistake guys, the service garage stated the wear problem was the shape of the tyre wall profile being 'square' rather than rounded, which was necessary for the tyre monitoring system to function properly. The part I wrote about the ECO button producing two wheel drive, I had read somewhere else. Didn't mean to cause confusion....was the early hours of the morning when I posted it and wasn't thinking clearly...lol. When I wrote 'also' previously, that was me jumping from what the garage said to what id read, but it was poorly written. Apologies.
When I asked the service dept about swapping the front tyre to the back to extend life, they said they would need to do some kind of resetting/recalibrating so that the monitoring system re recognised the wheel/tyre and there would be a cost for each wheel.

So basically, no one else had any problems with tyre wear.

I have included pictures below. Rear tyre no feathering, OSF showing slight feathering and NSF showing severe feathering.

So consensus is, it is not normal tyre wear?

Say what? "do some kind of resetting/recalibrating so that the monitoring system re recognised the wheel/tyre and there would be a cost for each wheel." Your dealer is trying to rip you off. Totally BS. It looks like alignment or toe adjustment problems. Mine 2018 Outlander PHEV has OEM Toyo tires with about 14k miles and like 50% left with pretty even thread wears on them. Stay away from that dealer.

My other Lexus RX450h had the same problem as yours with 15k on the Michelin, the dealer was nice enough to give me a set of 4 new tires for 25% cost and do a toe-adjustment because they were out of tolerances.
 
Jim4eco said:
When I asked the service dept about swapping the front tyre to the back to extend life, they said they would need to do some kind of resetting/recalibrating so that the monitoring system re recognised the wheel/tyre and there would be a cost for each wheel.

Also bollocks from dealer - the TPMS doesn't know which tyre is which, unlike some cars - as you will find when the low pressure warning comes up, as you have check each tyre with a pressure gauge in turn. Unless, of course, you are "lucky" enough to have a flat! :lol:
 
Jim4eco said:
Went back to the mitsi dealership service dept today. They stated I would have to take things up with Mitsubishi directly. In the experience of the service dept manager, every PHEV that comes in for servicing has very similar wear on them. My 14000 miles was 'actually' quite good. They had checked my alignment at the service, but they do not have 4wheel laser alignment. He felt it would make no difference overall, getting this done. The 'reason' for the wear, was down to soft compound Toyo tyres and the very flat top profile of the tyres which needed minimal resistance for the TPMS to work correctly. Normally tyres have rounder shoulders, but these tyres are selected by Mitsubishi for the low resistance. He stressed the importance of keeping all tyres the same all round but if sourcing others, they had to be suitable for the TPMS system functionality.

Going to run the two front tyres at 40psi to attempt to get a bit further mileage out of them before changing them, hopefully putting the wear onto the centre of the tyre and minimise the shoulder scrub. I'll get the laser alignment with the purchase of two new tyres.

Thanks for your comments folks.
You cannot drive on these tyres any more. At least one is illegal. Ifyou get into an accident involving a wet road your insurance will refuse cover.
 
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