XSeries-forum

last night the sun was still shining here at 7pm so I decided to whip the alloys off and give them a good clean behind the ears!! 

Anyway, both the rear tyres have worn slightly noticeable more on the inner edges.  It's not a great deal, but noticeably so, if you know what I mean.

Is this common?

My understanding is this is very common due to the camber (or it may be negative camber) of the wheel. This is done to allow the car to corner better and its visible if you get down low and look at your car from behind. You should see that the wheels are not vertical but slant inwards at the top.
The increased wear isn't ideal but its not unusual.
If your worried thats its excessive, get it checked at a place that does four wheel alignment and then you will have peace of mind.
Here's a photo of the wheel angle on mine, its easier to see if you compare it to the drain pipe.

It is very common due to the camber on it and the wide wheels. I have increased the pressures on mine as they were worn when I got the car and so far it has evened out the wear.

it is very common and i've had this issue too, but worth a check on your alignment from a place that does all 4 wheels full geometry incl camber (i've figured not all places fix camber) -cos these rubbers don't come cheap!

couple of issues:
1. if the wear is on the  extreme edge only (as it seems to be, like mine was), it is possibly toe in/out, which is the most common cause of wear on the edge.
2. recommended camber on the E53 from memory should be -1 to -2 degrees. as said its for handling. issue is, it could be even worse than -2 degrees because most places don't check/fix camber!

other thing is - if you want to prolong the life of the tyres u can pop them off the rims and swap left to right.. need to go to a tyre shop for this though..

Just remember with the newer style asymmetric tyres there is no benefit in swapping them out. If you want to try and even the wear out by swapping them round then you need to make sure you have/buy directional tyres.
The easy way to tell the difference is asymmetric tyres have inside/outside marked on the walls where as directional tyres have an arrow marking the intended rotation.

Lummox

thanks for all the replies guys; useful to know.

4678ah; would u be able to recommend anywhere near us which is good at the 4 wheel alignment? - i see your not too far from where i live! 

Sorry i cant help you there, as i have never had it done before.
Its always nice to see that another member is quite local tho.

Ok not to worry.  Yeah I know what u mean, there is someone else on the forum I think I've spoken to before who lives this way too

awj85
When i bought my 540 sport it just didn't feel right on the road so I had the 4 wheel alignment done at an Indy and it felt better but still didn't feel right so i took it to the dealer and to be honest it is expensive to get it done at the dealers but i think it is worth it. The dealer asked me all these questions as to how much the vehicle was used and how i drove it and did i regularly travel alone in the car or did I carry people with me, I was at a loss as to why they were asking all this so i asked the burning question "why do you need to know this"? and the guy advised that they load the vehicle up with ballast weights to suit how the car is loaded and how it is driven.
When i got it back it was a different beast all together, the handling went from okay to absolutely perfect. I also took my X5 in when i bought it for the same reason as you have: the uneven wear on the back tyres and they did the full check on it and said it was okay and didn't have to adjust anything.

Lummox

ah thanks for that lummox burning question is did u go to Lloyds or Coopers? 

I used Fawdingtons Newcastle whop are now under the Lloyds group. Excellent service from them.