On my 850 1995 I am experiencing excessive wear on the outside edges of the front tires. Everything on the front end (ball joints, strut mounts, tierod ends, stabilizer links) checks out ok (and all of these have been replaced within last 2 years or so). The car handles in what I think is stable and normal fashion.

I'm going to have a shop I trust do an alignment, which seems like the obvious solution.

There are lots of 850s and s/v70s in my neighborhood and I notice similar pattern of tire wear on some (tho not as bad as mine).

I wonder if many people have experienced this - is it some issue with the design of this car? Has there been a change in the recommended alignment specs that anyone knows of?

thanks to all...

Thanks to everyone for their input.

I've decided since the history on the existing tires is complex (different alignments, replacements of control arms, tierod ends, etc., and 4 different drivers) I will just replace all 4 tires which are well worn, and have the alignment done, by a shop I think is quite careful - then observe what happens.

Im experienceing the same problem. My 850 eats front tires. Also replaced ball joints, strut mounts, tierod ends, stabilizer links, and struts. My brothers 850 has even tire wear. Im thinking I just keep getting crapy alignments. The strut replacement was my last fix and its still too early to tell if this helped. Hope someone can help with this.

Eric

My 850T has been doing the EXACT same thing since I purchased new tires after an unfortunate incident (that could have been much worse) involving bouncing the passenger side tire off a brick mailbox.

I had concluded for myself that Sears (since my local indie dosn't do alignments) had fubar'd my old alignment. With my three year old tires showing more belt than Santa Clause, and just getting an alignment tonight and watching, I don't remember him putting a simmilar amount of weight as my lard laiden self in the driver's seat to properly bias it.

The rear wheels never wear. The front passenger side (US model) wears, but not as fast as the driver side. The turbos and R's have wider tires than the GLT and hubcap 850's. I don't know if that has anything to do with it, but I'm not putting on thinner wheels and trashing my ride q... err.. my uh corner... no... uh... they look cool.
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Make sure your tires are properly inflated. Excessive wear on the outside edges indicates under-inflation. If these are 205/50s, bump the pressure up to about 40 psi and run them awhile.

Thanks for your suggestion. I would expect underinflated tires to wear on both edges, or worse, blow out due to sidewall damage, but who can really predict? My other family members mostly use this car so I am not always on top of the tire pressures - I'll remind them to check time to time.

I had the car inspected by a shop I've worked with for a while. Their diagnosis was that there was nothing wrong except the tires were long due for replacement and should have been rotated more often thru their life.

Wet noodle time... rotate the wheels at every oil change.

Both of my cars tend to wear the right front faster than the other 3. Ball joints and tie rods are new, the tire pressure is correct, but still... I think the right front is the favored wheel for front wheel drivers.

It is too bad that the AWD versions use the fwd as primary pullers instead of rdw pushers.

Klaus

My 94 850 turbo wagon wears the outside edge on the left front very quickly indeed! New ball joints, tie rod ends, links and alignment and still the same problem...I see other 850's around and don't notice this problem as much....I guess I will try more air pressure and rotations more often....