Member - Duncs replied:

Couple of questions.

1 What pressures are you running?

2 Are there a lot of roundabouts in your area?

If the tyres are too soft they will squeel and the edges of the tread will scrub prematurely.

The local tyre guys out here noticed an increase in tyre ware when the council installed a heap of roundabouts. Is the front left worse?

Duncs

Outnabout David (SA) replied:

you don't say a lot in your question like whether it is wearing inside of tyre or outside. A good whheel aligner should be able to look at tell you what the problem is. I have4 had several Prado's and have found that the wheel alignment had to be adjusted in some cases past manufacturers specifications depending on load and suspension set up as both these affect Prado independant suspensions.

fester3 replied:

I (and some mates) have found that it essential to rotate and balance Prado tyres every 7000 to 10000 k's. -

Fester

Member - Pezza (QLD) replied:

G'day djrziggy,

Not an uncommon problem with prado's by the sounds of it. Can't really help you with a solution other than that I don't think anyone has ever found a solution.
Mate is flat out getting 25 thousand k's out of his fronts on his prado, has done the wheel alignment specialist/factory thing till he was sick of it.
Check out post 19151, 17240, 16672, 1715.
Probably won't solve your problem, but might help you lose that 'lonely' feeling.

Avagoodn
Pezza

Outnabout David (SA) replied:

You will probably find a decent suspension set up will fix the problem. As the vehicle is loaded up or if the suspension has sagged you will get the top of the wheels leaning in (neg camber) and this will scrub the tyres. And also rotate as often as you can but in the end all tyres will be worn especially the oe grand treks

desert replied:

Sounds like a "normal" problem associated with a relatively heavy vehicle in combination with the independent front end, which is a design more suited to vehciles of less road height and mass. eg, smaller cars.
Neverthe less, you are stuck with it and will need to religiously roatate tyres to the rear every 5000k's to help even out the shoulder wear.
Once a bad wear pattern has been allowed to start, it is very hard to get the tyre back "square" again and this will coninue to give you the squeal noise and the only remedy is new boots, unfortunately.
The very nature of independent suspension means that the tyre contact will be cambered to the road surface, in most situations, and therefore tyre contact and wear will be more pronounced on the shoulders of the tyres, unlike a "live", solid axle which tends to keep the tyre square to the road when in the straight-ahead position. Some, but generally less, shoulder camber is introduced during turns, but never to the same extent as the independent front suspension.

Capt. Wrongway replied:

djrziggy,
I suggest that you get it checked out by Toyota. I've got a 03 petrol GXL still on it's first Grantreks. It's got 84thou on it and still looks like getting at least another 15thou. These have been rotated every 10thou and shows no signs of uneven ware what so ever. As my Prado is mainly used for towing, I will be using Granteks again. I suggest, IMHO, that the problem is with your vehicle's stearing wheels set-up.
Regards,
Capt.