I own a 1998 Rav4. The rear wheels seem to be out of alignment but i cannot find any information on how to correct this problem, The rear tyres are wearing rapidly on the inside tread. Any help available?

Hi
If you've had the tracking done when you had the track rod ends done and it's still pulling to the left I would check your tyre pressures 1st then look at the tyre on the left of your vehicle if its misshaped this could cause pulling
Hope this helps Nick

It should be possible to gain a rough idea of the problem from the tyre wear.

Choppy scalloped type wear suggests defective shocks or excessive wheel imbalance.

Wear of both shoulders or edges of a tyre or the centre of the tread indicates incorrect tyre pressures.

If both tyres are displaying a similar wear pattern on the same inside or outside shoulder indicates incorrect toe setting.

If one tyre has a shoulder that is wearing it indicates an incorrect camber angle.

If both tyres are wearing differently the problem is likely to be a combination.

The rear alignment of some cars is adjustable and slight misalignment can be corrected but often rectification comes down to replacing parts or even using a body jack to move mounting points.

I suggest you book your car in for a 4-wheel alignment check.

check wheel bearing condition and adjustment on the right wheel. Check that the pads and caliper is free on the disc rotor. Check wheel alignment. Check tyre size and tyre pressure . Check for free movement of rear brakes as a dragging rear brake will affect the steering. Check the rear end alignment as an out of align rear axle will affect the front end steering.

The possible fault is that the alignment of the wheels must be checked before any comment can be done. Check if the tyre pressure is correct on all the wheels, a decision can be taken after the alignment report is seen ,check the balancing rod, the wheel bearings and the suspension. Also the quality of the tyres must be seen if so this can be reported to the dealer

deformed tyre

these have inderpendant suspension and can look like the top of rear tyres are further in than the bottom, if both sides are about the same then is prob normal.
If you carry a lot of weight in the rear regulary then would reccommend a wheel alignment when the vehicle is fully loaded.
otherwise take a look at the tread of the rear tyres, if the edges have worn a lot more than the centre then an alignment is due...

It should not be a problem as long as he aligns the tires in a four wheel alinement it will be fine, on trucks some axles stick out more on one side than they do the other so don't worry about it, if he's any good he can still align them it's just more work for him.

Thomas Heime is wrong, wrong, wrong! That is the max. pressure that the tyre can handle! the proper tyre pressure is written below the latch on the passenger side door. Open the passenger door, look at the label below the latch and there it is.

Uneven tyre wear can only really be caused by either worn suspension or steering components, or wheel alignment angles incorrect. The best way to check this out is to get a wheel alignment carried out by a reputable specialist, as they will (or certainly should) go over your suspension and steering first to make sure there are no faults before they reset the wheel alignment. The other thing to note is that if the uneven tyre wear is bad enough the wheel alignment won't fix the wear problem, just slow it down.
The shimmy could be caused by a couple of things (driveshaft out of balance, tyre fault, wheel balance) but the best thing to do initially is get the wheels balanced first and see if that fixes the problem, and then go from there.
The same company should be able to both the alignment and balance, and these jobs should both be done periodically (at least whenever you replace tyres) to improve tyre life and make the vehicle easier and nicer to drive.

Hope this helps,
Mark.

Hi

The noise from the front could be one of the drop links or one of the bottom ball joints amongst other things, and the noise from the back could indeed be a rear wheel bearing, and it could also be an underinflated tyre.

Very best regards

Geordie