my tires are wearing weird. front drivers side wheel, the outside and inside of tire is bald, with tread in the middle. both rear wheels are wearing on the inside. i dont know why this is happening. tires are expensive and i have to buy them again! any suggestions to stop this? is something loose in the front?

 

Alignment maybe? Hope someone more knowledgeable will chime in.

 

Similar looking wear patterns can be caused by different things. For example, the simplest cause of more wear toward the edges than in the middle is under-inflation, but it could also be due to a worn steering or suspension component.

The rears wearing more toward the inside could be due to excessive negative camber (MINIs have extra negative camber in the rears), or incorrect toe settings.

An uneven wear pattern called "cupping" could be due to worn shocks, and "feathering" could be due to a bad toe setting. Gross uneven wear calls for also checking for sagging springs (not very likely though), and worn control arm bushings, ball joints, and struts/shocks.

I suggest having the alignment checked/redone at a good alignment shop that can also check the other usual suspects. It's unlikely that your car has something wrong with it that they haven't diagnosed before.

 

i am thinking that it is worn control arm bushings. i hear a noise sometimes when i go over bumps so i believe something is loose. my car just turned over 200,500 miles today so it is prob. worn out. i also think it is that too because when i speed up the car moves slightly to the right while the steering wheel moves slightly to the left. it has its own personality! the rear wheel wear is confusing though. are they supposed to do that? only on the inside of the wheel? i have seen my car drive by, along with other mini's, and the rear wheels looks angled out. is it good?

 

Wow! With that many miles, your MINI might have several worn suspension components. It probably deserves to see a good doctor for an alignment and a check for worn components.

One check for worn bushings you can do yourself at home. Squat or stool-sit facing a wheel and grab the tire near the top with both hands. Then pull the tire toward you hard, and push it back away hard several times. If you hear/feel a clunk/movement each time you pull/push, it's probably worn bushings, but it could be some other worn suspension component.

Some have reported noticeable excessive rear tire wear at the inside edges with negative camber that is still within alignment specs; around -1.5 degrees, as I recall. Camber in the fronts is usually less than -1.0 degrees. I think of negative camber as a good thing as long as it's being used for cornering, but negative camber tends to wear the inside edges when driving straight. But too much toe-in can wear the inside edges as well. MINI alignment specs for normal driving call for a little negative camber at both ends (but more in the rear), and a little toe-in at both ends.

If you mean by "the rear wheels looks angled out" that the top of the tire sits more inboard than the bottom of the tire, that describes negative camber. If, instead, you mean that the front of the tire is more inboard than the rear of the tire, that describes toe-in. Finally, if you mean the the rear of the tire is more inboard than the front of the tire, that describes toe-out.

 

Thanks a bunch for all of this info. I really appreciate it. I will be in contact with people to help fix my mini so I can go about driving it like normal again. thanks!