Purchased vehicle about a year ago and have wear on edge of both front tires now. TPMS never went off an no alignment issue. What could have caused this and are they safe to drive for another ~6 months?
That wear is caused by toe-in or possibly the camber alignment being off. Have you had the alignment checked? If so, did they do a specification check or an actual true check of the alignment? Toe-in means the tires are pointed inward (pigeon toed) and camber means the tire is not standing straight up, but leaning to one side. And no, it doesn't look like you have another 6 months left on that tire, probably not even 1 or 2 depending on how much you drive. I don't know of any other issue that could cause this kind of wear. If you don't have the $ for a new set, you can get 2 used tires. I have a place near me and I put 4 used on at $40 each....20k miles ago. They are mismatched, none are the same brand but I don't really care.
Could just be caused by NEVER being rotated......but likely there IS an alignment issue too. If you rotate them now, they probably will be good for MORE than 6 months. But when you get a new set of 4, you NEED to do an alignment too. And in the future, rotate at least every 10K miles.
Agree they need to be rotated and doing it now can buy you some time. Rotating the tires simply spreads out the wear among the other tires though, there is still a problem of some kind needing to be corrected.
Agree with the above about the alignment and/or lack or tire rotations. See if there's a tire shop that offers a lifetime alignment (think: Good Year) and buy and use a decent tire gauge. THEN change the tires fairly soon. Especially if you haul babies in the car or drive on public roads. The TPMS system will only alert you if your tire pressure changes by a preset value - not whether or not your car's tires are (or have been) inflated properly. I prefer dial-type gauges and they run about $6. You don't have to be super anal about checking your tire pressures. Probably every other time you check your oil should be enough. For a 5-year-old Prius you should be checking your oil every month or 1,000 miles, otherwise I wouldn't bother with brand new tires or the lifetime alignment. If your car has over 100,000 miles you may not be needing them......
Alignment can be almost an art form. Many places do not get it perfect. Secondly, over nearly 40 years of owning Toyotas, every one of them wore the edges of the tires out far before the middle of the tread at the factory air pressures, even with frequent tire rotations and using a really good alignment shop. I have only gotten even wear by inflating the front to close to the maximum tire pressure and proportionally lower in the rear, usually 2 lbs/sq. in. less. On my Prius, I usually have 42 front, 40 rear.
Most people will sell before 200K so no need to invest new tires, or EGR will muck up the ICE by then. And this car is not part of the "most cars" generalization .
Interesting, that's surprising to me. When I bought the car there were many other Prius for sale pre-2008 with over 150k on them, although in retrospect I don't think I saw any over 200k. What's the limiting factor with these cars? What goes first?
