Caspian

Thanks Tony, is there any likelihood that the the OSR deviation would have a carry-over impact onto the NSR, or are they pretty much independent? To be fair the garage did say that there's always room for readjustment depending on the type of driving I do and how the car is loaded, so they said they'd start with the "standard" settings and that I should keep an eye on it for a month or two and take it back it for a re-check which should show if the uneven wear is still happening (at which point they can re-tweak). Not sure whether the fact the previous tyres were non-XL MO spec would have impacted their wear, although I guess even if they were wearing more quickly you'd still expect even wear across the tyre. Possible although the previous owner was a regular at the dealer, and from what I've seen of the car and service history etc didn't seem like the type of person to go with part-worn tyres. There's every chance the issue has been there since the car was first sold but I've only picked it up once the stepping got bad enough to make a significant noise.

They were on the car when I bought it last year - from a Ford dealer in Bedfordshire. I'm going to send them an email to mention it and see what they say... "buyer beware" etc as I had a chance to test drive, but I don't know enough about tyre brands to know that MO is specific to Mercs. It's had a service and MOT from a Ford main dealer in Warwickshire, plus a check from my local independent, and no-one spotted they were the wrong spec tyres, was one of the first things that got pointed out when I took it in today though.

It was on the inside - very heavy on the rear offisde, and less severe but still visible on the rear nearside.

To be honest it's hard to tell whether it's better because the geometry was tweaked or whether it's because it's got four brand-new tyres, but it's certainly better than it was before (sounds less like a tractor for a start!). The garage were great, took a lot of time to explain it all to me, and did an internet price-match on the tyres - Jackson's in Henley-on-Arden if anyone's looking for a good alignment resource in the West Midlands. They've suggested I give the new tyres 1000 miles or so and then head back in for a check on the wear pattern to make sure the geometry was indeed the root cause of the rear stepping.

Hi, I posted another in another thread (here) about issues I was having with excessive inner tyre wear on the rear of my Ford Mondeo Estate. I took the car for an alignment check today and they've adjusted some of the settings, particularly the toe values at the rear. The before and after summary from the Hunter machine is here - does that look about right? I ended up putting four new Michelin SP3s on as the other tyres were not only badly stepped but they were not extra-load versions and appeared to be Mercedes-only spec (is that what MO means on the tyre wall?).