Odd wear on inside front drivers side tire

[tennesseeguy]

I have a 98 Mercury Sable and it has right around 155k miles on it. It runs good, I treat it well and in overall decent shape (except for some slight cancer around the wheel wells.

Anyways, I noticed a noise when I was turning slightly to the right when I was traveling faster than 35 mph.

I took it to a friend who knew a lot about wheel bearings and he test drove it and found nothing wrong with it.

I did however noticed a bad wear on the inside of my front drivers side tire that was not normal.

I then took it to a local wheel alignment shop and he brought it up and took it down within 3 minutes and said nothings wrong (thankfully he didn't charge me).

I then decided to get new tires. I went to a local shop and bought two new front tires. I mentioned to the mechanic before handing him my keys, "Check to see if there is anything rubbing against the tire when you have it on the lift". Obviously he didn't remember, but wrote down on the sheet that there was excessive wear on my inside tire and I should get an alignment (grrr....).

Anyways, after getting the new tires, the humming / noise was still coming from the drivers front end. I finally jacked up the car and did a full investigation. I noticed that one of the wheel wells screws was gone and the tire was just barely rubbing on the wheel well when driving down the road. The clamp / screw is gone and I can't really see where it went. As of now, I drilled a hole in the wheel well and zip tied it (looks really hillbilly when you open the hood).

If anyone has had this problem, please let me know. I want to know the best way to go about fixing this by myself. Thanks.

[RedNeckerson]

Umm, sounds to me like you fixed it yourself.
I mean, if the noise and rubbing is gone, what's to fix? Nobody has ever actually walked up to me and asked me to 'pop the hood' on my 01 Sable. Ever. I'm being a bit sarcastic, yes, but really, you have a lot of miles on yours already, so what's to worry about? You probably hit a bump or something and one of the plastic screws stripped. Hell, zip ties probably hold half of the space shuttle together. If you use the right color and trim the ends, they'll hold better than the original screws and no one will notice. They certainly won't care. Sounds like you got a cheap solution. That said, however, you probably SHOULD get an alignment done to make sure that's what it really is. You might have one tire slightly toed/cambered/whatever it is, and wearing one tire on the inside. Since you did just put new shoes on it...

[tennesseeguy]

Yeah, I know I already fixed the problem. I already took it to an alignment shop, they said it was fine. I was just inquiring if anyone else had the same problem and wanted to know how they fixed it.

[Tony Silva]

Hey...RedNeckerson....pop the hood on that 01 Sable...I gotta know if you have the 3.0 or the MIGHTY 3.8!!!!!!!!!

@tenesseeguy Oh!...and Hillbilly aint that bad.

[tennesseeguy]

I should have just stated the problem in this thread about the "hanging wheel well" and how to fix it. Now, I'm getting bombarded. I grew up in Michigan, not in Tennessee. I just moved down here for work.

[Tony Silva]

I wasn't bombarding...I just thought it was funny when you said "It looks kinda HillBilly"...cuz we got hillbillys out here in California too...and really...I've never asked anyone to pop the hood on thier sable...till now. now THATS HillBilly.
: D