strange tire wear, no allignment problem
 

Over the last year I have had some sawtooth wear on the outside of both front tires. If you rub your hand over the top towards the rear, your hand catches on the "raised" corners (on every tread), then rubbing forward the hand goes over the bumps but doesn't catch. The alignment has been checked 3 times, the front bearings have been checked, the steering has been looked at at least a little. I put tires on 3500 miles ago and the wear is already apparent. One thing that was pointed out to me was that the front flex joint was aufully loose, and the brake rotors all needed replacing (which I confirmed, new ones on the way). It does sem like the steering is not as confident on the highway but I can't tell if that is more of a wind thing lately or what.

Any thoughts on this tire wear? Oh yea, this is a '92 190 2.3 I have 175000 miles on it.

Bad shock absorbers will cause a "scalloped" wear pattern on the tires, but the wear is usually not limited to the egde of the tire. Worn ball joints can cause dynamic changes in the alignment, which could contribute to edge wear, as could excessive toe-in.