Another tire thread....

[EagleStroker]

I was doing some maintenance today and I noticed something that startled me. For my first tire rotation I had them done/balance checked which would have been around 8k miles ago. I never thought much about what the guy said to me, but he said for a lowered car they are wearing just fine. Now I know why he said that and I'm really upset because this could have been prevented. Just see the pictures, it was worse on the fronts so I put them on the back and added the back to the front.

I'm guessing this is a caster/camber issue but don't know much about suspension, what do I need besides a competent shop to correct this?

 

[Kaldar142]

What kind of alignment were you running? Tire pressures? Driving style?

 

[Haze28]

Did you get camber bolts when you lowered the car? They are cheap and an alignment shop can use them to adjust the camber to prevent this from happening.

 

[EagleStroker]

What kind of alignment were you running? Tire pressures? Driving style?

Excellent question on the first one, recommendation for the tires on the second and very aggressive to be completely honest

Did you get camber bolts when you lowered the car? They are cheap and an alignment shop can use them to adjust the camber to prevent this from happening.

I don't guess they did, I think I've got the strut "pop" anyways so I'm going to order a set of C/C plates.

 

[RedMosesSC]

Your tire looks like you are running a lot of negative camber but you say you dont have camber plates? that means you alignment is off or something is bent, Does your other front tire look the same? If every thing is ok, then you should to look into correcting your suspension geometry, Ball Joint, Tie rods (bump steer) and camber plates.

Lowered cars, especially those that have high degrees of negative camber tend to wear the inside of the front tires more but the rears should wear evenly since the axle is solid.

 

[EagleStroker]

No camber plates or bolts, I didn't drop the car. It has Eibach pro springs. It was even on both sides, the rears were worn because they were the fronts when I had the alignment checked.

 

[Kaldar142]

I think a good alignment is in order, If it's the insides that are worn you probably have too much camber upfront... The toe could be off too.

I 110% agree with Moses and try to correct the geometry

 

[TexasKyle]

When you lowered it, it changed the geometry of the suspension. I had the same issues. The camber plates/bolts will correct this. I ended up getting the adjustable upper strut mounts as well, but they are not necessary to correct the camber. Plates/bolts are the way to go.

 

[RedMosesSC]

Since your having issues with your strut mounts (Popping) you could look into the Steeda HD strut mounts, they have built in camber plates that give you 1 degree of negative camber, i am running these and they have been great so far. 1 Degree may not be enough if your a road racer but if you primarily drive on the street thatn 1 degree will still give you a nice bite on the cornering but wont shred your tires in 12k miles.

Steeda X5 ball joints will help reset the proper roll center height of your front suspension and the Bumpsteer kit (tie rods) will correct the vertical motion of you front wheel movement, you may not be getting the proper arc and this is also causing your tires to wear unvenenly.

What you want is to have the majority of the contact patch of your tires on the ground at all times, right now the inside of your tires are doing all the contact.

 

[EagleStroker]

Will the ball joints and tie rods add any noise to the car or just correct the issues? I wasn't looking to dump $600 into suspension but if it fixes the issue I won't blink at spending it. This is a daily driver for me, I love to hit corners and would like to get into autocross one day but I can't spend what it costs right now.

 

[RedMosesSC]

Unfortuantly most people dont have the funds to do ther suspension right, meaning, the entire suspension works together as a system, if you dont change the entire system as a whole, you make part of it better and disrupt the other parts, everything has to work in harmony. When you lowered your car 1.5" it threw everything else off.

Is spending $600 going to remedy your issue, probably , maybe not. We are not sure what other problems you are facing in your suspension. If its just geometry then these components will help fix that, if the problem is bigger, well, these components will still make things perform better. If you want your stangle to handle like its lowered and not just look like it was, you will need to get these parts at some point.

 

[Thinkkker]

I dont think that you will need to spend $600. I would guess you never rotated tires either?

Since I put shocks on the car *at aound 2500 miles* I have run at minimum 1.8 degrees of negative camber and I still have the factory tires *37000 miles now*.

Saying that I agree with all that this is a camber issue. My thoughts are to get some $20 camber bolts and do a alignment. If you are under 1 degree neg I do not think that you should be killing any tires like this. Take the time to rotate tires when you change your oil *given that you do it at 3k/5k and not some 15k *

Like what Red said, this may or may not get you where you need to be. I would start here though. This looks more like long drives on a highway rather than a bumpsteer issue.

Get your suspension aligned first *after the bolts*. Get it at a reputible shop that will do a "custom" aligntment and look over their shoulder to see what they are abe to get. Try to get between 0 and -.75 on the camber. Caster should be fine to just max. 0 toe *no more than a 1/8" out overall out, this will make the car darty and follow the road*. Then report back. If you can get in this range for a DD you should be good.

 

[EagleStroker]

They were rotated at 5k miles, that's when I went ahead and got the balance and alignment checked. I'm pretty anal about my maintenance so it's was pretty shocking to myself that I didn't catch this, lesson learned though. I don't think dropping $600 is necessary either, I've got a set of camber bolts and caster/camber plates on the way and I'll use what's necessary.

Thanks for the advice guys, ordering new tires on Monday! Now question on that, right now I'm running a 245/45/19, what's the biggest and widest I could get away with without the corners of the tires getting cut when cornering hard? I was thinking of just bumping to a 255/55/19, don't think it would even be noticeable.

 

[Thinkkker]

What size rim *i.e. width*?

I have had 295's on a stock 18, but wouldnt recommend this for the street.

 

[EagleStroker]

What size rim *i.e. width*?

I have had 295's on a stock 18, but wouldnt recommend this for the street.

My apologies I thought I put it, it's only a 19 X 8.5 and streetable is a must, 95% of my driving is on the street.

 

[Thinkkker]

275/45 maybe, but I think for street I would stick to the 255 *or 265 if you can find it*.

Oh, and look at this too.......
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/Sizes...h=false&fromCompare1=yes&partnum=445YR9K107XL

 

[EagleStroker]

Thanks I looked and Yokohoma doesn't make a 255 or 65 in a 45 series so I guess that makes the decision for me!