Hello,

I have about 7200 miles on my MY02 and my rear tires are worn. I had a rear tire off today to get a nail puncture fixed and the tire appears to be wearing more heavily on the outside. I plan to replace both rear tires shortly, but from what I understood with these cars, the tires wear more quickly on the inside. I had the car aligned last year and the front seems to be perfect, but I am now thinking the alignment in the rear might be way off. The car handles very well, but is very twitchy over bumps. It is also next to impossible to get the rear to kick out. I plan to have the alignment checked when I get the new rear tires put on, but any suggestions on what the problem might be would be very helpful. I have found most people doing alignments tend to take a "Well, it's close enough" approach, when it might not be close at all.

Thanks,

 

Outside wear suggests you do not have enough negative camber in the rear (the degree to which the top of the tire leans in). I've done a quick and dirty camber check by using a string with a weight on the end (I used a washer) and a ruler. Park the car on a level spot (use a level to verify) and hold the string such that the weight is touching or nearly touching the bottom edge of the rim and then measure how far the string is from the rim on the top.

Then you need to a little high school geometry. ArcSin(distance from string to top of rim/height of rim). Then convert that number from radians to degrees by multiplying it by 0.572958.

It's a crude but free method to estimate your camber.

 

I would run the least amount of toe in possible. This will increase the tread life of the tires and reduce the understeer. In other words the car will be more neutral handling. You will be able to get the back in to step out more easily. The car does look like it needs a little negative camber as well.
Nothing is going to last a long time on the rear but this should help.
If I can help with the tires let me know.

Jim 877-522-8473-364

 

Thanks for the help guys. I will definitely try to check my rear camber using the method suggested. From what I understand, the stock alignment specs call for more neg. camber in the rear than the front. I really don't put that many miles on the car, but when it comes time for replacement, I will give you a call Jim.

 

Jim,
I'm getting excess wear on the inside of my driver side REAR tire.
Curently I am at -1.5 Camber and +.26 degrees Toe.

What exact Toe and camber setting do you recommend for the rears for the increaed tread life and less understear you speak about in this thread?
__________________________________________________ __________

My FRONTS are wearing too much on the inside.
Currently I am at -.5 degree Camber and -.05 degree Toe.
What exact toe and camber do you recommend for the fronts for the best possible tread wear?

Thanks

 

Why not just use the oem #'s?

What are the OEM specs?!

 

Me, too. My fronts show wear on the inside. I have been assuming this is normal. Maybe it is not???

Does anyone have alignment numbers (I think this is what my car guy asked me for)???

<-------Has very little car knowledge (as if you couldn't tell)