Rear tire wear with current setup
 

Amin if I'm posting in the wrong section please move-thanks in advance!

So I installed my coils, spacers and rear camber kit at 7100mi and am just about to hit 12k when I noticed some inner rear tire wear. I know you have to pay to play but should the inner rears wear so much even with a rear camber kit? Is the rear SPC doing what it should? I didn't think it was that low...I can get a finger between the tire and fender. Is that considered too low? I'm just curious how much life everyone else is getting with a similar setup. Boy negative camber sucks! Any thoughts from you guys/gals? Thanks bunches!:hello:

I JUST saw this and I don't know if you mean Admin, or Amin, (I am Andrew Amin, LOL)


Drop wise, you're not too low. Is your current camber kit adjustable?

And is it possible that your first 5k miles did the majority of the wear?
I'm 100% stock suspension wise and at 13k miles I just noticed how bad the camber wear is, I have 3-4/32nds on the inside and 6-7/32nds on the outside.
AND I get my alignment done every 5k miles, AND I tell them to make it as straight as possible

When I got my alignment the guy told me that he squeezed as much out of the rear camber he could (so I assume my SPC rear camber kit is adjustable). And I guess I didnt take into consideration the first few thousand miles because I drove it like I stole and no VDC ALOT! So maybe that and the negative camber is about right with the wear. Just trying to gauge others wear...my slippery light on the dash flashes alot too;)

How are you wearing like that on stock suspension? Weird!

LMAO!!!

Well, I believe stock camber settings are at 1.5-2 degrees of camber, which is great if you track and such, but I'm still a student, and I DD the damn thing, lol

Had to replace my re50s on the rear from the stock set up within 18k miles.i wore thought the damn wear bars before I noticed! Switched to the re760 sport tires, still Protenzas but you get a little more out of them 360 tread wear vs 140 on the RE50A. I've slowed down a bit lately also..... Speeding tickets do that I guess. But it does seem that the stock camber is a tire eater especially with the softer composite RE50A.

You say you replaced your camber arms, but did you replace the toe bolts too?

I am running 305's with -1.2 camber and almost 0.00 toe (perfectly straight). My tires are wearing VERY evenly so far with 4000km's on them to date. I just had some wheel work done so I had them swap sides on the tires as well so they wear even more evenly in the future...

[QUOTE=wheee!;2073205]You say you replaced your camber arms, but did you replace the toe bolts too?

Good question...but yes I replaced the toe bolts too;)

yeah not only does the car come with alot of rear static camber from the factory, but also the rear suspension has alot of camber gain under compression. So daily driving with bumps, dips, etc. the Suspension and the wheel are articulating alot.

[QUOTE=ericzmyers;2073191]Had to replace my re50s on the rear from the stock set up within 18k miles.i wore thought the damn wear bars before I noticed! Switched to the re760 sport tires, still Protenzas but you get a little more out of them 360 tread wear vs 140 on the RE50A. I've slowed down a bit lately also..... Speeding tickets do that I guess. But it does seem that the stock camber is a tire eater especially with the softer composite RE50A.
I am definitely going to look into the re760's as replacements! I guess if I'm at 11.5k I'm doing pretty average.

Well, like others have mentioned, the stock sport tires are very soft and the stock camber is around - 1.7
The damage may have been done before the camber arms were installed or the car lowered. My stock rubber only lasted 17,000km's....

Thanks guys...guess I'm still within the range for such soft rubber.

true. I'm all stock, and i got less than 12k out of my factory rubber. (and I'm an old man with a light right foot!!)

I recently got megan racing springs (1.5 drop all around) + 18x10 18x12 enkei wheels...Im running hankook RS3's so I dont want to wear them wrong and I assume I need the camber bolt kit. I tried getting the alignment today took it to 3 shops everyone wanted to charge me like $160-$200 for the alignment. Firestone considered the Z an "exotic" and raised the prices, American tire depo said they cant even touch my camber setting since my car is lowered...this is just a pain in the A$$$.

I think im going to get the bolt kit, install it and just take it to a local recommended guy that will probably only charge me $100 for alignment.

You are getting robbed. An alignment with a camber and toe kit is super easy. $100 max. Just make sure your car can make it onto the ramp! I drove mine on myself.

I had Tein S and H&R 15mm installed on mine. They are pretty much within the specs for the given range for the Z. My shop, an independent dealer only charge $75 for the alignment.

New Coils? Compress during the first few thousand miles, causing a small camber change (not to bad) but also a small toe in change (this will cause quick tire wear) It happened to me with my HKS coilovers.

Get it checked. My tire shop rechecked mine for free after 3K, Goodyear tire store.

They charged me $100, I have camber, trail and toe @ the rear; camber fronts.

The techs love working on the Z, it's like a treat to them.

Pokey that is a good idea! I will take it back to my guy and have him recheck won't hurt. Thanks!

:icon18:

The shop owner told me to bring my Z back for free check on the alignment once the springs settle. Yup! All the works make sure they say hi and greet me. It's kind of cool getting all the attention and exceptional service!

To do an alignment right takes time usually over an hour on most machines if you are doing a full alignment even if the adjustments are easy as hell to reach and use. If you have a super badass machine (Reflector/zero runout) it might only take you slightly under an hour to do but also keep in mind that these machines cost upwards over $20,000+ and they don't pay for themselves.

Sure, you can get a $100 alignment at alot of places but your alignment is going to be garbage and your car will handle like garbage. Most techs at firestone/pepboys/tirediscounters know nothing about car setup. They pick your car from a list on the alignment machine and try to hit specs and usually do so without doing any of the work that needs to be done prior to even having an alignment done. (Ballast, Tire Pressure, Check balljoint/bushings/bearings/rack)

Also, your rear tire wear might not have anything to do with rear camber it could also be rear toe. Are you getting any chopping in the tires? If so your problem is certainly toe if not it could still be toe just to a lesser degree. There are plenty of people who run far to much rear toe-in and as a result the inside edge of the tires try to roll over as the left and right try to push the car in both directions at the same time. Anything over .30 total and your going to start noticing it with some negitive camber in the car.

My alignment for my G35S was $65 with Eibachs. I used the same shop for my Z and the price jumped to $165. I guess the Z was a bit more involved with the SPC rear kit. At any rate, I have always liked his work. Took him about 1.5hrs...

I agree with most of what you are saying, however, doing an alignment with the right tools and the right people is easy and quick. One of our members in the Zedmonton Lounge owns a tire shop with an alignment rack. We did about 5 cars in two hours with custom setups and alignment. No problem! Plus we all had adjustable suspension components which helped a lot!! All for the price of a few beers... lol

In all things Z, consumer beware. If you do not know first hand about the quality of service you may receive, ask many question, ask for references, so forth and so on. The price of service may or may not be indicative of the quality of workmanship. Also, all Z are not created equal and some need more TLC than others.

So one person by themselves checked tire pressure, then thoroughly checked all suspension bushing, balljoints and wheel bearings? Also looked at the condition of tie-rods and steering rack? Then properly ballast the cars to suit the drivers needs? A custom setup with coil overs/tie rod ends certainly adds more to the setup but clearly dont know how many of those cars might have coilovers but it can add significant time.

That being said I have my own alignment rack and machine for my shop. Certainly there are faster setups but I own what I do for accuracy without spending serious money on a reflector setup.

I am curious as to what type of alignment machine/rack was used for these alignments.

Vick -- go to Valley Suspension in Canoga Park. Shop's been around for a while and do good work.

hey z girl, post up your allignment specs. The mileage you are getting imho is WACK! From the sounds of it you have way TOO MUCH camber in the rear. Also you could be running too much camber/toe together. I got 22k out of my stock tires because they were feathered to all shyt. I installed a pair of upper control arms to make it adjustable and went with almost no toe. I have 21k on the re760's right now and so far so good. The rears are shot due to the fact that I do power through turns a lot. I need to back out of the throttle a little bit and actually know that it is only 3 corners on my daily drive that are killing me. So yeah post up some info on your allignment specs and maybe I can point you in a better direction for extended tire wear. good luck

it was indeed a reflector setup. And all the cars were spring drops, not coils so you are right, it was faster. The bushing were all visually inspected and all the tie rods/camber arms etc were checked, aligned and torqued. Here is the pic with me in the drivers seat for better balance as well... hope that satisfies the curiosity!

http://www.the370z.com/members/wheee...-alignment.jpg

http://www.the370z.com/members/wheee...47555-ramp.jpg

one of the others...

http://www.the370z.com/members/wheee...04-chinook.jpg

http://www.the370z.com/members/wheee...-sts-turbo.jpg


enough proof? oh! and the alignment sheet too..

http://www.the370z.com/members/wheee...7483-align.jpg

I'm taking mine into a recommended shop this Saturday...I decided to not run camber arms or bolt kit and just tell him to take as much camber out as possible.

What exactly should I tell them?? I don't mind camber since I plan on tacking and I canyon run often and performance wise a little camber is preferred.

Also, my stock advans wore like a MF! A little over 7k and my rears are almost all gone (wore perfectly evenly tho).

Say what? Alignments are trivial and take less than 30 minutes on the Z if you have any idea what you are doing.

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e3...1/6d610403.jpg

:icon18: is that the alignment you had to do after Steve trashed it?! :roflpuke2:

I definitely will! Thanks Roy'sz!