tire wear advice? [lengthy post]

[changaroo]

okk IA'ers, i need some help

i recently replaced my old toyo proxes fz4's with kumho asx's on my civic. im currently dropped on tein stechs which give about a 1.9in drop in the front and a 1.7in drop in the rear. nothing too agressive.

after researching on Honda-Tech, i was told that camber isnt as big as a tire killer as toe. so when i did the suspension on my car, i shimmed the rear upper control arms with the usual washers to correct some of that negative camber.

when i take my car to the alignment shop, i always tell them to zero out the toe, but it seems like there is always some toe in as it is never completely at zero. (i currently dont have the alignment spec sheet on me, but i will post it if you guys would like to take a look at it)

anyways, i snapped a few pictures of the tires on my car, one was before, and one is the fresh tire i have on that have about 100 miles on them.

lol excuse these pics, they were from my phone :P


this was my front left tire, as far as i know, camber wear should wear out "smoothly" leaving more tread on the outside, while gradually decreasing tread on the inside.
if you look at the picture, in the red box, there is wear present, but then at the same time, theres a weird ass dip from the regular wear.

what is causing this?


here is a picture of my passenger rear tire. this is the new tire that i just put in. i am aware because of my camber, contact patch should be on the insides vs across the whole tire.
if i have my toe zero'ed, i should be ok right? since toe wear eats tires faster than camber wear?

if i can recall correctly, i have about 1.5* of camber at most, but they are mostly around 1.1* which is nothing. ive seen cars on HT with 3* of camber and they claim that they have no uneven tire wear as they have their toe zeroed out.

soo... since i spent an arm and leg on new tires, what can i do to prevent similar wear? the day i got the tires put on, i took it to firestone to get it aligned immediately.

thanks for any help

eric

-edit- i should also mention, after every single alignment, my car always pulls ever so slightly to the right. im starting to think my car was in an accident on the passenger front before i bought it... what could be bent? tie rods maybe?

[Maniaç]

Have you checked your control arm?

[changaroo]

my passenger front control arm? i dont remember seeing anything weird when i did the suspension install, but then again that was 1-2 years ago.

i think i should find a shop with a lift or someone that has one so i can actually go under the car and check :/

[KPowerEP3]

that almost looks like bad rubbing wear. Are your tires hitting the inner lips on your fender? I know it's not a really dramatic drop, but 2" really is quite a bit, especially if you're using a higher sidewall tire.

[changaroo]

i had some rubbing issues when i first lowered the car, but i rolled the fenders and now its been ok. and if it was the fender wearing it out, it would be on the other side of the tire right? im getting wear on the side away from the fender.

im running a 45 series tire which maintains the same aspect ratio as the factory tire i believe. im not 100% sure, but it cant be that far off.

[KPowerEP3]

i had some rubbing issues when i first lowered the car, but i rolled the fenders and now its been ok. and if it was the fender wearing it out, it would be on the other side of the tire right? im getting wear on the side away from the fender.

im running a 45 series tire which maintains the same aspect ratio as the factory tire i believe. im not 100% sure, but it cant be that far off.

Oh okay, yeah, I was thinking 'outside edge' as in outside of the car. Definitely have the suspension components checked like Alex said then.

[Maniaç]

(kpower) = ^ Thats true too, but when I had a bent conrtol arm, my tires were starting to look like yours. Not as extreme but close, id have it checked out. You do say that even after an alignment(sp) the car is still going to the right alittle right?

Same thing with me, went back and found out I had a bent control arm.

[changaroo]

is it ok if i drive about 500 miles on these tires as is, i dont have time to get it checked out that soon, but i still need the car on some occasion ugh, i just dont wanna wear them down like the toyos.

[dickdragon]

your tire wear can be caused by a lot of issues. possibly worn bushings/suspension parts, alignment being bad, or just pure neglect.

1) shake your front end (with your vehicle in the air or jacked up) to check for any loose balljoints or worn bushings. there would be some very minor play allowed. if it's too much play you may have to replace what's necessary & realign. also if this is the case you may want to address this to who ever aligned the car last, considering it was just done, because this should have been checked & corrected prior to having a proper alignment performed.

2) zero toe is not always a good term. what if your toe angle range is from -.10 to +.20? unless you were reffering to centering the toe angle. an alignment spec sheet will never be perfect because there are so many imperfections in this world.(ex: r/f tire has 9/32 & l/f tire has 8/32 of tread left, r/f tire has 32 psi & l/f tire has 30psi) if your within the range you should be safe in general. centering the angle range will give you a little more security.

3)neglecting maintenace on your vehicle can be done very easily. especially if you modify the vehicle (which i'm sure all of us did). once you modify your vehicle, you have to modify your maintenance. std tire rotation schedule is every 6k mi. to prevent premature tire wear. if you still follow the regular main. schedule & your car is modded, it's possible that you will suffer from premature tire wear. i rotate my tires every 3k mi. with my oil change to help me keep up with it. you could do as you see necessary.

[changaroo]

thanks for your input d.ickdragon, i will post the spec sheet here when i return to campus so you guys can take a further look at it.

as for point number 2, i just got all new tires, so i would like to correct this issue before it becomes a problem again. i currently have about 100 miles on the new tires, they seem alright, but i cant be completely sure. i will most likely put another 200-300 miles on the tires before i can get anything done because of my busy schedule

[ryanh300]

Believe me your camber wear isn't as bad as mine and i just recently got new tires too..insides were down to the metal threads. I also just put skunk 2 camber kit in the front and tried to put a skunk 2 camber kit on the back but the bolts are seized. The guys at Big 10 Tires were like "you can never get those lowered hondas camber/toe to be right. We have tried a hundred times but you guys lowered the car and now you cant use honda specs on the alignment machine anymore."

[Tracy]

Go to Gran Turismo East www.granturismoeast.com They will tell you what's wrong

[changaroo]

ryanh - how much were your camber kits? and do they help? im afraid that if i completely fix the camber i will get rubbing issues again.

tracy - id love to, but im afraid theyre gonna charge me an arm and a leg :S

[ryanh300]

ryanh - how much were your camber kits? and do they help? im afraid that if i completely fix the camber i will get rubbing issues again.

tracy - id love to, but im afraid theyre gonna charge me an arm and a leg :S

Skunk2 of of ebay for like 110 shipped so it wasn't too bad. And we have the same car and I have +11 offset and i don't have a problem with rubbing and my fenders are also rolled. So, I'd say go for a camber kit. I wish I could get my rear fixed...stupid bolts.

[changaroo]

heres the spec sheet car still pulls to the right slightly.