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Terrible inside-of-tire wear on fronts..

Big Jim said:
The machine doesn't provide caster readings unless you do a caster sweep.

Some alignment operators (I can't call them technicians or mechanics) don't know how to read camber or caster and don't know how to adjust them even if they are adjustable. Worst of all, many don't know how to recognize caster or camber that is out of spec even if the machine displays the out of spec in red. Even worse, many don't care, after all, it isn't their car.
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I guess the places I've been have always done the sweep while checking everything else. But I've heard enough stories of people getting the car back untouched even though it was up the ramps and on the machine while they were getting a coffee and reading a magazine. Its probably the same kinda place where they loctite or permatex the oil drain plug back in because the threads were damaged when they pulled it.
 
and that is why i take my car to the career center (went there during high school) and either do the alignments myself or instruct the students how to do it. not only does it get done right, but the students learn something in the process.
 
I had an issue with inner tire wear as well a few years ago. I had a few alignments and it didn't seem to be fixing the issue. The printouts didn't show any major issues. One of the rear wheels had camber out of spec slightly but the rest of the car was in spec (camber, toe, caster) However, I was running a camber kit and I believe under load the suspension geometry was changing and burning up the tires. Those camber kits are POS so I ditched them and installed new lower control arms in the front and the issue went away. The camber kit was the main cause in my case
 
well i got it aligned. they said the toe was way out and we're hoping that was the main cause of the poor wear.
from what he said there is no way to adjust my camber without a kit

i'll just have to keep a close eye on the wear in the near future.

would anyone recommend the bat camber kit?
 
Did you get the camber readings?

I kept hearing on my car that it was because the toe was off but the problem wasn't solved until I installed the camber kits and reduced the negative camber. And I bought my car new.
 
thats the thing i didnt realize until i got home that i should have gotten the printout... he said one was within acceptable range for camber, and the other side was on the very edge of acceptable.

the winter tires go on soon... i'll be keeping a tight eye on those and probably end up picking up the bat camber kit if i notice any extra wear :cry:
 
Big Jim said:
I kept hearing on my car that it was because the toe was off but the problem wasn't solved until I installed the camber kits and reduced the negative camber. And I bought my car new.
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That must have been awful lot of negative camber. Like suspension failure type negative camber past -2 degrees.
 
Big Jim said:
No it wasn't. It was on the high side of spec. I now have it near zero.
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Then I dont think it was the camber actually doing it unless the car gained negative camber when it was on the ground. I ran my Mazdas at -2 degrees which was technically out of spec and never encountered the treaded inner edge wear people worry about.
 
Until I installed the camber kits no matter how carefully I watched the toe I had the same unusual inside edge tire wear problem. With the negative camber reduced to something more optimum for tire wear, the problem went away.

I'm not sure that you can truly compare what works and doesn't work on another car. I know that the overall principles are the same, but there can be variables that are not normally measured outside of a lab. How the angles change under corner loading and exactly how much they change on turns for example.

This I know. When I was able to set for what I knew to be optimal, the problem went away. When it was set for "It is within specs and should be fine" I had a problem.

This seems to be a common Contique problem. Others may have different results.
 
The wife's contour is having the same problem with the inside tire wear. The alignment that was done back in April (after some suspension work) shows the car in the following condition.

LF
camber= -.9*
caster= 2.4*
toe= -.09*

RF
camber= -1*
caster= 2.8*
toe= -.1*

It looks like the camber is the problem, when compared to the readings on page 2. My question is, "Should I just replace the springs? or get the camber kit? or both?" What has been working the best for everyone. Car has about 116K on the ODO. All suspension parts are tight.
 
With those reading you should not be having inside edge tire wear.

But you are, and the only way you will reduce it will be from reducing the negative camber. You will need camber kits to do it. If you replace the springs with lowering springs, you will make the problem worse as lowering the car with lowering springs drives the camber further negative.

You want to set the camber evenly from side to side and you will want it to be between 0 and -.5 for optimal tire wear.
 
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