I just chewed through my front tires after purchasing a used is350 fsport RWD 2 months ago. The tires looked great and had 5mm of tread when i got them but now after 3k miles the inside shoulder is dead. It was likely out of alignment BUT in the case of due diligence is there a better alignment then factory? This is the case with various other makes so i wanted to make sure to ask before i brought it in. The worst case scenario is being told that it is currently in alignment and will eat through the shoulder again.

 

the manufacturer will have specs published out to the shops for reference on their computers.. but I tend to tell them what I want the specs set to for best results. The main number to be concerned with is TOE if you are getting bad tire wear. Toe should be 0 front and rear. You should have some negative camber front and rear if possible and match the number side to side. Sorry I do not know if the rear camber is adjustable on these cars, hopefully someone else can chime in on that.

 

the main reason i ask is that for the first time in my life i dont have any extra cars so my options are bring it to the dealer and get a local or bring it to a local shop and wait.

Obviously a dealer is not going to want to deviate from the OEM specs so I wanted to gauge what my options are.

Also, my dealer currently has an $89 alignment special and my VERY trusted local shop is $135 AND id have to wait.

 

Sounds like your toe is off (which is factory adjustable). Camber is not. My alignment guy has this machine that has all the factory specs. I don't see how an alignment can be much better if it is set to, or as close to, 0 on the specs.

 

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Thanks, good to know - was not aware you could only adjust toe on these cars, thanks for the clarification. Alignments should be very straight forward then, go in and ask them to 0 out the toe.

 

my only fear is that from poking around here that the factory alignment would be a fail at 0, would the dealer be willing to sidestep this like an independent shop would?

 

Here is some good info on alignment specs and what they mean, why to choose certain settings, etc: http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tirete...e.jsp?techid=4

 

I know a bit about alignments from my jeep days (oem says toe out, but the rest of the jeep world run 1/8" toe in) and i have a race kart (track work and street are WAY different beasts) but i think its a good resource for anyone else stumbling into this thread later. Thanks for the addition.

 

Cool sounds good. I know more about alignment specs on AWD cars, Im still new to the lexus world, and appreciate the new knowledge here from everyone. I figured that, as you said, if someone was looking in here for more info on alignments that link might help.

Let me know what you end up going with and if you notice any improvement with the way the car drives!

 

I will likely ask for somewhere between 0 and the lowest acceptable range of toe in. I am going with the Conti DW for tires and with a softer sidewall i would love the little extra help on initial turn it while also trying to save the tires as much as possible.