Hello people,

I had Eibach springs and Bilstein shocks for about 3 years. My first set of tire was not very badly worn and I replaced with the second set of tires after 20K or so. My second set is about 10K miles now, and they are badly worn on the front inner. I had alignment done when the second sets were install last year, and again last week. Both time they are barely in spec. Front cambers are -0.8 on both side.

My question is, do I have to live with this problem, since no camber kit is available? That is really such, because it costs about $300 each tire installed (I have 18" wheel). Does Japan has camber kit? Can Steve get them?

Who has the same problem as I?

 

Unfortunately there is no camber kit. Most people who lower there car are in the same boat as yourself.

 

You need more "toe in" on your next alignment

 

You got that dead on LEXSOOS.




The toe needs to be adjusted to compensate for that inner wear.

So you told us what your camber is set at, what's the toe?

The other thing is your car is lowered. Factory spec is NOT ideal when you have mods.

You need a shop that specializes in aligning modified vehicles, especially lowered ones with non-stock tire sizes or wheel offsets.

I have -1.8 camber, which is Waaaay more than -0.8 and I have even tire wear. This is because the shop I use specializes in alignment of modded cars, race cars, etc. This shop NEVER aligns to OEM spec on a modified suspension car.

Our cars cannot meet the OEM camber spec when lowered, so the toe must be adjusted to compensate.

 

[QUOTE=RMMGS4] This is because the shop I use specializes in alignment of modded cars, race cars, etc. This shop NEVER aligns to OEM spec on a modified suspension car.[QUOTE]

For us cali folk, what is the shop you use? I am planning on lowering my car, or at least want to but get grief from those shops who do suspension for a living.

 

Custom Alignment
Mountain View, CA (NorCal)

They are top-notched! I had them aligned my car after I lowered on Eibachs

Visit the Norcal Region Section.. and run a search on Custom Alignment.... you will find many replies and praises about them.

 

So how much is your car lowered? I have a totally stock setup and one of my rears looks the same as yours?

 

What is the name and location of this shop?

 

Here is the whole result

The rear wear looks ok, so I won't list the result.

RMM, what "toe in" should I tell the alignment guy to set it at? I am going to have the front tires replace tomorrow.

Mole, I have normal rear gap about 2" or so on the rear. Typical for this type of springs+shocks setup. It sounds like you need an alignment for your rear, since most of us here don't have tire wearing problem in the rear. Just the front.

I am going to find a specialize alignment shop next week. Anyone in MD knows such a place?

What I don't believe is that even in Japan, they don't make a camber kit for GS/Aristo. There are a lot more mod cars in Japan than here, and many of them slam their car too.

 

Well the answer is not that easy. I'm looking here at 3 different sheets performed on some lowered NorCal GS cars who had work done at our local Custom Alignment shop. In one of the cases, your 0.04 toe appears fine, however that's only one factor. I see that the camber and castor readings are quite different than what your car has. None of the sheets have settings where the castor and camber are similar to yours. In the end, it's like comparing apples to oranges.

So just picking a toe value from one of these print outs, without regarding for the fact that the other readings are not the same is not exactly scientific.

That said I can give you a reference value, but theres's no way for me to tell you that it is right for your application.

That said,
one of my sheets shows the following:

Caster 8.0
Camber -1.2
Toe 0.0625

These readings are for either left or right side not the total.

So given 0.04 does not appear to work for your set up, I'd say you could only do better with 0.0625.

Everyone reading these specs, please note that these values do not gurarantee that they will work for your set up. You should not just get another cars readings and plug N play them on to your car.

Every car is different and what works for one car may not work for another. This is why I tell people that the shop we use locally here in NorCal "Tunes" the alignment settings, based on how low our car is, the tire /wheel set up, the wear patterns of the tires plus several other parameters.

A TON of the NorCal members have been going to this shop for years will swear by this shop. They are not cheap at over double the standard rate, but with all the $$ we spend on our suspensions and at an average cost of $350 per tire, the last thing I would recommend is to economize on an alignment and tire balance job. The term "you get what you pay for" applies here.

Here's an old thread, many more discussions if you search the NorCal section: https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...stom+alignment

I don't hear any of the local members report problems with wear or vibration issues that many complain about on these forums. I'm sure our local shop has a lot to do with that.


As a reference to the shop we use, go to www.customalignment.com

Good luck finding a similarly skilled shop in your local area.

 

[QUOTE=mole][QUOTE=RMMGS4] This is because the shop I use specializes in alignment of modded cars, race cars, etc. This shop NEVER aligns to OEM spec on a modified suspension car.
westend alignment in gardena calif, right off the 91 freeway. one man operation and he only does alignment. his prices are very reasonable and takes his sweet time to setup your suspension.

sorry but i don't have his phone number and keep in mind that his appointment books is usually three weeks out, so prepare.

 

his name is darrin at west end and the number is 310 808 9233

 

to get you tires to last longer.. you could also get the tires remounted on the opposite side so outer (newer part of tire) tires is not the inner tire. but you will need to keep a eye on the tire condition so you can do it before it ends up like the picture posted above

and i had a question that is related.. i think!

just wondering. my car is slammed pretty low. (rear is tucked on 19's) i got a alignment and mentioned about adding some toe for better tire wear. but was told, the tires will wear faster because the tires will be fighting (toe in / \ ) each other. but the benefit is having the wear move closer to the center of the tire. ture? or not? will my question is pretty much.. will tires wear out faster?? (i think this is still on topic)

 

A very interesting point. Also, would the "fighting" toe-in will wear out the joint parts (upper, lower, toe arm, etc.) more also?

 

Guys I am not the expert, I can only tell you what the experts have told me. Over the past two years we have had mini meets where we attended 2 hour lectures held over at Custom Alignment.

There was a lot we learned and the bottom line is I can't get into all the details and explanation in just one paragraph.

So with that said, the toe I am suggesting is still within factory spec, it is not detrimental to any other suspension component.

As for tire wear, technically the toe adds some wear, but if you follow the recommendations you will not wear the inside like you are which could happen in say like 10K miles or less. Add the correct amount of toe and you will add say a total of 20k miles of life.

Wearing out the inside edge is not hard to accomplish with a poor alignment setting, but adding some toe, will now require the tire to wear across the whole tread, which takes A LOT longer to occur. Looking at the tread left on the rest of your tire, it looks like you might of gotten another 8 to 10k miles out of that tire.

If you didn't have the camber issue you could zero out the toe a bit more and maybe get a few k more miles out of the tire.

Note these values are just an example.

It's just a lesser of the evils.