Quick question guys and im sorry if its been answered. Im slammed on tein flex (i like bein slammed I got rear cambers n toe bolts but now im looking for better handling.. Handling is pretty good but im always lookin for better.. So should I go with strut bars and then sway bars? How much of a difference would this make on my car handling wise? Will it be noticable? Thanks in advance!

 

sway bars, then end links, then strut tower bars, then chassis braces

 

I don't consider myself a suspension guru, I just try to distribute the knowledge I've accumulated over all these years (I've been wrenching since before I was old enough to have a license)

Now, some of the people I've learned from can be considered the best at what they do by many in the industry, but most are just your average tuners, mechanics, or enthusiasts like you and I. The difference is, since I had all these sources, I can figure out who's full of sh*t and who isn't... not to mention that I actually learned a majority of this stuff in a classroom, not from reading magazines and going to car meets (and I'm sure I'm not the only one on here).

I just have a dislike for people distributing bs info they got from someone trying to make a dollar told them, so I post myself when I have a minute or so. I work in marketing, so I guess you can call it redemption for me...

 

Hey Dofu, jus outta curiousity which one is u in ur avatar? im guessing the guy on the right with the black hat. lol
ok quick question.. I recently got some new wheels n somewhat used tires except for 1 rear which was pretty new. my alignment was off for maybe like 500 miles before i got it corrected. im slammed on tein flex and my tires are slicks now. One rear tire i knew was about to go out but the other one was almost new and its balding as well. already bald on the inside tire.. now my last align i had toe at .11 and camber at -3. My toe is positive but supposedly in the good area. Should i get the toe closer to .03 or sumthin? I only put like 2k miles maybe lil more on these wheels.. didnt think it would bald so fast. im runnin 225-35-20 front n 255-35-20 rear. stretch tires.. fronts was given to me in decent shape n they're holding up better than the rears. any help?

 

No, I'm the tall one.

First off, although I'm not 100% by the books about most things, I might be a bit **** about this one thing - I like my tires to match left and right... if I get a new tire for the front left, I must have a new tire for the front right too. If I have awd, I replace all four at the same time.
If you must go by the books here, you want the new tires on the rears. When the roads are wet, with more traction up front, the rears will want to kick out more when you go into a turn at a good speed. Now if the fronts are worn while the rears have full treads, when you go into a turn in the wet, the rear wheels will stay behind you, making the car more stable through turns. So that means if you have staggered wheels or tires, then you'd want to replace all four when you replace the fronts.

Second, I'm not a fan of stretched tires. They're unsafe to begin with, and they're as useless for performance as having a 3" midpipe when the rest of the exhaust has 2.5" piping. Looks is one thing which seems to be your case with the 20s, but otherwise, changing out the soft stock suspension bushings would do the job better as long as you have low profile tires. Now if you already have the full suspension, chassis, and bushings done and you still want more response, then I can't argue.

What kind of tires? Got pics and alignment specs for front and rear? It could be the tires themselves, the stretch, toe, camber or a combination of everything for all I know. But I don't like stretched tires and have never run stretched tires on any of my cars, so I wouldn't truly know how that affects tire wear, if at all... Camber isn't bad until you have way too much, so I'm guessing that since your tires are stretched, add the camber, and you're driving on a part of the tire that wasn't really made to be constantly driven on with less tread to begin with.

The alignment shops I go to have my car on record along with the specific alignment specs I want, so I really don't even think about it anymore. I go in for an alignment and they already know how much toe and camber I want for each wheel. But to figure that out, I would suggest talking to the alignment tech so he knows what your issues with tire wear is, get his perspective on things and working it out from there through trial and error. If they just can't adapt to the fact your car is dropped or if they can't fix your tire wear issues, then it's time to find a new alignment shop.

IMO, it's very important to talk to the techs as they're working on your car, or maybe before so they know what you want out of the alignment (specific tire wear, better handling, better response, etc...). Mechanics are usually car enthusiasts themselves so they most likely wouldn't mind giving you their perspective on things (why else would they want to work on cars all day?). Don't ask the guy at the front desk if you can go talk to them... just tell them you want to watch them work on your car, go stand outside the garage near your car and talk to the guy working on your car. Hell, I've helped techs work on my car and showed some of them easier ways to do things before... and they seem more than happy to work on my car again because of that. But most of the time, just talking to the mechanic or tech seems to get the same results as long as they know that you know what you are doing to the car. Some shops even let me use their lift and tools at times!

I have a good amount of positive rear toe btw... the toe will change with load, so I think somewhere around .3 degrees. But my drop is pretty raked so my alignment is a bit different than what most people are looking for.

 

great info about changing the tires and the different ways it will affect you in inclement weather situations!

 

yea what creative said. thanks dofu an what u mean by da tall one both of u look da same size lol.
Well my camber is at -3 n toe at .11. Gonna try to get it to .03. Im running Falken FK452 255 35 20 stretched on rears. Gonna re-align n see how the tires wear this time. Changing both. Again im slammed on tein flex with rear camber kit. What else can I do to improve tire life (beside goin wit wider tires). Seems to be only the rears that wear real fast. Im getting a nrg strut bar. Thinkin of sway bars but idk if it'll make a difference. Car has 26k miles so shocks should still be good. Thanks Dofu I appreciated ur response.

 

Since tires make up 90% of handling and the purpose of suspension is to hold the body up and the tires perpendicular to the road as much as possible in turning, I always wonder why people spend so much on modifying suspension and then skimp on fast wearing tires.

Much easier to buy a 10% improvement in handling with tires than a 1% improvement in suspension redesign.

Check out tireracks comparisons of suspension mods: springs, shocks, sway bars where they fight for a 1% improvement vs the 5% variation with tires.

Of course once you have purchased the most expensive highest quality tires and still want more...............weight reduction : car and driver accomplishes more.

 

are falken fk452s cheap?

 

Yes they are, but they're actually really great tires for the first month or so. Just don't expect them to last too long.

 

whoa... didn't know that.. so what would be a good quality tire thatll last for a good time wit my current set-up?

 

Actually tread life is pretty good, just that performance diminishes by about half the tread life, or maybe less.

Personally, I prefer Bridgestones or Dunlops because they offer great traction with decent tread wear and they're fairly quiet at decent prices. But there are other good tires out there, just look for the threads as it's been discussed a lot. I like Yokohama/Advans too, but they're a bit too pricey for me.

If you want a cheap dry season tire, I would suggest Dunlop DZ101s. Not the greatest, but they are fun to drive on. I've heard some great things about the Dunlop Direzza Z1s too.

 

ok gonna look for a good performance tire wit good tread life for a stretched set-up