My Various Coupe Newbie & Mod Questions - Please Help
#46
#48
Well, based on the previous posts this is probably going to make me unpopular but oh well.
My suggestion is to first find a GOOD shop to do your alignment. Camber will cause premature wear in your tires inside vs outside, but to have the wear THAT severe from side to another is a sign of your TOE being out of spec. Start with getting that corrected and then see what wear issues you have. You can ride on all sorts of stupid negative camber and not have PREMATURE wear on ONE SIDE only if your toe is good (both tires would be screwed at that point). That's an alignment problem that isn't related to camber alone.
Spend the money you'd put into a camber kit on a getting a decent alignment first. Eventually yes it's a good idea to get as close to factory spec as possible, and a camber kit may be needed down the road... BUT - the pictures you posted are evidence of not having gotten a decent alignment in the first place, so who knows how far out of spec your camber really is.
Also re-reading that the right side is more negative than the left, and the left tire is the one that's all ate up... Go get a decent alignment before you sink money into parts. If you want more help after that post up the alignment results.
My suggestion is to first find a GOOD shop to do your alignment. Camber will cause premature wear in your tires inside vs outside, but to have the wear THAT severe from side to another is a sign of your TOE being out of spec. Start with getting that corrected and then see what wear issues you have. You can ride on all sorts of stupid negative camber and not have PREMATURE wear on ONE SIDE only if your toe is good (both tires would be screwed at that point). That's an alignment problem that isn't related to camber alone.
Spend the money you'd put into a camber kit on a getting a decent alignment first. Eventually yes it's a good idea to get as close to factory spec as possible, and a camber kit may be needed down the road... BUT - the pictures you posted are evidence of not having gotten a decent alignment in the first place, so who knows how far out of spec your camber really is.
Also re-reading that the right side is more negative than the left, and the left tire is the one that's all ate up... Go get a decent alignment before you sink money into parts. If you want more help after that post up the alignment results.
#49
Also after you get an alignment, have the front tires flipped so the worn inners are now on the outside. Drive them for a couple weeks or a month and verify that your problem is either fixed, or then look at what parts you need to buy to solve it, before you buy new tires (which you will need to do here pretty quickly).
#50
#51
i agree with Leksikon and Xet that its all toe if you're constantly pulling to the right......if your toe is close to zero, your negative camber can be anything......like the other guys said, a good alignment shop can get your toe to zero.
for awhile, i ran at -2.5 to -3 camber, and my toe was at zero, so the car drove fine.....of course there was camber, but on both sides and not just one side, and the car drove straight.
right now, i'm running -1.5 degree camber on all four wheels on my G35 coupe (i'm lowered by about an inch on coilovers)......i didn't install a front camber kit but installed a SPC rear camber kit......the kit came with a camber arm on each side, and an elongated toe bolt for each side......these two items can bring your camber back to -1.5 degrees (or in that range) if everything is done right........hope this helps.....best of luck!
for awhile, i ran at -2.5 to -3 camber, and my toe was at zero, so the car drove fine.....of course there was camber, but on both sides and not just one side, and the car drove straight.
right now, i'm running -1.5 degree camber on all four wheels on my G35 coupe (i'm lowered by about an inch on coilovers)......i didn't install a front camber kit but installed a SPC rear camber kit......the kit came with a camber arm on each side, and an elongated toe bolt for each side......these two items can bring your camber back to -1.5 degrees (or in that range) if everything is done right........hope this helps.....best of luck!
#53
For the fronts being lowered on s techs you DON'T need any additional parts. Factory toe is enough to get the alignment into spec without premature wear like that. And it doesn't matter how much camber you have, the toe adjustment on the front is near endless for pretty much everyone (I was running -6 camber in the front and still had my toe in spec).
Have your bushings checked. If you're bushings are worn out, your alignment will constantly be thrown out of spec. If any of them are bad, replace, then get an alignment.
Have your bushings checked. If you're bushings are worn out, your alignment will constantly be thrown out of spec. If any of them are bad, replace, then get an alignment.
#54
#55
#56
Just scheduled an appointment with my buddy who works at an honda dealer.they got top notch equipment there and he know what hes doing kinda pricey but its better than having this ugly tire wear. im getting 2 new front tires and an alignment and im going to see how it goes from there.thanks guys! Ill have him check the bushings
#58
Just scheduled an appointment with my buddy who works at an honda dealer.they got top notch equipment there and he know what hes doing kinda pricey but its better than having this ugly tire wear. im getting 2 new front tires and an alignment and im going to see how it goes from there.thanks guys! Ill have him check the bushings
#59
Just to be safe man, don't put the new tires on just yet. Get whatever wheel shop you were going to use to flip your front tires (so the worn inner edge is now on the outside of the wheel). That'll give you basically new tread on the contact patch and let you kill the old tires if there is anything else going wrong. Drive them for a couple weeks or a month and make sure there's no more unusual tire wear before you go ahead and mount the new tires. I say this because if there is a bushing or some other problem contributing to your tire wear you'll just end up buying a 3rd set of fronts before you figure out what the problem is. It shouldn't cost you more than $40 to have the fronts flipped. After a month if everything's cool you should be fine to install the new tires. If something's still screwed up then at least you didn't burn another set of tires for no good reason.
#60
Ok, I think I understand what you're saying. Unfortunately I also think you're a little wrong.
First, changing tires doesn't require a new alignment. In some cases if you went with insanely different tire sizes, it might be needed, but even then that's a stretch. The alignment is done for your suspension, tire problems are a result of the suspension only, not the other way around. So if you do an alignment and it's good, you can switch tires and wheels every day for the rest of your life and if you don't touch the suspension, they'll all wear the same.
Next, the car pulling to one side isn't uncommon, my car is actually doing that slightly now that I've had it aligned (and looking at the sheet, everything is actually in spec). Most new cars tend to pull right as a safety mechanism. Road crowns exaggerate that effect slightly. You can have all sorts of ****ed up alignment specs and have your car not pull to one side. I can show you my old tires if you like, they all looked like your front with the belts showing because my toe was way out of spec (as I knew it would be). But the car didn't pull to either side, ever. Still ate threw tires like a fat kid in a candy store.
Last, an alignment is much cheaper than a new set of tires. If you do it right the first time you'll be able to keep tires on the car for more than 4 months at a time. Like I said above, you may not feel a problem that will eat your tires. That's why I recommended reusing the old ones for a bit to find out if you've fixed it before you destroy some brand new rubber.
Feel free to blow any or all of this off, just trying to help man. I've destroyed more tires than I should have because I was never aligned. In my case it was because I kept changing components, ride height, etc. and I knew it was going to happen and didn't care. If you want your **** to work right, it's easy.
First, changing tires doesn't require a new alignment. In some cases if you went with insanely different tire sizes, it might be needed, but even then that's a stretch. The alignment is done for your suspension, tire problems are a result of the suspension only, not the other way around. So if you do an alignment and it's good, you can switch tires and wheels every day for the rest of your life and if you don't touch the suspension, they'll all wear the same.
Next, the car pulling to one side isn't uncommon, my car is actually doing that slightly now that I've had it aligned (and looking at the sheet, everything is actually in spec). Most new cars tend to pull right as a safety mechanism. Road crowns exaggerate that effect slightly. You can have all sorts of ****ed up alignment specs and have your car not pull to one side. I can show you my old tires if you like, they all looked like your front with the belts showing because my toe was way out of spec (as I knew it would be). But the car didn't pull to either side, ever. Still ate threw tires like a fat kid in a candy store.
Last, an alignment is much cheaper than a new set of tires. If you do it right the first time you'll be able to keep tires on the car for more than 4 months at a time. Like I said above, you may not feel a problem that will eat your tires. That's why I recommended reusing the old ones for a bit to find out if you've fixed it before you destroy some brand new rubber.
Feel free to blow any or all of this off, just trying to help man. I've destroyed more tires than I should have because I was never aligned. In my case it was because I kept changing components, ride height, etc. and I knew it was going to happen and didn't care. If you want your **** to work right, it's easy.