I had a small curb incident back when we got that week long snow shutdown here in Atlanta (of course work expects me to be there, and being the only one with a rear-drive sports car, I was somehow the only one there besides the GM.. then he told me to go home anyways). I got an alignment soon after from Infiniti of Charlotte when I was on a trip to one of our sister plants. Everything seemed straight and true after that, but within 2 months, my steering was off center again, AND with a pulling to one side. As soon as I noticed it, I checked my front tires (which were down below about 25% tread) and found the inside shoulders showing some odd wear. They never showed uneven wear before the alignment. I had new rears put on shortly before the steering started to pull (they were toast), and since I knew I would need new fronts soon anyways, I've left my alignment alone for now.

When I get new fronts, I'm going to get another alignment, possibly from somewhere with a long warranty, and definitely somewhere local this time, so I can at least go back and complain if something seems not right.

I'm debating asking for specific specs, not just having it done within OEM specs. I would expect a zero degree toe to help wear, but I would also expect the OEM specs of negative toe to show wear on the outside shoulder, not the inside. Any thoughts? Any recommendations on alignment specs?

 

I actually started getting inner wear too. After asking riverside Infiniti (pretty known throughout the forum) they suggested an alignment. Sure enough after the 100 I spent, a week later it just got worse. I know it might be from my previous condition but why would they suggest an alignment if its not going to help? I'm gonna end up getting new tires and am scared it'll keep wearing down. Tell me how your thing goes.

If it's not alignment then what else could be the problem?

 

That's pretty tough, but there is more that comes into tire wear than just alignment.

If your tire pressure is a little on the high side, even the smallest amount of camber or toe is going to drastically increase tire wear.

Get it aligned to factory specs and tell them to 0 the toe. Then make sure all tires are at exactly 32 psi.

IIRC OEM camber setting is about -0.6 in the rear and -0.3 in the front.

 

Good insight and advice there.. I recently found all my tires were several pounds low. I normally would have expected slightly accelerated wear on my outside shoulders.. my previous cars were all FWD, and the heavy under-steer always chews the OS shoulders.

It didn't even dawn on me that the weird inside wear might have been from low pressures for maybe 1000+ miles.. Duh. And I did expect that the camber on our cars could lead to some extra wear inside, but it just seemed more than I would have expected.

What do you think, Joseph? How religious are you about checking your tire pressure? (The tires on my G seem to be horrible at holding in the air, compared to my SE-R
s 17" rims..)

 

My tire pressure is regularly checked by the dealership themselves (Riverside) every 3500 miles because I still get my oil change done there. And they've suggested my compression rod bushings be changed because they are cracked. But that was never mentioned of again, and it's been probably 5 oil changes since that suggestion. Wouldn't they remind you if it's a problem?

I've asked the service guy there and they said that it wouldn't be a fault for inside tire wear though. An alignment would fix the problem. But it's just gotten worse.

Anyways, I plan on getting my front brakes replaced there, and maybe I'll ask them why they even pointed out I get an alignment when I had to replace the front tires just soon thereafter.

I hope everything's going well for you.

And just another thing..
If I tell them to zero the toe and match the IIRC OEM camber settings -0.6 in the rear and -0.3 in the front, will they just go, "OK we will do that for you"?

Thanks for the responses

 

I have the same problem with my coupe. The guy at international tires said u are going to have to keep getting them aligned/they can't align properly because of the axle or some bs like that. So the inner part of the tire get roasted everytime and i dont feel like spending money left and right. I have daytona performance tires on it btw. Just redid the breaks so idk what to do either