BigWhiteGTP

I was inflating my tires tonight when I noticed my front passenger (an only that tire) is going prematurely bald on the outer edge. What does that point to? Alignment? Camber, endlinks or something?

Thanks!

CaysE

Could be bad camber alignment, but could also be loose wheel bearings.

Angelis83LT

yea.. could be bad alignment of the front.. instead of the tires sitting flat the bottom is angled in more than the top.. causeing more wear on the edge..

kretos

worns front end suspension parts will do that, my idler arm was toast causing the right tire to be very bald on the outside

CrazyHawaiian

If you dont drive the car hard, then I would look into alignment or something with the suspension. But if you do drive the car hard it could be that you need a more agressive alignment. With the stock street friendly alignment I saw pre-mature wear on the outer edges after pushing the car hard at the track for a few hours once a month. And we only go in one direction, mostly left turns so it was the pass side tire that was worn. After a few months it was noticable. To really check it out you should dismount the wheel and feel it with your hand as you roll it. If its bubbled/uneven then its probably an alignment or bushing issue.

BMmonteSS

I've noticed alot of alignment shops run more camber on the drivers side tire to acount for road crown. Result is that your drivers side wears fine, and your pasenger side wears the edge out. Check for a mechanical problem first, then look into a performance alignment. Do some searches and see what guys are running, I dont' exactly own a thirdgen so I can't make a suggestion.

Dewey316

You mean caster?

BMmonteSS

I wish I did, no for some reason they all seem to think that the added camber on the drivers side keeps the car from pulling. Doesn't make sense to me either. We just "fixed" this on a buddies mustang that just came back from the alignment shop. I had the same thing happen whith another alignment shop. I now do my own alignments.

Rant mode on:

Just got off the phone with the fiance', seems walmart can't even change tires anymore. They couldn't get a lug nut off that I just had off a week ago, and told her, that her rear end had too much "play" in it, and they wouldn't change the tires because of that. When she asked what was loose, and they couldn't tell her. She then had to show them how to back her car out of the garage since they couldn't figure out how to get her quarter stick shifter to go into reverse. Once she left she also realized that they had gotten grease all over her steering wheel and shifter. Thats it, all I need is a tire changer and a paint booth and I won't need anyone else for anything.

Rant mode OFF:

Angelis83LT

yea same here lol.. paint booth and tire balancer and changer.. then i am done.. no more giving money away to people who do half *** work, and then you end up with scratxhes in the paint or dings or dents or what not... Had a jeep i took to a tires plus.. yea it went in with no dings or scratches.. came back with a dent under the driver's side door handle and scratches all over it...

phoenix305

yeah dudes me too, spray booth, alignment rack, lift, and tire mounter and balancer. i'm always worried about them not lifting my car with the proper jacking points, seeing how its lowered. And also how would you go about getting a 'performance' alignment? Just ask?

BigWhiteGTP

I don't drive the car hard. But the steering wheel is set at 1-o'clock position and pulls a little to the right side. And the front passenger (right side) is the one going bald.

I will have to get an alignment anyway it seems. I'll go from there. Thanks guys.

Dewey316

You are going to the wrong alignment shops. Find a good performance/race shop, that does alignments. I have all my alignment work done at a local performance shop here. They always have about a 15 minute chat with me before hand, about new modifications, how the car was performing before, etc, and help me pick my alignment specs. They also let me stand in bay with them while they work on my car.

I'm sure if you call around, you can find a small speed shop in your area, that will give you a good service, and a fiar price. and will adjust the caster to compensate for the crown in the roads.

BMmonteSS

Unfortunatly there is only 1 speed shop within 2 hours of here, and they are clueless. I can't find a shop that I'll trust my car to. Even the dealerships have morons for mechanics. I have a tranny guy finally, he's from PA and used to do alot of race trannies. Other than him, I know more about most anything than any of the shops around here. Heck I've even got a couple that call me with FI problems, thats kinda scary.

I've built my own toe guage, and I'm ordering a cheap caster camber guage. That should allow me to do most anything I need to. It sucks living in the boondocks, the closest track is 2.5 hours away, there are no decent speedshops. Only good thing is that my high 13 second car is one of the fastest in town It's easy to impress the *******s around here. Most of them just look at me funny when they see I have "one of them new fangled computers" running my 2 barrel.

DeanE

BMmonteSS, Why in the hell are you taking a car to Walmart? Isn't your suspension gurus friend Crossfire a suspension expert in a performance race suspension shop that could do it all for you or your girlfriend-

I guess this speaks volumes about these two guys.

.5* more positive CASTER on the passenger side of the car is what compensates for the crown in the road

BigWhiteGTP

Crown in the road, is that the way the road is built to have the rain water run off to the sides into the storm drains so as not to flood?

So an alignment will fix this problem, do they adjust toe-in/out and all that as well, or is that separate?

Bens3rdGen

Adjusting Camber, Caster, Toe and checking for worn parts are all part of an alignment. Toe is probably the most important.

Yes, thats what raod crown is, a good alignment shop will adjust your caster so your car doesn't pull right. Caster doesn't effect tire wear but can make the suspension pull one way or the other.

BMmonteSS

Who the hell is crossfire, and why would he do an alignment on my car. Dean your making things up now. Just out of curiosity, if you get jumped in an alley, would you threaten to beat the guy down at your local auto-x course? It seems like your "skillz" are the only thing you want to talk about.

I know that caster is used to conteract crowned roads, I was comenting that the local alignment shops didn't, thats why I won't take my car there for alignments. Unfortunately walmart is the cheapest place to get tires. We were going to go ahead and have them put them on, I ASSumed they could at least figure out how to change a tire.