I have an 1987 Camaro.. Ever since i got the car.. I Allways have problems with the front tire... It allways wears the outer edge of the tires.... I even set the camber all the way out (to correct the problem).. but nothing... I have spoken to other thirdgens owners an they seem to have the same problem... I was wondering is this issue is common,, and IS THERE A SOLUTION??

 

Firstly, are the font wheels properly aligned? If the tracking is out the tires will wea the outer edges.

Secondly, how quickly do you corner? If you corner quickly you will wear the edges, I know I do and my front wheels are aligned perfectly.

Hope this is of some help

Robert

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1987 IROC-Z Auto (LB9)
Black/grey interior with the stance of a streetfighter

Mods
Custom exhaust. 4 Inch pipe from the headders all the way back to a single muffler at the rear. No Cat.

Future mods due in March:
K&Ns
RAM Air
Air foil
AFPR

Hoping to get a couple of tenths with that lot

 

I understand completely what you are saying because I have (had?) the same problem.

I posted the same question under this topic (suspension) a few months ago that you may want to look at. I can’t remember exactly how I worded the subject line, but I think it was Excessive Front Tire Wear, so do a search using the word excessive under the suspension topic and you should see my post. There were several responses that may interest you.

On my ’91 Z28 I had normal front tire wear for about 25-30K miles with Goodyear Eagle 4 (I think they were #4) until I hit a curb with the right tire/rim, and then developed excessive outer wear on that tire, and to a lesser extent, on the left tire also. I wonder if this had affected my toe adjustment…

I replaced the tires with Yokamaha 245/50ZR16’s and adjusted the toe and camber myself. After about 8,000 miles I noticed a lot of outer front tire wear on both tires, with about 1/8” difference between the outer and inner tread areas.

I talked to TIRE RACK (where I purchased the tires) and they stated that even with correct alignment, excessive outer front tire wear is common from aggressive driving.

I rotated the front tires with the rear. Then I noticed my toe was slightly positive (wheels pointed “in”) and camber was about 0.3°, but still within factory specs. According to my factory service manual, camber is supposed to be 0.30° ±0.50° and toe 0.00° ±0.20°.

I adjusted both toe and camber to about 0° (straight ahead and straight up/down respectively). This still puts it well within factory specifications. Some guys like a little negative camber for performance. I would imagine -0.5° would be the most negative camber you’d want. Over that and I would expect excessive wear on the insides of the tires if you can even adjust the strut that far inboard - the engineers didn’t design much room to adjust them very negative - just look at any 3rd generation F-body and you’ll probably see the struts adjusted almost all the way to the inboard limit!

Now, about 5K miles later, as close as I can tell, wear appears to be even. But it’s still somewhat early to be sure, and I seem to be driving a little more “prudently” lately.

You stated that you “…set the camber all the way out…”. Do you mean that you set it to it’s negative limit (struts all the way inboard)? If so, then how many miles did you drive before determining that excessive wear was occurring on the outside of the tires?

As the post above mentioned, an incorrect toe adjustment can cause excessive wear, so you may want to confirm that your toe is adjusted correctly.

I would adjust camber to -0.5° - 0.0° and toe to 0.0°. If you adjust camber to -0.5°, keep a close eye on front tire wear for excessive INNER front tire wear. As soon as you see any, then adjust it out (positive) to 0.0°.

In my case, if I still have excessive tire wear, then either (a) I didn’t alignment my front end correctly (b) toe and/or camber was knocked out of alignment, or (c) excessive outer tire wear with correct alignment does indeed come from aggressive driving, and that is just the price I’ll have to pay for doing so. So far though, front tire wear is even.