Question for you car people...

[George Willms]

After some suspension work done on my car, the camber is -1/-2 f/r. Is this going to significantly increase my tire wear? Should I purchase the camber adjustment kits, only for the rear, or for both?

[gnatster]

Are those measurements within spec for you car?

If not then you will see increased wear on the inside of the tire. Even it is within the perameters you still may see increased wear depending on how camber was set before.

What kind of car? Whats the intended purpose? Street, Auto-X, Road-Racing (on a track)?

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gnatster

[wellbiz]

Originally Posted by George Willms

After some suspension work done on my car, the camber is -1/-2 f/r. Is this going to significantly increase my tire wear? Should I purchase the camber adjustment kits, only for the rear, or for both?

Do you have all the readings... Hard to say from what you gave us...

Left Front Right Front



Left rear Right Rear

Normally FWD cars have camber pretty close to 0 sometimes a little negative. Increasing the camber on the front negative will increase the handling of the vehicle, unfortunatly the side effects will be increased tire wear, which I suspect will be quite noticable with those wider tires you have.... The first generation Viper actually had a set of removable shims that could be removed when road racing. Removeing these shims increased camber 1 degree negative.... Alignment can have a huge effect on the vehicles stability, tire wear and handling....

Jason

[GulfCoastAquarian]

I lowered my Mustang and had 1.5 degrees of negative camber in the front and I went through a perfectly new set of Bridgestone Potenzas in less than a year. There was still plenty of tread left throughout the section width, but it was worn down to steel bands on the inside edge.
-1.0 isn't quite as bad, but I think you should get the caster/camber plates and get it as close to zero as possible for street driving or you're going to eat up some tires really quick.

[George Willms]

Gnatster, I believe spec with my car is up to -1 bothe front and rear. It's a 98 accord coupe. Purpose is for street use.

Wellbiz, the readings are the same for both front and both rear wheels.

GCA: Any clues as to what brands are good? I've heard ingall's are very good, but they are also quite expensive.

[GulfCoastAquarian]

Keep in mind that the spec for my car is -0.5 to -1.0 and it still ate through the tires quickly at only a half degree out of spec. The stiffer spring rate accelerates the wear from an uneven contact patch.

As for what brands, if you were talking about Mustangs I could recommend at least a half dozen good ones. Can't help ya for the Accord. I like the ones where caster isn't adjustable (it is simply set for the most caster you can get with the given geometry). They're a little less expensive, stronger and lighter.

[wellbiz]

Originally Posted by George Willms

Gnatster, I believe spec with my car is up to -1 bothe front and rear. It's a 98 accord coupe. Purpose is for street use.

Wellbiz, the readings are the same for both front and both rear wheels.

GCA: Any clues as to what brands are good? I've heard ingall's are very good, but they are also quite expensive.

George, ok... If your car is a daily driver I would spring for the adjustment plates... Your going to end up eating those expensive tires like GCA mentioned if you keep the adjustments that far negative....

Jason

[gnatster]

For a daily driver I'd get the plates. However I would have them marked for the street setting and for a track setting, then you can easily move between as needed.

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gnatster

[George Willms]

Yeah I figured I would get them and set them at -0.5 at all four corners. What do you guys think about setting them like that? Think that'd be ok, wear wise, or should I go for even less camber?

[wellbiz]

Originally Posted by George Willms

Yeah I figured I would get them and set them at -0.5 at all four corners. What do you guys think about setting them like that? Think that'd be ok, wear wise, or should I go for even less camber?

George, That should be a good starting point.... Monitor you tire wear....


Jason

[George Willms]

Ok great. Thanks, now I have one more question for you people.

How much of a difference will tread width make as far as camber is concerned if I keep the same overall diameter. Stock (winter) is: 195/65/15, summer is 225/45/17.

[wellbiz]

Originally Posted by George Willms

Ok great. Thanks, now I have one more question for you people.

How much of a difference will tread width make as far as camber is concerned if I keep the same overall diameter. Stock (winter) is: 195/65/15, summer is 225/45/17.

The tires have a pretty similar height, I would expect no real difference....


Jason

[gnatster]

I can't say for sure so this is a SWAG.

I would think that it would depend on the how the extra 30mm are located. In the event the backspacing on the 15" and 17" wheel is exactly the same and the extra 30mm is on the outside I would think you would see lower wear on the outside of the wider tire compared to the stock size.

Evenly divide the 30mm, adding 15mm to both the front and backspace then I would hazard to guess the wear would be the same.

Add 30mm to the backspacing and I think you would have clearance issues.

All this is predicated on using a wheel with increased width that is properly suited to the width of the tire. There is a standard wheel width for each size tire used when obtaining the measurements. Using an improper wheel width will cause it's own set of problems.

Wheel Diagram

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gnatster