Hi All,

Can some of you experts out there look at this attached report? In the Report, the "Before" column represents the values determined before alignment, and the "Actual" column is the value after alignment is completed.

The car is a 2003 Lexus GS430, which I bought new. It has the factory original 16" GoodYear 225/55 R16 tires. No modications whatsoever. In fact, this is the first time the wheels have ever been off. I noticed on the front the tires were wearing excessively on the inside side of the tires on both left and right. The car has 31,000 miles on both itself and the tires.

I am concerned about two things: First, a couple of the "Actual" values are still in a red colored font, indicating they are still not in the proper range of adjustment. Second, the mechanic's notation that the camber adjustment is "Maxed out". When I asked them about this, he just shrugged and said "Sometimes that's how these alignments work out". Wonderful.....

So - Do I have a problem, or not?

Thanks for any opinions....

 

No major problems from what I see. You saw more inside wear on front tires because the front usually has negative camber to help with cornering grip. You'd see this often in sports cars and SUVs. You can rotate tires regularly to minimize this inside wear.

The RF SAI settting (Steering Axis Incline) is out of range as you noticed. Though it is not a big deal on tire wear unless you drive in tight circles all the time - very unlikely.

The LR & RR camber settings are way too different. You might see the inside of LR tire wear slightly more than the RR tire as miles pile on. Again it's not a major problem.

Camber adjustment might be maxed out and can't get any better because 1) like the tech said, sometimes it's just how it goes, or 2) you might have hit a big pot hole and bend the suspension component slightly, the tech can only adjust so much. Again, it's not a major problem because it is still within range.

Verdict: Unless your car pulls to one side on a straight highway, you should be fine from here on. You should rotate your tires at least every 10,000 miles to even tire wear. Note that Japanese cars are notorious for wacky alignments, so it's not uncommon to have to re-do alignment every 3 years or so. Nothing wrong with Japanese cars, it's just the way they are. None of my American cars ever need alignment, though they had tons of other problems. My 2002 RX300 may be due for alignment soon.

 

HarrierAWD,

Thanks very much for your informative reply. I guess what I am wondering is whether I'm going to need front end repairs - or whether it's going to get to a point where they cannot align it correctly...Or if this type of problem is even covered under the vehicle basic warranty.

Still, at the current rate, I'm projecting at least 40,000 miles life out of these tires, which isn't bad considering they only are rated 240 for tread wear.

 

Your numbers don't look bad, I've had wacky settings looking back over other cars and this seems typical.

 

well you have significantly more toe in on the left than the right, but if the car's drive-ability is not bothersome to you right now, i would just keep an eye on front left tire wear vs. front right tire wear.
And ANY car can have a wacky alignment.