dipstick

Have we come up with anything to correct the problem of inside tire wear on modified suspensions? I just changed my tires -- OE Bridgestone RE030s on stock 17" alloys, replaced with Michelin Sport A/S -- and the wear on the original Bridgestones was a little uneven, more wear on inside. Most of this was with the stock suspension, only 1000 miles with L-tuned. I had the setup aligned when they put on the L-Tuned parts. I also have wheel spacers I want to put on this week (H&R - 15mm rear, 5mm front) which would seem to aggravate inside wear. With the lower stance and the spacers, should I make adjustments to camber? Any help will be appreciated!

rominl

iTrader: (4)

you can adjust the camber but i bet you still got negative camber, and there is no camber kit for the gs at all

MrSypher

YEah bro... It's just something us GS owners have to deal with for the time being... You should have seen my tires on the 20's that I took off.. The whole inner tire was bald on both front tires... And I mean BALD...

rominl

iTrader: (4)

same for my prev yoko avs sport, inside was all BALD and outside was like new... funny though, now i raised the front of my car by like 1/4 inch, and everything is within spec

MrSypher

I might raise mine up when I put the Rezax on... Thanks..

D-MAN63

I have the same problems that you guys have. On the outside it looks brand new, but on the inside you can see the THREADS coming out. I guess this is the price we have to pay to achieve that aggressive lowered look.

Coolguy949

About half way through the life of the tires, have them "flipped". This is where they dismount the tires and move them to the other side of the car. The tread that was on the inside is now on the ourside. Ussually it costs like $50 for the average shop to do this but it really helps.

Rob

rominl

iTrader: (4)

the thing i heard about this, with our so-low profile tires and that they are soooo hard, they really have to "punch" in and ply the tire out, which might damage the wheel/tire

gs400jon

I just replaced the factory Bridgestone ZR17s with Toyo Proxes T1-S 17s (unidirectional). The wheels are the chromed factory 17 inch wheels. Despite having the tires rotated six times in 19,000 miles, the insides wore more than the outsides. The wheels were never aligned as the inside wear went unnoticed until a couple weeks ago. Called the dealer (Magnussen of Fremont) to ask why the mechanics never mentioned the uneven wear. The reply was that the GS's with the 17 inch wheels do that. Will the dealer or a specialty shop be able to keep history from repeating itself with occasional alignments? Anybody in the San Jose area know of a place where they have the experience to deal with inside wear?

jeromeg1

your "flipping" idea is not bad, and I thought was a good idea till my mechanic told me it will do no good, once your tire is wearing in a certain design, it will follow it till there is no more tread...

if you flip it, the bad side will still wear more, because it already has more considerable wear, and then your other side will wear like the other 'bad side'

Get it?

I just don't want you to waste your money flipping, and it is probably worse for your car, in terms of handling, and overall safety...

Tire places will do it, if they can get money/profit...but the guys who have morals, will tell you the same as me...it won't do any good...

MrSypher

You'd figure since the GS's have this problem straight out of the lot and the problem worsens if you lower it.. Then why doesn't anyone make a camber kit for our car?? It's something that's really needed but for some reason it's not around... Does anyone know if there's a company in Japan who makes camber kits for Aristos??

Coolguy949

Sory to break it to you, but your mechanic is wrong. I'm on my fifth set of the same brand Z rated tires and not until my 3rd set did I start flipping the tires. I used to chew the tires down to the belt and replace them every 8 - 10 months. The uneven wear was clearly evident because the tires would have significant life left on one side and a slick on the other half. Ever since I've started flipping my tires, I've been able to put 12 - 14 months on the tires and when I change them out, you can see that the wear was completely uniform (the whole tire is bald).

When you think about it, it makes complete sense. Lowering the car gives you more negative camber given the properties of the upper control arm and the way it archs. The side of the tire that has worn the most is on the inside. You flip the tires, putting the worn section towards the outsides where it has the least contact with the road. Now you have newer tread with more rubber touching the pavement. I dont see how you come to the conclusion there's a safety issue. Just because you have more "considerable wear" on one side doesnt mean it's going to wear faster than the other side when they are both touching the road. There's a greater chance of spinning out or fishtailing (especially since the gs is RWD) when you leave the tires with so much negaitve camber that the tires are only getting worn on the inside 2/3's.

It's not going to do any good if the inside of the tires are bald or very near to bald. Flipping them wont do much because even of you flip, you'll only have about half of the tire touching the pavent with usable tread. Most places, at this point, will refuse to touch your tires unless you replace them....at least here in california. Apparently there is a law against that.

It's all about timing. Figure out how long your tires last on average. About half way through the tires' life, have the tire guys flip them to the other side of the car. In the end, you'll have more tire life and you'll notice how even the wear is.

Most cars come with about a degree of negaitve camber, especially in the back. This helps with handling. With that said, most tires will wear unevenly. Flipping is one way to offset the wear and save money. Another way of course, is to get a camber kit to minimize the negative camber to factory specs when you lower your vehicle. Minimizing negaitve camber also helps with tire grip when accellerating off the line. You're less likely to break lose because you have more rubber on the ground with a better center of gravity. Finally, another plus with having minimal negative camber is keeping your aftermarket wheels perfectly shaped. Negative camber puts more stess on the inside edge of the wheel and hard bumps will easily bend the wheel if you have a low profile tire.

Just some tips I've learned from working with tires and suspensions.

Rob

Guru

I get wear on the inside and I have stock everything. I had two 4 wheel allignments from the dealer too and they said it's normal. Just the way the suspension settings are from the factory. I suppose lowering makes it even worse. Flipping them side to side helps a little as does rotating them often.

ShowGSLuVv

Maybe we should ask a company to make an aftermarket camber kit for the GS....tell them that there is a market and that they should look into fixing the inside tire wear for us because this is an annoying problem.

ShOwGS

Coolguy949

Let's do this....

Start a new thread and have anyone interested in a camber kit put their name, location, and email address. After we have a significant list, we can email a company like Specialty Products (great camber kits) and RMM and see what they can do for us.


I dont have a GS yet. If I already had one I would have taken measurements and made my own plate kit for the back. The front is a bit more complicated since the wheels turn. We need a company to make an adjustable ball joint or adjustable anchor mounts. Check out the pics below...


Adjustable Front Anchor Inserts ( for up to 1-1.5 degrees +/-):





Adjustable Front Anchors (for more than 1.5 degrees +/-):



Adjustable Ball Joints:




Rear Camber Bolt and Bracket (up to 2 degree i believe):



Add spacers to increase to 3.5 degree:



So lets try to get a new thread going with a list of people interested. If I have time I'll put everything in excel.

Rob