Tire tread wear and camber alignment

[krman68]

I pulled my stock wheels off to throw track tires on and noted that my tires are wearing on the inside. A quick check of the alignment shows that I am within spec at 1.5 degrees. Also, found out that they cannot be adjusted...is this normal?


Some of you guys with low mileage cars may not see it yet. I got some miles on mine so it was evident

I am thinking of getting camber/caster plates ... Any thoughts?

 

[Van@RevanRacing]

Many of our customers get to -1.00 or less degree of camber after lowering by adjusting the struts without camber bolts or caster camber plates. However, if you cannot get better than 1.5 degrees of negative camber I would recommend installing a set of adjustable caster camber plates so that you can dial in your caster, camber and toe settings.

Van

 

[SilverCoyote]

I'm just about to get into an alignment. My car is lowered and I have caster camber plates installed. The inside edges of my tires are worn out. The whole tire is gone also, but the inside edge is into the next layer...lol.... Looking at my spec sheet from last alignment, Camber Left -1.5 and Right -1.0. I'm thinking about telling my alignment shop I want 0 this time.....

 

[Tron84]

I'm kinda in the same boat. I noticed my tires are wearing really bad on the inside, down to the cords on one of them.
My camber checks -1.3 on both sides.
What settings do people recommend for lowered cars?

 

[SilverCoyote]

Well my logic on this one is... I'm going with 0 degrees camber so the tire will be straight up and down. I'm more for straight line performance anyway, since I have a staggered setup. 305 40 18's on the back..stock tires on the front... I'm not going to be doing any road course racing or anything like that. Probably 1 or 2 degrees negative camber would be good for that, but would still wear your tires on the inside.

 

[SilverCoyote]

I just had my car aligned today. I told the tech I want 0 degrees of camber, he said okay. I have Maximum Motorsports Caster Camber plates on my car as it is lowered. After the alignment, I ended up with Left front -1.0, Right front -0.8 . He said there was no more adjustment left, meaning he could not get it to 0 degrees like I wanted. This sound right to anyone. My car is lowered about 1 inch.

 

[SilverCoyote]

I have since been informed that.... just because I have caster camber plates on a lowered vehicle.. this is not a cure all for this situation. I'm probably moving to adding camber bolts also....

 

[GT500wantabe]

Same problem with mine. I ground the upper hole in my struts so I can adjust my camber where ever I want it. Only takes a few minutes with a carbide burr to elongate the hole. I used a 1/2" burr. The bolt is a 14 mm but easy to make the correct width.

 

[SilverCoyote]

Same problem with mine. I ground the upper hole in my struts so I can adjust my camber where ever I want it. Only takes a few minutes with a carbide burr to elongate the hole. I used a 1/2" burr. The bolt is a 14 mm but easy to make the correct width.

I'm not following exactly.. you ground one of the two mounting holes in the strut itself. Basically this would let the strut pivot on the other (2nd one) bolt to get your camber adjustment?

 

[GT500wantabe]

I'm not following exactly.. you ground one of the two mounting holes in the strut itself. Basically this would let the strut pivot on the other (2nd one) bolt to get your camber adjustment?

Yes, I ground the top bolt hole so the spindle (not sure what it's called) will now shift outward moving the top of the rotor outward.

 

[Cman01]

-1.5 camber is good for the track.....................not so good for the street. It is too much - camber for street driving.

I would run no more than -1' of camber for street driving, -0.75' would be better.

I have MM camber plates on my car now also and my alignment is set up with -1.2' of camber (yes I'm running more than what I'm posting others to run but my car my settings). Before Daytona I'm thinking of banging it in to -1.75' camber (on my car I can get to -2' camber, had it checked it goes there on both sides already).

Tony

 

[SilverCoyote]

Well... lol... I have now read about someone having the camber bolt break or so they claim. I have to admit, I have thought about that since it is not as beefy as the original strut mounting bolt. I have the ProForged camber bolt, but I haven't put them on yet. Has anyone heard of these breaking?? It probably would be a bit of a problem if it broke....

 

[Cman01]

That is possible and I would advise anyone to "not" run camber bolts just to get more -camber on the front suspension.

Ford makes "camber" bolts for in service applications if a car is not within specs because of repair to the front end of the car after an accident or damage. They are hardly designed for "racing" applications so I would not use them for that purpose.

The stock bolts that connect the strut to the spindle are designed to be a tight fit through the openings. Filing the strut holes to "elongate" them so you can run more - camber weakens that area of the strut and will lead to problems that could cause your frt. suspension to separate. Like you said yes it would be a bit of a problem if it came apart.

The proper replacement bolts and nuts from Ford now have more threads and require a higher torque to tighten them properly. MM offers them for sale or you can get them from any Ford dealer. They are a one time use only so tighten them up only when you know you won't need to separate them again for whatever reason.

http://www.maximummotorsports.com/Strut-to-spindle-mounting-hardware-kit-2005-Mustang-P1360.aspx

 

[SilverCoyote]

Well I have the Eibach Pro Springs on my car with the MM Caster Camber plates. I wore some front tires out (inside edge) so I wanted 0 degrees camber. I want the tires straight up and down..lol.... I run a staggered setup so I cant rotate my tires and I don't want to wear the inside edge out again. However, I can't get zero, the best I could get was -1.0 and -0.8 .. Not quite the degrees I wanted. Tech said there was no more adjustment. I was considering adding the camber bolts, but I drive the car kind of hard sometimes and was a little concerned about the bolt breaking. I have them in my hand, and they look a little "light duty"...lol.....

 

[JAJ]

That is possible and I would advise anyone to "not" run camber bolts just to get more -camber on the front suspension.

Ford makes "camber" bolts for in service applications if a car is not within specs because of repair to the front end of the car after an accident or damage. They are hardly designed for "racing" applications so I would not use them for that purpose.

...

I agree with the general views on camber bolts - the aftermarket parts are not really strong enough for track use. However, the Ford camber bolts (now available from Ford Performance) are a totally different proposition. Those dudes are built to last and they come with a special feature. Because they're OEM parts and included in the vehicle homologation, they are legal in showroom stock racing classes, giving you a front suspension that'll breeze through tech inspection and deliver up to 3 degrees of negative camber.

As to the strength question, they are the same diameter as the OEM bolts (14mm) and they have an eccentric cam plate that fits between machined ridges on stock struts to lock the strut into position. They're the only camber bolt I'd use. And I do because I'm still running the stock Bilstein front struts on my GT500. When track day season starts, I set mine at -3 degrees, and when the season ends I set them back to stock. With an impact gun, a great big torque wrench and a lift, it takes about 10 minutes a side to switch them.

Going back to the OP's issue, I'd pay careful attention to toe-in. I'm set at zero toe and I'm getting pretty even wear even with the factory -1.2 degrees of camber the car came with.

 

[Snoopy49]

View attachment 2013-14 Mustang Suspension System.pdf