Suspension problem = tyre wear?

DRC

DRC

Member
I wondered if any one has an idea upon what has buggered my cars new tyres.


Right I noticed that I had a flat this morning. Jacked up the car and to my horror both front tyres have worn down to the cords on the very inner edge of the tyres (last half inch only).
Both front tyres where new on (TOYOs) about 2 months back i have covered less than 1000miles and they are now scrap.

When i was driving the car it never pulled and drove straight.
Also after checking the rear tyres I have noticed that they are starting to wear on the inner edge a little too. (not really that concerning yet…) I guess the rear end can’t be adjusted?

I have just had the car MOT’ed with no problems at all (2 months back).

The suspension seems fine only thing I can think of is that I have it dropped slightly lower at the front than I do at the rear .35mm at the rear and about 55mm at the front.

I am thinking that tracking alone cant be the cause of this? I am going for a 4 wheel line up soon and going for yet more tyres.

Wondered if anyone else on here has had the same problem?
 
stumo

stumo

Active Member
incorrect tracking will kill tyres very quickly, you could easily wear them out in 100 miles if it was far enough out.

Set the fronts and rears to parallel (the rears can be adjusted) and you can't go wrong from there.

If you've fitted lowering springs, that will change the tracking.

If your tyres had more than the legal limit when it was MOT'd then that's all that's needed to pass....
 
PobodY

PobodY

Moderators
Staff member
Yep, dropping the suspension usually results in the camber going to shite... and chewing out the inside edge of your tyres.
I can tell you for free that 3 degrees of toe-in at the front can destroy a set of tyres very quickly. - I feel your pain; it's a real bitch to have to replace two (or more maybe?) tyres that are less than a year old and have 80% of the tread un-used.

It's not uncommon... in fact, I think that's in the buyer's guide isn't it? Check for excessive wear on the inside edge of the tyres as it shows incorrect suspension geometry. Something like that anyway.

The rear-end can be adjusted, but I didn't think you can do it with standard components... or at least that's what I was told when I got my alignment done last time.
 
Trip

Trip

New Member
Is there a setting you can fiddle about to change the camber and caster (front) on standard shocks, pillowballs and bushes ?

If you have lowered the car by just changing the springs, you are also inducing negative camber.
 
stumo

stumo

Active Member
The amount of neg camber won't wear out the tyres, it'll be the toe that will be way out (or way in, ok that was a bad pun)

The rear toe can be done, you don't need any special equipment or aftermarket parts, it's there as standard.
 
keastygtir

keastygtir

Well-Known Member
In my experiance, these cars are the most sensitive to tracking that I have had, with it being slightly out mine feels very weird on the front. Bobby gave me a good tip about really reeming up the strut bolts as mine were not tight enough and my tracking would go out in about 2 weeks. This totally destroyed my tyres very quickly
 
B

bracpan

Active Member
Stu is corect its the toeing of the wheels that will wear tyre not camber....if you wore the inside edge the tyres are toing out and need to be set to parallel.
I agree these cars are very sentative to this setting.
phil
 
DRC

DRC

Member
Cheers for your input lad's i will get it set up soon. Fingers crossed this will be sorted out . With what is said about the suspension set up being so sensitive i do hope i can get it settled.

These cars are a constant pain in the arse, but there is nothing like it ( I have a wife thanks) .

When i get back from Fiji i will let people know how i got on.
 
M

markweatherill

New Member
Incorrect camber can indeed wear tyres, usually the inner edge due to lowering of the suspension.
Strut suspension causes slight camber changes through the suspension travel. Camber is set to be correct at the factory ride height. Hence when you drastically lower a car, it's now sitting in a place where camber isn't factory correct; the tyres are tending to sit more heavily on their inner edge. Or something.

My car with a similar suspension was handling really oddly. It was after I'd reassembled the front suspension and I'd done up the ball joints with the car in the air. After loosening and re-tightening them with the car on the ground (like you're supposed to!) it was back to normal. It might just be worth doing in this case...
 
keastygtir

keastygtir

Well-Known Member
Another good point above, make sure when working on the suspension parts they are done up with the car under weight. I had this when i did my rear ARB
 
eastwood

eastwood

New Member
markweatherill said:
Incorrect camber can indeed wear tyres, usually the inner edge due to lowering of the suspension.
Strut suspension causes slight camber changes through the suspension travel. Camber is set to be correct at the factory ride height. Hence when you drastically lower a car, it's now sitting in a place where camber isn't factory correct; the tyres are tending to sit more heavily on their inner edge. Or something.

My car with a similar suspension was handling really oddly. It was after I'd reassembled the front suspension and I'd done up the ball joints with the car in the air. After loosening and re-tightening them with the car on the ground (like you're supposed to!) it was back to normal. It might just be worth doing in this case...
Click to expand...
I totally agree all cars with added negative camber wear the inside edge by lowering a car you are shortening the strut which automatically changes the camber to a more negative setting by moving the lower wishbone / stub axle / track control arm. This applies to all cars not just GTIRS.

That said tracking will kill tyres if not set correct.

When you have negative camber in a straight line the contact surface between tyre and road is less across the foot print of the tyre (being negative camber) the tyre is running on the inside edge of the tyre (negative camber means the top of the wheel is leaning in more).

However negative camber is great for cornering because you have more contact between the road and the tyre surface area because tyre becomes more flat to the road surface as you turn in. So you have to find a good compromise. Its all to do with the ACKERMAN theroy to give you your self centering on your steering.

Perssonally if its a track car I would go for a bit more negative camber than standard to give better cornering but for a road car and the sake of tyres I would set camber to standard.

Tracking wise the manufacturer settings are normally best.
 
P

pulsarboby

Guest
as above, the more neg camber you have the more your tyre wear will be on inner edge (same with toe out on tracking)

my megabeasty is running huge amounts of camber which is no good as it makes the car very twitchy in a straight line under power due to weight transfer to rear and running on inside edge of tyre.
if a car is very light (such as this) this also causes huge understeer on cornering as you have no weight on front to push tyre laterally into tarmac on extreme cornering.
with the R which is nose heavy you can get away with a lot more neg camber but it will still make the car twitchy on the power in a straight line (especially in the wet) and this is more exaggerated with a stripped trackcar with all the rear components stripped!
imo thats why neg camber on rear is not a good thing with the R, your more inclined to lose the rearend in the wet on cornering hard as theres no weight in the rear

not the best of photos to see due to the angle but when you look at this car head on it looks as though the front is doing the splits as its running so much neg camber
 
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