I have tien s-techs for about 5k miles now and when i went to do a tire rotation the inside of all 4 tires had considerably more more wear then the outside. Would that be the wheel alignment or camber alignment that is causing the problem?

 

camber is off. Did you align it after installing the springs and letting them settle?

 

bump

 

yup, your camber is off causing uneven wear.

 

I just installed Eibach Prokit springs and you can see a difference in the rear wheel camber. I got an alignment done, but they told me they didn't have enough adjustment to work with and that I'm stuck with about a -1.5 on each back wheel. I don't like the idea of eating up tires so I'm looking into a camber kit.

 

check the hotchkis camber links on Nopi.com...pretty cheap...
And for everyone with a spring that lowers your car more than 2"...camber adjustment is needed...under 2 and an alignment will do

 

You probably need to take you car to another shop to get it aligned again. My coilovers are adjusted .25" lower than Eibach advertised drop for the Pro Kit and I'm at factory spec without a camber kit. BuddhasTC is right, under 2" you need a camber kit, but above 2" there is enough adjustment to get you back to spec in the rear.

 

Camber doesn't wear tires. Toe does. Your toe is out. You'd have to be at extreme amounts of camber, like -7º, before camber would start to adversely affect tire wear. But even 3/32" of cumulative toe out will eat the insides off of your tires. Get your toe set to 0 in the front, and 1/8" total in the rear (which is factory spec).

 

so if i get hotchkis springs and trd struts, i don't need the camber adjustment because it doesn't exceed a 2 in drop?

 

in theory....but make sure you get an lignment,..i drive my S-10 forever on a 4inch drop with an alignment......bad ride....

 

It's not that I don't believe you Doc, but can you please explain why? The mechanic can't adjust my rear camber and is -1.83 rear left and -2.02 rear right as of this moment. But the toe on the rear left is 0.13 and toe on the rear right is 0.14. He said I need to get a camber kit for him to even the camber out. Would that be a big issue as of uneven tire wear? I'm dropped on Hotchkis BTW.

 

Jehoo, camber is constantly changing. Every time you take a corner, put a bag of groceries in the back, eat a few extra cheeseburgers-- the camber angle at ride height will be different. The camber angle changes through the sweep of the suspension between full droop and full compression. Until it reaches extreme angles, it won't impact tire wear.

-2º of camber isn't going to accelerate tire wear. I used to tun -2.5º in the front and -1.5º in my Honda, and the tires wore evenly across the tread. I've seen cars at the track run as much as -5º on the front tires, and pull perfectly normal tire temps across the tire, meaning that the tire is working exactly as it should. Now we toe the front end out 3/16", and will put an extra 20-30º into the inside edge of the fronts compared to the rears (unless the track is slick/dirty, and the rears are getting loose).

Now the tech is right saying that you'd need a kit to even the corners out-- the stock kit has no adjustment for camber. The downside to runnign even -2º of camber at rest is minor-- a very slight increase in braking distance is common (decreased contact patch) some loss of straight line stability (a negatively cambered tire turns in quicker than a neutral tire) and a very, very slight impact on straightline acceleration (again, decreased contact patch). But in my mind, the difference in the attitude of the car when turning in and how it behaves in the corner is more than worth the small caveats.

I recommend setting all four corners between -1.25º and -1.50º, and if you can afford the rubber, toe the front out 3/32". Complete change in how the car turns in. And it will eat a set of fronts in 10k miles. Ask my old Honda. :D

 

Oh I see.. So I'd probably get another alignment. If they can't get it into the range of -1.25º and -1.50º, I'd just get the camber kits. It's a good thing I got the lifetime wheel alignment from Firestone.

So with my specs for the rear:

Left:
Toe: 0.13
Camber: -1.83º

Right:
Toe: 0.14
Camber: -2.02º

Would it be a big burden on my tires?

 

yes, you're running about twice as much toe in the rear as you want

as the Doc said, toe kills tires, camber does not.

I run about 2º on each corner up front, and less in the rear, usually about 1.5º -1.75º and my toe up front is 0º and the rear is 1/16" at each corner for a total of 1/8" combined.

I usually kick up the camber when I autocross, and throw the toe up front to 3/32" - usually 2.75º up front and 2º in back for camber, I measure and set my own alignments, so everything I do is in fractions, so what I'm putting out is just ranges to give you an idea, not exact specs.

All my adjustment is done with replacement bolts, no camber kit needed on my setup of TRD struts and springs. The shop may be able to get you replacement camber bolts to set it the way you need it instead of a specific camber kit. If not, take it to another shop, because it can be done.

 

I see. Well, my toe up front is also 0º for both left and right. Camber is -0.55º and -0.41º for the left and right respectively. So I guess there's nothing to worry about. I'll just probably bring it back in next week and make them adjust the rears.

Thanks again guys!

 

just a heads up, if your fronts are sitting at almost NO camber, I would have them throw at LEAST a degree on it, or even 1.5, whatever is up front, do about 30% less in the rear, 0 toe up front, and 1/8" total toe in the rear.

your car will handle better and you'll thank me later.

 

I'll keep that in mind. I'll let them try to reach those specs. Thanks again! :D