Camber Problem

MT1083 · Mar 22, 2004

I have a problem with my front tires riding on the outside edge of the tires. No matter how many times I have them realigned, they always do it again after a few months. I was wondering if this problem will lessen once I lower my car. I doubt it would but it never hurts to be hopeful. I would like to know if anyone else has this problem. I'm sick of paying to have this thing realigned so much

GDawg · Mar 22, 2004

Being the outside of your tires are wearing sounds like positive camber which by spec you shouldn't have any at all. Lowering your car generally gives you too much negative camber. You want a little bit of negative camber for better handling but too much negative camber will wear the inside of your tires out more quickly.

Doesn't sound like the alignment shop is correcting your camber. It's pretty much set from the factory but the alignment shop can drill out the rivots in your stock C/C plates and make the adjustment and re-rivot it. Just don't let them mangle your plates like they did to this guys stock C/C plates...

MT1083 · Mar 22, 2004

Man...who got a hold of that one? Thanks for the reply.

AutomaticWeapon · Mar 22, 2004

whoever adjusted the plate in that pic is a butcher. theres no reason for damage like that as the rivots can easily be removed with a small chisel and punch.

anyways, once you car is lowered get the car re-aligned and request the following specs...

-.75 ~ -1.00* camber (equal on both sides)
+3.50* caster (not factory adjustable but look for a reading in that area)
+.13" (+.25*) toe

-Mike

mustangfanatic · Mar 22, 2004

My car has been lowered about 1.5-2" and I'm looking to correct everything as well. I was looking into Steeda caster/camber plates. My car is a 2001 GT coupe, you think that I should go to those same specs and then have my car realigned? Thanks!

mustangfanatic · Mar 22, 2004

My car has been lowered about 1.5-2" and I'm looking to correct everything as well. I was looking into Steeda caster/camber plates. My car is a 2001 GT coupe, you think that I should go to those same specs and then have my car realigned? Thanks!

GDawg · Mar 22, 2004

AutomaticWeapon said:
whoever adjusted the plate in that pic is a butcher. theres no reason for damage like that as the rivots can easily be removed with a small chisel and punch.

I don't know who owns those plates but he posted that mess quite some time ago. The alignment shop did that to the stock plates.

When I lowered my car, I was able to easily remove my plates and they are still hanging on my peg board in the garage.

I like my Maximum Motorsports Caster/Camber plates. They have a very good range of adjustments.

lgndracer · Mar 22, 2004

PHP:

they always do it again after a few months.

If you go through a set of tires in a few months, you are way out of whack.
It could not only be camber, but could also be toe. If you are going through tires that quick you should be able to visually see a problem. It also seems strange that after getting it aligned, it just "slips" back. Is your alignment shop giving you a print out after they complete it?

MT1083 · Mar 23, 2004

lgndracer said:
PHP:

they always do it again after a few months.

If you go through a set of tires in a few months, you are way out of whack.
It could not only be camber, but could also be toe. If you are going through tires that quick you should be able to visually see a problem. It also seems strange that after getting it aligned, it just "slips" back. Is your alignment shop giving you a print out after they complete it?

I don't actually go through the tires in months...they just start riding on the outside edges. I end up either rotating the tires or getting the front end realigned or both. It does seem to slip back. I had ford fix it once but it did come back. I'll have to check my invoices to see what they did. It was about 3 years ago when they fixed it. I just assumed that since it came back that ford didn't know what they were doing. But apparently nobody in my area does.

MT1083 · Mar 23, 2004

AutomaticWeapon said:
whoever adjusted the plate in that pic is a butcher. theres no reason for damage like that as the rivots can easily be removed with a small chisel and punch.

anyways, once you car is lowered get the car re-aligned and request the following specs...

-.75 ~ -1.00* camber (equal on both sides)
+3.50* caster (not factory adjustable but look for a reading in that area)
+.13" (+.25*) toe

-Mike

Thanks! I'll give those numbers once I have to realign them. Everyone else agree with these?

dahun · Mar 23, 2004

Can you tell the difference between before and after? IOW, can you see where they tighten the nuts in relation to a fixed point on the strut tower?
If the nuts/plate slip, maybe they're bottoming out the nuts on the studs, and therefore, get a false sense of tightening the hardware. I'd mark the strut tower with a magic marker BEFORE you have it aligned then add a couple of washers under the head of the one bolt, and under the two nuts, and torque down.
I'd try this...
Dahun

Yeah, the alignment specs look good... try to get -1.00 camber...

MT1083 said:
I don't actually go through the tires in months...they just start riding on the outside edges. I end up either rotating the tires or getting the front end realigned or both. It does seem to slip back. I had ford fix it once but it did come back. I'll have to check my invoices to see what they did. It was about 3 years ago when they fixed it. I just assumed that since it came back that ford didn't know what they were doing. But apparently nobody in my area does.

MT1083 · Mar 23, 2004

I really have never paid attention to the before/after. I don't even know how they align the front end. I'm somewhat of a newbie and don't really learn a lot about things until I am going to buy something or do a ton of research. Does anyone know of a good site that I can go to to help me learn more about the process?

Xanax · Mar 23, 2004

I would get some aftermarket Chamber Caster Plates and
get an alignment from to trusted place to save your tires
your unwanted wear!

GDawg · Mar 23, 2004

MT1083 said:
Thanks! I'll give those numbers once I have to realign them. Everyone else agree with these?

I agree with those numbers. I didn't think about the toe until someone mentioned it. I would lean toward them not doing the toe adjustment correctly. Like I said the camber is pretty much set at the factory and shouldn't change unless you lower the car.

Stand in front of the car and look at your tires...

Do they look like this? \---/
That would be positive camber.

They should look only a little bit like this (if any at all)... /---\

AutomaticWeapon · Mar 23, 2004

the Maximum Motorsports c/c plates are awesome. (as mentioned) there is a ton of adjustment range with them and the quality is second to none.

FWIW, you can get you car aligned as perfect as can be, but if you drive aggressivily and/or dont rotate the tires they will continue to wear the outside edges... thats just the way it is with these cars. i understand that most of us dont run the same sizes front and rear, but those that do should be rotating them. checking air pressure from time to time is important too.

another thing to understand is that once a tire developes a wear pattern, they will continue to wear that way wether or not an alignment is done or not. in fact, you could remove the tires from one car, put them on a different car, and they still wear the same way they did on the first car.

oh, you all cant go wrong with the specs i posted, i been using them with excellent results on most Fords for the past 15+ years.

-Mike

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