Has anyone else experience their front tires wearing out on the inside edge. I rotate my tires every 5k, and I have noticed that the front ones always wear on the inside edge as if there was a problem with negative camber.

Anyone else?

 

Well good news and bad news. Good news is that this just doesn't happen to the GT/CS version. Or wait, was that the bad news?

My car has the exact same issue. However mine was blamed for a poor alignment job after having the car lowered and then put back to stock.

 

So, is it an alignment problem or is it normal for the GTs. My buddy has one of those ugly but super fast Pontiacs and he was told it is normal in his car...nothing to be fixed.

 

As far as I am concerned, it is normal due to the lack of camber adjustment. I could be wrong but I have yet to see a mustang where the tires do not wear unevenly on the front. Ok, maybe I have seen a few but they had less then 5,000 km on them.

 

I would really like to hear other opinions, because they should wear evenly. If the camber is wrong then there is something wrong with frame geometry. I haven't really looked, but from what you are saying, you can only adjust toe-in?

 

I will move this to the main section as this is not specific to the GT/CS.

 

STOCK SUSPENSION??????

 

any alignment shop will be able to adjust the camber to aliminate inside tire wear. if you're lowered, you'll likely need camber bolts, but if you're stock, just get a basic alignment.

 

Comes from the factory with neg camber. -1.5 - .0 is spec. So anywhere in between is ok says ford. V6 GT, GT500, all same specs

 

I had mine alighned at 5000 miles and rotated every 5000 miles. Here is what they looked like at 20000 miles. I was told it was because of how Roush set up my suspension. I ended up getting another alighnment from the same dealer and Roush sent me 4 new tires. I have rotated them myself three times and now have 39000 miles on my car. My tires still look new. I still dont know why they wore like this but whatever they did they did it without camber plates.

 

wow, thats bad. dont go to that alignment shop again. Or keep it on all 4 wheels

 

Back in the day, us dinosaurs called it "scuffing" or "feathering". It comes from high speed cornering/turns. Yes all cars will do that when "pushed" into the corners, and yes as a rule, alignment will remedy the situtation. Air pressure is also a contrubuting factor. (I used to rally, and we were murder on our cars...)

Regards,
Chuck

 

1+ Also, the negative camber being at the limit yet still in tolerance (maximum neg. tolerance allowed) combined with being toed-out to the maximum allowed tolerance will wear the tires on the insides on both sides. "Stacking" tolerances like that isn't good. It's best to hit the middle of the tolerances if you can.

 

mine does not show any signs of that what so ever but when my new Eagle F1-All-Seasons arrive we will be dang sure to look & check into that 4 sure ! and if its more than one vehicle just maybe the engines are too heavy lol

 

I had the same problem with my stock 17" tires. The outside was almost to threads while the outside looked brand new. I installed Steeda Springs and upper strut mounts along with Roush rims with 275/40-18s. Concidering your car is a Roush I'm sure you have the same size tires. But do you have a stage 1 or a stage 2 or three? The Stage 2 & 3 are usually lowered and even though this may keep everything within factory specs, Roush still doesn't do anything like add any adjustments. Roush makes a very nice car. But with all their add-ons I think they miss some things they should consider like new adjustable stut mounts that get rid of the plastic factory peices and IMO provide better adjustment over Camber bolts. Also they lower the car and don't address the factory geometry of the rear LCA. Two items to me that are of minumal cost that I would be willing to as a buyer to absorb.

I had the alignment shop set mine at -1.5. I'm keeping a watch out at tire wire to make sure my settings aren't too aggressive. I am wondering if I should have went with -1.2 settings. The Roush factory settings are -1.50 to -0.50 degrees. I think you should look into some upper strut mounts before you put on new tires and have an alignment done. The Steeda ones are pretty nice. Maximum Motorsports has some nice ones, but I don't think our cars really need Castor adjustments. Forget the camber bolts. It's alot easier for the alignment shop to do the adjustments from the engine bay than under the car. Plus you get rid of the factory plastic upper mounts and shouldn't cost you much more in labor cost. Labor up front may be alot cheaper than new tires again sooner than later.

Hope this helps some.

 

Potential alignment and handling problems are the ONLY reason I haven't lowered my GT. I have had too many bad experiences with lowering cars (mostly BMW's) then having to deal with poor tire wear and handling geometry that is not as good as factory. Camber kits are a hassle and I don't have that alignment rack in my garage! Gotta say that my tire wear has been very good on the stock suspension with the original Pirelli's...just clicked over 50k...thin but still within limits.

 

I think the big problem is that people go so aggressive with lowering their cars and not going the extra mile to correct simple to fix problems. I went with Steeda springs which only lower the front of the car 1". 1 1/4" in the rear. The first thing is to drop your car using new struts and adding upper strut mounts. Upper strut mounts can be done in your garage. It can be challenging but can be done. Just make some marks before you remove the struts and after you install the new upper strut mounts get them as close as possible to get you to the alignment shop. The same thing can be said for the rear. If you are going to go through the trouble of lowering a car, go ahead and get at a minimum new LCA and relocation brackets to bring them back up to factory geometry. The one thing I can't belive Roush doesn't do for as much as they charge for their cars.

With good quality parts along with springs you shouldn't have any problems. And IMO less than with the factory set-up.

 

inside/outside alignment wear would be more of a incorrect toe angle rather than camber, unless camber is wayyyyy the hell out of alignment. if camber is out but not out by much than it wont effect tire wear as much as toe angles would. i think there is no point in lowering your vehicle unless you are going to shell out the extra cash to get some camber plates and make sure your alignment is in spec or its just one big waste. I wouldnt want to go through millions of sets of tires, would you guys?

 

camber kits are not that much of a hassle, they are just something extra needed to be done when lowering. people complain about lowering problems and tire wear and poor alignment and handling problems,etc but its alot of peoples own faults for not being prepared on what they need to fully do the job. Do it half *** and people will always complain , do it the right way and have fun, its plain and simple. You mention handling geometry and poor tire wear but you dont realize you are buying aftermarket products not a factory products. Buy a quality kit and you wont have problems. Make sure your prepared with all the nessecary parts to lower your vehicle or dont complain went your switching out tires every few months.

 

my car ruined a set of bfgoodwrich kdws in the front like this and thats with STOCK suspension, outside looked great, inside was to the cord.