Alignment Question...Help Please!

[Raddman]

Both my front tires are starting to wear badly on just the insides, each tire about the same, I was replacing a fog light bulb and noticed this today and looking straight at my tires from the front I can see the bottoms bowed out a little.., I had an alignment last year when I bought my new tires and it was almost perfect..My car doesn't pull or anything and I'm taking it in tomorrow...My question what would cause this and also reading online that I't a negative camber problem and it also says that on most front wheeled cars you can't adjust the camber anyone know this to be true? If it is what are my other options to fix this? It must have just started because I had my tires rotated 3k ago and the tirewear was fine, struts, worn parts?... I have a 03s with 48K on it..any help would be appreciated, thanks...~Radd Guy~

[Flashmn]

Yup, its pretty much true.
do you have lowerng springs?

[fredk]

ride height will change camber

[Raddman]

Originally Posted by Flashmn

Yup, its pretty much true.
do you have lowerng springs?

No...So whats my options? How do I get it fixed?....

[REN69]

Take it back to the shop that did the alignment and show them your tires.. obviously they didn't do it right.

I think if the tires are almost out of thread it will be more noticeable but its really not too much to worry about as the alignment is probably not off by a lot BUT if your tires are still basically new and you're noticing it a lot, then yeah go back and get them to fix it as you're wearing out your tires due to a bad alignment.

[fredk]

go to an alignment shop and they should check the ride height and tire pressure and see if it meets spec, then continue on to check the alignment, some front drive cars with struts have an egg shaped hole on one of the 2 strut to spindle mount bolt holes and you set camber that way, i have seen guys egg one hole to set camber

[Raddman]

Originally Posted by fredk

go to an alignment shop and they should check the ride height and tire pressure and see if it meets spec, then continue on to check the alignment, some front drive cars with struts have an egg shaped hole on one of the 2 strut to spindle mount bolt holes and you set camber that way, i have seen guys egg one hole to set camber

Thanks, just checking my last alignment printout it did show a camber adjustment...The place I take it to here is a top notch AAA approved place, but looking at the tires again I'm seeing/feeling spotty wear on the inside like its skipping, some spots are worn while other places are normal...but why would both tires have exactly the same type wear? I called BJ's where I got the tires from(They don't do alignments) and he said he has seen that type of wear on tires before its from bad wheel bearings or struts

[fredk]

i would believe struts, a bad bearing howls like a sick whore at speed

[Raddman]

Originally Posted by fredk

i would believe struts, a bad bearing howls like a sick whore at speed

But both exactly at the same time ...Oh well I'll find out tomorrow and let you people know what it is!...Radd Guy...

[fredk]

thats cool

[Flashmn]

Some cars factory values are slightly negative camber. Like mercedes, they have lots of neg camber at the rear.

[Raddman]

Just came back from getting an alignment, the toe was a little off but not enough to cause the erratic wear pattern and the camber/caster was within specs, my suspension checked out fine also, the problem with the wear and road noise is that I put over-sized tires on 205-- normal 185-195 You wouldn't think that little of a increase could cause a problem like this.....Only 12K on these tires(BFG traction T/A H rated) I will just wear them down over the winter and replace them in the spring with the correct size and get another alignment then for summer travel, ..I had a little luck they had a $35 4 wheel alignment special this month, I'm thinking about getting Goodyear Assurance triple tread, any thoughts on this?...thanks for all the input...~Radd Guy~