Excessive Tyre Wear...

[S2central.net]

Hoping some of the geometry gurus can offer advise here...

I recently changed over to winter tyres and noticed pretty horrendous wear on my summer tyres - just at the front - inside shoulder of both tyres.

I had the front suspension rebuilt last winter with new bushes and joints etc. I had paint marked everything as best I could to get aligned reasonably. When I put it all together it drove pretty damn straight except the steering wheel needed recentred - just by one spline on the column so I figured it was OK and it handled well enough. I could feel improvement of the new bushes but the kak old Avon tyres never really inspired much confidence.

I did check the front camber (with a string/plumb guage) and recall that I was a little more negative than the books stated, but figured that would be OK. I also used a driveover guage for toe and it looked OK - guess I should have had a proper quattro alignment done - last time I went to a quick fit style place they made a mess of front toe settings and left a locknut loose !

So is my destruction of the front tyres due to excessive -ve camber or bad toe settings ?

[Lloyd]

Lot's of neg camber gets my vote.

[Rusty]

Get the camber set right, sounds like you've worked on the front struts and not had it set. The adjustment is off the lower ball joints if the garage you go to **** about...

[Fat Audi 80]

My front tyres wear the first 25 - 30mm of the inside edge rather savagely, but not down to the cord or anything like that. By the time the rest of the tread is worn out they are still okay. I have put it down to the camber. My car was 4 wheel aligned donkey's years ago, but i have not had the front suspension apart much and assume by the way it drives that is it more or less correct.

If it is still handling well and your tyres do not go illegal, I would personally leave it...

Cheers,

Steve

[Rusty]

Worth noting that the RS2 manual recommends that you don't remove the 2 M12 bolts holding hte strut to hub, instead it tells you to remove the lower BJ f & driveshaft from the hub. Those strut to hub bolts are also stretch and must be replaced. Torque to 110Nm + 90deg. I didn't do this and FT turned into

[Flat on my back]

.

Have you noticed an increase in fuel consumption...flashing blue lights behind you...smell of burnt rubber...

Seriously...proper tracking time me thinks.

[anton]

depends how its worn really, if its just on the edge then its more than likely toe out, excessive camber is a softer wear, and just gradually increces from the center of the wheell out.
Toe gets my vote but as mentioned before you rly need the whole car re-alighned, paint marks arent rly enough IMHO, also everything has a place, the two bolts that hold the hub to the strut have hive in them when tightening, can make up to a degree of camder difference i'd guess, then the toe will be out too....annoying i know but you should really re-alighn every time you take apart the suspention.

Ant

[S2central.net]

I did plan to get it all aligned properly after the work, but it felt OK and I figured was close enough... What I should really do is refurb the rear bushes and joints then get a proper quattro alignment done.... Ahh but my dampers need changed too - I should wait for that to be all done. Dang car......

[Keeper of The Kitten]

Inside shoulder usually indicates toe out. Not sure if we can dial in enough camber to be that severe (if it can be done then camber is also feasible) but toe out is definitely possible. Worn joints don't help of course.

[Keeper of The Kitten]

(Sorry I just noticed Ant's post - I totally agree with Ant)

[S2central.net]

I think that makes sense - I'm no geometry expert - but whilst I recall my camber being slightly more negative as I oriented the joints that way - there isn't enough adjustment for any radical setups without lengthening bolt holes on the strut etc etc...

I can see how excessive toe-out might do that...
Thinking about it more - I sometimes notice the steering doesn't return as readily as I remember - would that be an indicator of excessive toe out ?
I always thought strange castor angles were the dominant thing with that, but maybe toe plays a part ????

[Keeper of The Kitten]

Toe out is great for getting a car to turn into corners, but it isn't so good for straightlines ...castor will induce self alignment but the offset of the kingpin centreline from the tyre contact centre is dominant in self-alignment.

[anton]

Toe out is great for getting a car to turn into corners, but it isn't so good for straightlines ...castor will induce self alignment but the offset of the kingpin centreline from the tyre contact centre is dominant in self-alignment.

As above but also the amount of caster on our cars is very small, about 1.5-2 degrees if my memory serves.

as for waiting to do the alignment after you've done stuff i'm the same, always feel like i'd be wasting my money since i know it will be coming off.....problem is i keep doing things for about ayear now so constantly have wheels in wrong directions lol, but i saved about a grand haha.

Ant

[Error404]

IME heavy negative camber doesn't wear tyres particularly hard, but even a small amount of excess toe wears tyres savagely

[Rusty]

If you're anything like me then you get excessive tyre wear as a direct result of playing too much Gran Turismo