Had a front end alignment in Aug 04. Right front tire had inner wear so bad threads exposed, left front worn much less on the inside with no threads showing. Mileage on the tires, 20,000. Rears showed more even wear.

Alignment guy said the left front had positive camber resulting in the right being more worn.

New tires in Aug 04 after the alignment and I am seeing the same wear pattern again.

Questions:

1. Does the alignment guy's analysis make sense?

2. How big of a change in handling for a car that is not raceed if one reduced the negative camber all the way around?

Thanks for any suggestions experience.

 

game on,

I had the same "problem"....the inside of both fronts were down to the threads after 12K. Rears were showing normal wear. My alignment guy was sure I had deliberately set the car up for hard track racing. As far as I am aware, Chev do have a somewhat aggresive camber setup to go along with the track-ready nature of the car. I suspect that there is some variance between cars though. I have never heard of a street car having positive camber...especially on the front. I have a far less aggresive alignment now at the front, and have not noticed any difference on the road. Althougn I drive my car hard, I have never tracked it....so what do I know...

 

Thanks for your input. Since I don't race the car, I think I will go with less aggressive front settings. Don't need to be spending $600. every 12,000 miles for front tires.

I drive mine hard also. That's what its made for.

Some of us like to race and some of us like to show off. Show offs don't need race setups.

Thanks cactusZ06.

 

The stock c5 has -.3 degrees camper per side and the Z06 spec is -.7 per side. I just had my car allighned at -1.3 per side front neutral toe front and -1 rear w/ 1/8th total toe in. The allignment was so far out of spec it wasn't even funny. I had been trying to track down a poor handling problem for some time (car felt sloppy on turn in). Now with the allginment the difference is night and day... the car is amazing now.

 

Cobra4B

Thanks for the info. My Z06 has felt sloppy also. Loose, darts on uneven road surface, rear wants to steer the car in hard turns.

I'll take it to the alignment shop with instructions with your setup.

The Z06 is a great car. Drove a C6 coupe last week, 6sped and it just didn't seem to be as strong as the 02 Z06. Felt like the Z was 25-30 hp stronger. Could be the difference in weight.

Thanks again for your input. Great thing about the forum, sharing info and experiences. Class, unselfish people.

 

The stock Z06 specs are:
Specs:
Front Individual Toe: +0.04 degree +/- 0.10 degree
Front Sum Toe: +0.08 degree +/- 0.20 degree
Front Individual Caster: +6.9 degree +/- 0.50 degree
Front Cross Caster: within +/- 0.25 degree
Front Individual Camber: -0.70 degree +/-0.50 degree
Front Cross Camber: within +/-0.25 degree
Rear Individual Toe: -0.01 degree +/- 0.10 degree
Rear Sum Toe: -0.02 degree +/- 0.20 degree
Rear Individual Camber: -0.68 degree +/- 0.50 degree
Rear Cross Camber: within +/- 0.50 degree

As you can see, there is a pretty wide variance in allowed front camber, ranging from -1.2 to -0.2. Positive is not within specs, so I question his analysis.
As a data point, I had my stock fronts aligned to -1.75 and wore out the inner edge in 3k miles and two DEs. 20k is actually pretty good.

I personally think the median front spec for the Z06 of -0.7 is a pretty good street compromise if you want decent handling but long wear. More negative camber will help handling at the cost of wear on the inner edge (in my experience).
Front toe can also have a large impact on wear and handling. The more toe out you have the better the turn in and mid-corner grip, but the higher the wear. Neutral front toe will help reduce wear and you probably won't notice the drop in handling unless you track the car regularly.