I know that this has been discussed many times, but in doing a search, I found a lot of conflicting information on the right numbers for a daily driver 98' coupe. So I thought I would ask.........

Recently paid way too much for an alignment from the dealership...and now I have a passenger side front tire that has worn only on the inside edge...I am looking at the alignment report from February and have the following numbers:

Left Front Right Front
Camber : -0.3 -0.4
Caster: 6.1 6.1
Toe: .06 .05

Total Front:
Cross Camber: 0.1
Cross Caster: 0.0
Total Toe: .12
Set Back: -.17

Left Rear Right Rear
Camber : -0.2 -0.2
Toe: -.04 .08

Total Rear
Total Toe: .04
Thrust Angle: -.06

Anyone tell me if this is right or what is wrong? And any idea why I toasted the passenger front so fast??

Any help appreciated.

C5inVA


:confused:

 

Hi there,
Your alignment specs are right on the money.
These are correct for your vehicle. However, as slight down side to the specs is that your tires will wear slightly on the inside of the tread.
This is normal for the specs that you are running. Your alignment should be checked and adjusted as necessary every year or 12,000 miles. A balancing should also be performed at this time.
Besttoyou, c4c5 :chevy

 

Your front camber is too negative to get good tire wear, but it is within GM specs. Here's an old post of mine and I'm still running the same specs with excellent tread wear.

Here's my thoughts on alignment. I too had tire wear problems and was running on my third set of front tires by the time I acquired enough information about the C5 alignment to get things figured out, (I think). I set my own alignment in my home shop so I can try lots of settings with little expense.
First off, keep this in mind, you're driving a high performance car and a little aggressive tire wear is not out of line for a performance car running neg. camber, which is necessary to attain the cornering G-force ratings GM advertises.
According to GM document #776629, which gives alignment specs for the C5 & Z06, the (Preferred Front Camber is -.20 degree) for the C5 with FE1 & FE3 suspension. The (Camber Tolerance is +/- .50 degree). So if your front camber is anywhere between (-.70 degree to +.30 degree), you are within GM specs. You hardly need an alignment machine to get camber within that tolerance, that's easy hand level and eyeball range.
The Good Year run flat tires have a wide, square shoulder tread and a very hard sidewall which will put much more pressure on the edges of the tread, due to a small camber angle, and will result in what seems to be aggressive tread wear on the edges of the tread, usually the inside due to the neg. camber. Non-runflat tires have a much softer more compliant sidewall and is part of the reason the Z06 runs more negative camber.
The more square (0 degree camber) you set a wide tread tire, like the runflat, with the road, the less abnormal tread wear you will see.
I think it would be a wise move for GM to provide a set of "performance specifications" for aggressive driving, and another set of "touring specifications" for normal highway driving. They would need to provide a brief pro & con statement of the two specs and let the driver decide which way he wants his car set up.
So, back to the question as to what to use for good tire wear. Following is what I am currently running and with 11000 miles on the Stone RFT’s , there is no measurable wear variation in the tread.

Front
Camber: 0.0 degree, (error to the pos. side less than .10 degree if not exactly 0)
Caster: 5.0 degree, (steers a little easier and not nearly as important for street as it is for performance)
Total Toe: 0.1 degree pos.
Rear
Camber: 0.0 degree, (error to the neg. side less than .10 degree if not exactly 0)
Total Toe: 0.0 degree to neg. 0.1 degree

 

c4c5specialist,

Do you still recommend a tire re-balance every 12K miles even if no problem is noticed?

 

Hi there,
ABSOLUTELY.
Besttoyou, c4c5 :chevy

 

Boy do I like seeing that face around here....:D :seeya c4c5 :D :cheers:

 

All I can see is his arm :confused: Heh, nice to see c4c5specialist around though!

 

Excellent answer! I recently went from standard GY RF over to Z06 tires and wheels. Had the Hunter shop align to Z06 specs. My car has never felt better so would heartily recommend using z06 specs when going to wider tires/wheels, esp non GY EMT types.

 

thanks for the responses and the tips.....c4c5specialist, can you recommend alignment specs that you would use for a decent balance between reasonable tire wear and good performance??

thanks in advance

Jon.

 

Thanks for the help. Two of my tires were only slightly out of balance, the two tires that seemed to increase in tire pressure more than the other two tires when getting out on the hot highways. :yesnod:

 

Hi there,
Personally, I think you have them, however, if you want to stop the wearing out on the inside of the tire, bring your camber settings to 0.
That will assist in the wear of your tires, although, the down side is that your cars turnin response will be slightly slower.
Besttoyou, c4c5 :chevy