The front end alignment is perfect according to the alignment machine. The car runs perfectly straight.

This is the right side front tire. The left side tire is wearing normally.

Tom

 

ok...

 

well something ain't right....kinda hard to see in the pic..you have closeups??

 

your alignment is off... no question about it

 

What type of roads do you normally drive on? Crowned country roads may cause increased wear on the inner rib(s) of wide tires.To compensate for that, decreased camber may be the answer.

vettepilot

 

Either too much toe out or negative camber. How do the rest of the tires look?

 

The other tires are wearing evenly. They still look nearly new. The tires have about 15,000 miles on them. Thanks.

Tom

 

The roads are indeed very crowned around here!

Tom

 

I think your alignment shop needs to check how they are mounting their equipment. This tire is running out-of-alignment.

 

The front tires on 01 Z06 were worn worse. Down to fabric on inner right. The left was worn on the inside as well. When I had new tires mounted the shop said it was how most all C-5's look when they come in?

 

The alignment machine needs an alignment.

 

this might sound stupid but i used to get alot of wear like that on a camaro from having the tire pressure to high.

 

Alignment machine needs alignment....could be true.

What are the specs said machine is reporting as perfect?

Could be a toe out issue.

What about the rear wear pattern.

Need specs to offer .02.

 

No doubt, camber is way out (or in depending on how you look at it ). If it was a toe-out issue then both tires would show wear, or it would pull. You may also have a bad ball joint or bent lower control arm, but it is most likely just a bad alignment. Take it to a different shop and have it re-done. Take the new print from the shop that does it correctly back to the shop that "swears" they did it right and get a refund on the alignment along with some money for the tire the ruined. Good luck

 

I had a C4 That did the same thing alignment shop said the alignment was right, The car whent perfectly straight but on highe speed turns the front end felt a little floaty (is floaty a word?). I took it to a Corvette specialty garage they replaced the inner tie rod end and the hub. Now the car handles great and the tire wears properly.

 

This is really interesting and worthy of archiving. It seems that the last post (prior to this one) offers the solution. I would like to know what specialty shop this was, because the obvioulsy know handling!

 

absultley true, it may be cause by too high or too low tire pressure. A freind had a jeep and the right left tire was way low, he drove on it anyway for a few months and it caused the same effect. after we inflated his tire to the proper psi, it was evident it was too late, because th tire kept wearing away in that sae groove

 

looks like negative camber, did u lower recently? is one corner riding lower then the rest?

 

with it only wearing one tire on the front, it will be a too much negative camber issue. toe will be equal on both sides. the vehicle can drive straight down the road, be in specs, and still wear the tires. for instance, the corvette uses -0.7* camber on the front. with an allowable range of 0.5* so, your total range will be -0.2* to -1.2* camber. through all my years of doing alignments, and my training from HUNTER ENGINEERING, anything past 0.75* either way ,positive or negative, will wear the tire on that side of the tire (positive = outside, negative = inside). when aligning a vehicle, we use offsets to ompensate for the road crown which leans to the right. to offset for road crown, alignment techs will do one of two or both things. you offeset the camber higher on the left than the right. or you make the caster higher on the right than the left. usually in the range of 0.5*.

let's say the alignment tech used the camber offset. we'll say the left front tire was at -0.6* now we add more negative camber so the left side will be higher than the left. this brings the right side to -1.1*. the car will drive straight, still be in specs, but still wear the right front tire. even though it's 'in specs', it's too much negative with what we have learned.

what i like to do is keep camber equal on both sides and use caster to offset for road crown. caster is a non wearing angle. let's say the caster specs are 6.0* +/-1.00* i'll put the left side to 6.0* and the right side to 6.5*. this will compensate for road crown pull and not wear the tires.

there is an instance where toe can be the cause. but in this case you would have to have a drift/pull to the left. if the toe was negative, or both tires turned outwards, with a left pull, then the right inside tire would wear and the left one not. because you are turning the wheel to the right to compensate for the pull. the front tires will drive down the road like this: I and / the left front tire is driving straight with the road, but the right tire is pointed away from the car. resulting in it being 'dragged' down the road scrubbing the inside of it.

post the alignment results if you have them.

 

Go to a different shop. You have several degrees of negative camber.