I will be taking my 2006 coupe with base suspention in next week for an alignment after I have four new Firestone Run Flats installed. I got 41,000 miles out of the original GoodYear base tires but i noticed that the inside of the front tires were worn more than the outside. I would like to set up the alignment for maximum tire wear. Almost all of my driving is highway and I am not concerned about how well it corners as this car will never see the track. I just want the car to go straight down the road and have the tires wear evenly. I checked the FAQ section and the links for alignment appear to be dead.....So my question is what would be the best setup for me? What do I need to tell the alignment tech to achieve my goals? Thank You in advance for
any help you may be able to offer.

 

First of all, how much more were the insides of the front tires worn than the rest of the tire? If it was only 1/32, I wouldn't mess with it as chances are the wear will be worse than before. Does the car go down the road straight now? (Note: It won't track straight on all roads/road surfaces. If there are grooves in the road or the camber on the road is the opposite of normal (like when you're in the left lane of the interstate), then the car will pull. That has nothing to do with the alignment though.) Did the back tires wear unevenly?

I had a girlfriend that would get an alignment every year so I asked her if the tires ever wore uneven before the alignment and she said no. I then asked her why she would want to get an alignment...the best she could hope for is that they didn't change anything and she paid good money for them to tell her what her tires were already telling her. I guess the point I'm trying to get at is if you got 41,000 miles out of a set of tires on a Corvette, I don't think I'd mess with the alignment even if the fronts did wear slightly uneven. Put the new tires on the car, skip the alignment and pocket the money. Let them screw around with it and you may only get 30,000 miles out of your next set of tires. I'm a firm believer in "If it ain't broke, don't f**k with it".

If you still insist on getting it aligned to even out the wear pattern, find out where the toe, camber, and caster is now and then move camber 1/4 degree towards positive camber and reset caster and toe to the same as the before specs. And don't blame me if your tire wear increases...a flat wear pattern doesn't necessarily equate to long wear. Again, it depends on how much wear difference you had. Good luck!

 

41,000 miles on the first set of tires, thats an anomaly. How did you do that?????

I bought a C5 with 16K miles on it. When I was painting the calipers and took off the wheels, I freaked because the inside front rt was down to the steel belts while on the outside it looked good. I had it aligned for $60 by GM. the before and after printout showed a bad alignment.

On my C6 I had it aligned with the after market TOYOs and wheels because it was pulling to the right, and it rides fine now, doesn't pull etc.

 

What air pressure cold are you running?

 

Thanks for the replies so far. I had to be away from my computer for a while and could not respond. I kind of agree with Glass Slipper on my alignment issue. I would say that the wear on the front tires from the inside to the outside was probably about 1/32 difference, maybe a little more, and the back tires wore absolutely even and look to have at least 5,000 more miles on them. I might just pass on an alignment at this time. The car tracks straight and true when going down the highway. I have always run 30lbs. cold and am pretty good at checking them regularly. I guess it ain't broke and I don't really want to run the risk of messing it up.