Is this kind of wear just expected with standard track alignment or is it possibly overdone? I love the handling and it tracks straight. Made out to 26,700 on factory tires so I guess that’s close. Just curious if this is “standard” price to pay for 1g corner capability.

 

Inside edge is usually the camber. Higher camber for higher turn performance. Lower camber longer tire mileage. Since I don't track at all, I run camber as close to 0 as I can. I still can expect good performance, just not racing performance. If you track and are serious about your track times crank up the camber BUT, I say BUT, not heavy into worries about a tenth or two in your track time, I'd recommend you back off the camber.

For heaven's sake, don't crank up the camber to be able to say, "Yup, mah car's got a racin' track setup and it's speshul!" At $600 a tire, it's not that "speshul".

Elmer

 

It depends on what you mean by standard. The factory alignment on the GS and Z06 is more aggressive than the alignment on the Stingray and Z51. The original PSS that came on my 19 GS were shot by 18,500 miles even after negating some of the rear camber. I installed Granetelli adjustable Rear Toe Rods which enabled me to remove even more negative camber. I have almost 10,000 miles on my second set of PSS and they show very little wear on the inside edge. I should get another 10,000 or 15,000 miles out of them and then replace them with 4S's

 

I appreciate the response. I’ve only owned this corvette for 10k miles and have only assumed track alignment was what was on there. Trying to figure out what I want to do now. I do not track at all but I enjoy feeling planted in corners. I may very well have my mechanics adjust camber down as suggested.

 

You won't lose a thing on the corners. Track turns are controlled slides around a bend.

Elmer

 

I should’ve stated it’s a grand sport. Thanks for the response.

 

truly appreciate your response and suggestions.

 

You managed nearly 30k on that set. I'd leave the alignment alone, since you don't need to stretch more life out of tires. By the time you've killed those insides that tires was "done" anyway.

 

Very good point.


Elmer

 

OP stated that he has only had the car for the past 10,000 miles. It is very likely that the original set were used up at about the 10,000 to 15,000 mile mark and it is on the second set. GS and Z06 factory alignment eat up the inside edge of the rear tires.

OP I recommend that you look into replacing the tires with a set of Michelin All Season 4S. Better tires in wet and cold conditions and much longer tread life.

 

Mostly...
Usually, but not always. Our C5 started wearing the inner edges of the fronts too early, they did an alignment and the problem was toe-out instead of too much negative camber.
Either way, the solution is the same- you want a good alignment guy to set you up with minimal negative camber and no toe-out.

 

Check the date code on the tires and see if it matches the when the car was built.

 

 

It could also be worn due to an incorrect toe setting. You want the front and rear toe as close to 0.0 degrees as possible. Doing that helps you reduce the wear caused by more negative camber. From the factory the wide body cars usually come with about -1.0 degrees +/- a couple of tenths of a degree camber. They really aren't set at a track alignment which the OM states is -2.0 degrees camber.

Bill

 

Most corvettes are out of alignment from the factory. Since this is a performance car, the tires show this quicker than other cars. Take it to someone who will do a front and rear alignment and put it exactly how you want.

 

Toe plats a much larger role on tire wear than camber.
As Bill stated you need to be near 0 toe with increased camber.

 

I've always thought tire wear from toe was more of a scalloping wear rather than a larger naked spot on the tire. Looking at the OP picture, I don't see scalloping. Hell, the tires are giant gum erasers anyhow and going up a curb will take off 10 pounds of rubber.

I do agree on 0 toe though.


Elmer

 

I heard about the OEM alignment issue with GS and Z06s, so I set up my 2019 GS with the attached DSC alignment specs for street use from day one and have had remarkable tire wear (almost 40K miles on my all-season Michelins and still going strong). Good luck.

 

Think this way. A tire rolling down the road, camber is zero and toe is zero, is going to give absolutely the best wear. As soon as you lean the tire over you wear one side. If you force the tire to go down the road where it is pointed somewhere other than straight ahead (toe in) you get more wear. My previous car was a cobra replica that I autocrossed 2-3 time per month on Hoosiers. I had -3.5 camber front and -2.0 rear. My street tires were the least expensive I could find. Still the fronts lasted 3 years so I was fine w/ that. my Stingray I autocross but 1-2 per month. I started out w/ 2-2.3 front camber. Made some other changes w/ swaybars etc and started to push too much. I messed arounf w/ toe for a bit but finally bit the bullet and went to 3.2 camber. That was a transformation. Car went from be careful don't go into that corner too hard to dang this thing CORNERS. To have that autocross performance I am going to suffer some. I will see how bad it is over time. If one doesn't autocross or track the car, go for 0 to -.5 camber and minimal toein like 1/16" total both front and rear. Over the years I have autocrossed/aligned/daily driven a lot of cars. One thing to understand is that camber is not an on/off switch. More camber will increase cornering power. Less will decrease it. It is a sliding scale. So going from whatever to 0-.5 camber will not change your car drastically. In fact, getting to the point where you can feel a difference because of different camber is crazy. Let's say that, w/ a street alignment, you go from 1.1G cornering power to 1.0G. When would you actually be able to feel that?

 

Just looking at those pics, those tires are not needing to be swapped. The outside line will entirely wear away and then you’ll still have 40-50% of tread left after that happens before you see chords. The rears you’ll likely heat cycle well before you can wear off the tread to chords