Hello: I am a new member and making my first post. Not sure if I am doing it right or not. My car is a
2015 C7 Z06 bought new from a local dealer. I now have 8000 miles and just noticed that there
is wear on the front stock tires on the inside. When I went to my dealer they told me that the C7 Z06 comes with an aggressive set up
for the track. I am not sure is this is right or not. Anyway, when I asked if the set up could be changed to a less aggressive set up
for the street so that the wear on the inside of the front tires would last a little longer they explained that their rack could not take my
Z06 because of the fact that I had "ground effects" installed and they would hit and possibly be cracked. So, I have researched several
Corvette dealers in my area and none of them have an alignment rack that will take my car without the ground effects hitting just as
it comes up on the rack because of the steepness of the rack and the ground effects. It is not the front spoiler but just about in the center
of portion about the middle of the door.

I have two questions: 1. Is this a common problem (the ground effects hitting) on a front end alignment rack and 2. Is there a less aggressive set up for street use?

Thanks for any light you can shed on my problem.
Ronnie

 

I am no expert on track alignment vs street alignment but I do have a 15 Z06 same as you and will tell you what I did to my car that had the same tire wear. My car had all 4 tires worn down to the metal cord on the inside of them, the car had been lowered all the way down on the stock bolts by the previous owner which caused the tires and wheels to sit in at the top and out at the bottom so the inside of the tires took most of the wear. I raised my car back up to stock height and put a new set of tires on it, then I had a friend of mine check the alignment at his shop and he said the alignment was good so we made no adjustments. My car has what I guess you called the ground effects package on it, it has a front splitter and the side skirts, we had no problem getting it on his lift. To get it on, he had some long pieces of wood, I guess they were 2x6's and some smaller pieces, we made a ramp to pull the car up on the lift to get clearance and had no problem with it. We just had to be careful in the process. Since I raised my car back to stock height, the tires sit much more straight up and down than they did when it was lowered. I have not put but about 2k miles on the car since then but as far as I can tell, the tire wear seems to be much better and I have more clearance getting in and out of driveway's and parking lots. Hope this gives you a start. Welcome to the Forum

 

Ronnie,

If you are using your Z06 on the street only, there is absolutely a better alignment you could be using. As the other poster mentioned, if your car has been lowered, and not properly aligned after lowering, you are really putting the hurt on your tires. I do all my own alignments so I am not familiar with the limitations of typical alignment racks. If you are near St. Louis, we could do a great alignment at my house.

As far as specific alignment values, it depends on how you use and drive your car. If you have mostly highway miles, you need very little camber. (I would suggest -0.5 to -1.0 up front and -0.25 to -0.5 rear). If you drive around town a lot, you need a bit more camber in the front (same rear settings and -1.0 to -1.5 in front) to prevent inside wear from cornering. In either case you want toe in to be very close to zero because toe in causes very rapid wear on the street. You also need to make sure that whoever does your alignment sets the rear caster to zero ( or up to positive 0.7 degrees). Most shops have never even heard of rear caster and will not have the tools to measure it.

 

Thanks so much for your reply. My car had never been lowered. It is stock from the day I took delivery. I have only 8000 miles on the car and it had only been driven on the
street. However, our roads here in Mississippi are really poor and will keep the alignment shops in business. I was surprised to find out that my Corvette dealer did not have rack
that would take a Corvette for alignment. However, today I did find a front end shop that has a front in rack with a long sloped incline and with the addition of a block of wood for
the rear tires just as it comes to the top of the rack would provide just enough lift to keep the ground effects from being damaged I printed out your suggestions for the alignment
and will give them to him before he starts the alignment adjustments. I think I can get some more wear out of the tires if the toe in is correct. At least make it through the end of
fall and then change to a set of Michelin all season tires. From what I have read they will allow a better ride and longer mileage and be more safe for the winter.
Thanks again
Ronnie