Cubicinches

I've got a 2016 Z07. I know there are a bunch of threads on alignment and tire wear, but I couldn't find my specific problem addressed. My car has 5,000 miles on it. I've never tracked it. I just looked at my front tires and noticed that the OUTSIDE of both tires is really worn. I know the Sport Cup 2 tires have very little tread on them from the factory, especially on the outside. But the grooves on the outside of both fronts is almost gone. In fact, on the right front they basically ARE gone. The rear seems to be wearing normally as it looks like the outside of the rears is worn about halfway (i.e. I'll get about 10K out of the rears). All of the sports/sporty cars I've owned in the past have worn the insides of the front tires faster than the outside, which is what I'd expect from the negative camber. Why would mine be wearing so much faster on the outside? Is my alignment really off? Would that also explain why the outsides are almost toast at just 5K miles? That seems like a really short life from a car that's never tracked. If it is an alignment problem, will Chevy cover it? I believe alignments usually aren't covered under warranty for the same reason as tires, wipers and brake pads.

FYI, I already have a service appointment with the dealer in a week for scheduled maintenance. So they should be able to figure out the issue. I just want to arrive educated and to avoid throwing money down the toilet.

Also, I think my car rides higher than most based on my ground to fender measurements. And my right fender is ~1/4 inch higher than the left. I know you can adjustment the suspension bolts; I asked questions about scraping a few months ago. Could my higher ride height be causing or related to my premature and unusual tire wear? Could the fact that the right fender is higher than the left be causing the right front to wear faster than the left front on the outside of the tire?

Larry M

Don't expect much of anything from a dealer outside of an overpriced quote/service

Do you have pictures of your tires? Cups have hardly any tread when new, so it's tough to gauge your problem

evo8power

I wore the inside 2 inches of the fronts to the belt. Got an alignment and probelm was gone. Don’t go to the dealer.

Kazman1960

I had the same problem , 19,000 kms and the front tires were shot .

Cubicinches

I appreciate the responses but mine are wearing are the OUTSIDE, not the INSIDE. So it's the opposite of what a few of you posted you experienced. I'll post pics later today.

Warp Factor

It's still probably alignment, just off in a different way than what most people experience.

Bill Dearborn

If you have the Cup2s the outside tread will disappear faster than the inside tread. The tread grooves aren't as deep in that section of the tire. If you can take a look at a new tire and use a tread depth gauge across each tread groove you will see what I mean. That means as the tire wears the outside half of the tire will start looking like a slick. That is what they are designed to do.





Since I can't see your tire I can't make a definite statement they are fine but at 5K miles I believe everybody who has these tires would see the same condition. If you haven't tracked the car and haven't changed the alignment most of the tire wear will be toward the inside of the tire even though it looks like there is more tread. True track tires have little wear dots in them so you can check how much actual rubber is on a slick tire maybe Michelin should do the same.

As for how many more miles you can get on the tires check the inside groove tread depth and also check the far inside edge of the tread to make sure it doesn't look like the tire pictured above.

Here is what a new Cup2 tread looks like:


Here is what a well used and tracked Cup2 looks like with 5K miles on it:


This is one of my 4 Cup2 tires that I sold to a friend who uses them on track. They have several track days left in them and probably several thousand street miles.

Bill

Cubicinches

Here are some pics of my tires. The first three are the front left and the last four are are the front right. The front right is a little better than I thought.

Cubicinches

I got my car aligned today. Excessive toe-in appeared to be the culprit.

pkincy

How much toe in caused that wear?

Also to the OP. Check out this recent thread.
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...tire-life.html

Particularly post 14 which is from a service manager at a Chev dealer that sells a lot of corvettes. I can't imagine better advice than his.

Cubicinches

thanks, Pkincy. I stumbled upon that link recently, too. Unfortunately, it was a bit too late. Actually, I took my car to the alignment shop last Monday intending to have it realigned. But the alignment guy thought it would be worth going to the dealer to see if I could get it partially covered under warranty. I figured that wouldn't hurt so I left, intending to take it in today when I had an oil change scheduled. But, in a bit of cosmic comedic, I got a bit ol' nail in my left front tire later that day. So instead I just had the alignment shop order two new tires and do the alignment. Seeing the post you pointed out, it seems like I probably could have had the alignment (maybe the tires, too???) partially covered under warranty. Oh well.

Regarding the new alignment, I've been looking at my new specs and they seem much more aggressive than everyone is suggesting for tire wear. I told the alignment guy that I wanted a good balance of longevity and performance. And he's a trusted alignment guy. I guess I'll see how it goes and whether I get a decent life out of the tires. Here are my front specs. You can see my right front had a lot of toe, which makes sense since that tire was wearing even faster than the left.


Front Left
Before / After
Camber: -1.3 / -1.0
Caster: 7.9 / 7.9
Toe: 0.05 / 0.02

Front Right
Before / After
Camber: -0.9 / -0.9
Caster: 8.0 / 8.0
Toe: 0.12 / 0.02

pkincy

Somewhat similar to mine which was in spec as delivered, but I ended up near where you are at -1 deg negative on all 4 tires, 7.5 to 7.6 deg caster up front, total toe in up front of 0.06 each side for a total toe in of 0.12, positive caster in back of 0.5 (changed from as delivered -0.2) and nearly zero toe in the rear (actually toe in of 0.01 and 0.03 for a total toe in in the rear of 0.04).

I have 2 sets of wheels and tires so only have 3500 miles per set but have 7000 miles on the car. And so far with close to the above numbers have very even tire wear. I will watch it going forward.

mdz06vetter

check the following link where Mike Levitas from DSC/TPC Racing describes exactly what needs to happen

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...lp-needed.html

RichieRichZ06

Your initial settings and your "after" settings are not considered aggressive, but if you're trying to get maximum tire life, I would back them down a little more.

Also, from the pics of your front tires, you did not have any excessive outside wear. The Cup tires look like that after a few miles and there are a lot of people on here that would've gladly taken them for a couple track days.

okaythen

Question it's normal that front tires inner edges are wearing out much faster than outer edges right? because of the camber. inner tread it's almost hitting the worn out mark. Outer tread still got a lot left (alignment specs is just street cruising alignment)

pkincy

I would think not. The tire itself was designed for the Z06 specifically and given that I would expect the tire wear with a stock street alignment and normal driving (which means some spirited driving, but not lots of autox or track driving) to be quite even. I have 6900 miles and my wear is even. I don't waste tire rubber by doing burnouts so my front to rear wear seems about even also.

Now if you put all your miles on your car driving down a straight freeway with no G forces, I would expect you would need to have less than one degree negative camber to get even tire wear. However good spirited Sunday drives on your favorite curvy road is what the alignment is speced for.

Mad Dog 24

No, toe in or toe out causes uneven wear much-much more than camber. I run more than -2.0 negative camber on the street front and rear and even more on the track. If you have toe set as close to 0 as possible your wear will be great at about any camber especially in the low -1.0 degree ranges.

okaythen

Oh yeah toe in or toe out I was told that before but I forgot, so my current toe set will cause the inner front tires to wear out even faster and uneven? "final" is after they adjusted it. "initial" is before alignment. https://i.imgur.com/NvbEGHG.jpg?1

But the uneven wear happened before I got the alignment actually. (I guess before and after they both will cause that problem? what do you suggest for street use)

So the front tires is it ok to keep driving with those, inner tread is almost at the worn out mark but outer treads still got a lot left. Only 3000 miles so far actually, lots of wear on the inner tires with the factory alignment!!!

Mad Dog 24

I've never seen an alignment set up that uses degrees with inches, odd. I can see how you were getting wear in the front with the initial. What is says its at at now should be fine and not create premature wear. I like more camber but that's me and I get lazy not wanting to realign before and after every track event.

If you continue to get uneven wear with the steering wheel centered. I would put a 3 or 4 foot straight edge against the center line out side edge of the front tires. This is a easy visual of the toe whether in our out. Simply align the straight edge with the cars body. Have someone hold it then stand back and look. I don't trust all alignment machines to be accurate or the person performing. We just purchased a brand new 25k Hunter simply because we had some issues with our old one. Good luck