gompers

iTrader: (4)

My 92 miata is lowered on SPAX coilovers, and I have always assumed that my low tire life was a symptom of camber. The inside inch takes SUCH a beating, I finally got it aligned at a local (non chain) shop. The inside inch of my front two tires were showing cord, while the rears seem to be evenly wearing.

I received a printout after my alignment - and they didn't touch the camber. Caster and toe were out of spec but adjusted properly, but the camber before/after were left the same (and out of "factory" spec, highlighted in red, although I forget the number and lost the sheet).
Having owned a honda before, I thought "****, I need a camber kit" and forgot about it for a while after getting new tires. Well, I checked the tires again, and same issue is here(yeah big surprise). crazy inside wear on the front tires, little/no wear on the outside.

After a little research, I see I am an idiot, and the camber should be adjustable from factory! Yay! I called the same shop and said "you worked on it before, why wasn't the camber adjusted to spec?" and I am supposed to go in again to have it checked, and hopefully have the camber adjusted.

My question: what should I expect? Although I now know there is no "kit", I've heard about the possibility of my "eccentric bolts" being maxed.

Although I forget the camber printout reading, wouldn't "maxed" adjustment on a lowered car result in fairly even tire wear? I've heard of alignments on lowered cars still resulting in near-factory tire life.

And would it have been possible to adjust my caster/toe without touching the camber? I thought the camber/caster were adjusted on the same bolt.


Thanks!

aidandj

iTrader: (5)

Raise your car.

jmann

If this is mainly street driven it sounds like you have alot of toe out which well greatly increase tire wear on the inside. You need your alignment spec sheets though first.

Braineack

iTrader: (62)

what are your actual before/after numbers?

Savington

iTrader: (31)

Post a picture of your car.

x_25

Toe causesbwear the fastest, but if you are running more than about 1.5 degrees of camber you will see some camber wear as well unless you drive hard enough to load the tires to wear evenly. My car is set up at 3.25* front and 2.75* rear and wears the inside edges of my street tires both front and rear (toe is zero). My autocross tires wear dead evenly though since they see almost constant cornering any time they are on the car.

gompers

iTrader: (4)

Here are a few pictures. The height can be seen (is it low enough to explain the camber issues?) as well as what I am experiencing with my tires every 5k miles or so.

I didn't really consider the TOE as the culprit. Although it is just by memory now, my printout indicated a correction of toe, and no effect on camber, but again - it really doesn't help since I don't have the numbers handy.

Should I go to the same place or try another place? If the tire screams "bad toe" I won't bother ******* with the same people, since I remember it being "corrected".

I should also mention that the PASSENGER side seems more effected, and moreso that the two FRONT tires, as opposed to the rear, are getting beat up. The ride height seems even all around, though.



Picture of tire recently removed from the car.

http://imgur.com/wiJ8yKW



This view shows the ride height.

http://imgur.com/qaxZ6ad


Looking from the front, the tire is being eaten on the inside, but camber doesnt seem out of whack too much by inspection of the tire angle.

http://imgur.com/TcCIqY9

gompers

iTrader: (4)

Will have shop check it on Monday.

Will post specs then, with updated printout.

jmann

On street tires at only 5,000 miles that looks like a toe issue, bad ball joints, worn a arm bushings, worn tierod ends. It looks lkie an alignment issue and not neg camber. Take it to a schwab and have them check it.

gompers

iTrader: (4)

Got a call from the shop. They threw on new tires for free, got toe in spec, adjusted camber a bit more than previously - but they are saying my tie rod end is out of thread on the passenger side (the bigger problem side) and cannot get it down any further. They've ordered another tie rod end and if it fixes it, I will only have to pay for the tie rod end.


For a little history:
I have a 92 which used to have a manual rack and pinion. The manual rack died on me, and I decided to grab a "depowered" power steering rack for cheap. It came with bad tie rod ends, so I picked up a set online (some cheap bastards), installed the rack and the tie rod ends, and drove to get it aligned. That's when the toe/castor were "fixed" and camber were unchanged (original post).

So are the tie rod ends different for a manual rack vs a power steering rack (length/thread wise) or is it more likely that the cheap tie rods I originally put on just suck, and lack the proper length?

Shop said they will get both a manual and a power-steering model of tie rod end if they're listed that way (to check the difference), but I won't know until tomorrow. I've seen reports online that inner tie rods of a manual rack dont work with a power steering rack, but the rack that I have came with inner tie rods that seemed ok so they're still on it. I can't remember if I bought tie rod ends for a manual rack model year and just put it on the power steering rack.

Thanks again

gompers

iTrader: (4)

Tie rod ends are the same length. heres the new report. I may have to raise it :/

jmann

That isn't much neg camber,more then stock but track cars run alot more with no toe issues, is the replacement strg rack for a NA and not a NB?

thumpetto007

iTrader: (15)

didn't read full thread

gompers

iTrader: (4)

Yeah my camber is pretty close to stock now.

And TBH I've got no idea if the rack is from an NA or NB

I bought the steering rack listed "90-93 Mazda Miata Mx-5 OEM power steering rack & pinion gear box end boots torn" and it bolted in place after modifying one of the brackets a bit. How would I be able to tell?

Guys at the shop say the manual R&P inner and outer tie rods are the same, and they measured both against OEM ones they got shipped in.

******* put 5mm taller tires on so it rubs a bit on bumps though, but all in all not a bad deal for returning there. I'll order some c-spanners and attempt to raise the car a bit.

Although I should get it realigned after raising/lowering, does anyone have an idea of toe vs ride height change?
I found a ride height v camber curve online, but not sure how toe changes with it.

whisper

Had the same issue when I had camber about L 1.6 / R 2.2 and I needed to raise the car... I still have some neg camber, but the tire wear it's quite acceptable now.