Wheel Wednesday

Appreciate the write up. Very informative and was much aligned (pun intended) with what others were saying on the S550 forums. All things were pointing to some spec not being right for the car.

When the tires were wearing bad I got a report done at the end of the second sets life. Then decided on the camber bolts. In the garage the "home made tool" shows 1 degree positive but it is only the reading I saw visually when I did the install and just wanted it to show a bit on that side to indicate a change was made. By no means precise.

Inadvertently when I put in the bolts I may have achieved close to what I needed as it seems to have changed the toe in also. Never really took a hard look at the second set of numbers until now after your comments. I ran 28,000 kms on the new set of tires (cheap Hercules Road Tour so if the issue was still there not much spent) after the bolts and it wore even across the face, no feathering either. When driving if I hit roads with the rise or groove in them (100 series highways down here are like river channels) which normally would pull the car to the side it seems to hold true. Steering is not stiff, turning is good. 11,000 on the new Pirelli's now and looking good so far.

Just for reference (I am sure there is a spec which will stand out) here is the before alignment report (they did a slight tweak) after the first set of tires when I asked them to check why it was wearing bad, which stayed the same for the second set. Followed by the report after the bolts. Next visit is next month for the safety and may ask them to do a new report to see how things have stayed. The second one I only asked for a reading so there are no before values.

Before when tires were wearing inside.

OriginalSettings.jpg


After bolts to now.

RevisedSettings.jpg


Again, it is good to see the depth of your posts and the information is well presented. I may not tweak something which appears to be working well at this point. The toe in may be a bit more than you suggest. Will see how this set wears along.

Thanks.
 

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SVT4MT said:
Another reason to like this forum, great discussion.

I'll have to get the numbers for mine in the spring and see what I've got and where I need to go.

I got 25,000km out of the front tires, which was 3000km better than what I got out of the rear tires.

Oddly, there was a lot less tread depth left on the rears for some reason. lol
Click to expand...

25,000km is excellent mileage for the type of tires that come on that car.
I mean Excellent!

And yah, we like to get on these cars a little hard now and then, so the rears go as well.
Enjoy the car, and when tires are due, get 4 shoes at a time and call it a day. ?
 
MC Stanger said:
Appreciate the write up. Very informative and was much aligned (pun intended) with what others were saying on the S550 forums. All things were pointing to some spec not being right for the car.

When the tires were wearing bad I got a report done at the end of the second sets life. Then decided on the camber bolts. In the garage the "home made tool" shows 1 degree positive but it is only the reading I saw visually when I did the install and just wanted it to show a bit on that side to indicate a change was made. By no means precise.

Inadvertently when I put in the bolts I may have achieved close to what I needed as it seems to have changed the toe in also. Never really took a hard look at the second set of numbers until now after your comments. I ran 28,000 kms on the new set of tires (cheap Hercules Road Tour so if the issue was still there not much spent) after the bolts and it wore even across the face, no feathering either. When driving if I hit roads with the rise or groove in them (100 series highways down here are like river channels) which normally would pull the car to the side it seems to hold true. Steering is not stiff, turning is good. 11,000 on the new Pirelli's now and looking good so far.

Just for reference (I am sure there is a spec which will stand out) here is the before alignment report (they did a slight tweak) after the first set of tires when I asked them to check why it was wearing bad, which stayed the same for the second set. Followed by the report after the bolts. Next visit is next month for the safety and may ask them to do a new report to see how things have stayed. The second one I only asked for a reading so there are no before values.

Before when tires were wearing inside.

View attachment 52682

After bolts to now.

View attachment 52684

Again, it is good to see the depth of your posts and the information is well presented. I may not tweak something which appears to be working well at this point. The toe in may be a bit more than you suggest. Will see how this set wears along.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

From your first sheet, we can see your car came from factory with roughly negative 1 degree camber each side.
-0.9 one side and -1.0 on the other.
But the toe was open with -0.01 on one side and 0.00 on the other.
This will cause accelerated front inner wear.

And I have to apologize to the guy that did the work for you.
I was critical of him because you said your inner wear continued, but he did exactly was he should have done.
He closed the front end on your car by giving you 0.02 toe in on one side and 0.03 on the other.
This should have addressed the issue.

Plus, you have the benefit of being able to fo rotate your front and rear tires.
Everything should be fine.

Your second sheet shows you do have positive camber now of 0.1 degree on one side and 0.3 on the other.
And your toe in is aggressive with 0.11 on one side and 0.10 on the other.

This may be good for your tire wear but in theory that setup should be wearing the outside shoulders of your front tires faster than the inside.

It is also not a good responsive or handling setup, and for the reasons I noted in the previous post, a potential safety issue.

Make sure you keep those front tires aired up to give the sidewalls as much support as possible and don’t be aggressive in curves.
 
67 AGAIN said:
From your first sheet, we can see your car came from factory with roughly negative 1 degree camber each side.
-0.9 one side and -1.0 on the other.
But the toe was open with -0.01 on one side and 0.00 on the other.
This will cause accelerated front inner wear.

And I have to apologize to the guy that did the work for you.
I was critical of him because you said your inner wear continued, but he did exactly was he should have done.
He closed the front end on your car by giving you 0.02 toe in on one side and 0.03 on the other.
This should have addressed the issue.

Plus, you have the benefit of being able to fo rotate your front and rear tires.
Everything should be fine.

Your second sheet shows you do have positive camber now of 0.1 degree on one side and 0.3 on the other.
And your toe in is aggressive with 0.11 on one side and 0.10 on the other.

This may be good for your tire wear but in theory that setup should be wearing the outside shoulders of your front tires faster than the inside.

It is also not a good responsive or handling setup, and for the reasons I noted in the previous post, a potential safety issue.

Make sure you keep those front tires aired up to give the sidewalls as much support as possible and don’t be aggressive in curves.
Click to expand...
All is good. Nobody did anything wrong along the way in my opinion and I have had good service from the Ford techs every time. As was noted sometimes the specs are good but not 100 % perfect in every condition. Could even be another factor where the alignment is good on paper but a bad bushing or link causes issues when driving leading to the wear. Will make the next call at end of this tire set on which adjustment to go with and getting the neg camber is considered. Trying not to change too much at once. When the backs went to the front they were fine until the next service and then saw them wearing the same way. Damn tires are not cheap. I am pretty much a straight line driver. Nothing aggressive happening with an Eco-Boost. Thanks again.
 
MC Stanger said:
All is good. Nobody did anything wrong along the way in my opinion and I have had good service from the Ford techs every time. As was noted sometimes the specs are good but not 100 % perfect in every condition. Could even be another factor where the alignment is good on paper but a bad bushing or link causes issues when driving leading to the wear. Will make the next call at end of this tire set on which adjustment to go with and getting the neg camber is considered. Trying not to change too much at once. When the backs went to the front they were fine until the next service and then saw them wearing the same way. Damn tires are not cheap. I am pretty much a straight line driver. Nothing aggressive happening with an Eco-Boost. Thanks again.
Click to expand...

You bring up a good point about a bad link or bushing.

Thorough inspection of those components is mandatory part of NB Motor vehicle inspection here.
It used to be annual requirement.
Now, it’s been changed to every two years.

I get front end and alignment checked every year regardless.
I like the piece of mind.

There are three critical component groups that contribute to keeping a car securely on the road surface and safe.
Steering, brakes and tires.

Ultimately, those 4 tiny tire contact patches are the only thing keeping a 3500 lbs. chunk of metal on the road.

Safe motoring all.
 
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