# uneven tire wear



## dan7225 (Feb 23, 2004)

98 b14 2.0 5-speed

tires have been wearing on the inside for a long while now.
i get it aligned every 6 months ($99 3yr deal).
the driver side front tire is always the one that's out of toe + or - a little.
it almost seems like the car can't keep a constant alignment.

stock suspension
from what i can remember, camber is -1.6 degrees in front and -1.8 degrees in rear.
is this very far off from what it should be? there's no way to adjust the rear camber is there (i.e. the beam) ?
what's weird, the last time i had it aligned the printout said i had 0 degrees toe in rear.
don't know how that could have happened, supposed to be 1/8" toe-in right?
this was in october 05. gonna get another alignment this month or next and see where everything is at and post it.

anyone have a clue to what might be causing the toe to change or why my front tires are wearing only on the insides?

the driver side ball joint could be replaced; it's old but not worn out.
the outer tie rod ends are still stock; haven't disconnected them to see their condition yet.
also, i have a small leak on the rack and pinion on the driver side. it's behind the dust boot where the inner tie rod connects. i haven't taken the boot off to see how bad the leak is, but it doesn't seem to be losing much fluid from the resevoir.

thanks, 
dan


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## IanH (Feb 11, 2003)

My 97 gxe (85K) is also wearing tyres on the inside. No problems with toe in toe out, but when it was aligned last the shop said the camber at the front was -1 instead of +1 and this was at least part of the cause. Not adjustable.
So what causes the camber to go negative, is this the lower A arm bushings worn?


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## dan7225 (Feb 23, 2004)

i dont think the camber is supposed to be positive at all.
0 degrees to -1 degrees should produce almost no tire wear, i think.

my driver side tire is worn down pretty bad about 2 inches in on the inside of the tire.
passenger side is the same, but not quite as worn.

you can adjust the camber a little by drilling/enlarging the top bolt hole on the strut. make sure you take the strut off, dont drill through the hub.


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## chris859 (Oct 20, 2005)

negative camber will always cause wear on the inside edge(lowered cars), and positive camber will create outside edge wear(lifted trucks). One of many reasons you can get negative camber, is if your stock springs have gotten weak, that would cause the car to sit lower, and possibly get negative camber. Sometimes you can also play with tire pressure a bit to help relieve the problem a little. In reply to the comments about camber not being adjustable - whoever told you that needs to get a clue. Just buy a camber correction kit from any of the big suspension companies(really just a bolt with an eccentric section on it). If you do have negative camber these kits will usually allow you to add 1-2 degrees of positive camber. Don't go "shadetree" and drill out the strut mount...forgive me for being blunt, but thats just retarded.


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## IanH (Feb 11, 2003)

chris859 said:


> negative camber will always cause wear on the inside edge(lowered cars), and positive camber will create outside edge wear(lifted trucks). One of many reasons you can get negative camber, is if your stock springs have gotten weak, that would cause the car to sit lower, and possibly get negative camber. Sometimes you can also play with tire pressure a bit to help relieve the problem a little. In reply to the comments about camber not being adjustable - whoever told you that needs to get a clue. Just buy a camber correction kit from any of the big suspension companies(really just a bolt with an eccentric section on it). If you do have negative camber these kits will usually allow you to add 1-2 degrees of positive camber. Don't go "shadetree" and drill out the strut mount...forgive me for being blunt, but thats just retarded.


Thanks for your comment about weakened springs, I had not considered that. I am to the point of checking the A Arm bushings as these were a problem on a previous car. (not Nissan.) 

Actually the shop said it was not adjustable if you re-read that comment. 
I am well aware of the GC camber plates and the camber adjusting bolts. I have been told by several people including on the forum here the camber adjusting bolts are not the way to go.
The reason given is the much smaller bolt diameter, torque and clamping force. 

This makes sense to me because the OEM camber adjusting bolts on a previous car were very large diameter, and used to set the camber with the eccentric but the bolt clamps the assembly to stop it moving. I looked at a set at a shop and the bolt dia was small.

I believe the method of enlarging the hole to be preferable and if Mike K recommends this method then I believe its OK. This is in fact is simular to the OEM adjustment on my previous cars minus the eccentric.


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## dan7225 (Feb 23, 2004)

i agree totally about the camber bolts. 
i've tried them to help with my problem. they were very small and had little clamping strenghth. also, the cam on the bolt really scars up the inside of the bolt hole on the hub.

i think the next step for me is to drill out the top hole on the strut (a little) and use maybe a big washer and lock-nut on the nut side of the bolt. the oem strut bolts are massive compared to those camber bolts.

*does anyone know what the camber should be in the rear?* i have a consistent -1.8 degrees in the rear. i had the car up on the rack a while back and it's really obvious the rear tires are leaning in. 

thanks again,
dan


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## IanH (Feb 11, 2003)

dan7225 said:


> i agree totally about the camber bolts.
> i've tried them to help with my problem. they were very small and had little clamping strenghth. also, the cam on the bolt really scars up the inside of the bolt hole on the hub.
> 
> i think the next step for me is to drill out the top hole on the strut (a little) and use maybe a big washer and lock-nut on the nut side of the bolt. the oem strut bolts are massive compared to those camber bolts.
> ...


In The FSM Page RA-14 says rear camber
Minium = -1.75
Nominal = -1.00
Maximum = -0.25
Re: Front camber.
How about putting the normal bolt back and dremal the hole into a slot on the strut housing, a bit more refined than just drilling it out. The upper one was the one used on my other car.

Mike Kojima says.....
Rear camber adjustably is not critical on most FWD cars. If you are on a tight budget and cannot afford camber plates, you can use The Poor Boy Method for adjustable camber! To make poor boy adjustable camber, you can drill out one of the two strut to spindle bolt holes on the strut housing by about 1/16" This will get you a couple of degrees of camber adjustment. Camber bolts or crash bolts as they are sometimes called should not be used as they slip under high load.

Good Luck....


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## dan7225 (Feb 23, 2004)

cool.

just thinking, is it possible to adjust rear camber because of the "beam".


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