# Coilovers eat up tires?



## T200Sx (Jan 17, 2005)

I think I've decided to go with either motivational coilovers or tien ss with all the necessary componetry to keep it from riding like shit... I was thinking tho, if i get an alignment done when i put them on and the ride height i want. once i change the ride hieght to higher or lower would the alignment be off or would it still be okay? i just dont want to have coilovers and not change the hieght in fear of chewing up tires inputs greatly appreciated thanks


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## LIUSPEED (May 29, 2002)

coils dont eat tires it bad alignment and bad toe that eats tires... and once you change your height of your car you definately want to get an alignment done for that.


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## T200Sx (Jan 17, 2005)

yeah i understand that but i mean say i have the coil overs on and i get an alignment done.. now the example. im at the local whatever mart and i decide i want to drop the car another inch for that night. Will the alignment be screwed up since i changed the ride hieght or will it be okay since i got the alignment done when i put the coil overs on intially


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## jlee1469 (Dec 4, 2003)

i've had my coilovers installed for about 1-2 months and i can already see the inside of my tire showing excessive wear  then again i haven't got an alignment yet.


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## Matt93SE (Sep 17, 2003)

If you change the ride height with coilovers you will need to realign the car.

If you're just doing it for a show and you're not driving the car, then there's no problem...
drive to the show.. jack up the car.. MARK THE COLLAR POSITION 9I just use a black sharpie on the back of the housing so nobody can see the marks), then slam the car to the ground... when the show is over, jack up the car, put the coilovers back to your street height using the marks you made earlier, and drive on. it shouldn't mess up your alignment if you get them back to the original position.

As long as you don't do stuff like adjust your camber or caster or unbolt your strut from the spindle, then you shouldn't mess up your alignment at all.


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## Ninety-Nine SE-L (May 5, 2002)

Almost ANY TIME you touch the suspension, you need an alignment, it will throw things off here and there. Changing ride height will definately throw off the alignment and in most cases, a camber kit is necessary since the suspension isn't desiged to ride so low.

The insides of your tires are suffering due to bad camber.


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## wes (Apr 30, 2002)

Ninety-Nine SE-L said:


> Almost ANY TIME you touch the suspension, you need an alignment, it will throw things off here and there. Changing ride height will definately throw off the alignment and in most cases, a camber kit is necessary since the suspension isn't desiged to ride so low.
> 
> The insides of your tires are suffering due to bad camber.


I agree with the first part but not the second. I have ran around with nearly 2 degrees of negative camber and not had an issue with tire wear. The ONLY time I had tire wear issues was directly related to running toe out.


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## Ninety-Nine SE-L (May 5, 2002)

well, what's stock camber supposed to be set at?

a little negative camber is fine, but of course, the more the tires go in, the more the tires will wear.


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## ReVerm (Jan 13, 2003)

Ninety-Nine SE-L said:


> well, what's stock camber supposed to be set at?
> 
> a little negative camber is fine, but of course, the more the tires go in, the more the tires will wear.


Factory camber range for the front tyres is 0.17 deg to -1.33 deg on each tyre, with a max difference of 1.00 deg between left and right front. "Nominal", according to the FSM is -0.58 degrees.


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## Zen31ZR (Mar 24, 2004)

wes said:


> I agree with the first part but not the second. I have ran around with nearly 2 degrees of negative camber and not had an issue with tire wear. The ONLY time I had tire wear issues was directly related to running toe out.


Some cars are set to 2 and 3 degrees stock anyway. When you get past about 4-6 degrees is when tire wear starts to become an issue. Camber is less of a wear issue than toe, but if the camber is set high enough (Like in an IS300) than it gets ridiculous, like a set of tires every 5000 miles.


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