# S14 240sx camber tire question



## magicucf (Apr 30, 2004)

Ok ive got a 96 s40sx se and when i got the car it had 18" rims on it with 225 40 18 tires. It needed an alignment and after taking it to a local tire shop, it came to my attention that due to the larger size rims the tires were wearing on the inside edge due to a camber adjustment problem. The tires were already cupped and I knew that I would need new ones soon. The guy at the shop told me that the car couldnt be adjusted to compensate for the camber even all the way out. They tried to sell me those camber bolts for $60 a piece which i knew was BS. My question is, its hard to find a good alignment place, but what do I need to replace suspension wise to fix the problem when i get new tires. Ive seen the eibach camber kit, and rear upper camber arms. If I had the arms on rear and kit on front would that correct my tire wear problem all together or do I need something else. Any recommendations would be apreciated. I am currently on stock suspension, but eventually switching to KYB AGX and eibach pro springs. If anyone has 18s and a different setup let me know... as tires are expensive and dont need them wearing out after 5k miles.


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## Matt93SE (Sep 17, 2003)

If you're having camber wear problems with stock suspension, you've got more issues than adjusting bolts. look for worn bushings or other bent suspension components. your camber is off for a reason, and you need to figure out why it's messed up before using kits/bolts/whatever to adjust the problem out.

I'm not extremely familiar with Nissan's RWD setups, but I can work on a FWD setup blindfolded... the control arm bushings are known to fail on these cars by about 100k miles, as well as strut mounts, ball joints, and tie rod ends. all are wear items that usually need replaced at 100k or better intervals.

If you can't find it yourself, I suggest you take it to a different shop and see if they can look it over and point out some possible sources of problems for you.


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## magicucf (Apr 30, 2004)

Ok besides worn out bushings, which didnt come to my attention as of yet... the mechanic claimed it was ONLY because of the increased RIM size... from stock to now 18" They said due to larger RIMS it caused the camber to be off. I wanted to know if other people have run into this problem with a larger RIM and tire on this CAR. I know none of the suspension is bent. I know people usually have camber issues when increasing rim size or lowering or both. That is my question and issue. Is it possible that stock adjustments dont go far enough now that 18's are on the car. thanks for your help though...



Matt93SE said:


> If you're having camber wear problems with stock suspension, you've got more issues than adjusting bolts. look for worn bushings or other bent suspension components. your camber is off for a reason, and you need to figure out why it's messed up before using kits/bolts/whatever to adjust the problem out.
> 
> I'm not extremely familiar with Nissan's RWD setups, but I can work on a FWD setup blindfolded... the control arm bushings are known to fail on these cars by about 100k miles, as well as strut mounts, ball joints, and tie rod ends. all are wear items that usually need replaced at 100k or better intervals.
> 
> If you can't find it yourself, I suggest you take it to a different shop and see if they can look it over and point out some possible sources of problems for you.


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## ReVerm (Jan 13, 2003)

magicucf said:


> Ok besides worn out bushings, which didnt come to my attention as of yet... the mechanic claimed it was ONLY because of the increased RIM size... from stock to now 18" They said due to larger RIMS it caused the camber to be off. I wanted to know if other people have run into this problem with a larger RIM and tire on this CAR.


Larger wheels and tyres will magnify the effects of camber/toe settings the car had before the larger wheels. If you look at the factory specifications, you can see that if your car originally came with camber settings that were barely within the tolerances, there is a definite possibility that this could have been an inherent manufacturing problem (not impossible to fix, but harder to pinpoint). This seems to be quite rare though (thankfully. I've seen 0 Nissan S chassis cars which have had increased tyre wear due to problems like this), and considering how weak the 240's stock bushings are, the diagnosis Matt gave is far more likely.


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## Joel (Jun 11, 2003)

yes its common. 
Your tyres are wearing because of a combination of the wider, more square profile 18's, incorrect toe settings and camber.
I tore through a brand new set of toyo's in 3 months because of this - expensive lesson.

The bolts are required becuase the factory suspension only allows so much adjustment - its something pitiful like 0.5 degree each way. Other options are camber tops for the front and adjustable links and arms for the rear. Bolts and offset bushes are the cheapest purchased option though.


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## Matt93SE (Sep 17, 2003)

another thing to point out.. changing the size of the wheels or tires does not change your alignment at all. your alignment is 100% dependend on the car and suspension. It has NOTHING to do with what wheels are on your car. Heck, I've even done alignments with no wheels on the car at all!

no, if you already have a problem and you go from a 205/65/15 to a 255/40/18 tire, you're going to see more tire wear because the tire itself is 2" wider (roughly 20%) than before. 
so now.. look at the numbers... a 205 width tire at 2 degrees camber will have 0.28" more wear on the inner edge than the outer edge. (that's how far off the tire is from being parallel with the ground).
a 255 width tire will be 0.35" off. so there's an extra 0.1" just from going to a wider tire.

of course, that's not counting sidewall flex, which plays a HUGE part in camber-induced tire wear.

I probably confused you even more, but hopefully that made sense.


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## magicucf (Apr 30, 2004)

thanks, and no your info. didnt confuse me. I understand that if you have current settings and change tire size things will be off, and thats understanded. I am definitely going to look into a new set or kit of bushings for the s14 240... so in overall agreement, if I get some new bushings, (does anyone recomend a good set or company) which I wanted to do anyway since Im moving toward more performance, and if I also get myself the rear adjustable camber arms and possibly either the front camber kit from eibach or the top mount camber plates, then my suspension will be adjustable enough to fix the problem, because I definitely dont want to wear out a new set of tires in 3-5k miles. 

Also since I plan on getting kyb agx and eibach pro's I want to move in a direction that would be best for this setup. Need to do the tires first, then the suspension is coming. 

Also for everyone including myself, when inspecting your bushings for wear and replacement, what do you look for specifically... I know that splitting and cracking or excessive play between joints is a clear sign, anyone else have a good method. 

Thanks to everyone that responded, you have all been a great help.


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## ReVerm (Jan 13, 2003)

Matt93SE said:


> another thing to point out.. changing the size of the wheels or tires does not change your alignment at all. your alignment is 100% dependend on the car and suspension. It has NOTHING to do with what wheels are on your car. Heck, I've even done alignments with no wheels on the car at all!


EDIT: After reviewing my two posts here, I noticed that I said that "alignment is affected by wheel size". Now that I think about it, that's really an incorrect way of putting it. Alignment technically isn't affected by the wheel size. What increasing the wheel/tyre size _will_ will do is affect the handling of the car because it increases the _effects_ of the alignment settings. Sorry for the confusion there.


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