Hello, Since i have owned my car i have had a severe problem with eating tires. Over the course of the five years i have owned it, i have replaced the front tires every six to eight months. I have rebuilt the front suspension, gotten it aligned dozens of times, tried running narrower tires, etc. etc. I have replaced the following front suspension items: Upper control arm bushings upper ball joints lower control arms (entire assy.) strut rod bushings new idler arm low mileage steering box And to this very day, it eats tires! I am at my wits' end. My only thoughts/questions are: -how tight do the strut rods need to be? they are as tight as i can humanly get them, but i'm sure they could go more. -could my brakes be doing this? I have a "brake" light on the dash that, when plugged in to the prop. valve, illuminates. My car has a tendency to dive forward when stopping (front brakes doing more work than the back). Could this "diving" be causing my tires to wear so quickly on the inside? -The guy who most recently aligned it did so with the old worn tires on--could this affect my alignment? -Other suggestions? I just put the moog problem solver bushings on the upper control arms, did the shelby drop, and had it aligned to the shelby specs with new tires, and already after two weeks i can see the wear beginning--the little nipples are gone on the inside but still partially there on the outside. I jacked the car up on one side and tried wiggling the tire, it did not have excessive play. Sorry to make this so long, but tires aren't cheap! I should be replacing them from burning up too many chebbies, not from cruising around! Forgot to mention: New springs (V8 w/ A/C), saddles, and shocks.
CACollo; I wish I could offer some answers to your problem, but this sure is a mystery. I don't have a clue. I hope that you get some help soon. On the other hand, I was wondering if you would mind sharing some info about your experiences with doing the Shelby drop. Did doing this produce the results that you hoped that it would? Any negatives effects? Was it hard to do? Any advice on how to do it, or on whether or not to bother? Any response to these questions would be appreciated, and once again, good luck with solving your tire problem. John B
Three thoughts here: First, try another alignment shop. If you are wearing the tires on the inside like you say the aliagnment is off. Too much negitive camber and/or too much toe out. The machine being used may not be calibrated properly. Get the proper specs and give them to the guy. Second, get a four wheel alignment. I know you can't align the rears, but this will tell you if the car is bent and contributing to this matter. It will check the thrust angle and insure that the front wheels and rear are in the right place. 3rd. Another thought is that the Shelby mod is for road racing where negitive camber is desireable and tire wear is not a concern. This could do exactly what you are experiancing. Good luck.
So let me get this straight . Until recently you had a normal stock suspension and it was eating tires . And now it is lowered and eating tires . I align my own tires on my car but I dont put many miles on it . I am not a front end guy but usually a large amount of toeout will cause that kind of wear . You mentioned that it wore tires out so I was wondering how it actually steers . If it darts around and follows ruts then I would definately suspect toe out problems . Anyways you can check the toeout pretty easily with a tape measure . Just measure across the front and back in the same place on the tread . Try to get up as far as you can but not over the center line of the wheel but in the same place relative to each other( like 4 and 8 on a clock ). It should be toed in ( front is narrrower than the back ) at least 1/8 " . If not adjust it yourself and see what happens ( got nothing to lose really ). It could have negative ( positive ? ) camber but that is hard to check in your garage without playing around lots . It was mentioned before that if you are taking it to the same shop everytime to get an alignment ,maybe you should consider taking it to another . I read someone on here is or was a alignment guy . Maybe he would have more ideas .
Thanks for all the responses. First of all, yes, i thought the shelby drop made quite a difference in handling. In fact, for a free mod, i don't see where you can go wrong!! I did use the Moog problem solver bushings, which made things considerably easier. I had absolutely no problems whatsoever with balljoint bind or anything else. The tire wear is unrelated...i had the problem before i did the drop. But i highly recommend the drop! As far as the alignment shop, that was my first thought. I have been to at least four or five over the past few years. The one i most recently tried was a local firestone tire place, but considering the guy spent 3+ hours JUST aligning it, i think he tried his best and he seemed to know what to do. I have also tried three of the local "alignment only" places. My car does not stray with the latest alignment. I had a friend watch my car while i was driving and he said the camber looked off. Maybe because of my weight in the vehicle? My other thought was maybe the shock towers. I checked all the torque boxes and everything was still in place, although i can't say for sure on the alignment of the frame. I was thinking i might try to make a tower-to-tower monte carlo bar of some sort. Thanks for all the suggestions!
Do you have... ...the factory reinforcement braces installed from the firewall to the shock towers? Seth
I had a thought....looking at my car a week after the alignment, i can see that the camber is off (visually). Is it possible that the eccentric bolt is slipping? I remember from some of my home alignments that i would get it just right, hit a bump, and run home with the tires squealing. Perhaps the mechanics are just not tightening the bolt enough, or the inside of the mount near the eccentric is worn (since the bushing has grips on it, if it were loose, couldnt' the little grips tear it up?). Is there anything i can do to keep the eccentric from slipping? I know it has a hole in it that one could possibly put a bolt through, but i would be worried that should anything change in my suspension i would be unable to reuse the hole. Any thoughts?
Alignment. when they are aligning you're car, are they doing a front only alignment? In most shops it is common practice to only measure the angles on the front of a vehicle like our Mavericks. I prefer to do a thrust angle alignment which involves measuring angles on all four wheels and aligning the front wheel in relation to the rear wheel rather than just each other. Your problem may lie in the back of your Maverick rather than the front. By the way, I aligned mine today and found that I have a bent rear axle housing and rear frame rail. ... Hell.
There are two things that come to mind when you mention the rear of the car being a possible problem. The first is that, sometime in its' past my car was hit on the passenger 1/4 panel. I have noticed that that corner tends to squeak more than the rest, but looking at car it does not appear that it was a very bad hit, as none of the pieces in that area have been replaced (or needed to be, really), and the area was simply bondoed over. The other thought is that when i bought my new 4 leaf rear springs from JCW, the pin located the rear axle too far forward. I had to drill a hole in the perch to relocate it. I will check into it. There is a really good alignment place in town that charges double what the other places charge, but is supposed to be the best. I should have just gone there in the first place...but i think i may go down there and see if i can get some opinions and maybe get my car on the rack. Thanks for all the help guys!
Well, I started off as an alignment tech so................As others have said Camber negeative or toe Negative could cause this wear. Lets not forget SAI Steering axis inclination should be checked along with IA included Angle and Frame Angle. Have you swapped Spindles? Cut Springs? Had rims checked for trueness? The Shelby Drop is great but only adds to this type of tire wear. Honestly it sounds to me that That they are setting it up wrong when doing it. I cut my springs 2 coils set the Camber at -.5 deg and toe to 0(when in doubt zero is your hero).Caster unless extremely out of spec rarely causes tire wear and typically not the type you are getting but set it to shelbys spec. Could you perhaps scan a printout that they gave you of before to after and let me see it. Good Luck
