ctoth Posted July 9, 2007 Share Posted July 9, 2007 I have an 04 impreza 2.5 ts wagon with 17"x7" BBS wheels with +48mm offset. I have 215/45/17 Yokohama AVS ES100 tires. This weekend I went for a safety inspection and they told me my tires were bald and I have less than 10,000 miles on them. I told them they were crazy. I looked at them and the inside edge was totally worn down. The car failed. I had an alignment done a month and a half ago and I mounted the wheels 2 months ago. The tires looked brand new when I mounted the wheels after the winter. I only ran them for half the summer last year. Question: Is it possible that these wheels could be rubbing on the lower spring perch on the strut? Or, is it just an alignment problem? I didn't inspect the strut for rub marks yet but I've read that the +48 offset is wrong and it should be +53 and the tire is pretty close to the strut when the car is in the air. However, these wheels were a dealer package for the Saab 9-2x (impreza). Any help would be much appreciated since I don't want to mount a new set and have the same thing happen again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Legacy777 Posted July 10, 2007 Share Posted July 10, 2007 The offset isn't going to cause that. The +48mm offset will move the wheel further outward, which is better for keeping things from rubbing on the inside compared to the +53mm offset wheels. Your issue is with the alignment. Did they give you a sheet that said what the final alignment specs were? Did you hit any big bumps/curbs or anything like that since the alignment? Are all the tires like this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ctoth Posted July 10, 2007 Author Share Posted July 10, 2007 Thanks for your reply. No sheet to speak of. I asked and was told "It was the front end". That's all. As far as the differences between tires the front were worn a bit more than the rears but the wear was even. The rears had a 'wavy' wear (that's the best way to descibe it) or in other words, uneven. The suspension is the stock setup, no camber bolts or adjustments otherwise. Stock springs and struts. At this point I'm inclined to question the integrity of the shop that did the alignment. I've not hit any large bumps or otherwise damaging obstacles to the best of my knowledge. But for this type of wear, I would suspect I would have to be jumping my vehicle. Unfortunately, I don't have the wheels and tires where I reside, they are stored an hour away from my residence. I will take pictures this weekend though and I will be checking the clearance of the tire and strut and will get some pictures of the strut to inspect for rub marks. Thanks again -Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Virrdog Posted July 11, 2007 Share Posted July 11, 2007 I looked at them and the inside edge was totally worn down. This more than likely was caused by really bad toe-out in the alignment. Tires can be reduced to shreds within days if there is enough toe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ctoth Posted July 11, 2007 Author Share Posted July 11, 2007 This more than likely was caused by really bad toe-out in the alignment. Tires can be reduced to shreds within days if there is enough toe. I'm running my snows now and have been monitoring them very closely. I have not seen any abnormal wear at this point but I'm arming myself for a full out verbal assault on the the alignment shop. Those tires weren't cheap and they didn't even last one full season. This is unacceptable since I've only put 15k on my car this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamal Posted July 11, 2007 Share Posted July 11, 2007 It definitely seems that your toe is not zeroed out. At pep-boys they have a 6-month 6000 mile warranty on the alignment. Take it back and at the very least they'll straighten it out for you. I doubt they'll give you a free set of tires but it won't hurt to complain and push for that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uniberp Posted July 11, 2007 Share Posted July 11, 2007 I have an 04 impreza 2.5 ts wagon with 17"x7" BBS wheels with +48mm offset. I have 215/45/17 Yokohama AVS ES100 tires. This weekend I went for a safety inspection and they told me my tires were bald and I have less than 10,000 miles on them. I told them they were crazy. I looked at them and the inside edge was totally worn down. The car failed. I had an alignment done a month and a half ago and I mounted the wheels 2 months ago. The tires looked brand new when I mounted the wheels after the winter. I only ran them for half the summer last year. Question: Is it possible that these wheels could be rubbing on the lower spring perch on the strut? Or, is it just an alignment problem? I didn't inspect the strut for rub marks yet but I've read that the +48 offset is wrong and it should be +53 and the tire is pretty close to the strut when the car is in the air. However, these wheels were a dealer package for the Saab 9-2x (impreza). Any help would be much appreciated since I don't want to mount a new set and have the same thing happen again. If you have lowered springs, you may need to have the camber adjusted to compensate. You may have too much negative camber. If the offset is greater than stock, it might need a little less neg camber too, to flatten a probably stiffer the tire on to the pavement. Or you may simply not drive the car as hard as it was designed for, although in 10k miles I'd think it woudln't show, if that were the case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamal Posted July 11, 2007 Share Posted July 11, 2007 Even lowered to the point of max negative camber in the curve you'd be lucky to see -2 with the stock bolts. With 0 toe that isn't enough to cause uneven wear, especially with such low miles and especially if you go around corners with any frequency. An STi, for example, sees camber angles of +3 degrees or more in a hard corner on the outside wheel. Any other Subaru is worse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Virrdog Posted July 12, 2007 Share Posted July 12, 2007 You may have too much negative camber. You would need crazy looking wheels-tilting-into-the-wheel-well camber before it wore out the inside edge like that. That would definitely be noticeable from a casual glance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Legacy777 Posted July 12, 2007 Share Posted July 12, 2007 You may also need new struts. The wavey or intermitant spots wearing on the tires can be a sign of work struts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ctoth Posted July 12, 2007 Author Share Posted July 12, 2007 I took to time to visually inspect the tires today. I could litterally see the inward toe on the driver side rear. Looks something like this: overhead view | | / | Also the camber from the rear dead center of the license plate looks something like this: rear view / | Definatley a botched alignment job. I don't know what specs they aligned it to but it's pretty bad when I can spot the toe and camber problem from 20' behind the vehicle. Looks like it's needs an alignment and the shop that did it previously need some straightening out. They'll give me a free alignment but I don't want them to touch it. They've done enough. I'll bite the bullet and pay someone else and demand a final spec printout and compare to factory specs before I put any miles on it. Suck to get burnt like that but you live and you learn. Thanks for all the replies on this matter. You all got me pointed in the right direction. The car is parked and I'm stuck driving the Focus for the mean time . Thanks again guys -Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Virrdog Posted July 12, 2007 Share Posted July 12, 2007 Glad you found it, you would have eaten through another set of tires in no time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
montana105 Posted July 12, 2007 Share Posted July 12, 2007 I don't see how even a fly by night shop could get it this wrong but anything is possible,I would raise the holy side of hell to get the first shop to replace all affected tires and parts at their expense,but I do hope this is the result of a four wheel alignment because if you only got the front aligned even at the recommend of the shop you are responsible for the wear,give that shop a chance to fix their screw up and threaten the word of mouth assault on their business if they won't help. I hate to sound so what ever you want to call it but you were screwed most likely and you can't let small shops get away with this,they depend on word of mouth to succeed,at the same time if they do right by you spread the word,they may have had a hopped up wanna be on the alignment rack that day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uniberp Posted July 13, 2007 Share Posted July 13, 2007 You may also need new struts. The wavey or intermitant spots wearing on the tires can be a sign of work struts. Looks like inner tire wear is a common problem on thee cars. I wonder what the definitive answer is. http://www.google.com/custom?q=inner+tire+wear&hl=en&oe=ISO-8859-1&client=pub-7433667474612932&cof=FORID:1%3BGL:1%3BS:http://www.nasioc.com%3BL:http://www.nasioc.com/grfx/ubblogo_sm.gif%3BLH:50%3BLW:97%3BLBGC:FFFFFF%3BT:%23105ca8%3BLC:%2322229c%3BVLC:%23f82c70%3BGALT:%23F82C70%3BGFNT:%230000ff%3BGIMP:%230000ff%3BDIV:%23336699%3B&domains=NASIOC.com&sitesearch=NASIOC.com&start=10&sa=N Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamal Posted July 13, 2007 Share Posted July 13, 2007 Looks like inner tire wear is a common problem on thee cars. I wonder what the definitive answer is. http://www.google.com/custom?q=inner+tire+wear&hl=en&oe=ISO-8859-1&client=pub-7433667474612932&cof=FORID:1%3BGL:1%3BS:http://www.nasioc.com%3BL:http://www.nasioc.com/grfx/ubblogo_sm.gif%3BLH:50%3BLW:97%3BLBGC:FFFFFF%3BT:%23105ca8%3BLC:%2322229c%3BVLC:%23f82c70%3BGALT:%23F82C70%3BGFNT:%230000ff%3BGIMP:%230000ff%3BDIV:%23336699%3B&domains=NASIOC.com&sitesearch=NASIOC.com&start=10&sa=N Not having zero toe. Which is the response in pretty much all of the threads that come up in your search. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uniberp Posted July 13, 2007 Share Posted July 13, 2007 Not having zero toe. Which is the response in pretty much all of the threads that come up in your search. That seems to be the bandwagon consensus. Why no TSB? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamal Posted July 13, 2007 Share Posted July 13, 2007 That seems to be the bandwagon consensus. Why no TSB? I don't think they need a TSB that says "if your alignment is out of spec it will wear out tires" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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