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Camber much?!?! Yikes!

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dlphnfn

Veteran CEG'er
Joined
Oct 27, 2006
Messages
687
Location
Central Iowa
This morning on the way to work, I heard a peculiar noise. So I immediately pull over, and check it out. It looks like a belt wrapped up in my wheel. Well, that is a belt, a steel belt from my tire!! YIKES!
I was looking into tires because I could tell they were wearing, but I've only had the car a few months, and I didn't think they'd wear that fast...
My question is... Is the camber adjustable at all, or do you need to have a camber kit to get ANY adjustment. I'm still pretty green on the Contour, so please bear with me. Another question... Why would FSVT's make the camber that different? I'm running 215/45's if that matters. Thanks. Here are a couple pics of the tire damage thus far. Looks like I'll be driving the Explorer until I get these replaced....
Erick --

Left front
tirelf.jpg


Right front
tirerf.jpg
 
bummer - time to get dirty!

bummer - time to get dirty!

I just had that happen to one of my brand new 18" tires..... Make sure your ball joints are tight and that your bearings are not trashed. A combo of the two gives you the exact results for that type of tire wear on our cars. If they are bad, get rebuilt hubs with bearings from stazi ($55 a piece), 2 new axle nuts ($15 or less for both), and 2 new ball joints from anywhere ($30 or less for both). If your ball joints have not been replaced ever, you will need to grind or drill out the factory press fit ball joints. Takes time but is easy on your body. The strut pinch bolt and the ball joint to hub bolt is 18mm or 19mm. The axle nut is 32mm and should not be used again, but the new nut should be tourqed to 205 or 210 ft lbs. Stazi knows that # for sure. Have fun.... if you want me to show my tire wear, I can also take a pic for you. This is what was wrong with mine..... let me know!
 
Even if you stay in specs but are on the outer edges of spec you can get camber wear like you have observed. I had sever inner edge wear from new with camber at about -1.3 degrees. I installed camber plate and set them near 0 and my inside edge wear is GONE. The camber plates were not available for several years. My car still handles great, but some will tell you it will handle better with a little negative camber. My advise is to keep it under -.7 degrees.

Make sure the toe is set properly and that there are no warn parts that will throw off the toe (tie rod ends).

Also confirm that your A frame bushings and ball joints are not excessively worn aggravating your camber condition.
 
What causes camber to go out of wack like this?

Last time I rotated my tires a few months ago they were in good shape and proabably had at least 10000 miles left on them. I just looked at my fronts and they are GONE on the inside!

They look worse that the OP's.
 
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well it can be a number of things that can cause this. my friend's rear tires on his SVTC look like those front, but both rear control arms are bent, but front wear like that can be cause by ball joints, LCA's, or pretty much any part that gives wear and tear. the OP's car almost seems like more of a toe in/out issue than camber because the tire tread itself looks to be wearing evenly.
 
I had used 215/16s which wore out very fast and on the inner ends too. Now, I have newer 205/16s and I waiting to see what happens. I did not have this issue when I had the stock 195/14s. Let's see what happens in a few months and then I will post my anecdotal experience. If it is the same, I will be changing back to stock 195/14s.
 
This is weird. I just had this happen to me where the noise was so un bearable i had to turn up the music. I found out a few months ago my wheel bearings were bad and i got to them last week. I couldnt press them oout so i ended up buying the steering knuckle, spindle, and bearing all together for $175 a piece. I put it all back together and nooooooooooo noise any more!!!! from any of the tires!! i can go down the road now not sounding like a jeep with 40 inch mud tires!
 
Berkel said:
Mine's "toe-in" .. it has to be, my alignment is off as well. :cry:
Click to expand...

If it's wearing the inside edge of the tire it's "toe-out". "Toe-in" would cause outer edge wear. Combine to much negative camber and toe-out and you will get rapid inner edge wear.
 
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