Tire wear

Gus_Mahn

Gus_Mahn

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My '03 LS8 doesn't wear the tires evenly. It tends to wear out the inside edges on all four tires. The alignment was close, but I had redone this morning for $90. The shop said there's no camber adjustment on these cars. Do your tires wear similarly?
 
My 06 wears the tires evenly, but there's more wear on the back tires than the front (I'm pretty sure I know why).

My 04 wears the inside edges out first, as you describe. I've had a number of alignments. They say its all to spec, but the problem remains. I do have the camber kits on both, so it all adjustable and adjusted. Everything is stock, including ride height and tire size.
 
No rear camber adjustment, front is adjustable though. My tires are wearing evenly thus far, 11,500km (7200 miles) in. 9/32 left on all four, evenly across the tread.

I would imagine that given the handling of these cars, inner edge wear is unavoidable.
 
My rear lower control arms toasted my tires. The bushings failed so bad it caused all sorts of camber. I installed new lower control arms and was amazed at how much the tires straighten up.

Inspect the bushings on your control arms to see if they have failed. My right rear was worse and caused more tire wear than my left but both were really bad.
 
M4rk said:
I would imagine that given the handling of these cars, inner edge wear is unavoidable.
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The LS is my wife's car. I have an '05 CTS-V. It handles way better than our LS8 sport and the tire wear is very even. The LS is a highway car, so I'm hoping to get 60,000 miles out of the 17" General G-max's on it.
 
Hawk03 said:
My rear lower control arms toasted my tires. The bushings failed so bad it caused all sorts of camber. I installed new lower control arms and was amazed at how much the tires straighten up.

Inspect the bushings on your control arms to see if they have failed. My right rear was worse and caused more tire wear than my left but both were really bad.
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I've shaken and pried on everything. I've changed all the loose parts. The alignment shop didn't find anything else loose, and they are usually very thorough.
 
There are two bushings on each of the rear arms that have a different inner structure than your ordinary bushing. Mine failed on both sides, and it wasn't too apparent (other than the noises) that they were seized up. I can see that causing uneven tire wear as per Hawk's post. I believe mine failed due to the winters up here.

I imagine the LS engineers opted to add some negative camber rather than stiffer sway bars and other suspension components in order to maintain comfort levels.

I have General tires as well, the Exclaim UHP.
 
Gus_Mahn said:
My '03 LS8 doesn't wear the tires evenly. It tends to wear out the inside edges on all four tires. The alignment was close, but I had redone this morning for $90. The shop said there's no camber adjustment on these cars. Do your tires wear similarly?
Click to expand...

same problem. 05 v6, stock rim but fairly certain sidewall is not to spec bc the speedo is off ~2mph.

My tires were 1/3 tread Rikens when i bought it so i didnt even bother to get the alignment checked. I knew I knocked the toe out of spec in a wreck but they were wearing unevenly (heavy on the inside) before the wreck. i got a handful of free alignment checks, most said only the toe was out and to go ahead and line it up. i noticed that most shops dont even put it on the right type of lift (wheels in the air, off the platform) to check the suspension thoroughly tho. of the shops that did get the wheels in the air, one said no problems, another said 1 rear balljoint was junk and the other (lincoln dealer) said to line it up but dont be shocked if the balljoints caused uneven wear or failed altogether bc they were known to be problematic around the age of my vehicle (05, 70k). visually they looked fine and 1 had a tiny wobble in it (push in on the wheel)

i got a $35 alignment with 6 month, 6k mi warranty from one of the shops who didnt catch anything suspension related. i figured i didnt have much to lose with the $35 alignment. NTB offers a $40 4-wheel alignment until sept 30, sears beat the price by 10%. check the ntb site for the coupon
 
Same deal with the inner wear. I got the shop to pop the tires off the rims to make what was inner, now outer (directional tires).
 
embe said:
Same deal with the inner wear. I got the shop to pop the tires off the rims to make what was inner, now outer (directional tires).
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Yeah, I asked discount tire where I bought my tires to do this for me. They have free rotation and flats, so I thought they would do it free of charge. The sales guy said it wouldn't do any good and wanted to charge me for it. Obviously swapping the worn edge for a non-worn edge will increase the life of the tire. It ticked me off, so I left. I've been thinking about calling and talking to the manager to see if the story I got is right.
 
Free rotation and balance is one thing but breaking the tires off the rims and mounting to different rims is quite another. That is a billable service.
 
Gus_Mahn said:
My '03 LS8 doesn't wear the tires evenly. It tends to wear out the inside edges on all four tires. The alignment was close, but I had redone this morning for $90. The shop said there's no camber adjustment on these cars. Do your tires wear similarly?
Click to expand...

You mean like this? I was told to correct this was lots and lots of $$$ in front end work. Much more than just getting a new tire when it got too bad. This is the tire that is currently mounted to the rim i have recently sold and was used as my spare.

20120924_235732.jpg

20120924_235732.jpg
 
Around 30K-mi on my Continentals and the tire wear is even. Mine is an '06. Only work I had done suspension wise was rear sway bar links and the tie rod/lateral link/whatever you want to call it.

They are rotated every 5K so not sure if that is preventing the pattern.
 
Sway Bar Link

I had the same camber wear yesterday on my wife's LS front tires. Close inspection found passenger side sway bar link bad. Changed both sides last night. Need front end alignment now. Changed both ti-rods 3 weeks ago! Purchased rear sway bar links also, installing today. $189 for all four sway bar links by MOOG. 83k on car. 2000 LS.
 
Sway bar link

Changed both rear links today. Appears the LS has the capability to align all 4 wheels. Going to alignment shop tomorrow get all four aligned. Thrust alignment.
 
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