Is my negative camber eating up the inside of my front tires?

My mini is just a daily driver car. I put around 100 miles on it a week, mostly on the highway to and from work. A few years ago I replaced the worn out front strut mounts with Ireland Engineering camber plate mounts. I did a little research on them before I bought them, and everyone said that the little bit of extra negative camber wouldn’t do much as far as tire wear..and it would improve handling immensely. The camber plate mounts added around 1.25deg to the front negative camber. I’m running right at around -2.0 degrees on the front wheels now. For my toe-in, I’m running 1/8” total. I’m running 35psi in the tires, and rotate them every 5,000 miles. I’m running 215/45/17 tires on the stock S-Lite wheels.

I’ve been through two sets of tires (ready for a 3rd) since I installed the IE camber plates, and both sets seem to have excessive tire wear on the inside sections.



It’s to the point where the inside of the tires almost get bald, while the middle and outside still have lots of good tread left. I never really paid much attention to the tire wear before I put the IE camber plates on the car since the tires were already pretty work to begin with. Is this normal for mini’s to do, or did adding that little extra front negative camber (1.25deg) with the IE camber plates cause all of the extra wear? Everything in the front of my car was replaced with new parts (LCA bushings, ball joints, shocks) when I installed the IE camber plates……so I don’t think there is anything else that could be causing the issue.

I’m getting tired of replacing tires at 15,000 miles when the insides wear out, but the rest of the tire looks pretty good. I’m thinking about getting rid of the IE mounts, and going back to stock….bad idea?

 

Are you on coils and run the camber plates because you're lower? Most people use negative camber on the fronts and rears to avoid rolling over the side wall of the tire through a corner. -2 degrees on the front wheels is very aggressive for a daily driver. So from the sound of it, yes this is most likely why you're eating up tires quickly. I'd suggest going back to factory spec and seeing if this helps with the new set of tires.

-Luccia

 

The Ireland Engineering camber plates (non-adjustable) are actually just strut mounts that add a little extra camper to the front shocks/wheels. I'm running KONI FSD shocks...no coil overs.

Stock the mini has around 1 deg negative camper......does running one more degree really cause that much wear?

http://www.waymotorworks.com/ireland...e-r50-r53.html

 

...and after you get things back to OEM specs you want to rotate every 5K anyway as there is negative camber built in to the rear member. Rotating will extend the miles you can get.

 

-2 degree camber is very aggressive for a daily driver and can definitely wear your tires out. I'd suggest going back to OEM or getting some non-fixed camber plates. Way is a great company so maybe give them a shout and see what they have to say.

-Luccia

 

My take...
If you "hoon" around on EVERY turn, camber plates are good...
But if you spend lots of time on the highway, and koni fsd's are your style, camber plates are a step too far...and as you found. There is a price.
On the track...there is a reason for camber plates, and if you drive like hell on wheels. Maybe...but on a daily...folks get them, like coilovers often to brag, show them off or cause they wanted the "next mod"....

 

I do rotate every 5,000 miles

Just trying to figure out why the factory 1deg neg camber on the front is ok on tires....but add another degree and go to 2 deg negative camber, and tire wear goes down the pipes. Will 1 degree really make that much difference?

Do other people running the non-adjustable IE plates have the same issue? I know there are lots of guys out there running them.

 

Change the toe-in from 1/8" to
0 to 1/32" toe-in total.


Negative camber makes the insides of the tread wear out first,
but a little extra toe-in or toe-out really speeds up the process.

 

OK, I might do that and see if that makes a difference on my next set of tires.

 

Other issue is the roads...
Much of the country has blacktop...
But when I was living out in you neck of the woods (Joplin) the highways were mostly groved concrete...and that wears tires faster too...and it seems the groves are much more aggressive than the typical "brush" groves up north in the surface...maybe to help drain downpours from heavy thunderstorms...either way, you just need to find something that will work for you.

 

this. that amount of negative camber shouldn't be that bad.

 

True.
extra wear from 1/4" - definitely yes
extra wear from 1/8" - some but not a lot
extra wear from 0" - definitely no
Probably a combination of factors, including
maybe you're not cornering hard enough.

 

Our R53 did that when we drove it for far too long after the front control arm bushings wore out. Tires looked perfect except inside edge of both fronts were totally bald

 

toe kills tires far quicker than excessive negative camber.

 

I would check your toe settings as well. -2 degrees is not a ridiculous camber setting.

 

Thanks for the info guys! I'll try to take some toe out of the front end and get it as close to 0 as I can. I do have a lot of highways in my areas that are heavily grooved...I hope the 0 toe-in won't make the car dark around too much when on the highway when I go over those sections with all of the grooves in the pavement.

 

FWIW: I put the IRE fixed camber plates on my '06 about 8,000 miles ago, with no other changes. I don't know what the actual camber is since I didn't have it checked, but tire wear since then has been absolutely uniform across the tires.

 

Good point. Can't set a stable toe-in setting when the FCAB are worn out.

 

I am interested in this thread as I am gonna order IE fixed camber plates(need new strut mounts too) or another form of tower reinforcement today or tomorrow. My car is a DD just like you IQ. I know I cant afford to fly through tires like you have been. Generally speaking if the car is just a DD are camber plates overkill, considering wanting even tire wear? I read conflicting reports so gets a little confusing.

 

The toe is the problem, not the camber.

 

^x2

i had some terible toe it ate threw my tires faster than i could blink.

i run -2.5* of camber and i dont have any tire issues. and i put in about 300-400 miles a week.


i got an alignment and it fixed everything. i too have the IE fixed plates. im also running swift springs and koni yellows.