SShadowSSin

Hello everyone,

I was under my car changing the oil when I noticed that my front right tire is worn out on the outside. These are not old tires either, I just purchase them about 5000 miles ago, and the rest are still in great shape. Needless to say, I'm a bit worried.
The car pulls to the right a bit, something that it has done for a while. When I purchased my tires, I had them realign the front end. I am just now remembering they told me something along the lines of, "We aligned the front end as much as we could, but the (Blah Blah Blah) needs to be fixed, and that's not something we can do in house. Would you like me to show you what's wrong with it?" I was super excited to see my car with the new Eibach setup and new wheel/tire package, so I wasn't really paying attention to what he says.
I know I can take it in to them and they would probably tell me what's wrong, but I know there are a lot of very knowledgeable people in this forum that can probably pinpoint the exact problem with my front end. I have posted pictures of what the tire wear looks like so you can get a better idea. The car has 157k miles on it, so it's had a fair amount of driving put in.
I really appreciate the help!!

DC

mjr46

unless we get under the car and start checking such things as ball joints , tie rods and rack bushings all we can do here is speculate, take it to the place that told you what was wrong and ask, could be ball joints but based on what I see often times the tread pattern/ V-TYPE pattern that you have will wear high and low spots = tire design, see it on BMW'S all the time so we try and put a non direction straight type tread pattern on them, but first have the shop check it out

crusin92red5.0

do you have caster camber plates? i bet your camber is off. that would explain the wear on the outside of the tire. More pressure is being applied to the outside of the tire causing it to wear out.

this explains it

http://autorepair.about.com/od/gloss...lignment_3.htm

mstngsule68

what exactly have u done to the car?

SShadowSSin

Ok, so all that has been done to the car, as far as suspension goes is Eibach springs and new shocks/struts. Nothing has been done in the area of camber plates or anything, it's all stock.
Which parts, if any, would any of you recommend on me replacing to fix this problem? Keeping in mind the mileage mentioned above on this vehicle, there probably are a lot of parts that need to be replaced.
As far as my mechanical capabilities- I am not afraid to get greasy, and love learning new skills. I've messed with almost every system on this car, even replaced a clutch in my garage.
I appreciate all of your replies and any help/guidance you can offer.

DC

SShadowSSin

Thanks for this info. I believe this may be a problem. It definitely fits the diagnosis based on the tire wear.
Isn't camber something that they should adjust when they align the vehicle? If not, is this something I can measure myself and adjust?

Thanks!
DC

mstngsule68

imma agree with crusin....camber is prob off.

crusin92red5.0

you need to buy caster/camber plates install them and then go get an alignment. when i installed mine i put on strange struts while i was there.

SShadowSSin

Ok, so I took my car back in. They said that the shocks and struts needed to be replaced and that worn struts wold cause a wave effect on the tires, which is what I had. So I had the struts/shocks replaced along with the front 2 tires. $900 later...
So my camber is off as well. It's off by over 2 degrees on both sides. Ford doesn't offer an adjustment for this (Lame!) so now I have to buy Camber plates like most of you suggested up top. Any recommendations for plates?
Thanks!