Adjusting Toe
02-04-2010, 01:15 AM
#1
Adjusting Toe
Lately I've been experiencing a pretty rough ride so I take her in to get a road force balancing only to discover the inner treads on my front tires are severly worn out. The guy told me they were "toed-in" pretty bad but, didnt mention a fix for it other than new tires. So my question would be, other than Caster camber plates is there someway to fix this issue? I went somewhere else and was told they could machine the struts and it would fix it. I was a little skeptical because I've never heard that before. Any help is much appreciated
02-04-2010, 07:52 AM
#2
4th Gear Member
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Harrisburg PA
Posts: 1,778
Toe can be adjusted. If the toe was out of spec that would certainly cause the scrub to occur, but they should be able to adjust that.
Perhaps what they meant, that can't be fixed, was too much negative camber and the stock adjustment can not compensate for it. What the 2nd shop said about modifying the struts is a low cost solution. What they do is elongate the holes on the strut that mount to the spindle so that the top of the wheel can be moved out, away from the body and thus near 0 camber. Its not a great solution however because under hard use it can slip and thus your camber will go right back to where it currently is. For most driving situations it would probably be fine but if you hit lots of pot holes, bumps, very aggressive driving, etc...no guarantee they won't slip. Camber bolts are the next step up. Camber plates are the best solution.
Do you have the camber and toe numbers from the alignment? I'm surprised the Eibach Pro springs would result in too much negative camber. If the problem was the toe setting and if the first shop adjusted that, then you should be ok but we can't tell without the numbers.
Maybe Norm will chime in here - he is the expert on this stuff.
Perhaps what they meant, that can't be fixed, was too much negative camber and the stock adjustment can not compensate for it. What the 2nd shop said about modifying the struts is a low cost solution. What they do is elongate the holes on the strut that mount to the spindle so that the top of the wheel can be moved out, away from the body and thus near 0 camber. Its not a great solution however because under hard use it can slip and thus your camber will go right back to where it currently is. For most driving situations it would probably be fine but if you hit lots of pot holes, bumps, very aggressive driving, etc...no guarantee they won't slip. Camber bolts are the next step up. Camber plates are the best solution.
Do you have the camber and toe numbers from the alignment? I'm surprised the Eibach Pro springs would result in too much negative camber. If the problem was the toe setting and if the first shop adjusted that, then you should be ok but we can't tell without the numbers.
Maybe Norm will chime in here - he is the expert on this stuff.
02-04-2010, 02:36 PM
#3
The 1st place didn't even touch it since the tires were worn down so much. I had to buy new tires but, I don't want to thriw them on until this issue is fixed or else whats the point?
02-04-2010, 07:00 PM
#4
1st Gear Member
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Arizona
Posts: 60
Say What?
Seems to me that severe toe-in would cause the OUTER edges to wear, and severe toe-out would wear the inner edges.
I have never seen personally negative camber causing this condition......only too much toe.
I have never seen personally negative camber causing this condition......only too much toe.
Lately I've been experiencing a pretty rough ride so I take her in to get a road force balancing only to discover the inner treads on my front tires are severely worn out. The guy told me they were "toed-in" pretty bad but, didn't mention a fix for it other than new tires. So my question would be, other than Caster camber plates is there someway to fix this issue? I went somewhere else and was told they could machine the struts and it would fix it. I was a little skeptical because I've never heard that before. Any help is much appreciated
02-05-2010, 11:28 AM
#5
So machining the struts would be ok as long as I avoid any rough driving? I take it easy when I drive her and do my best to avoid any bumps, potholes etc when driving.
02-05-2010, 11:35 AM
#6
Cut & Paste Expert
Join Date: May 2007
Location: NW Arkansas
Posts: 13,322
Toed out would make it impossable to keep straight.
It needs to be slightly toed in to make the steering wheel
return to center on its own.
The slight toe in will be pulled out to almost no toe by the
wheel bearing drag of going down the road.
It needs to be slightly toed in to make the steering wheel
return to center on its own.
The slight toe in will be pulled out to almost no toe by the
wheel bearing drag of going down the road.
02-05-2010, 07:24 PM
#7
2nd Gear Member
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: South Carolina
Posts: 205
So Cali,
I had the exact same problem - had Eibach Pro Kits installed without having the front end aligned. Resulted in excessive wear on the inside tread of both tires. When I had it aligned properly, alignment shop found too much toe-out. This was re-adjusted in the course of the front end alignment. The camber was also a little more negative than spec, and they did not think this was the cause of the problem with tire wear, but it was "fixed" with camber bolts. From reading many posts (after I had the work done) it appears there are better ways of adjusting the camber, but bolts are a fairly inexpensive way to do it.
BTW, I have recently changed the springs to Steeda Sports, and had the front end aligned again.
I had the exact same problem - had Eibach Pro Kits installed without having the front end aligned. Resulted in excessive wear on the inside tread of both tires. When I had it aligned properly, alignment shop found too much toe-out. This was re-adjusted in the course of the front end alignment. The camber was also a little more negative than spec, and they did not think this was the cause of the problem with tire wear, but it was "fixed" with camber bolts. From reading many posts (after I had the work done) it appears there are better ways of adjusting the camber, but bolts are a fairly inexpensive way to do it.
BTW, I have recently changed the springs to Steeda Sports, and had the front end aligned again.
02-05-2010, 09:21 PM
#9
So Cali,
I had the exact same problem - had Eibach Pro Kits installed without having the front end aligned. Resulted in excessive wear on the inside tread of both tires. When I had it aligned properly, alignment shop found too much toe-out. This was re-adjusted in the course of the front end alignment. The camber was also a little more negative than spec, and they did not think this was the cause of the problem with tire wear, but it was "fixed" with camber bolts. From reading many posts (after I had the work done) it appears there are better ways of adjusting the camber, but bolts are a fairly inexpensive way to do it.
BTW, I have recently changed the springs to Steeda Sports, and had the front end aligned again.
I had the exact same problem - had Eibach Pro Kits installed without having the front end aligned. Resulted in excessive wear on the inside tread of both tires. When I had it aligned properly, alignment shop found too much toe-out. This was re-adjusted in the course of the front end alignment. The camber was also a little more negative than spec, and they did not think this was the cause of the problem with tire wear, but it was "fixed" with camber bolts. From reading many posts (after I had the work done) it appears there are better ways of adjusting the camber, but bolts are a fairly inexpensive way to do it.
BTW, I have recently changed the springs to Steeda Sports, and had the front end aligned again.
02-06-2010, 06:40 AM
#10
4th Gear Member
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Ontario, Canada
Posts: 1,692
Note that Camber Bolts are an OK fix if you are not going to run your car hard on a road course. Those of you who do should really use camber plates. The bolts holding the strut tower to the spindle are the ones replaced with the special camber bolts. These bolts are highly stressed.
Ford switched the production bolts from a course thread bolt to a fine thread bolt to allow for greater clamping force. Here are a couple of threads that give the details and also the PNs for the fine thread bolts and nut which allows you to increase the torque from 148 ft lb to 166 ft lb.
http://www.gtamc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=70825
https://mustangforums.com/forum/s197...fection-2.html
Ford switched the production bolts from a course thread bolt to a fine thread bolt to allow for greater clamping force. Here are a couple of threads that give the details and also the PNs for the fine thread bolts and nut which allows you to increase the torque from 148 ft lb to 166 ft lb.
http://www.gtamc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=70825
https://mustangforums.com/forum/s197...fection-2.html