IceyTys

Okay like many of you on here, I have lowered my car and the negative camber has eaten up the inside of my rear tires. I went to discount tire today to have a nail patched and they showed me the inside of the rear tires and they were shot. I knew the rear tires were going to go quicker, but I had the tires put on brand new in May of 2008, so I have approximately 9000 miles on them

Now I know these are Z series tires and the BMW does like negative camber, but the tires are 300 wear rated! WTF?!?!?! Com'n 9K miles in normal city driving Thats just not acceptable.

The camber was set at -2.2 after the springs were put on, so the rear was in specs. BMW recommends the fronts at -0.7 to .3 and the rears at -2.2 to -2.0. Wow thats a pretty bid difference from front to rear.

Anyway I am going to go to an alignment shop to ask them to take some of the negative camber out. Anyone have any suggestions on how much I should ask them to take out??

I was thinking of asking them to take out 1/2 the difference from -2.2 to 0, maybe somewhere around -1.0?

Anyone have any experience with this, and what were your thoughts if you did have it change?

Believe me I dont mind going through rear tires, but it shouldnt be that bad, not even Porsche's and Vette's suffer from that bad of tire wear.

IceyTys

Also I am thinking of switching from Falken Azenis ST115's to Goodyear Eagle GT's on the rears. They are Z rated all-season with a wear rating of 400 instead of 300, so if you have any experience with these tires as well feel free to chime in. They are A-symetrical and I was thinking the inside part of the tire might have a stiffer tread for snow and ice Which in turn may make the inner part of the tread last a bit longer

THX

Phantom Mark

To be fair the pork and vette dont have the same weight pushing those tyres into the tarmac.........my 3er with heavy lowering on coilovers had a fair bit of negative rear camber and ate up the tyres in no time at all, and that was 200kg less weight than my current 5er.

I've not looked on the 5er but I think the rear should be adjustable with stock parts to do what you need to achieve, needed adjustable camber control arms on the 3er tho......

Moopai

IceyTys, sorry to hear about your problem that sucks. Regarding the replacement tires, in the last couple of months I've done an extensive research on tires as I'm going to replace the ran flats and upgrade to 19". The GoodYear F1 Asymmetric scored the highest rating from quietness, handling in wet/dry, cornering and one of the longest thread life. Some people put on the tire more than 40,000 Km and the tire still handled well and quietly. My two cents!

Phantom Mark

Ot:

Its about time they brought in dual compound rubber to take on this kind of problem with performance tyres, we had them on bikes for ages already, they are proven to work.

Spyglass

If you're looking for all season tires I've heard good reports on the Bridgestone 960's and I think they have a treadwear around 400, the only negative is they have some sidewall flex which effects the turn-in feel. But then that really depends on what tire you're coming from and how hard you drive. Also look at the Pilot Sport A/S, similar treadwear to the 960's and arguably better driving feel.

Gene

a thread back in 2005 discussed this as well...

http://forums.e60.net/index.php?showtopic=8311&hl=

GL meng


his follow up 2000 miles after the camber adjustment...

IceyTys

THX Gene...

This is some good info...I printed this out and will take it to the alignment shop today, if I can get them to set the camber around -1.0 to -1.2 area that would make a huge difference I am sure.

ktlocklear

Yeah, that would make a pretty huge difference in tire wear. On my Nissan, the rear camber is -2.9 on each side.......and it too eats up the inside edges and quickly. Since there is no more adjustment on the rear camber, I'm pretty much screwed unless I raise the car back up :thumbsdown: Only thing i've been able to do is rotate the tires every 1500-2000 miles, which you can't do, I would assume (staggered).....and another thing that an alignment guy told me to do was to run a few psi less in the rear tires, which has seemed to help slow the wear down some too...not sure how that works though

Gene

another option would be to buy some asymmetrical tires, to allow for rotation between R and L side...