martinitime

Had a blowout on the freeway today. Pulled off the freeway to find my Falken FK 452 245-40-ZR18's had worn away very badly from negative camber. These were put on brand new 8 months ago brand new. I had the rear lowered through the dealer but didn't think the air suspension would affect the camber so much.

My buddy at Falken told me that any sort of negative camber will eat tires quick, especially performance tires. He suggested not only getting a 4 wheel alignment on the Xi but also getting a camber kit put on. Does anybody have any experience with these? Seeing that the car is Xi w/ rear air suspension, I don't know if anybody makes anything for it.

I found this: http://www.turnermotorsport.com/html/detai...ODUCT_ID=193526
but not sure if it's the right part or not.

Any ideas fellas?

I've seen other posts as well about this problem with the stock run flats but that definitely shouldn't happen either. What's the deal??!!

Rudy

I'm not entirely familiar with the E61's air suspension but as far as negative camber goes, yes, the inside edge of the tire will wear faster than the outside edge -- the question seems to be to what degree, etc. You mention 8 months in time but in car terms, that's not a very good unit of measurement. How many miles were put on the tires during those 8 months? Generally speaking, you can't expect great treadwear from high performance tires...

My other question is about your having the car lowered (by the dealer.) I'm not too sure what was done but I have to assume that if you lower a car without re-aligning the wheels, you'll probably do more harm than good when it comes to handling and tire wear. I'm no supsension expert but I think that whatever degree of negative camber you had from the factory may have been increased when the car was lowered. BMW does dial in some negative camber from the factory to improve handling but you may have inadvertantly caused too much negative camber when you lowered it which would have caused the tires to wear even faster.

info@trinityautosport

+1 any time where the height of the car is changed, an alignment is needed. also as Rudy said, factory specs has negative camber already.

martinitime

Good point on the miles. Probably put 11k miles on the tires in those 8 months.

The suspension was lowered electronically by computer resetting the zero point on the self leveling system. Guess I'll realign when I get the new tires on and see how long they last next time. Rotating the tires would probably help too!

thanks!!

ygbsm

Aren't you the guy with the white E61 slammed into the weeds? If so, I would also check the wheel wells for evidence of rubbing.

martinitime

Yes I am and fortunately no rubbing. I raised the rear up about an inn h to make it level with the front. It was a little too low before.

Good point though!

push_eax

Hi there,

I just wanted to show you a photo of my previous (rear) 275/30-R19s when I replaced them. Notice the inner part of the tire.

Note that there was some rubbing at some point, but both tires were like this and only one side saw rubbing action. The tire you see is from the side that saw the least rubbing. The other tire was in the same exact state. The tire that you see has about 15k km.

The car is a stock 535d - no lowering, no suspension mods, etc.

Alex

mantraguy

A bit of uneven wear on any tires are normal, particularly if the tires have not been rotated over their life. Many tires now are directional so often they'll only be rotated front to rear, as rotating them to the other side of the car requires removal from the rim so of course you pay to have them re-installed and balanced etc.

Most cars, including ours, are designed to have a bit of negative camber built in for road-handling. The exact amount depends on the car and the tolerances are dictated by the factory, but it's usually a couple or a few degrees - enough to be visually noticeable when the tire is worn, but not usually enough to cause premature wear.

However, when you lower your car, you upset the amount of camber and/or caster and/or toe that's designed to be there. All three settings will affect handling and tire wear, but camber is usually affected the most. How much it's affected depends on the model of car - a lot of North American cars and light trucks don't have much issue but that's largely because a lot of them use different suspension (ie many don't have independent rear suspension). Many Japanese and European cars will have large amounts of negative camber when you lower them - the lower you go, the more the camber is affected.

So yes, a camber kit is definitely recommended, both for reasons of safer handling as well as to reduce tire wear. The kits basically include an elliptical or off-centre pivot around which the suspension part can 'pivot' - so they're adjustable. If you're lowering the car and want to do everything all at once, the best way is to install the camber kit while you're installing the lowering kit (springs / shocks etc.). Drive for a week or two to allow the new parts to 'settle in' or adjust to their regular ride height (new springs will compress slightly, new bushings will compress a bit too etc.) and then get a 4-wheel alignment done, at a place that knows how to adjust your camber kit. They'll have the machinery required to measure the amount of camber, caster and toe of your car, and they'll also have the recommended (by BMW) settings so they'll be able to adjust your camber kit, tie-rods and other suspension parts to fall inside the factory-recommended tolerances. Have them print out a sheet detailing the amounts of camber, caster and toe for each wheel once the alignment is done. You could even have them tell you what the figures were before they started, so you can see how much difference it makes. It's quite remarkable (and a bit scary!) to see how many people are out driving their lowered cars with massive amounts of negative camber - it's really not doing anything for their handling and it's chewing up tires at a furious rate!

Jed Peter

Just checking in, I have a lowered car and the same issues with wear on the tires.

I'm going to consult my "guy" and get my suspension re-set up....