For those of us who will probably never explore the maximum limits of handling in these cars, does anyone have recommended alignment settings to maximize tire life? In my c63 the inner 1-2" of the tire wears much faster than the rest of the tire. Making the tire trash in less than a year. This is how it goes on the front and the rear in my car. That being said, tires are probably lasting more than 6,000 miles, but i don't remember many lasting 10,000 miles are more, definately not 20,000 miles.

I had my alignment adjusted recently due to kw susp install, but I believe that they gave me a printout of my 'before' specs. My car only has 7500 miles but my stock 507 wheels have the original tires and they are not wearing unevenly, and my r888rs are only on the car occasionally for track so 7000+ of those miles are other original tires with plenty of inner tread left.

I will see of I can find printout of original alignment specs for you

toe is the main contributor to adverse tire wear.

Hachiroku,

So toe will cause the front and rear tires to wear the inner 1-2" of tread much quicker than the rest of the tire? If you hadn't said so, my assumption would be the camber is too much.

Would zero toe cure this type of issue? And is it advisable? I don't plan on doing max effort twisties.

I'm following this thread because:

I got new Michelin Pilot 4S (235/40r18) in Jan of last year at 55,750 miles. I am showing wire on my inner tire at 61,2xx miles now!! That is only 5,500 miles! Now.. I do have a ton of negative camber, -3.2 left and -2.8 right, but my toe is in spec. at .26 left and .26 right.. I am going to contact Michelin to see if I can get some prorated amount back but 5,500 miles is crazy little, even with -3 camber with right toe. The reason my car has so much camber is because I'm lowered quite a bit and my tire was hitting my fender slightly on inclined right angles so I maxed out my Fortune Auto Muller camber plates. I don't expect 20k at all but at least 10k...

Correct, toe is the main contributor to tire wear. OEM's toe in the factory settings to allow the vehicle to track straight and not pull or follow cracks on the road. Zero toe is ideal for handling and maximum tire wear, but will introduce a habit of requiring the driver to actively stabilize the vehicle to maintain straight drivability. With a zero toe, you'll notice your vehicle will steer in quicker, easier, and more lively than with the OEM toe in spec. When toe is introduced with camber, you can see wear in the inner of the tires.

-3 camber is quite a bit much for a street driven car. -3 is ideal for handling but if combined with toe, can increase inner tire wear.

I totally agree. I just got annoyed at having to take off my entire strut to adjust my camber so I just maxed it out. Now.. I'm going to readjust to -1.5 or -2 and raise my car if needed.

You play you pay.
Lowering this platform always increases negative camber and that wears the inner more quickly.
If your tire is also hitting your fender without lots of neg camber maybe your wheel offset number is too low.
Std offsets are ET45Front and ET54Rear

Understood. So zero toe can be considered. What about reducing toe to closer to zero, but not quite?

This is the type of wear I was seeing on my stock suspension 2009 C63. Brand new tire, down to the steel in a little over 5,000 miles but under 10,000 miiles. In the streets I drive like a GRANDMA to save gas and try to make tires last longer.

I burned through a few sets before reducing toe up front. I did not notice any change in handling, but I do not track this car.

Can we have an idea of before and after tire life after your toe adjustment?

Ok my memory was off. Now I remember others said they had zero toe but I didn’t go all the way. I went down to 0.13. I’ve basically kept this alignment since.

What was the tire life before and after?

Did you have the inner tire wear on the rears?

Mostly noticeable on front inners. Lasted maybe 4K miles.

Driving gently on cars with neg camber doesn't help as turning more is what makes the inside tire stand more vertical.
Unfortunately for street cars we spend most of our time driving straight or nearly straight ahead majority of time.
Manufacturers of performance cars are trying to please the outright handling enthusiasts more than joe average at the detriment to tire life.
This the price we pay for having a high performance car.

How much after the camber change?

never mind

I know, I’m not getting into that argument again.

Yes there is only front and rear Toe (directional) adjustment OEM. All to do with cost cutting and ever increasing speed of auto assembly lines (at KMAC we have been resolving such OEM suspension short comings since 1964 !).


No longer Camber or Caster allowing to adjust tire contact angles, spread load more evenly to correct costly, premature edge wear. Excess edge load also leading to ruptured side walls, rim damage.

Leading to the frustration of going from one dealer or alignment shop to the next. Being told (because of broad alignment parameters) “is within factory specs” !

Not being able to adjust tire contact angles / fix it right owners see only alternative is experimenting with different tire brands.

For all W204 (and virtually every other Mercedes model) we therefore manufacture front Camber and Caster kits. Rear Camber “ and extra Toe” kits (along with uprated bushings).

Catering for other than showroom height conditions - high cambered roads, altered height through load carrying or lowering. Fitting wide profile tires or simply ongoing adjustment capability for curb knock damage.



W204 INCL. AMG AND BLACK SERIES:


1. FRONT LOWER ARM BUSHINGS (Replacing at same time the 4 highest wearing).

All the features – Nothing comes close when it comes to price, strength, adjustment range, ease and accuracy of adjustment. With up to 1.5 degrees Pos. or Neg.

Unique patented design provides precise “ single wrench” adjustment (of both) Camber and Caster. Accurately under load direct on alignment rack. Thrust arm (Caster adjustable) bushes are Monoball / 2 Axis significantly improving brake and steering response (with more than twice the load bearing / impact area of spherical bearings that with their wafer thin / Teflon liners soon pound out).

#502616K $480 (Both Sides)



2. FRONT UPPER STRUT MOUNTS “Extra” adjustment for Track days in the pursuit of front row of the grid lap times. With KMAC can precisely adjust Camber and Caster “from engine bay”. Up to 3 degrees extra Neg Camber (1.5 Pos.).
STAGE 2 STREET / RACE #503016-2L $545 (Both Sides)

STAGE 3 FULL RACE #503016-3L $545 (Both Sides)

Also fit with all brands Coil overs 60-70mm I.D. Not steel or soft billet alloy. Instead very highest aircraft 7075 aluminum with massive / separate 3 ⅜” diam. fully sealed thrust bearings for steering loads.


3. REAR LOWER ARM CAMBER KIT (and extra Toe to compensate)

Precise single wrench adjustable (lower arm kit retains important clearance top of tire to outer fender when adjusting to resolve premature inner edge wear).

#502226K $480 (Both Sides).


4. REAR UPPER CAMBER ARM ADJUSTERS (also extra Toe to compensate)

Not soft extruded aluminum but Hi-strength forged alloy same as OEM.
#502226-1M $595 (Both Sides)


5. ALSO MANUFACTURE:

Uprated Bushings for the 6 Multi link rear arms. Less twitch / flex, loss of traction especially when applying power to lane change / overtake !!
#502528K $480 (set 12)


6. UPRATED BUSHINGS FOR THE REAR SUBFRAME (4)includes bush extraction tool.
#503028Q $890


7. UPRATED REAR DIFF BUSHINGS (Monoball / 2 Axis)
#503228J $380 (Pair)

also to answer the original question...for ABSOLUTE tire life for ANY vehicle that doesn't only drive straight.

0 toe front
-1 camber front

0 toe rear
-0.5 camber rear

to prevent tracking or following imperfections in the road, you'll want to toe in your front only a hair. from what it seems, the factory toe in setting is too abrupt. it allows for a very straight driving vehicle, but not the greatest for tire wear. just imagine walking with your actual feet pointed inwards. you'll move slower, but focus on walking straight, and possibly drag your heels. if you have your feet or "toes" pointing outwards, you'll have ease of change of direction and possibly drag your heels, with some instability when speeds increase. tire alignments in regards to "toe" are called what they are because they're based off your actual feet and how they best align.

The rear needs a little toe on an independent suspension. (zero on a solid rear axle is perfect)

Imagine you have zero toe and put load (accelerate) on it and it goes negative. That is something I would avoid especially when turning because that would increase the oversteer,

just refer to this thread.
Tire wear.

to each his own...my car is at 0 toe all around and its exactly how i expect all of my vehicles to handle. turn in and oversteer are very different. toe out increases turn in, but that is only if you've increased toe to do so.