3hrtour

So I have been told 2 things :
A) there is no reason that you can not put bigger wheels on a car and not have normal wear.

AND

B) on high performance low profile (not lowered) cars they will always wear out tire and dont expect more than 15k miles.

So I just did that and the tire wore on the inside to the point of replacement before I noticed it. whern I had the alignment checked, it was perfect with no issues. the car is not lowered and is all factory suspension.

So my question is................

have you guys ever heard of anyone telling the alignment guy different spec's to compensate for the wear. I understand it may effect performance.


3hrtour

RBYCC

Is your car lowered and if so how much ?
What is the offset of your wheels ?
What is the rim width and the size of the tire ?
Was the inside wear on front, rear or both ?

3hrtour

• Is your car lowered and if so how much ? not lowered
• What is the offset of your wheels 27
• What is the rim width and the size of the tire 20x10
• Was the inside wear on front, rear or both ? inside rear wheels

neanderthal

You may have bought wheels and tires with the correct offset and sizing for the car but unless you have done an alignment to allow for the newer, wider rubber, you are running the risk of accelerated inside wear.


Lets start with basics.
The rear wheels have built in camber.
The alignment is designed for the original wheels and tires; 195/65R15s on 15X6.5 rims.
That's a narrow section relatively tall tire. With flexible sides. About 25 inches tall.
Your rims are 3.5 inches wider.
Your tires are stiffer, laterally, longitudinally, axially.

If you take two pieces of a a ruler or anything that roughly approximate the width of the original wheel vs your current wheels then lay them next to each other with the mid points matching you will see how much more rubber is on the inside.

Now, angle both pieces of ruler/ wood to emulate the built in camber of the suspension. Angle them both the same and you will need to completely lift one of the rulers from the ground (the shorter one emulating the OE wheel size) If you were to simply angle the shorter one and imagine the longer one disappearing into the ground, then you can see that the longer one is taking disproportionate amount of weight on that inner rubber. And remember, your tires have a lower section and a stiffer construction, so they don't flex as much as a taller section tire. there isn't as much give.

Take a piece of cardboard and cut an imaginary cross section of your tires and the oe if it doesn't make sense.

This is why we preach moderation in tire/ wheel sizing.

3hrtour

You have made an assumption that i put 20's on a car that started with a 15 inch wheel. it did not, this car had factory 18 inch wheels already... and i went to 20's, the car u might be thinking of i went from a 195/65R15s on 15X6.5 wheel to a 215/55R15s on 16X7.5 rims. wheel... I would not put 20 on a car that had 15 inch factory wheels.

So my question was................

have you guys ever heard of anyone telling the alignment guy different spec's to compensate for the wear. I understand it may effect performance.

I think I have researched an answer for this issued

for this car... I can get camber kit to fix the camber and get the wheel straight on the ground... then take it to a custom wheel alignment place that specializes in custom wheel stuff. other than that the suggestion is to flip the tires every 5k miles or so...given that I have a staggered setup...

neanderthal

Well forgive me for thinking you were talking about a W124 in a W124 forum asking about tires and alignment; one that DOESN'T say "off topic."

RBYCC

If the tire size you selected is not within the suggested measured rim width you will get wear as you described.
i.e. "stretched" tires...

If you did not lower the car then your camber shouldn't have changed.
You indicate your wheels aren't straight on the ground?
Then you have too much camber which will cause inside wearing.

As Neanderthal posted that you are on a 124 forum which logically would mean you are asking about a 124.
If not, post the year, make and model so any responses will not be 124 specific.

K-Mac

Yes, that's what we do at K-MAC!

With no adjustment ex-factory/OEM we saw the need and were the first to manufacture both front precisely adjustable Camber and also Caster replacement bush kits and rear Camber and "extra Toe" adjustment kits.

To end the frustration of not being able to return to OEM specs after fitting wide profile tires/rims, altering suspension height or load carrying and the opportunity now of lowering lap times on track days by changing settings. Along with the advantage of having this ongoing easy to adjust facility for curb knock damage.

Kits resolving premature edge tire wear, improving traction, braking, high speed directional control and steering response.

With most of these K-MAC patented design kits having twice the load bearing area of OEM thereby also increasing bush life.

Proudly at K-MAC we do not outsource or use cheap imports - instead "in -house" manufacture allows us to oversee quality and always be at the forefront by making rapid, constant product upgrades and keeping up to date with new model releases.

3hrtour

Thanks again for detailed responses.

3Hrtour

3hrtour

My Bad, sorry about that I was just asking a question about having a car aligned out of factory spec. this is a off topic kind of i guess but I was thinking about 2 cars with the same idea.

1) First car was my 550 sport BMW... with those 20x10 in it...

2) 2nd car is the e320 cab witht 16x7.5 on it and with all the suspension changes I made to it.

I have super inside ware on the 20's and and am getting worried about the work I just did on the e320 cab. so I asked the alignment question...

OK I have the answer.. it's pretty easy if you talk to the right alignment folks.

IT is: if you sell tires the answer is no they wont do it and will sell me another set of 400 per tire... LOL ...

if your a professional Alignment guy only not selling tires you might say" sure no problem as long as you have camber and toe adjustment i can flated out your tires and give to an extra 10k or so miles... but be warned that doing this will reduce the performance of your car"

Also one more thing... I have developed a vibration at 60-80 mph in my "w124 E320 CAB"
since replacing shocks, lowering the car and apply bigger wheel and tires.... its not balancing or something simple... I am looking into a front strut and have on very good authority this should fix it... it does i will update the board. I assume you guys have not run into this before as i sis not hear anything on this when i was looking into it last month but maybe I am wrong if so please let me know..

thank

RBYCC

If it is in a specific MPH range it typically is caused by wheel balance or a defective out of round tire.
Did you static or high speed balance the new wheels with tires ?

3hrtour

Not sure if there is a difference between a static or high speed balance of the new wheels with tires. I bought these bridgestone Serenity PLUS ( very highly rated tire) tires from a Firestone dealer and had them do the wheel and tire balance twice on one of those machines that spins the tire at high speed and tell you where to put the weights... that machine should/would tell them if the tire was out of round of if the wheel was messed up in some way as it would not balance.

And I still have a slight vibration at 60-80 on a perfectly smooth road/ just paved highway. I am aware that normally this is a balance issue that's why I had them balance the tires the 2nd time... no change. the likelihood of them messing up twice is very low considering it's Firestone that did the work and they did on 2 different machines to make sure the other was not messed up.... I was thinking that maybe it could be the lugs but even that is a low percentage guess.

I see from your information you have the 94 flavor of my car... have you kept it stock or have you also preform similar work that I have lowered the car with H&R springs, bigger wheels and tires stiffer shocks ??

from what I have come to understand their are vibration dampeners (3 I think) in the 1995 W124 E320 Cab versions of these cars to control the vibration created due to the top being cut off. Apparently the car is tightly engineered and making the changes like i have done takes the car out of that engineered vibration reduction mode and changes it so it will begin to vibrate again just a little. wow that was a mouth full.... i hope it made sense...

thanks for the input

teezer

where do you feel the vibration ??

steering wheel = front tires
seat or chassis = rear tires

if the tires and wheels are the same front and rear, move the front to the rear and the rear to the front and see if the vibration changes

if not, then there is a loose something

also a blown steering damper in the front might be the problem




..

3hrtour

Humm, interesting point I just did a front suspension review and replaced that damper as well as acouple other things it might be worth taking another look just to make sure all is well with the work I had done..

thanks