pnoyworx

So, I want to ask those who are star lowered, or how ever lowered. I am lowered to 25 on all four corners from top fender arch to ground. My car was aligned by MB dealer AMG tech. My rear seems to be at a camber setting that is it's closest to the fender without the tire/rim rubbing. My tires inner, and almost the sidewall is getting an excessive camber wear.

I just want to know how everyones else is doing on tire wear with the height I have or close to it. Possibly if you have your alignment settings. I am considering pulling and rolling my fenders so I can set a more positive camber to fix the wear problem. Anyone else have a suggestion, or have the same problem?

HeissRod

That's a common issue with these cars being lowered. In the front, you can run the MB crash bolts to correct some camber. In the rear, you can either use camber arms (i.e. MBArts) or bushings from KMAC.

pnoyworx

Great looks like I need the KMAC ones. Thanks for the input.

GregMB

When you talk about wear, do you mean on all 4 tires or mostly the rears?

It might seem counterintuitive, but toe-links (rear) will help reduce tire wear. The radical toe changes of the rear suspension under hard acceleration can really chew up the rear tires.

Something else to consider....

-G

timeToy

I would NOT recommend the KMac bushing, they can't handle our cars torque and just come undone under acceleration. I ended up swapping them for the MB Art Toe bars. As GregMB say the real killer is the combo too much Camber and Toe getting out of spec under acceleration.

pnoyworx

Interesting info. What got me is my tire was fine before I took a 2100 mile trip. Before I left, had a tire shop check everything and he said it was fine, even according to my visual inspection.

During the trip I drove her pretty smoothly to get max mpg, Average 22mpg at 65mph. No hard launches but I did have 1 passenger adult in the rear (total 3)on the way and then 2 passenger adults (4 total) on the way back with a loaded trunk.

So with this new info, still toe links? Or a combination of toe links and bushings..etc is needed.

pnoyworx

Just rears, my front's are not affected at all, still at 95% from wall to wall.

Thanks for the help.

timeToy

Driving with a bad toe is like scrubbing your tire sideways, and this is compounded when Camber is off.

This was RedBullJnky tire after bad toe AND too much camber:


I think only Toe links, again my experience with KMac has been very bad, they end up costing me a lot of money.

When you align your car make sure your Toe is in spec, then you can get a couple of degree of neg camber you'll be fine.

pnoyworx

Hi Timetoy,


Are you still selling your links? Saw an ad for it.

Also, with the Kmac, have you approached the company with your concern?
Also what is your height on your car? I don't want to just try Toe Links and buy new tires and end up still ruining tires down in 2k miles. Because according to my dealership alignment, he said my toe was fine. But I guess I will go ahead and install links.

Is it hard to install, and I suppose an alignment is needed after install?
According to the MB-Arts site, it did not recommend an alignment like it does with the chamber arms under installation text.

pnoyworx

timeToy

In the end I kept the Tow Links on the car, as they were allowing for a better alignment.

My installer did reach out to KMac, they send another set, supposedly of a better design (Sport vs Street), but the exact same happened (Bushing literally coming undone under hard acceleration, throwing the suspension geometry off and making the car very unstable).

The alignment sheet you have looks good, everything is in spec; that is weird, you should not chew tire in 2k miles with that alignment. How long before the road trip was that alignment performed ?

Install is a pretty straightforward, bolt-on affair, but you do need to make sure they are properly setup, so I think an alignment is a must.

pnoyworx

The lowering and alignment was done in March, did the trip Mothers day weekend. But the visual inspection was done the day before the trip. Well I am going to go ahead and try toe links and hope it fixes the issue. Are you on stock bushings then since your not running Kmac's?

AgSilver

KMAC's on the front suspension and high quality toe-links on the rear suspension. You can then set the geometry perfectly. The addition of these items will literally transform the handling qualities of the car, especially the stability under hard acceleration.

timeToy

I took mine off the front suspension as I had lost all trust in them.

allenjdmb

The xperience with the kmac stuff around our shop has not been good. I would avoid. If you're not having some premature wear issues on a 211, it's not that low. If I were going inquire about some of these items, I would call Renntech. Their business is really focused on current models now, but my experience with them on the prior models was excellent.

pnoyworx

I wonder if the added weight is the culprit. My daily usually consist of my two kids in the back who weigh a total of max 80lbs. My trip consisted in adding 400lbs with cargo to the rear not counting the driver ans front passenger. I wonder if the dealership does alignments with sportmode off? I think I will try to talk to the dealership and see if they can set me up with spare weight tolerrance. So when I have weight I should still be in spec. Think its worth a shot?

Htownbrother

I'm lowered on coilovers and have put roughly 7k on the same tires. My car was just in the air this past wednesday and I got a good look at all 4. All have great tread and appear to be wearing evenly. I used a shop in huntington beach that Serge from Benzwerks recommended. They specifically told me they aligned it to not wear out the tires. The guy spent a couple of hours on my car and did a great job. I think he gave me the best of both worlds, normal wear and tracks straight.

FromM3toAMG

well damn.. im about to install the Renntech V3 lowering module... this kinda puts a damper on that.. OP, how much weight are you talking about? LBS?

I spoke with Mark @ RENNtech, he stated that the rears wouldnt be difficult to bring into spec with a 1-1.5in drop. The issue according to him is with the fronts which would need a camber bolt kit to be installed. My point is, im willing to bet the tire wear the OP is talking about was due to the excessive weight. ill be able to adjust my ride height with the tablet so hopefully ill be able to avoid this... fingers crossed.

pnoyworx

I think I added about 400lbs or a little less during my trip.

If you look at my alignment sheet, I am in spec in all area's except for my front toe and of course the height. You will notice the tech didn't have to really touch anything. I lowered the car about 1.5 inches to get rid of gap. So my alignment barely moved at all from stock height to being lowered. Plus before my trip my tires were wearing out even. So I don't think it's the lowering at all. My guess is that with the weight added, the spec got out of whack. It's like being on hard launch for 2k miles with all the weight added. So I will install toe links to help keep it more solid, and have the alignment guy give me a bit more positive values to give me some slack when I'm under load.

I have another trip to do this July.... so I must get this fixed

AgSilver

They have been in place (front only) for about 3 years and about 9,000 miles with no issues whatsoever so far and no indication of premature wear. We shall see.

E55Greasemonkey

You are not in spec, you have excess camber.
The added passenger weight is irrelevant as the air suspension will self-level. The lower your car the faster the inside edges of the tires will wear. I may have found a cheaper/better solution to get the camber in spec when our cars are lowered using offset bushings and ball joints designed for the Chrysler LX platform, since we share the same rear suspension and a similar setup in front. I have the parts in hand and will try to install this weekend.

cij911

Bingo...As you lower the car (with our setup), you will naturally get more negative camber and destroy the tire life.

Very interested in your findings greasemonkey ...also, I have a tech question for you - I'll send you a PM.

HeissRod

See, I don't know who to listen to around here concerning this. People say the KMAC bushings come apart and other people say the MBArts arms are junk and will break.

pnoyworx

Please take a look at the post lowering alignment sheet. As per AMG values YES it is in spec. Please also double check your finding about the no weight issue. I am aware the car will self level, but it can not make 400lbs disappear. The weight still has to be transferred to the ground, along with the extra weight of forward motion. Now the car was in spec not moving and unloaded, once you add weight things tweek. If we wanted a balanced car after weight we need corner balancing to truly be certain weight is not an issue.

E55Greasemonkey

Call it what you want, but -2 degrees of camber will wear the insides of your tires and is too much for street driving. Technically the -2 is in spec for that ride height,meaning the suspension isn't bent or worn. -2 on a tire with a tall sidewall,like a 65 or 70 series isn't as detrimental as a low profile 35 series.