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Can lowering a 964 cause premature tire wear?

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Old 03-20-2008, 04:11 PM
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TEN DOLLAR
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Default Can lowering a 964 cause premature tire wear?

Hi guys,

I have a 91 964 C4 which I've owned for 9 months. When I first bought the car the rear tires had plenty of tread (Bridgestone SO2's). These then wore out very quickly over a period of 1500 miles. I thought it strange but didn't think much more about it, and purchased 2 new SO2's. Since then, I've done a further 500 miles and this morning I notice that both rear tires are wearing heavily on the outer edge. To be honest, I drive like an old lady, so it's not extreme driving that can be causing this.

The previous owner had lowered the car, could this change the whole geometry of the car to cause this tire wear? I've booked it into my local specialist for a geometry check on Tuesday (£150.00 just for the check).

The car does pull slightly to the left, but apart from that, drives fine.

Thanks in advance,

TD
Old 03-20-2008, 04:18 PM
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warmfuzzies
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Sounds like bad geo at the rear, maybe a tad of toe out causing this. Or suspension issues

Mine is lowered, has 1.5+neg camber and aggressive toe, I don't drive like an old woman, and I can still get 6k per set.


Kevin
Old 03-20-2008, 04:22 PM
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Tom W
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If you lower the car, you change the camber (and I think toe a bit too) so yes, it will affect tire wear. If you lower the car, you need to redo the alignment.
Old 03-20-2008, 04:41 PM
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hawk911
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yup- I thought they pretty much went hand in hand; lower = new alignment
Old 03-20-2008, 05:04 PM
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Thanks guys. I agree - sounds logical to re-align the car if you lower it. Obviously this wasn't obvious to the previous owner. Any idea if this is an expensive time consuming job for a specialist?
Old 03-20-2008, 05:13 PM
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ilko
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I don't know about the UK, but you can get a decent alignment for under $200 in the States. You can go nuts and corner balance the car, etc. and spend hours and tons of money tweaking the alignment settings but if it's a street driven car and you don't push it too hard you probably don't need that.

Your previous statement of GBP150 for a "geometry check" seems a bit high, but that's from a US price perspective. And yeah, any time you change suspension components (shocks and springs) you need to realign the car.
Old 03-20-2008, 05:17 PM
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DaveK
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You shouldn't be paying £150 for a "check". You should be paying £150-£200 for a full geometry setup.
Old 03-20-2008, 06:31 PM
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FWIW: I just paid about $250 for an alignment and balance (not corner weight, just evening out the ride height to ROW RS). They billed me based on actual shop time. I did this because I had changed the dampers/springs and lowered the ride height.

I agree with DaveK that 150 pounds should damn near cover the alignment.



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