slicky rick

Our cars go through 2 sets of rears for every set of fronts. Apparently the rears eat up the inner side on the tires due to camber settings. Would it be ok to just adjust camber setting to a a more nuetral value just to increase tire life to say 1 is to 1 rear to front tire consumption? This is for a street driven car with occasional spirited driving. No track work. Will the handling suffer tremendously?

Gripster

It's not just the camber, it's the fact that the engine sits on top of the rears as well. 40/60 rear bias is what kills you - and even more when you're on the gas and the weight shifts back.

CORSASCHNELL

I had this issue with rears but the car was out of alignment. After a proper alignment no more excess wear on inner edge of rears.

My Indy shop who did it says you can not just trust the machine for a proper alignment on a 911, the years of experience makes you go against the machine sometimes to align it right.

slicky rick

Now that statement of your indy, pardon me, is bs. One can never align without a machine. Its the setting you give based on the reading given by the machine that changes everything not meant to insult anybody.
I hope our brothers who have tried setting to less camber can share the effects on handling and performance. I have read the higher camber setting give better handling. But will lower be detrimental?

mattyf

I would not do that. I believe the car's stock alignment is set up to under steer, unless pushed really hard. This helps keep novice drivers out of trouble when they push their cars hard because understeer is easily controlled by lifting up on the throttle. If you change the rear camber you're going to make the car more prone to oversteer and for a novice in a 911 this is not a good idea. Lift off in an oversteer and you'll find yourself facing the wrong way or worse wrapped around a telephone pole.

RED HORSE

I'm not a track guy, but I always figured the track was the place to experiment with parameters outside of manufacture's recommendations. I stick with what is recommended.

KeninBlaine

When I bought my currrent car over 3 years ago, I put new Bridgestone RE050 tires on it, installed Damptronics, lowered the car just less than 1", and had the alignment set to ROW which provided some negative camber, especially to the rear wheels. Amazingly, even after doing a few autocrosses, and driving in a spirited manner the rest of the time, I've gotten over 26000 miles on my front tires with likely another 5k worth of tread left, and got 15,000 on my first set of rears. I expect the second set of rears will also be good for 15k (they now have 11k on them). So I don't think removing camber on the rear wheels will necessarily reduce tire wear on the inside, even though logic might suggest otherwise. I'm sure the rear toe also has a big effect.

rijowysock

check the toe... thats the worst offender.. camber isn't actually that bad.. i'd say your toe is in.. i've ran -1.5/-2 rear and never any camber wear... or just drive harder to wear the outside "chicken strips"

larrytrk

That's what I loved about the Bridgestones vs Pzero's, will have to see about the PS on my wheels now.
No camber adjustments, out of the ordinary.

Edgy01

As a 911 owner for many decades it's all about the weight over the rear tires. If you reduce the camber you will risk changing the driving behavior of the car.

Personally, you have to live with the fact that they like tires--particularly rear tires!

KeninBlaine

I agree with Edgy, the characteristic of these cars is that they will wear out rear tires at about twice the rate of front tires. One thing that has been mentioned in the past on this subject is that if you haven't had your alignment checked, you should likely do so, as apparently it is not uncommon to discover that the factory alignment is often out of spec.

Ptech1

It all depends on what you are using the car for... The indy shop's comment about not trusting the machine is actually correct, based on the simple fact that the factory settings for almost any generation of 911 were never meant to prolong tire wear.
Original cars were all set with excessive toe in (both front and rear) in order to keep the car from wanting to oversteer excessively.
Newer cars are all set excessively aggressive in the rear for handling characteristics as well.
Therefore, even when dealing with a newer chassis, you sometimes have to set camber and toe "out of spec" if maximum tire wear is the goal, as in not trusting where the machine wants the specs and using minimal camber and toe.
Most owners who don't drive aggressively would never notice the difference in handling as long as the alignment is balanced.

Macster

Don't know about all generations of 911's but for my 02 Boxster and my 03 Turbo I've always had the alignment set to the "factory" numbers and have the alignment computer graphics before and after printouts for almost every alignment -- note if one doesn't get this the alignment sucks is my experience -- and tire life has been exemplary.

Last set of rear tires on my Turbo that were not replaced prematurely due to a puncture in one which required the other tire to be replaced gave me nearly 23K miles. One tire picked up a puncture and still had enough tread (3mm) to qualify to be replaced under the tire's road hazard coverage.

I say this over and over again to maximize tire life be sure the alignment is correct. Based on the alignment before and after numbers I've seen for my cars rear toe (and in one case for a non-Porsche car (06 GTO) front toe) is the tire killer.

Ptech1

Yes, you are correct on those cars. Which is why I didn't say all 911's (and wasn't including any 986 or 987 chassis either). Both of those cars run minimal numbers as a factory setting when it comes to camber anyway. Toe is always minimal for tire wear on any car, and is only in place to create balance, tracking, or turn in depending on the application. It's just that early and 997-on 911's factory settings can be overly aggressive even while still "in spec" , with tire wear suffering as a result.

Ptech1

And to be clear. I'm referring to dropped off at the dealer, as in actual "factory", settings... On first rear tire replacement, I always recommend resetting the alignment. And always give print outs.