I bought new SO2s tires for the rear about 3K miles ago and also had the tire shop do a 4-wheel alignment. Now I notice all four tires are wearing noticeably on the insides. Does this mean they used the wrong equipment, or incorrect settings? (I recall someone saying that only certain tire shops can do a proper alignment on the S2K because it needs specialized alignment equipment.)

[Edited by 1Y2KS2K on 06-05-2001 at 03:32 PM]

 

Is your car lowered? If it is, maybe they weren't able to return the camber back to stock settings. Then a camber kit may be needed.

 

The stock specs call for negative camber on all four and a bit of toe-in in the rear. Some inside wear can be expected, especially if you do alot of straight line highway miles. 3K miles is pretty fast wear so it may be prudent to get your alignment checked.

I am not aware of any special equipment to align this car.

 

Good question. I have the exact same situation happening on my front tires.

They are the original OEM S02's that came w/ my car, and I have never had an alignment done to date. I have 14,500 miles on those tires.

I figured that the "camber" of the tires did this. However, I don't know if mine is off, or if this is just how are tires wear with the correct alignment. I spoke to a honda mechanic the last time my car was at the dealership. The mechanic I was talking to was that dealerships alignment guru, and he said, "that this was not a result of a bad alignment" However, he never gave a good reason as to why they wore that way.

Opinons please.

 

Thanks. You responded while I wrote my post. I figured it was nothing to worry about. I will be getting all four new tires in the next couple of months! Damn these tires wear fast!

 

i only got 10,000 miles out of my bridgestone portenza's. the fronts were perfect but the inside rears were bald - i took the car to my honda dealership and the alignment was dead nuts - i replaced all 4 with sumitomo htr 55-z in the front and 50-z in the back. the sumitomos are incredibly quiet - no more tire singing on concrete freeways and they're rated for 20k to 25k, obviously depending on how hard you drive it. best part is that at least here in arizona, they run about $85 a tire. our goodyear dealers carry the brand. final note - i took the portenza's to a bridgestone dealer to have them look at the tire - he claimed that the tire has no mileage estimate and he's seen some last less than 5,000 miles. that's why i didn't bother just buying rears. good luck

 

I have not replaced my original tires and at 9000miles they are evenly wear.

My toe alignment setting is:

Front 0

 

I also had badly worn insides on my front OEM tires, the rear wore evenly, but quickly. At 9000 miles I replaced all 4, but I could've just swapped left for right in the front doubling the life. I saved them for when (and if) I go back to the OEM tires. I replaced all 4 with Dunlop SP8000's. Wrote a pretty lenghty review on them here someplace. I love them. Great dry and in rain, pretty sticky although not like the OEMs. They felt great on the dragon and the rest of the spirited driving at S2KDays. I do MUCH highway driving and couldn't spend $900 on tires every 10000 miles. The SP8000s were about $90 a tire and should last twice a long. I've got 5000miles on them now and they look great yet.

BTW: I had my alignment checked too when I saw the insides of the SO2's, as with pretty much everyone else here - dead nuts. They spec it that way for better handling even if you do burn through tires like crazy.

Specs as follows
Left Front Right Front
Cabmer min/max -.57/-.33 actual -.4 actual -.4
Caster min/max 5.75/6.25 actual 6.1 actual 6.0
Toe min/max -.04/.04 actual .01 actual 0.0

Left Rear Right Rear
Camber min/max -1.57/-1.33 actual -1.5 actual -1.4
Toe min/max .06 / .16 actual .14 actual .13

[Edited by RU2KREDY on 06-05-2001 at 03:34 PM]

 

How do you like the Sumitomos as far as performance is concerned? I'm considering these once I finally wear out the LOUD Yok A520's on my gs-r...and the pricetag is very appealing.

Thanks

 

BTW, for those that want perfectly even wear..

After driving my car with no inside wear in 5K miles and another that came from the factory with an alignment that wore the inside more.. back to back on the track, I went to the dealer to get more negative camber. The negative camber really helps the car feel better planted in the front.. IMO a little inside wear is not a bad price to pay for it.