My S2000 tracks beautifully and seems to be handlng very well. The only handling oddity is that the front end is a little squirrely under heavy braking (which I do rarely).

Perhaps Jim can tell me why my right rear tire is much more worn than my left rear (the wear is pretty even from edge to edge), while might right front tire shows a lot of wear on the inside edge, but my left front is wearing uniformly across the tread.

What are the factory alignment specs front and rear, and what are the "better" ones that Jim recommends ?

What should a really good alignment job cost ?

 

I would say just stay within Honda spec on the alignment and be at 4 mm toe in on the rear of the car. This will increase the tread life of the rear tires. If you are getting uneven wear the shop should be able to fine tune the alignment to even out the wear.

Jim

 

Under heavy braking the rear of the car gets very light and the reduced traction gives me the feeling that the rear is loose. Maybe the feeling of poor directional stability gives the impression of poor steering response. We have very powerful brakes in the S2000 (for a street car).

My right rear tire also wears more than the left rear. This characteristic is common to all S2000s, so don't worry about it. I'll speculate that it's due to the way our engine torque is delivered via the torsen LSD.

Use OEM alignment for the best balance of tire wear and performance. More aggressive alignments (increased camber and decreased toe) will result in decreased tread life and less straight line stability, however cornering grip and turn-in response will be improved.
Factory recommended settings (MY 2000) are [front] 6deg. 00' +/- 15' caster, -0deg. 30' +/- 10' camber, and 0 +/- 2mm (0.08") toe in, and [rear] -1deg. 30' +/- 10' camber, 6.0 +/- 2mm (0.25 +/- 0.08") toe in. The settings for MY 2002 and 2003 cars are different but I don't have the specifications handy.

I've paid anywhere between $35 and $65 for a 4-wheel alignment. Aligning cars is an art and my best alignments have been done by attentive technicians on quality racks.

 

Thanks on two counts. I appreciate your suggestions about alignment, but perhaps even more your point about doing it right being an art. Now my problem is to find someone who can do it right ... here in SoCal.

 

Sorry to revive a very old thread. I did a search on the topic and found this one, so I'll just add to it instead of starting a new thread on the same topic.

I just had my rear tires replaced, and when they pulled the old tires off (OEM Potenza S02's) I noticed that the right rear tire had more tread wear than the left rear tire. Both tire were wearing very flat, so there is no issue with alignment or inflation, but just the tread on the right side is worn down more than the left -- not significantly more, but noticeable. I was told by the technician who installed my new tires that this is common for rear-wheel-drive cars without limited slip differential, where the right wheel tend to get more of the power and therefore spin more than the left. Has anyone heard this before? Also since we cannot rotate the tires (without unmounting them and remounting them), can anything be done to even out the tread wear on the left and right rears? Oh, the S2000 is my daily commuting car, so no track or "aggressive" driving other than the normal stuff you do with the S2000. Thanks.

edit: Other threads I found on this same subject from the search:
https://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=118418

https://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=38210

 

I think you answered your own question. As you said, the tires cannot be rotated without dismounting and remounting them. Get them dismounted and remounted and reverse the two tires right to left. Few people do it but I know some do (Efthimios, is one, I think).