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Car Forum / Driving, Maintenance, Tuning / General Car Topics / August 2005

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tire wear and alignment

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e2p - 06 Aug 2005 22:08 GMT
Have a 2003 Corolla at 30k miles with original tires of Goodyear Integrity
P195/65R15 89s. The tires were rotated twice in the past at 10k and 20k.
Saw excessive tire wear, especially in the front, compared to other cars
at 30k. At 30k service, dealer suggested alignment after rotating the
tires for the 3rd time. After alignment was done, I can read from the
alignment report that everything except toes were in spec range and now
stay the same.

The front toes were +0.11 left and -0.11 right, compared to the spec range
of -/+0.10. The rear toes were 0.14 left and -0.11 right, compared to the
spec range of 0 to 0.27.

After the alignment, the front toes are now at -0.01 left and +0.01 right.
The rear toes are 0.13 left and -0.12 right. The right rear toe is still
out of spec range.

The dealer said the rear toes on 2003 Corollas are not adjustable, and it
would need a spacer to correct the out-of-range right toe. BUT there
should not be as much tire wear since the front toes were corrected.

My questions are these.

1) Since the front toes were so ever slightly out of spec range (+/-0.11
compared to spec of +/-0.10), how could the tires be worn out that much?
could it be the tires themselves that are of cheap types or quality?

2) With rear right toe still out of spec range, -0.12 compared to 0 to
0.27, is it worthwhile having a spacer put in to correct it?

3) The alignment report shows the thrust angle to be 0.12 before alignment
and 0.13 after alignment, while there is no spec range. I have the
impression that the thrust angle should be 0. Could the non-zero thrust
angle have caused the excessive tire wear?

I realize that this is a long post. Thank you for your patience and your
answer.
SnoMan - 08 Aug 2005 16:36 GMT
>Have a 2003 Corolla at 30k miles with original tires of Goodyear
>Integrity
[quoted text clipped - 46 lines]
>your
>answer.

I like a person that knows how to read specs!
On the toe, basically the front wheels were at neutral toe because
they canceled each other out but, normally the front wheels tend to
move back in a rear wheel drive car going down the road which changes
too slightly and weather it is a postive or negtive change depends a
lot on weather the steering linkage is in front or behind front axle
center line as the suspension tends to move backwards from road
forces. Now with a front wheel drive car like yours, the wheels tend
to move forward and toe out a bit because the steering is behind the
axle center line so you want to have  a little toe in to start. In
your case since you had basically none, the wheels toed out about .05
to .010 each giving you 300 to 500 feet of side thrust on tread
(erasing it slowly so to speak) for each mile traveled, this amount
would vary with throttle setting and likely average less but it would
wear tires faster than normal which you experianced. In the rear, I
would not even worry because they basically cancel each other out and
may at worst cause car to dog track maybe 1/2 inch or so tops and
likely less in the real world. Hope this helps.
 
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