O.W. Kenobi

I've read numerous stories (and know one or two locals) about people prematurely wearing out the inside of their tires on lowered suspension. Supposedly, the problem is that they cannot adjust the camber/caster (I have no idea which is which, honestly) sufficiently to account for the change in geometry.

So, my questions are as follows:
(1) If I buy front control arms and rear toe links (like the CPP stuff), will I be able to counteract the change in geometry and prevent abnormal tire wear? Has anyone installed them?

(2) How difficult is install/adjustment? Do you need any special equipment (alignment machine)?

(3) When do you adjust - before or after waiting for the springs to settle?

(4) Any other options besides CPP? I think I remember Don Istook discussing something that he offers on here before, but that's about it. Any comments on which is better?

Thanks for the help. I'm ready to purchase some H&R Streets, but I want to do it right the first time and prevent tire wear.

Jeff Vader - boscoj

many people make camber links, CPP, Istook, STaSIS. This will increase road noise which is one of the reasons I won't run them. The real reason I run close to stock ride height is just to keep the suspension geometry as close to stock as possible to prevent other anomalies such as bumpsteer(toe deflection under compression) and ripping your bumper off on various things.

As far as settling goes they are torqued at ride height so I don't really know how much 1/4" will affect it.

drgolfnut

i had the same size OZs with the S03s in 225/40. i rubbed some and actually tore up my front right fender a little. and a few times i carved a couple nice slices of rubber off the tire. i probably rotated the tires once during their lifetime. and yes i did have inside wear issues on the tires. but i heard maybe dismounting then mounting on the opposite side wheel may even out the wear. never tried it.

Rob O

My inside shoulders wore to the cores while the remainder of the tread section had 30-40% life left. *But*, I still got a good 25k or so miles out of my AVS Sports ... good by max performance tire standards.

Sure, another 10k miles would have been nice, but $700 for tires every couple years isn't bad. And I don't know that adjustable links are a less expensive alternative long-term, given I'd have only gained about 6 more months before a tire chage was imminent anyway.

jyoteen

I burn through them like crazy. Of course, this could have to do with my alignment settings I chose. I compromised tire life for handling. Now, my tires last about 10K miles or less.

Why else would you buy control arms and toe links for? ;-D

Rob O

What did the toe links cost again?

Audiboy

Bumpsteer? nah, that's a thing of the past with CPP stuff

jyoteen

I gotta tell you Rob, that if you like and have lots of curves where you live, the adjustable control arms and toe links will transform your car's handling, because of the more direct link and the alignment that's possible.

My car felt almost like a go cart; still does. This is part of the reasoning behind the step into P-Car land. It almost makes the power secondary.

I completely understand now why people dig the Miata so much. The tossability and getting that *** out is loads of fun (at the expense of tires). That and the fact that it's light and nimble. But 1 out of 3 ain't bad. :-D

Rob O

:-P

Sounds like it's worth checking out. I would never refer to my car as "tossable", even though it handles quite well.

How hard is install?

jyoteen

The installer and the owner of the shop did comment on how easy it was to align the car and made a specific comment about the quality of the CPP links.

The owner races in PCA and POC with his GT3R.