For years I've seen odd tire wear and its always blamed on worn out parts, even if your front end is brand new.
Alignment is big business. Here's why its such a racket...
The factory alignment specs are so wide that you can literally see a difference between the left and right front wheel and the settings are still "within spec."
The shop throws the alignment equipment on the car and pushes print. That's $129.99 x 15-20 cars a day. That's it 90% of the time, because of how wide the specs are.
Oh, and the before and after printout??? That can be edited before you print. No kidding...
And so what if your tires wear...most shops who do alignment also sell tires...
So, on my Mustang, i got tired of asking alignment questions and getting the default answer of "its in spec."
Alignment specs are very wide on the S197 Mustang - and even wider on some other cars and trucks. The camber spec is 3/4° positive to 3/4° negative and the toe is .010° + or - .020°, which works out to be around .040" total + or - .090".
What this means is, if the left front tire is toed in to .040" and the right front is toed out to .050" the alignment is "within spec," but i guarantee you will have outside (and/or inside) edge tire wear.
I got tired of crappy alignment that was giving me odd tire wear. Every question was answered with "it's in spec."
We always did our own alignments and we always used zero toe in or 'dead-zero' if you prefer. I prefer this setting for daily driving.
I broke out some old alignment tools from my racing days and did it myself....and the car drives better than ever...perfect directional stability over irregular road surfaces too...
Alignment is big business. Here's why its such a racket...
The factory alignment specs are so wide that you can literally see a difference between the left and right front wheel and the settings are still "within spec."
The shop throws the alignment equipment on the car and pushes print. That's $129.99 x 15-20 cars a day. That's it 90% of the time, because of how wide the specs are.
Oh, and the before and after printout??? That can be edited before you print. No kidding...
And so what if your tires wear...most shops who do alignment also sell tires...
So, on my Mustang, i got tired of asking alignment questions and getting the default answer of "its in spec."
Alignment specs are very wide on the S197 Mustang - and even wider on some other cars and trucks. The camber spec is 3/4° positive to 3/4° negative and the toe is .010° + or - .020°, which works out to be around .040" total + or - .090".
What this means is, if the left front tire is toed in to .040" and the right front is toed out to .050" the alignment is "within spec," but i guarantee you will have outside (and/or inside) edge tire wear.
I got tired of crappy alignment that was giving me odd tire wear. Every question was answered with "it's in spec."
We always did our own alignments and we always used zero toe in or 'dead-zero' if you prefer. I prefer this setting for daily driving.
I broke out some old alignment tools from my racing days and did it myself....and the car drives better than ever...perfect directional stability over irregular road surfaces too...
The picture I posted is just after I bought the car. The red sticker on the front spoiler denotes a rookie. It looked much different after I'd had it a coupe of years but I can't find any pictures of later iterations. I replaced the whole front body with super lightweight fibreglass panels. The only metal was the roof and door pillars. I had to keep that to meet the GT4 class at the time. Lots of fun but lots of money as well. I was eventually involved in a crash that twisted the car so it needed major work. I decided that I could no longer afford racing. By that time I had learned that in racing money wins. Whoever had the most money had the fastest car. There was little the driver could do to alter the situation. Even if you were the better driver someone with more money would build a faster car and beat you.
