Bad Tire Wear, Need Help!

[Toyz-B-Us]

It should be bolt #17 near part#3 if I remember right

[imported_DIYperformance]

Now I remember. The hole in the chassis that the compensator arms' bolt (#17 in that picture) was like an inch wide, allowing to move it back and forth. I didn't think anything of how critical that was when I when I did the swap, I just bolted it in to the rusty circle outline that the old one left. But I didn't think about toe, because I had thought there was no factory toe adjustments based on the Haynes manual I have. It mentioned the front, but nothing about the rear. Plus I did a web search and every link went to someone saying "civics don't have a rear toe adjustment".

So that one inch can throw toe off enough to cause that kind of damage? I also have that creaking sound from the back end since the swap, I've yet to figure that out to. Oh well, I'm doing the alignment by next week. I'll let you all know how I make out, but thanks for the help.

[NstyGrnHatch]

yup sure can moving it 1/4 of an inch can make a half of degree of toe out. I believe the tolerance on toe on civic's is like 30 degree's of tolerance, or somewhere around that area so moving it a little bit can throw it out of spec.

[Calesta]

Originally posted by DIYperformance@May 25 2005, 08:00 PM
Now I remember. The hole in the chassis that the compensator arms' bolt (#17 in that picture) was like an inch wide, allowing to move it back and forth. I didn't think anything of how critical that was when I when I did the swap, I just bolted it in to the rusty circle outline that the old one left. But I didn't think about toe, because I had thought there was no factory toe adjustments based on the Haynes manual I have. It mentioned the front, but nothing about the rear. Plus I did a web search and every link went to someone saying "civics don't have a rear toe adjustment".

So that one inch can throw toe off enough to cause that kind of damage? I also have that creaking sound from the back end since the swap, I've yet to figure that out to. Oh well, I'm doing the alignment by next week. I'll let you all know how I make out, but thanks for the help.

Haynes is garbage. Throw it away.

One inch of toe is a LOT. Toe causes the majority of tire wear- and just a tiny bit out of spec can scrub the shit out of your tires. With the toe set right, you can run -2 degrees of camber and not have any weird tire wear- but with the toe just slightly out, you'll kill the inside edges of your tires.

[NstyGrnHatch]

[imported_DIYperformance]

Well my alignment was pretty off Lol But here's what sucks- the toe WAS off on both sides- but the right was way off and the tire is less worn than the left which was only like half a degree off??? Anyways, we set the camber and toe all good and everything, but the rear left toe (with the worst tire) we couldn't get into spec perfectly. The toe was at zero when we pull the bolt as far as it could go towards the inside of the car. The right side remained, but no matter how hard we tightened the nut, the left toe would always slip back to 0.08. We ended up just leaving it, there's nothing we really didn't try- even losening the whole arm and moving it all over again. But my friend (the guy who owns the alignment machine) assured me that something under 1/10th isn't going to be a problem.

But how about this- his computer uses the traditional software preloaded with every cars settings, and the program says the honda recommends -1 degrees of camber for the rear on my car, and 0 degrees up front. It seemed kind of odd, I don't remember ever reading that anywhere. Plus it looks odd seeing the front wheel straight and the rear tilted a degree in... ?

[Calesta]

Sounds right to me. Go look at some BMWs- they have more negative camber in the rear than the front. On your left toe being out, maybe you need some new bushings.

[imported_DIYperformance]

^That's a good point that we didn't think of! Every bushing except the compensator arm was new.

[Calesta]

Give it a shot, then let me know. I'm curious.

[greasemonkey]

Couple of Q's for you.

Where is the tires bald? Are they evenly bald all over?

The line is the bald area.
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Choice A

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Choice B

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Choice C


You swapped drums for disc brakes in the back?

Or did you swap disc brakes for bigger disc brakes?

And more importantly you still have stock front disc brakes or you have them upgraded too?



If it's B or C on the tire wear then you have some probs with the camber/toe...

If it A then its cause you put a big ass brake on the rear on a front wheel drive car that it was not meant to take. Most of the weight of you civic is in the front, and most braking effort on most cars is on the front. when you brake the weight transfer is naturally to the front, so that those tires grip more and hence stop the car more.

If you placed big brakes on the rear without upgrading the front, then you car's rear brakes are gonna lock/skid every time you brake==> bald rear tires. If you ride a bicycle, and brake with the rear brake only, not only will it not stop better, it'll wear out the rear tires and take longer to brake.

Solution: upgrade the front brakes and get the brake balance so more of the effort is done on the front brakes.

Chill, and good luck.