Alignment

[litdog]

Something is obviously wrong with my front alignment. The tires are wearing super fast on the outer edges of the front tires, moreso on the driver's side. When I got the car it had maybe 15% tread on the front tires, and now the inside is fine but the outside driver's edge of the tire is showing cords...

I have a new set of tires that just got delivered waiting in my garage, what should I tell the alignment guy when I go in tomorrow or monday to get the tires installed. From searching I see that it's either a toe problem or a camber problem... It doesn't LOOK like there's a camber problem that would just wear the outer edge mainly, but i'm not very trained in alignment stuff..

The car doesnt really pull either way when i'm driving on a flat surface, but it follows the road contours back and forth pretty bad... It tends to drift left (driver's side) more than it drifts right though, which makes me wonder with the worse wear on the outer edge of the driver's side tire..

What alignment specs should I give them if I just have them fully align the front end? I drive the car every day with the occasional spirited driving around the lake. Are there any special things they need to know to align the SVO?

[Pat_in_L.A.]

You really need to know where your camber is to begin with before any determination can be made. You need more negative camber, but how much is very subjective. Let the alignment shop see the used tires and align it to their best recommendations before installing the new tires. Just monitor the tread wear on the new ones and get the shop to tweak things accordingly if you see any more adverse wear.

[litdog]

That's the plan. Just wondering if any alignment shop will be able to align the svo with no problems due to svo stuff.

Here's a picture of the tire:

[litdog]

Well apparently I dont have a warped rotor making my front end shake on braking at higher speeds.. .I have crapped out front wheel bearings. I jacked up the car to check the brakes that seemed to be dragging a little and causing the pulsating... sure enough, i can move the rotor and wheel around back and forth...

Is there anything special I should be looking for in wheel bearings? Nothing SVO specific? Will a parts store get it right if I tell em the engine stuff, or is it the same as a 5.0 or 2.3 wheel bearing... is there even a difference?

[litdog]

Well, the bearings looked perfect, so I packed in some more grease and put it all back together... now the rotor doesn't move like it did before, so that's good that I don't need the bearings. My rotor, however is scraping in one spot, so it may be slightly warped anyway, but I can deal with that because now when I brake it's smooth and straight

Now I have to get my alternator to stop squeaking and my clutch to stop being lame, and my tires mounted/balanced/aligned... it never ends

[litdog]

Tell me about it. Never ends is right.

One of these days i'm just going to buy a new car with a warranty

[litdog]

aaaaaaaaaaaand the hard braking shudder is back... it does seem that my rotor has a slight warp in it, so i'll check my suspension stuff and see if maybe a tie rod end is shot making the warped rotor jerk the tire around under hard braking...

[litdog]

still no play in the bearings... turned out to be a loose steering rack and maybe the slightly warped rotor also. Looks like it's time to get that rotor turned so it stops dusting my wheel