THECRAIGMEISTER

I have an 05 z51 mn6. At about 16k I noticed the stock runflats were wearing on the inside front tires eneven. They were chopping? on lug was higher than the next, not sure if chopping is the right term? Nevertheless I bought new rims and had the same tires switched over to my new rims as I had some tread left and the tires I wanted were unavailable anywhere. I had my local dealer do an alignment and they are supposed to have a really good alignment guy. I was told the alignment was off and they adjusted it. Great so I have drove for awhile and my car just turned 20k. I still have considerable tread left on the meat of the tire but the inside edge is worn so that it is rounded off and the cords are showing. The car is parked and I am ordering new tires I just want to now if that is normal? I know that they don't get rotated and that 20k is alot for runflats but it just doesn't seem right. Thanks for any input.....Craig

gota07

The term that I see most used for this condition is cupping. I haven't seen this happening on my '07 with 21K miles, but I don't have supercar tires either, so that could account for some difference.

talon90

When you combine the soft compound of the supercar tires with the somewhat agressive alignment of the Z51 handling package, yes. I've read several accounts of members with this very problem. The Z51 alignment is set up for crisp turn in and handling, not straight line long distance driving. It sounds like for you it may be better to have the alignment adjusted to be more like the non-Z51 C6.

BlackZ51Vett

When I finally changed mine (Z51, 22,300 miles), I had 4/32's left on all 4 tires, except the front inside edges of the front tires were bald.

FLY US

.

Craig, how many PSI were you running cold in front?

This is a very interesting fact I did not know
the Z51 was aligned different from the base.

.

huge.eug

That's interesting. I just noticed the same thing, except it's the exact opposite. The outside of my fronts are balding.

lavla

What a coincidence. I had the oil changed on my 2005 coupe last week and while the car was in the air, I noticed that there was more wear on the inside of both front tires than on the outside (I have 11k miles on the car). I'm scheduled for an alignment this Friday. I don't race the car and use it, mainly, for pleasure driving. Is it normal for this type of wear??

2bubbas

Get an alignment ASAP! Depending on your miles, it may be warranty work- mine was.

kyoung

If it's the Z51 package...yes, if you don't like it have the alignment set to less aggressive settings and get tires with a harder compound/higher wear rating.

If your just cruising around you probably won't feel the difference and your tires will last longer/wear more evenly.

eboggs_jkvl

Get an alignment BUT consider this thread first BEFORE you allow the stock settings to be used.

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show....php?t=1795091



The camber of the tire is high to allow for better control in aggressive turns (road racing, auto cross). The camber tilts the top of the tire in and that would cause wear on the bottom inside of the tire. By lowering the camber, you "trend" the tire to be flatter on the road. My settings are to get the highest mileage from the any tires. Were I going racing, I would jack the camber back into the alignment. Right now, my camber is -0.1 the stock setting is -0.45. I have removed the high camber from the front and back wheels. Will this cause a handling problem? Only if I was racing the car and needed 1/10ths to win a race. The car has had a trip to Cincinnati this year and tracked perfectly and did not "go nuts" without the higher camber setting.

Elmer

Irv

Cause a problem? I doubt it; I play with the alignment settings on all of my cars. You may lose some steering feel or some absolute cornering ability with more neutral camber, but the stock specs have some lattitude in them anyway. There's always a +/- range.

Wearing the insides of the front tires is very common. On my C5 Z06, afflicted with the same problem, I went with a considerably more neutral caster setting, but didn't like it. I went back to the stock recommendation. I usually specify a little less toe-in than spec on the C5/C6 (I think GM is being too conservative), but some people may not like the lesser on-center feel. My Z51 C6 is wearing the inside fronts too. When it comes time to replace the tires I plan to experiment with the alignment.

Corvettes are actually a breeze compared to late model Bimmers. They all wear the tires unevenly, and their more primitive suspensions have much less adjustibility. My M Coupe would go through a set of rear tires every 10K miles, just because the inside tread would wear out (the rest of the tread face was worn far less).

rothchilds

mine too. replacing mine this week at 22k, and the outsides are smooth, but the rest of the tire has good tread.

mlongo99

If you drove 15k with a "bad" alignment, it would be expected to have uneven wear. It's good that you had it corrected, but since the wear pattern was already there, even a good alignment won't help even that out.

eboggs_jkvl

At this point the rubber is gone and new tires and rubber will correct the issue. So decide on your alignment before you slap on new rubber. If you keep the stock alignment, expect the same results as far as wear pattern.

heisnuts

I just had mine aligned yesterday. The camber on mine was at -3.2 and there was inside wear on the old tires. Put the new Firestone Run Flats on and had the camber moved to -1.2 and it still handles great in the twisties.

eboggs_jkvl

Might want to double check those camber listings there big guy. I think a "0" is missing somewhere in there.

JimLely

Ditto for me too (and only 6200 miles). Is front-end alignment covered under 3yr/36000 warranty? Sounds like too much positive camber to me.

overrev64

Where is there a "0" missing? 3.2 degrees negative was changed to 1.2 degrees negative.

ttomczak

I had the same problem, but still got over 18K on mine...

Since I have seen varations between 6K to 22K for this problem, I am not sure how to relate it to alignment issues...

dbratten

Or it could be that you're enjoying the handling too much. Even with the stock negative camber settings you'll wear out the outer edge pushing it hard through corners.