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2020 Corvette of the Year Finalist (appearance mods)
C7 of Year Winner (appearance mods) 2019
2017 C7 of Year Finalist
2015 C7 of the Year
St. Jude Donor '14-'15-'16-'17-'18-'19
Tire wear warning after lowering on stock bolts
Somewhere around 4,000 miles, I lowered my 2014 all the way on the stock bolts.
At 4,297 miles, my local Chevrolet dealership did an alignment job for me and adjusted the toe. They knew I had lowered it on the stock bolts.
After a 1,400 mile trip to Richmond, Virginia, this past Wednesday and Thursday, I had 13,500 miles on the car. I spent Friday evening detailing the Corvette for a show the next day and decided to remove my wheels for cleaning. I was horrified to find that the inside portion of both front tires were worn all the way down to the wear bars. Evidently the camber wasn't adjusted and I've prematurely worn out my front tires.
I'm going to attempt to find a reputable shop to make the appropriate adjustments before my 1,400 mile trip back to Oklahoma Monday and Tuesday.
If you have lowered your car on stock bolts, please check the tire wear from time to time even if you've had the alignment checked and/or adjusted.
Last edited by E.T.D. Corvettes; 06-08-2015 at 11:42 AM.
Do you have a copy of the alignment sheet from the dealer when it was aligned? It would be nice to see where the camber was set. (or not)
Lowered car always means more negative camber which is evidenced by the tire wear you posted.
2020 Corvette of the Year Finalist (appearance mods)
C7 of Year Winner (appearance mods) 2019
2017 C7 of Year Finalist
2015 C7 of the Year
St. Jude Donor '14-'15-'16-'17-'18-'19
Originally Posted by corvette dave
Do you have a copy of the alignment sheet from the dealer when it was aligned? It would be nice to see where the camber was set. (or not)
Lowered car always means more negative camber which is evidenced by the tire wear you posted.
No, I don't have the alignment sheet. All I have is my copy of the job sheet that says they adjusted the toe. I don't think they did a thing to the camber. I now know a lot more about alignment and tire wear than I did before all of this. A lesson well learned.
My base model fronts looked exactly like that when I took them off. I think I got about 10K out of the tires after I dropped it on stock bolts, however, I cut the bumps on my stock bolts to lower it even more. I've since swapped out to Z51 wheels and tires and its been aligned and holding true. (checked them today)
Holy cow! Thanks for this info..I lowered my car down all the way on stock bolts at about 500 miles and now I have 3000...I looked at my tires today and they look fine....
I was planning on having the alignment done at my next oil change...now I think I will bring it in for an alignment next week!
-M
Last edited by managerman; 06-08-2015 at 02:14 AM.
Holy cow! Thanks for this info..I lowered my car down all the way on stock bolts at about 500 miles and now I have 3000...I looked at my tires today and they look fine....
I was planning on having the alignment done at my next oil change...now I think I will bring it in for an alignment with the Pfadt settings next week!
-M
I lowered my 2014 C7 and have 27,500+ miles on the car and all four tires are wearing evenly. However, they are getting close to the wear bars. The picture does indicate excessive camber.
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Originally Posted by jagamajajaran
Somewhere around 4,000 miles, I lowered my 2014 all the way on the stock bolts.
At 4,297 miles, my local Chevrolet dealership did an alignment job for me and adjusted the toe. They knew I had lowered it on the stock bolts.
After a 1,400 mile trip to Richmond, Virginia, this past Wednesday and Thursday, I had 13,500 miles on the car. I spent Friday evening detailing the Corvette for a show the next day and decided to remove my wheels for cleaning. I was horrified to find that the inside portion of both front tires were worn all the way down to the wear bars. Evidently the camber wasn't adjusted and I've prematurely worn out my front tires.
I'm going to attempt to find a reputable shop to make the appropriate adjustments before my 1,400 mile trip back to Oklahoma Monday and Tuesday. Here are the Pfadt Corvette Performance Street alignment specs that I am going to go with now that I have learned a valuable lesson (provide the alignment settings that you want when you have an alignment job done)...
If you have lowered your car on stock bolts, please check the tire wear from time to time even if you've had the alignment checked and/or adjusted.
Welcome to the club ......... First thing I've always had done to my Corvettes. Either before or after lowering. B G may claim they have better equip., however even the one I bought in March from Mike F. was out of spec slightly. I had it checked and corrected right after I got the car back to TX
Here are the Pfadt Corvette Performance Street alignment specs that I am going to go with now that I have learned a valuable lesson (provide the alignment settings that you want when you have an alignment job done)...
I just used Pfadt's specs for my C6 Z06, didn't see anything for C7.
Did Pfadt publish specs for C7?
Local dealer just quoted me $389 plus tax for an alignment and ck camber
Holy Cow! That does seem outrageous. Unless there is something special about the Corvette front suspension, all of the local shops in my area charge between $69 and $129 for an alignment.
Pfatd alignment done to my Z06 at a dealer cost $120, it'd have been $100 for any other Chevrolet but was told Corvettes are more difficult. $390 for an alignment is outrageous theft.
I'll bet your Chevy dealer didn't have a clue as to how to do an alignment or they didn't have the proper equipment. A red flag is you didn't receive the print out with the complete measurements. Total toe? Steer ahead? How about the rear? Good to find a good shop!
2020 Corvette of the Year Finalist (appearance mods)
C7 of Year Winner (appearance mods) 2019
2017 C7 of Year Finalist
2015 C7 of the Year
St. Jude Donor '14-'15-'16-'17-'18-'19
I appreciate the feedback and replies. I'm at Tire Pros in Fisherville, VA, and they really know their stuff. Their alignment rack is flush with the floor when you drive up on it so it's perfect for lowered Corvettes. They were very careful with my Stingray and even said I could watch stay in the bay and watch them work on it.
My current alignment settings are very close to the Pdaft performance street settings that I had originally posted. I removed the settings link because those settings will definitely give you excessive inner wear. After talking with the techs here at Tire Pros, we settled on 0 camber so that the tire rolls flat for now. They don't have any Michelin tires immediately available, so I'm going to hope for the best on the way home and keep a constant eye on my tires.
I'll let everyone know how things go on the remaining 1300 miles back to SW Oklahoma. Thanks, again!
06-07-2015, 11:02 PM
Tire wear warning after lowering on stock bolts
First thing I've always had done to my Corvettes. Either before or after lowering. B G may claim they have better equip., however even the one I bought in March from Mike F. was out of spec slightly. I had it checked and corrected right after I got the car back to TX
completely, get a quote from another place OP.
