Bought new NSX, but completely tore the tires up on the way home (2,200 mile trip)

EAC

EAC

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Wildwood, MO
Drive was from San Francisco to St.Louis.

Got home and realized one of the tires was flat, looked underneith and the inside of both tires were completely trashed. Cord, Belts... all exposed and hanging out. Good thing I didn't crash on a mountain.

The previous owner says the Camber was maxed out and cannot be adjusted anymore. If this is true, what can be done? I don't mine buying tires every 10,000 miles or so, but 2,000 miles? Come on.

I do not race the car, just will be cruising.

Here is what he sent me,

Front Cross camber 0.0
front camber 2.3
front right camber -2.4
Front Cross caster -0.2
front left caster 8.1
front right caster 8.2
Front Cross SAI -0.6
Rear left camber -3.1
Rear right camber -3.1

Front Total toe -0.30
Rear cross camber 0.1
Rear total rear toe 0.35
Rear Thrust angle -0.01
 
Assuming the inside of the rear tires are bad, then its the rear camber that is the problem. Max spec is like -1.8ish. I had the same problem when I bought mine. I got the camber correction hardware from Thom, but he no longer makes the bushings. So honestly, if the car is lowered, the only thing you can really do is "unlower it" to get your adjustments into spec, unless you can find someone to fab you some bushings. Also, even your front camber is way out, it should be close to -.5
 
So, that guy is the only one who made that product? Did that totally fix your problem?

Would you have a picture?
 
http://www.nsxprime.com/forums/showthread.php?t=84729

This link pretty much explains everything with pics of the mod. I did it myself, and my car lined up perfectly within spec. I got like 10k out of my last set of tires (mostly cuz I was hard on them:wink:) but they worn completely even across the tire. He is the only one that I'm aware of that made them. Check on the parts for sale, there has been a couple of kits floating around.
 
I haven't had any issues yet. I lubed the part of the bushing that goes inside the control arm with brake slider lube, haven't had any noise. I guess the only downside would be that you won't be able to put the stock bushings back in the arms, so if you ever wanted to go back you'd have to buy new upper rear arms which are pricey.
 
Alright, thank you. I just ordered some nice cheap tires and made a WTB ad for that kit.

Geez, amazed at the attention this car gets.
 
See if you can try to raise the car a little. If you get it to less than -3 degrees rear camber you will get many more miles. Between -2 and -2.5 negative when lowered will give you 4-8k miles on the rears.
 
I suggest staying away from that camber kit....it was noisy and problematic for me.

Try setting your toe to -0- for the rear tires.

Other than that, you can raise the car, or contact TitaniumDave, as he has a solution as well.

Regards,
 
Zishan said:
I suggest staying away from that camber kit....it was noisy and problematic for me.

Try setting your toe to -0- for the rear tires.

Other than that, you can raise the car, or contact TitaniumDave, as he has a solution as well.

Regards,
Click to expand...

Someone PM'd me telling me about setting the toe to zero as well.

Raising it is not a option, they just don't look as good all raised up in the air :biggrin:
 
going beyond spec for camber due to lowering will put more stress on the inner tire, all you can do is raise it or zero the toe as was mentioned.
 
do Thom's camber kit.

I had it my car for 5k with no issues
 
Alright, I'm taking it in thursday morning.

I plan on telling them to set it like this,

0 Toe for front and rear. Is this correct?

Front Camber -.5 . Is this correct?

Since the previous owner told me that the rear camber is maxed out, what should I tell them?
 
personaly I like alittle toe out for the front...the steering may feel slow or numb with 0 toe in front imo
 
EAC said:
Is that your car in your avatar? What size wheels? What did you do, the toe trick?
Click to expand...


In the picture, I'm lowered quite a bit, but I was running Thom's/the Ayotte camber kit. That's why I don't recommend it. It was very problematic for me and ended up costing me lots of down time and money to get the issue resolved. Nothing against Thom himself(I met him and his wife, he seems like a great guy), but the product had some down falls. Right now, the alignment is off and the car is raised up. The rims are 18x8 / 19x10's.



I can't recall what my front specs were, but I was running something like -1 camber in the front. Not sure about the toe.

The rears, ask them to correct the negative camber as much as possible and set the toe to -0-.

Good luck,
 
EAC said:
Alright, I'm taking it in thursday morning.

I plan on telling them to set it like this,

0 Toe for front and rear. Is this correct?

Front Camber -.5 . Is this correct?

Since the previous owner told me that the rear camber is maxed out, what should I tell them?
Click to expand...

Front camber at -0.5 will be fine. Your front tires will last 3x longer than the rears anyway, so no need to dial the toe on front to 0. Keep some toe in there, or you will notice less steering turn/in response. Go to either the mid setting on toe or minimial, but w/in spec. That toe is what helps make the NSX steering feel responsive (assuming you have performance tires on there).

Unless you raise the car a little, or get the camber kit, you are maxed out on rear camber -no other way to make that better. Rear toe, you could go zero - that will be fine for street driving. Personally, I'd set the rear toe at minimun spec, but 0 toe rear is fine. You might get 1k -2k more miles (w/ zero toe). It's the heavy negative rear camber that's really killing your rear tires w/ your current setup. Toe plays a part, but not as big of a part when your camber is -3 degrees or more.
 
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Eric,

I lowered my car and left the camber at -2.7 in the rear.

I use tires like RT-615, Ecsta XS and Z1. Sticky tires that wear fast.

I typically get 10k miles outta them.

The alignment shop toed in so that the tires would last longer, wear more evenly and increase high speed stability as well as less oversteer.
 
Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but even setting the toe in the rear as close to 0 as possible, you will still eat up rear tires with excessive camber in the rear. Also, you may not get the front into spec with the rear so far out of spec as your front alignment is based off your rear. I'm not being a downer, just realistic as I went through this issue myself and spent countless hours tweaking my alignment at work.

NOTE-I have driven 15k with Thom's kit and have had no issues.
 
Dang, alot of conflicting info here.

I don't have a camber kit (yet) and I'm not raising the car.

With that said?
 
EAC said:
Dang, alot of conflicting info here.

I don't have a camber kit (yet) and I'm not raising the car.

With that said?
Click to expand...

Speaking of the rear tires: With no camber kit and not raising the car, your tires will continue to wear as they have been - fast. The camber kit will help get you back closer to or w/in spec and help reduce wear; just read posts on Prime to understand the pros/cons of using the camber kit. Or PM some members who have the kit and posted in this thread for their direct feedback.
 
mickeylex said:
Speaking of the rear tires: With no camber kit and not raising the car, your tires will continue to wear as they have been - fast. The camber kit will help get you back closer to or w/in spec and help reduce wear; just read posts on Prime to understand the pros/cons of using the camber kit. Or PM some members who have the kit and posted in this thread for their direct feedback.
Click to expand...

I plan on buying a kit, but I can't until I find one. I've already made a WTB ad.

But, I need tires now so if I can make the best of what I've got to work with right now, that's all I'm asking for :smile:
 
EAC said:
Got home and realized one of the tires was flat, looked underneith and the inside of both tires were completely trashed. Cord, Belts... all exposed and hanging out. Good thing I didn't crash on a mountain.

The previous owner says the Camber was maxed out and cannot be adjusted anymore. If this is true, what can be done? I don't mine buying tires every 10,000 miles or so, but 2,000 miles? Come on.
Click to expand...
Nothing against all the advice already given in this topic, but I'm going to guess that your tires weren't even close to brand new when you started this trip.

And I'm not saying that it happened to you, but you'd be surprised how many people claim tires are "almost new" or "90 percent tread" when they aren't.
 
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