Custom alignment specs for EX to reduce tire wear?

[TimGinCentralNJ]

For the life of me, I cannot find a couple old posts I recall seeing which spoke to some tried-and-true alignment specs which would reduce front end tire wear on the outer edges by reducing toe-in and camber. I did a search on "alignment" and could not locate the post I was thinking of.

Does anyone have any experience with custom alignment specs for these cars which reduce the outside tire wear (and preferably without making the car wander all over the place)--or maybe even know of the post I'm referring to?

Any help would be much appreciated.

TIA,
Tim

[NJGuy]

The EX uses a McPherson strut suspension up front, correct? I'm not well versed on wheel alignments and suspension geometry, but I don't think front camber is directly adjustable on the EX without some type of aftermarket solution. I think camber is only adjustable in the rear, and any camber adjustments there may affect the toe.

See these posts by SteveTheTech. It doesn't have the exact answer you're looking for in 'ideal' alignment specs, but it might lead you in the right direction. He also notes that tires constructed like yours might be more prone to outer tread wear on an EX.
tire-noise-t433010.html#p5144724
tires-t514813-30.html#p5983434

Good luck with your search.

[TimGinCentralNJ]

The EX uses a McPherson strut suspension up front, correct? I'm not well versed on wheel alignments and suspension geometry, but I don't think front camber is directly adjustable on the EX without some type of aftermarket solution. I think camber is only adjustable in the rear, and any camber adjustments there may affect the toe.

See these posts by SteveTheTech. It doesn't have the exact answer you're looking for in 'ideal' alignment specs, but it might lead you in the right direction. He also notes that tires constructed like yours might be more prone to outer tread wear on an EX.
tire-noise-t433010.html#p5144724
tires-t514813-30.html#p5983434

Good luck with your search.

Bingo! The thread I had been looking for was the first one. Thanks for that

You may be right re: the camber settings. On my old 7 Series, I know my mechanic installed a very mild aftermarket camber plate setup specifically to help reduce the front outer edge tire wear, and I still haven't noticed any adverse impacts at all. So, the same may be true of our Infinities.

I am overdue for a synth oil change and to have a few hopefully warrantied items fixed (damn steering wheel tilt motor went out), but will also ask them to cross-rotate the tires and will find out what they use for alignment specs--specifically the front toe adjustment. Hopefully it matches what Steve The Tech references in his posts above.

Thanks again!
Tim

[TimGinCentralNJ]

Well, I'm happy to report that the dealer (and more importantly my extended factory warranty) came through again. I think the total bill for everything was a couple hundred bucks. And I got a nice '14 Q50 to drive for a few days to boot!

As for my alignment, turns out everything was "within spec", but I've still worn through my Nokian WR-G2 front tires' outer edges (at least through the layer of sipes, not the tread blocks) within 15k miles. Am wondering if that's just how these cars are setup. Perhaps I just need to be ok with the idea of only getting this kind of mileage out of a set of tires and adjust my buying preferences to less "top shelf" tires, like maybe Nittos, etc. We're running the new Nitto NT 421Q's on my wife's 2011 Explorer and love them so far (no snow action yet however). Ugh...what to do....

[NJGuy]

As for my alignment, turns out everything was "within spec", but I've still worn through my Nokian WR-G2 front tires' outer edges (at least through the layer of sipes, not the tread blocks) within 15k miles. Am wondering if that's just how these cars are setup. Perhaps I just need to be ok with the idea of only getting this kind of mileage out of a set of tires and adjust my buying preferences to less "top shelf" tires, like maybe Nittos, etc. We're running the new Nitto NT 421Q's on my wife's 2011 Explorer and love them so far (no snow action yet however). Ugh...what to do....

C'mon Tim, you can't have it all.

You probably already know all this, but here's a list of some of your options.

Cheap solutions that might only help a little bit:
-bump up tire pressure
-drive like grandma
-more frequent tire rotations
-"be ok with the idea of only getting this kind of mileage out of a set of tires"

More effective solutions that'll require some more $:
-custom wheel alignment
-different tires
-separate summer & winter tire sets (or: feedback-from-owners-running-or-having- ... 87794.html )

I'm not sure which solution is the best for you since they all seem to have their trade offs; but I do hope you find a happy medium.

[TimGinCentralNJ]

Thanks, NJGuy

I've been in touch with SteveTheTech who also had some interesting insight into tire design/tread patter which might also play some role in my tire wear, but yeah...when it's time to order new rubber, hopefully this Fall (since the sipes are gone, but the outer tread blocks are still there), I will likely ask my Infiniti dealer if they'd be willing to flatten out my alignment a little and see what that does for me.

One question I posed of Steve was whether or not the fact I went with an XL load rating tire (as opposed to what was OE on the car) might have also had anything to do with the odd wear. My orig intent in getting the "SUV" version of this tire (and with an XL load rating) which had an add'l sidewall ply was that this would stiffen up the sidewalls a little.....which it did

Thanks again for chiming in,
Tim