# Autocross/Tire Wear/Camber question



## PurdueCruze (Jun 24, 2014)

Hi all, 

This weekend I took my Cruze to an autocross. The car was great as always. However...

This course setup included a skidpad (in both directions) and now I have some pretty ugly wear on the outside of my front tires. I bumped tire pressure up to 44psi hot in the front, and yet I was still rolling onto the tire "shoulder" and scrubbing rubber off pretty hard (the tires are BFG Sport comp 2, 225/50r17). 

I plan on rotating the tires, but one of the TireRack techs present suggested adding 1-2° of negative camber to the fronts to help prevent this wear in upcoming events. So, questions: 


I commute a lot, including about 4 1000mi road trips each year. Will adding front camber just ruin the inside of my front tires? 

Can I even adjust the camber without lowering the car? Are there extra consequences with adjusting front camber but not rear camber? 

If I do go forward with the camber adjustment, is installing camber bolts or elongating the strut holes easier? With camber bolts, I'll be able to adjust camber on the fly, correct? 

Thanks


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## 170-3tree (Nov 4, 2014)

Camrys come stock with 1.5 and can show wear inside if they're not rotated properly. Added benefit of a little camber is increased turn in responsiveness which will help in auto x. You can stay at one and see how she goes next time or Firestone sells a lifetime service for 200 and you can find one where the tech will gladly adjust camber once in a while. Just don't go in all the time or they'll have a fit.


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## Danny5 (Dec 22, 2011)

Are you looking for maximum tire life, or better cornering? Because any camber you introduce is going to cause tire wear, period.

I drove a track prepared Miata for many years. I gladly sacrificed tire wear for handling. Everything you'll do will be a trade off.

Yes, adding camber will wear the inside of your tires. If you rotate at recommended intervals, AND do some occasional aggressive cornering, you'll see more even wear. Adding front camber will make the car "bite" better, and you help offset understeer. Installing camber bolts is the easiest, and will probably get you a degree to degree and a half. 

It's not really recommended that you mess with camber bolts without a machine telling you what you are doing. The most common way to adjust camber "on the fly" is to use pillow ball strut mounts. However, these are not made for the Cruze.

With pillowballs, I could dial in so much negative camber that I went from mild understeer to aggressive oversteer. Fun fun fun!


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