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Tire wear and alignment question on lowered 280zx struts.


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Great to hear how excessive toe-in can cause wear like that. Did you notice any other driving problems?

 

Alignment shops measure toe in by the tire, i've whatched them do it. First the scribe a line on the center of the tire, rotating it to check for straight wheel, the measure each. the specification is fairly generous, so this is good enough. The Nissan factory service manual lists toe-in both in inches and degrees

 

Meauring by degree is only easy if you have the tools, or long pieces of string!

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The outside edge measurement was just a quicky so I wouldn't need to get the wife to come out to the hot garage. Final adjustment was with newer tires on the front, and from the center portion of the tire tread. The wife had to help for that one. :rofl: I jacked up the car and rotated the tire to ensure the center portion was straight before measuring. I gave it about 1/8 inch narrower in front. This is what I've run before on the Dattos and the tires always seemed to wear reasonably well.

 

The original tires were 205/55r15 I replaced it with the rears which are 195/60r15 and are just a bit too large, as they rub the foot-well a hair at full lock with weight in the car. These tires are newer with pretty full tread. The rims with the bad tires got replaced with a set of few years old but basically unused 205/60/r15 I had laying around, and these were moved to the rear (this size is what I run on the other cars). Total cost $26 dollars.

 

I'll probably try to pickup a set of 205/55r15 or something with a similar diameter in the near future to swap out the fronts with.

 

Turning effort seems maybe a tad reduced, but it was never heavy in the first place. Handling is maybe just a hair more darty but this may just be my imagination. Tends to track the crown of the road a bit more, but was fine on a flat road. Overall, very slight changes and I haven't driven the car in a while so this may just be in my head more than anything.

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195 50 15

 

Lol.. that's actually smaller than the 14's I was running on there (22.7 vs 23.0). I actually have an excel spreadsheet I made up to track tire sizes. 23.9 inch diameter is basically the largest you can run on the front regularly with my spring setup, which just touches a hair at full lock and full drop due to the curvature of the foot-well. The 195/60r15 I've got on there are 24.2, so I might just BFH the foot-well a tad. Obviously, the calculated varies a touch compared to real tires, but it's close enough.

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But gain a minute percentage of "final drive gear" with a slightly smaller diam tire, and lets be honest, no B210 needs massive 205w tires, I dont run that wide of tire on a 510 with a "higher end" suspension. Just sayin you solve a lot of potential clearance issues, and you get a DIRT cheap tire size as well.

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But gain a minute percentage of "final drive gear" with a slightly smaller diam tire, and lets be honest, no B210 needs massive 205w tires, I dont run that wide of tire on a 510 with a "higher end" suspension. Just sayin you solve a lot of potential clearance issues, and you get a DIRT cheap tire size as well.

 

Actually that's a pretty good point. I had forgotten the 205s are about $20 more. I wonder how much tire gap it would add to the front fender then, hmm....

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Final toe adjustment should be done at ride height, unless you have an alignment machine that can to a raised toe adjusment (very rare). adjusting toe in the air will not give you accurate readings. Toe is affected by ride height changes. And every car is different especially when modified. If having an alignment performed TALK to your tech! Unless hes a total douche he'll help you figure out whats best.

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Final toe adjustment should be done at ride height, unless you have an alignment machine that can to a raised toe adjusment (very rare). adjusting toe in the air will not give you accurate readings. Toe is affected by ride height changes. And every car is different especially when modified. If having an alignment performed TALK to your tech! Unless hes a total douche he'll help you figure out whats best.

 

That toe measurement is at ride height with the tires on the ground. I used multiple jacks and some stands to approximate the LCA angle, then eyeballed the measurement. It came out right the first time so no biggie. I figured I could always jack it up again if I didn't get it right the first time.

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