My Z is my daily driver. March 2007 I had a set of Hotchkis springs installed (advertised 0.5" front, 0.75" rear drop, I think). I installed brand new Toyo T1-R tires April 2007, took them off for the winter December 2007, put them back on April 2008 and used them up to now. I would say I've put about 13-14k miles on the tires. A few months ago I noticed on certain road surfaces the tires were extremely loud, and now they seem to be loud on most surfaces most of the time. So last weekend I took one of the rear wheels off and it looks like the inner edge of the tire is very worn down (not bald, but not too far off) which is inidicative of excessive wear due to negative wheel camber.

After I had the springs installed I had the car aligned by Nissan and they told me they were able to get it to within OEM specs. Does it make sense that I have this much wear given only 14k miles driven and that I am supposedly within OEM specs? Also I would say that my driving has been 'spirited' at worst - no burn outs or spinning tires other than the very seldom rear-end kick out around a turn.

I dont know if it will help but here is a picture of my car from the back. You can maybe get a sense for the camber on the rear drive side wheel from this photo, and I've actually noticed that the rear passenger side has a little bit more camber. Looks normal, or looks like a bad alignment job? Car seems to drive ok, and it's been more than a year since the alignment. Let me knwo what you all think!

 

did they not give a printout of your alignment specs?

 

They gave me one, I will have to dig it out when I get home. I didn't bother looking at it because they told me I was within spec.

 

If its been over a year get it realigned.

If you noticed tire wear in this period of time its likely toe issue not camber. It takes much more camber than it does toe to put excessive wear on tires.

pic is 90% worthless to me...pretty car though

 

Just because you're within OEM alignment spec, it doesn't mean you necessarily have them set to its optimum numbers. As always, factory specs are a range. You could be at the limit of the recommended range.

I think the drop is a bit more than what Hotchkis advertises also. I know for my car, I'm at the very edge of the recommended manufacturer specified range, so my tire wear isn't the greatest.

 

SOB I'm starting to hear my tires as well a bit more than usual... but I measued the wear on them and they all seem fine on every edge of every tire (even that is)... I have the same set up. I'm gonna take it in to get it checked again... I sill have my last alignment sheet, will post it up tomorrow.

 

No way to tell by looking at the tires. The relationship of the tires to the road will change while driving.

 

Within [brand new warranty] spec is virtually worthless to the performance driver perfectly at NOMINAL [midpoint] is the desired setting.
Changing the body height changes every suspension arm ANGLE parallel to road, changing the shape [of graph] of each parameter's gains and loss curve.

http://www.smithees-racetech.com.au/ackerman.html

 

Let me Fix your answer.