Please education me on camber and tire wear. I have been reading and understand that toe plays a big role in wearing out the inner tread of the tire. So what about camber, exactly?

My current wheel setup is 18x9.5 +20 with 275/40/18 in the rear. I'm looking to buy 25 mm spacers to push it out. If I set my camber outside of OEM specs, how will it affect my inner tread wear? Can't it be fixed by putting toe to OEM spec, and having camber off in order to prevent rubbing the fender?

 

Seems like you want the best of both worlds: negative camber plus even tire wear. Sorry but it is not happening.

Rear toe is designed to make the rear of the car neutral, that is, The rear axle is NOT steering the car.

Camber will not fix toe. Toe will not fix camber.

 

 

^this

once you go negative camber your tires will wear out quicker. it's just the way it is. and that all depends on how much and how hard you drive the car as well.

 

275 on a 9.5 at -5 , sorry but thats going to look lame. You may easily be able to get away with +5 or dead 0

 

Not going to happen.

 

Always happy to help. If you have other questions please do not hesitate to waste my time.

 

I ran at +10 this weekend with around -2.4 camber and could have easily pushed them out an extra 5 or 10mm. My fenders are also rolled and pulled.

 

To answer your question from my personal experience: I would say you pretty much have it down. Toe hurts tires the most, but it also greatly helps in handling in certain situations. I run -2.0 camber all around, 0 toe front and 1/32 inch or so toe in the rear and I enjoy how the car handles. I also notice (zero) additional toe wear. So this leads me to believe that you can get away with a little negative camber (up to -3 degrees) as long as your toe is in check.

Also, in case you don't know, when you adjust camber in the rear, it will change your toe. So, if your'e lowered, to truly get it dialed in you will need some aftermarket adjustable arms and/or bolts back there to get your alignment where you want it. In the front there is no stock camber adjustment, but aftermarket parts can cure this as well. And finally up front it's easy to get toe to 0 with factory parts.

Hope this helps,
John

P.S. If you're just looking for a "flush" look then I suggest a 15 mm spacer. 25 mm will be too much. A 25 mm will give you an offset of -5. I ran 18x9.5 +5 with 275/40/18 and rolled my fenders. I didn't rub but that was definitely as far as I could go with those tires and only 2 degrees of camber on Eibach Sportlines.

 

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