Rep Power: 0

Hey guys, what would you do if you were in this situation? I'm sure some of you may have been and others may have not been. I dont know what to do. But I have a brand new 2004 Civic, just got it lowered and when i bought the car i put brand new wheels and tires on it. Ok so my wheels have around 8,000 miles on them, my front right tire when from having plenty of tread like the rest of my tires currently do, to absolutely no tread, its nearly as smooth as a babies butt. So that really doesn't make me a happy camper.

I have a set of Hayame coilovers on my car, when installing that full coilover suspension it doesn't require the front to have a camber kit, just on the rear, which i I have. So anyways I got my car lowered around 7,500 miles and had the alignment done on August 2nd of this month. Today is the 28th, not even a month later, and my tire is completely gone. It hasn't even been a thousand miles. Any idea why my tire could have got jacked up so bad? I mean when i look at it, it looks like there is absolutely no camber, i took it to a shop that specializes in lowered vehicles and had them do the alignment. But what else could cause the wear to go so fast, i mean so fast in less than 1,000 miles and my tire is shot. I see other vehicles slammed to the ground with huge camber on their tires and they probably have more tread than me.

Anyways here are the pics, I have an appointment setup for the alignment shop that did my work on tuesday of next week. I'm just trying to figure out what I want to present to them or try to see what they should or can give me in return. They said they warrant their work. So what would you guys try to do or get in return from this place? I mean it's quite obvious they did something wrong, because all the other 3 tires have tread on them, i can stick a penny in there and its fine, they still look brand new, but the front right tire is bald as can be. That is not right. Specially when my car only has 8,004 miles on it to this date.

Thanks-
Eric

My bad front right tire that is shot.


Front Left:


Rear Left:


Rear Right:


Any comments on what you would do?

 
Rep Power: 380

looks like bad toe settings.... what was your toe set to when you got the alignment?

 
Rep Power: 434

have you been burning out?

 
Rep Power: 285

yea your camber looks just a bit screwed up

 
Rep Power: 424

Thats definately toe wear. The middle and outer edge are worn but the inside looks alright.

 
Rep Power: 315

In a thousand miles?I doubt that. I know it sounds dumb,but have you been anywhere someone with the same rims and tires could have switched? For a tire to wear that fast you would have to feel the misalignment while driving.

 
Rep Power: 424

Every mile you drive with your toe out of whack is like dragging it sideways 150 feet. Yes, you can kill a tire that fast with a bad alignment.

 
Rep Power: 0

nobody has switched tires with me, Ihavne't taken my car anywhere besides to and from work. I park my car in a private parking garage at my job and i park my car in my private garage in my home. Yes it's been less than a thousand miles. The invoiced date for my alignment and when i got my car dropped was on the 2nd of August. Less than a month later, that is what it looks like. Thats why i cant believe it. The car drives fine, i drive down the interstate everyday going 75-80mph to work and it doesn't feel misaligned at all. It doesn't even look cambered, thats why i can't figure out wtf happened to that tire. But I'm just trying to figure out what I want the alignment company to do, apparently the dude jacked my toe or something. Here are my readings from when i got it aligned.

Right Front

Caster - Min .7x ----- spec ------- max 2.7x (before 1.8x - after 1.8x)
Camber - Min -1.0x ----------------- max 1.0x (before -0.1x - after -0.1x)
Toe - Min -1/32" ---------------- max 1/16" (before 13/32" - after 1/32")

Here is my front left
Caster - Min .7x ---- spec ---- Max 2.7x (before 2.6x - after 2.6x)
Camber - Min -1.0x -spec ---- Max 1.0x (before -0.1x - after -0.1x)
Toe - Min -1/32" -----spec ---- Max 1/16" (before 1/2" - after 1/16")

So there are my before and after's and on the left is the factory settings. But yes, as crazy as it sounds, i've put less than a 1,000 miles and have had my car dropped for less than 1 month and that is what my tire looks like after that very short period of time. Thats why i'm flaming mad beacsue these are not cheap tires.

Any other input? how do those settings look to you guys?

 
Rep Power: 0

Here is a picture that I was able to find of my car that I took on the 22nd of July, just prior to taking getting it aligned. AS you can see there is plenty of tread on the tire, and its been just a hair over a month since i took this pic to what the other pic looked like above.



check out the difference, that's in a months time of driving just two and from work and to the bar on teh weekends. Not a lot of driving, about 600 miles or so if that i've put on.

Do you think i should try to get them to get me a new tire and re-adjust the toe, or will they say its' not their fault?

 
Rep Power: 327

Both front tires need replaced.... IMO they set the car up with too much toe-in. But being the car is lowered not many tire shops will warranty for tire wear from an alignment that they set. Unless they flat out screwed up on the alignment. How many times did you adjust the ride height AFTER the alignment? And from looking at the tire in your last picture it LOOKS almost worn out ! And if you are comparing the front tires to your rear tires for tire wear, did you ever rotate them? My guess is the alignment was out before you lowered it, and the tires already had ALOT of uneven tire wear on them, and the front looks worn out already from what i can see.

 
Rep Power: 303

too many launches????

just get an alignment...no sweat

 
Rep Power: 0

My car has been lowered for a total of less than one month. I redid the suspension and immediately the next business day i took my car into the alignment shop to get it aligned. Since I got the alignment, i have not adjusted the height up or down one time. I made sure i had the height adjusted to where I wanted it to be prior to getting it aligned.

As far as the warranty thing goes, I dont expect the tire shop to warranty the tires, it wasn't their fault. It's the alignment shops warranty that i'll be hoping to take advantage of. Seriously thought, it's been less than 30 days from the time I got my car lowered and you saw the before and after pics of my tires. Someone royall messed up the toe of my car. Wouldnt you be upset if you had brand new tires and than less than 1,000 miles later 2 of them were ruined? Do you think you would have to buy new ones or have the shop responsible for bad alignment cover it?

The alignment wasnt out before I lowered it, the car is brand spanking new. The car had 7,500 miles on it before I lowered it. I lowered it at 7,500 miles and now there are a lil over 8,000 miles on the entire car and those tires, and the front tires are waisted. No i never rotated them nor do I want to right now, because my rear tires still are brand new and have the lil stubble things on the sidewalls of the tire.

 
Rep Power: 327

In your picture of the tire prior to the drop and alignment, to be honest it LOOKS like its already worn out

 
Rep Power: 0

It does look on it's way to being worn out (in the before picture)

What about tire pressure - could it have made it worse as well?

 
Rep Power: 0

TFnaff .. the tire is dirty ... look at the tread grooves .. they aren't worn out ? Do you think the guy is trying to trick you or something ? I look at that pic and I definately see deep grooves (lots of treadlife left).
Compare the pic up top with that one ... and the tires dont look nearly the same, remind me to skip over your advice on threads.

Matrix .. bring it back to the shop that did the alignment and bit(h about it. Get them to do a check and realign it again if they have to. This situation does seem odd, 1000miles and its worn out completely, get him to for sure check that toe-in.

Even if you spin out your tires alot, I still doubt in 1000 miles it'd be worn out, I mean unless you putting javex under them and spinning out with it. Drop us a msg when you find out whats wrong ... it will be nice to know

 
Rep Power: 327

I look at the before picture and i see 2 /32s" at BEST!

 
Rep Power: 314

i hope this dont happen to me, i just lowered, new wheels/tires, and i kno i need an alignment, been a week but im getting one soon.

 
Rep Power: 0

Well I got the results back now you guys. I took my car back to the shop this morning and they put it back up on the machine and we looked at it. The stupid *** struts are all defective again. This is the 2nd set of struts Hayame has sent me, the first set had the same issue immediately, the 2nd set didn't have the issue right away, it must have started to occur after a bit of driving on it. So anyways, when we jack the car up so the wheels are hanging there, we can grab the tire and twist it left and right (which you shoudlnt be able to do) so basically if they align it again, the minute i hit a bump or basically drive the car, it'll come unaligned again. I could see that the struts were defective, because the inner shaft inside the strut bulges out when i grab the wheel with my hands and turn it left and right. It's not su pposed to do that. So anyways, since that happens, they said everytime I hit a bump it's going to adjust my toe, and thats what chewed up the tire so fast. So needless to say i'm sending back this suspension system and getting a set of D2's instead. I've been dealing with Hayame now for quite sometime and i've had nothing but problems with them.

so yeah, it's the suspension that caused the extreme wear on my tires, not the alignment. They are one of the best places to go to in the phoenix area for lowered vehicles, so they did what they could but the suspension did the rest of the damage. Now i'm going to try to get a new tire or something out of this deal. This is just ridiculous. So i strongly recommend not to buy Hayame coilovers.

 
Rep Power: 0

Aight thx Martix for the reply ... so much for the tire being worn 2/3rd's of the way down, eh Tfnaaf

Yah the D2's should be good ... let us know how they work out.

 
Rep Power: 0

anything has to be better than the Hayames

 
Rep Power: 327

Maybe you can re-read what i said

'
as in Two thirty seconds of an inch, not two thirds worn out. Other words MORE then 2/3rd's (two thirds) worn. I align cars for a living and know what tires look like after certain alignment problems those tires basically were worn out to begin with from looking at the pciture you have supplied

 
Rep Power: 327

^^^^^^Woot Post #1000 !!! do i get a prize?

 
Rep Power: 295

ur tires don't look bad *** my did.

i wore out a pair of azenis in 6 days, they looked like slicks, cause my alignment was out after installing my JIC coilovers and my alignment guy has a 5 day waiting period