Inside wear on rear tire. suggestions?
 

I'm a little new to the 318ti suspension. I'm used to VW's:cool:, and I've only had the car about a year. Anyway, on to my question. I'm getting pretty bad wear on the inside of my right rear tire. This car is bone stock, and the rear suspension has probably never been touched before. I have a Hanes manual for it, but this write-up for rear suspension is horrible:confused:. I see some sites they say the stock rear end is adjustable, or it isn't, or it is, but you need a special tool. That's not helping me fix my tire problem. SO. Am I looking at a ride height issue with a worn spring, a bent arm, worn bushings. OR!? Am I looking at just somehow adjusting the camber a little without having to buy a $400 fully adjustable camber kit. I know you can't give me exactly what it is, all I am looking for is if there are adjustments that can be made, or is something worn out? It's just my rear right, my rear left is fine.

If everything is original, you're probably looking at a complete suspension overhaul. At least you should. I'm sure money is probably tight right now as it is for most people, but this isn't one of those things that suddenly goes bad. You'd expect any car to wear out after a hundred thousand miles. These things are over 10 years old now and things just wear out. Since only one side is wearing tires, you may be looking at a blown/worn shock, torn shock mount, a broken spring, a bent trailing arm, who knows. Judging by the way you asked for help, I'm guessing that you're not very mechanical, otherwise you would have looked under the car and figured out what the problem was. Perhaps you should take it to a shop and have an alignment done.

On a stock ti, nothing in the rear is adjustable. On the front, only toe is adjustable.

As long as the car hasn't been lowered, there shouldn't be excessive tire wear on the insides.

I'd suggest going to get a wheel alignment done. Like the guys said, it won't be adjustable. They'll be able to measure if it's in factory spec or not. If it's not, it could have taken a nasty bump against a curb or something which may need bits of the suspension replaced to bring it back in spec.

just so you know, the Haynes manual only covers coupes and sedans, the hatchback has a completely different rear end setup

If you go to a really good alignment shop, (Find one that supplies road racers if possible.)

They actually can align the rear, there are offset bolts, bushings etc available throught he aftermarket body supply chains.

My local shop actually had a gadget that straightened a bent trailing arm on a 911 I used to own.

Dave

I appreciate the input. But I am pretty mechanically inclined. lol. But visually, everything is in spec. I've checked, everything is tight, bushings are good.

If you were mechanically inclined, you'd clearly see that there are no stock "adjustments" and there is no "special tool". Ireland Engineering makes an eccentric bolt kit that allows you to adjust the camber and it costs a lot less than 400 bucks. The fact that only one tire is wearing raises a big flag that says something is wrong that only affects one side. Something is either worn, bent, blown or broken, and we're not psychic.

Thanks for the advice. And I realize your not sylvia brown. Part of the reason I haven't got a real good look at it is due to it raining for the past 2 weeks, I just took a quick glance in a parking garage-no garage at my house, just a carport-, and just maybe I thought somebody else would've had the same problem, possibly making it common. I think after building an engine, doing an engine swap, placing in a national mechanics competition, having taken several auto mechanics classes, I think I would know how to turn a wrench. Don't take that the wrong way, but just want to prove a point. I very much appreciate your suggestions.:biggrin:. Once this rain lets up I'll put it on the ramps.