I am currently running a set of Dunlop Star Specs on my car and rotated my tires today. I noticed some signifigant "chopping" on the inside edges of the tires, with the wear being prevalent on the drivers side. I have newer suspension (tocico D-specs put on last spring), and the tires were used last summer and put on for somewhere around 2k this spring. I had the car alligned last year after putting on the struts and springs, and I did not notice any drastic wear on the winter tires when I took them off? I don't notice any pulling or other clues that the alignment might not be right. Has anyone else noticed strange inside wear with Star Specs?
get another alignment.. sounds like your toe is off.... enough to scrub but not enough to really pull the car..
does this mean that I have a toe problem on the rear? I noticed pretty even chopping front to rear. In my past experiences with 4 wheel drive trucks the chopping really only happened on the front.
It's worth noting that the Star Specs have a very, very short lifespan (it's the tradeoff for being crazy good "street" tires for stuff like LeMons and ChumpCar). Having participated in destroying 6 of them in two days, I can personally speak to that :laugh:
While checking for alignment issues also check for loose tie rods and ball joints (Lowers of course) if any of those are loose they can throw the alignment off and until they are fix the alignment will NEVER be correct. If you want to check this your self jack the car up so the wheel you want to test is off the ground. For tie rods grab the wheel at 9 and 3 and push pull like you are trying to turn the wheel, it doesn't take a whole lot of force, it's kind of a finesse thing. If any thing is loose you will feel it in the tire as a slight clunk. you can pin point it by putting your hand on the tie rod and finding where you feel it the strongest, outer or inner rod. For the ball joints grab the wheel at 6 and 12 and rock it. if you feel looseness verify it's the ball joint... Nothing may be loose but it's not uncommon to have alignment/tire wear issues be related to loose steering parts. Front alignment is set off the rear so if the rear is off and not touched what ever the front is set to will be wrong. If I remember correctly there is a rear toe adjustment (at least on my 08 wrx) and the rear toe can be off enough to cause scrub without causing pull (or be off equally side to side to cancel the forces that cause pull)... Camber can also cause abnormal tire wear, usually excessive wear on the inside but evenly around
