Hi Guys,
I'm still having excessive inner tire wear on both front tires. I've had it aligned a few times and it's still wearing my tires. I read that there is no camber adjustment? is that true? I also read that because of the weight of the engine that my model 1999 and other the suspension starts to give enought to cause the camber to be off, is that true? can I do anything to correct the camber? I'm up in New brunswick Canada and the closest dealer is 5 hours away. thanks in advance.

 

Ide like to see the printout from your last alignment. I can almost bet they dont pay attention to toe properly and suspension deflection. In short you may have enough play in the suspension to let the front toe "toe out" into the red and still wear the front tires inside. If they dont use mercedes "pressor bar" technique for an alignment( your just push out on the inside of the front tires while on the alignment rack to see what the tires will do as you drive) you can also have a camber issue due to wornout/collasped upper shock mounts which drops ride height and camber. But you have to approach -2 degress before this results in alot of inside tire wear.

 

I did replace the shocks and thought the top bushings looked ok so just put the shocks in. I didn't know that, that would effect the camber. I don't have a copy of the alignment so I can't check that, next time I'll be sure to ask for a copy. Do you think I should pull the shocks and replace the top bushings? how much tread should I have in the top of the shock tower ? would I be able to judge by that ? I appreciate your response, this site is awesome as usual. Thanks a lot.

 

First job is to check properly all the joints and bushes ,and nothing is bent , if all is well there (and unless the bushes have been replaced recently I doubt it ) then get the alignment redone by a competent workshop , the camber is adjustable on some XK's by rotating the rear bottom wishbone bolt ( some are eccentric and can be retrofitted if you haven't got them)

Hope this helps ,

Nik

 

Also remember that an alignment won't put tread back on a tire. Once the tread is gone and a proper alignment is done the missing tread will always be missing, i.e. if half the available tread was worn from the inside, an alignment is done and later the inside becomes bald while the outside is only half worn... I bring this up because I've seen it happen hundreds of times over the years and have had to 'educate' my customers.

 

do you really have customers that really don't get what you're saying? I've already purchased new tires but want to get this straightened out before they go on. Thank for your input.

 

the upper mounts will give you back some camber and ride height, I posted a picture of my upper mount after installed in one of my many threads, and you could see how much of the shock bolt was protruding, but no actual measurements taken.

Other than that, bringing up camber you'll need new coils. Just for comparison, my 03 has 147k miles, and the only thing on the suspension that is original is the coils/springs. My camber is just inside spec, no inside tire wear once the suspension was freshened up and I ALWAYS let my jag dealer do the alignment, they know the secrets that most (if not all) alignment shops do not - such as that very important 'toe' setting brutal mentioned above. You could have perfect camber, but if the toe is out, you'll chew the inside edge once again.

Smart idea on the alignment and other issues before putting on those new sneakers.

 

The more I think about it, I really believe it's the spring coils. I have replaced most of the bushes and when I did do the shocks the upper bushings looked pretty good not all worn out like some I've seen on here maybe the previous owner had them replaced ? I really appreciate your advice. Thanks