Rear Wheel Alignment

jayjaya29

jayjaya29

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Joined
Mar 18, 2005
Messages
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Location
Ithaca, NY
Car(s)
1997 BMW M3
Alright, I went to the local tire shop becuase my rear passenger side tire was making a lot of road noise. I got them balanced, but the mechanic told me that its making a lot of road noise because the treads are torn up. He also told me that the other rear tire IS THE WRONG SIZE. Yes, I have 205/R60 and a 195/R65 in the rear.

In anycase I need new rear tires. The mechanic offered me a tire package plus an alignment.

This brings me to my question, is there such thing as a rear tire alignment? I though it was only the fronts that had to be aligned. Any help would be appreciated, I don't want to pay for something that I don't need or is not possible.
 
Yes, you can adjust toe (not sure if on all cars) and camber on rear wheels. Of course no caster there, as rear wheels don't turn.

It's usually done for all 4 wheels at once anyway, I think.

But if your angles are good, changing tires doesn't require re-alignment probably? Are you sure he wasn't talking about balancing the wheels? :)
 
All that needs to be done is the rear toe on your car, but I rarely see an L30 on our alignment rack at work. A tire with excessive toe will be worn on one side, like if it has too much negative ( /_/ \_\ pretend youre looking at the front of the car and those are the wheels) camber. The reason the want to do an alignment is to see if other parts, particularly steering parts, need to be replaced. Then they can make money off of it. Only time I sell inner or outer tie rod ends for Altimas is if they have very high mileage on them.

Interesting that you had a smaller tire in the rear vs. the front; some very daring people do that with their modded FWD cars to help it "rotate" through a corner.
 
I am positive. When I get the tire package, balancing is already included (I have the invoice if I choose to get the package).

This is what the invoice would look like if I got the tire package and "alignment"

House Tire Package
-House P205/60R15 90T 55,000 Mile Warranty
-New York State Tire Fee
-New Tire Balance Labor
-New Tire Balance Parts
-Rubber Valve Stem
-Tire Installation
Alignment Service
-Alignment Service


Note: I'm not getting the house tires, I'm gonna pay a little more and get better tires. Its just the alignment that I'm confused about. The "alignment" will cost me $70.00
 
jayhawk said:
All that needs to be done is the rear toe on your car, but I rarely see an L30 on our alignment rack at work.

Interesting that you had a smaller tire in the rear vs. the front; some very daring people do that with their modded FWD cars to help it "rotate" through a corner.
Click to expand...

No no, you don't understand me correctly.

My rear passenger tire is a P205/60R15
My rear driver tire is a P195/65R15

See the difference? Both front tires are P205/60R15
 
jayhawk said:
Interesting that you had a smaller tire in the rear vs. the front
Click to expand...
The way I understand it, he had two differently sized tires in the rear. :driving:

EDIT: there you go! :?

How did that happen anyway?
 
Note: I'm not getting the house tires, I'm gonna pay a little more and get better tires. Its just the alignment that I'm confused about. The "alignment" will cost me $70.00
Click to expand...

Well, the alignment machine (which is a farce, they hook up sensors to each wheels and it shows how far the alignment is off) is pretty expensive, and so is the rack, which is used ONLY for alignments, plus the tech has to spend about a total of 45 minutes getting your caer on the rack, hooking up the sensors, etc...

This will give you an idea of what Im talking about. http://www.hunter.com/pub/product/alignmentsystems/sensors/4947T/index.htm
 
the Interceptor said:
How did that happen anyway?
Click to expand...

I have no idea how this happened. From what I can figure the rear tires are original, so maybe it was done at the factory...but I highly highly doubt that happening.

I just gotta get this fixed, my MPG is definitely suffering a bit. Just want to sort out this alignment issue.
 
jayhawk said:
Note: I'm not getting the house tires, I'm gonna pay a little more and get better tires. Its just the alignment that I'm confused about. The "alignment" will cost me $70.00
Click to expand...

Well, the alignment machine (which is a farce, they hook up sensors to each wheels and it shows how far the alignment is off) is pretty expensive, and so is the rack, which is used ONLY for alignments, plus the tech has to spend about a total of 45 minutes getting your caer on the rack, hooking up the sensors, etc...

This will give you an idea of what Im talking about. http://www.hunter.com/pub/product/alignmentsystems/sensors/4947T/index.htm
Click to expand...

Hmm, do you think I should just bite the bullet and get the alignment anyways? The place is pretty reputable, I've gotten tires from them before with no problems. They also offer a lifetime alignment service, which I'm definitely not buying into. But maybe I should just go with the alignment anyways?

I think I'll call them up and see what they say.
 
jayhawk said:
Note: I'm not getting the house tires, I'm gonna pay a little more and get better tires. Its just the alignment that I'm confused about. The "alignment" will cost me $70.00
Click to expand...

Well, the alignment machine (which is a farce, they hook up sensors to each wheels and it shows how far the alignment is off) is pretty expensive, and so is the rack, which is used ONLY for alignments, plus the tech has to spend about a total of 45 minutes getting your caer on the rack, hooking up the sensors, etc...

This will give you an idea of what Im talking about. http://www.hunter.com/pub/product/alignmentsystems/sensors/4947T/index.htm
Click to expand...
at a lot of places, they will check your alignment for free, so when i thought i needed an alignment, i checked to see how bad it was, then went to a local shop that was cheaper.
 
It depends on your car, some cars have adjustments for rear alignments, some don't. My car has no camber adjustments up front and no adjustments at all in the rear.
 
I'm going to call them up and see what they mean by an alignment and make a decision from there. I'm going to buy 2 Pirelli P400's and have them install and balance them for me. But thanks for your helps guys. :)
 
MXM said:
Yes, you can adjust toe (not sure if on all cars) and camber on rear wheels. Of course no caster there, as rear wheels don't turn.

It's usually done for all 4 wheels at once anyway, I think.

But if your angles are good, changing tires doesn't require re-alignment probably? Are you sure he wasn't talking about balancing the wheels? :)
Click to expand...

it would be a good idea to get the alignment checked, driving on two different sized tires could easily skew the alignment over the course of several thousand miles.

not sure if you ordered the P400's yet, but i would highly recommend the Yoko AVS dB S2's. i just but a set (i try to change all five tires at once...) on my 328, and they are splendid. fairly cheap too. I've fallen in love with yokos, as i also have AVS E100's (summer tires) on my 911 and love them.

i think the biggest difference btwn the Pirellis and yokos is treadlife. the yokos just dont seem to wear (over 10,000 on the 911 so far, and still quite a bit of tread left) I have only had the dBS2's on since the spring, so i'm not sure how they are in snow, but they are excellent in rain, and i havent had the traction control come on yet, whereas it was coming on quite a bit with the michelins prior.
 
I'm going with the P400's becuase I've got a pair of them in the front already. I want all 4 tires to match, makes the car look better in my opinion.

When the time comes to replace a pair of tires I'm going to look for something more sporty, as the P400's are touring tires as far as I know.

Thanks for the recommendation though, I'll check them out when I need tires in the future. :thumbsup:
 
jayjaya29 said:
I'm going with the P400's becuase I've got a pair of them in the front already. I want all 4 tires to match, makes the car look better in my opinion.

When the time comes to replace a pair of tires I'm going to look for something more sporty, as the P400's are touring tires as far as I know.

Thanks for the recommendation though, I'll check them out when I need tires in the future. :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

good reasoning!


yeah, i am utterly impressed with yoko. I had pilot sports on the 911 previously, and they are awesome tires, but insanely expensive, and quick wearing. the ES100's lose a bit of performance, but it is barely noticeable off the track, and the price difference and tread life is so much better. The dB S2's are great compared to the MXV4's on the BMW, my only question is snow, as noise, rain and price all lean towards the yokos.
 
Hmm sounds good, I don't do any track driving (no tracks around here), so I want a tire that will last a long time, but give me some performance at the same time. The yokos your are describing seem to fit the bill perfectly. I won't go with touring tires the next time around for sure.

I called up the place and they said the alignment includes the front tires and any possible adjustments in the back.
 
I have the same tyre size as you so I'll add in my two cents here.

I recommend BFG Traction T/A's. They have a 420 treadwear rating and have stiff sidewalls. They offer a VERY good balance of dry grip, wet grip, snow grip, and tyre wear. I had them for a year and a half until I switched to a new set of wheels. Even then there was plenty of thread left (at least 40% more).

I has Yokohama ES100's on my car and they were disappointing. The sidewall stiffness was nowhere close to that of the Traction T/A's. Plus I ended up wearing out these tyres in less than six months!

Rear wheel alignment is critical on RWD cars. Toe-in (negative toe) will give your car an oversteering tendency when powering out of corners. For daily driven cars it's ideal to set it close to zero or slightly negative. My car does not have ANY rear wheel adjustments. Nissan already had a set negative camber and negative toe setting on them.

If I were you I'd get four new tyres and a four wheel alignment. If you can't afford that at the moment replacing that single mismatched tyre should be enough for now.
 
Nah, can't afford replacing all 4 tires, and there is no reason to, the front tires only have like 1,000 miles on them. Which is not much at all.

When I have the rear tires put in, I am going to specifically ask for them to make sure that if anything can be adjusted in the rear that it is.

Thanks for the tire suggestion, I'll keep it in mind.
 
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