All 4 tires worn on the outside edge

I am looking for someone that can offer suggestions on what may cause all 4 tires on my E93 M3 to be worn on the outside edges.

The car is all stock, riding on 18-inch OEM rims with Michelin PS2s. The tires have 12,000 miles on them and has about 1/6" inch before getting to the wear indicator in the middle and inner parts of the tire, but the outside are looking pretty worn.

None of the 4 looked to be worn much worse than the other 3.

The car has not been on the track or used in autocross, just regular "spirited and fun" driving.

I will take the car into the dealership next week but would like to see if others have experienced this or can offer some advices so I don't go into the dealership blind.

Thanks.

You need to supply photos. What tire pressures do you use? Are you good about keeping the tire pressures up?

PS2's seem to do that with our cars.
I added extra camber front and rear becaue of it, but now I don't need it with the Vreds because their sidewall is much stiffer.

Your driving style is such that you probably need to dial in some negative camber--if you stick with PS2s that is. See this thread. http://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=258968&page=1

If you are having the stealer do an alignment, you probably want them to max out the camber for a stock setup. Of course, it would be nice to know what you are running "now" as "more" is probably indicated.

BTW, I don't think 12k is all that bad though for tires on this car. You could get more with a lot of highway or grandpa driving, but then why own this car?

calintexas wrote

You need to supply photos. What tire pressures do you use? Are you good about keeping the tire pressures up?

The PS2's typically wear on the INSIDE edges on our cars.

I would suspect low tire pressures as well.....

Tim, what pressures are you running (18s or 19s)?

Even at 3 PSI above "recommended" I have outside wear. Then again, I drive the corners pretty hard on back roads in the foothills around here--usually with a passenger or two.

Fronts have more wear on the outside than rear though..wear is even side/side but not front/rear. (I expect to replace the fronts at 8k, rears have some life left). That's on my old 18s btw--OEM 19s are "new" from another forum member so no data there yet....

At 35 psi all around you shouldn't have any problems... if your alignment is right, that is. M3s have aggressive negative camber from the factory, so you should have the opposite problem (based on no track miles). Or maybe you're driving like a madman .

elp_jc wrote

At 35 psi all around you shouldn't have any problems... if your alignment is right, that is. M3s have aggressive negative camber from the factory, so you should have the opposite problem (based on no track miles). Or maybe you're driving like a madman .

Meh, I do go pretty hard on the back roads, but I'm not suicidal or risking other folks on the road, but you know how subjective that can be (well, I never worry the wife at least).

Probably should have gotten the alignment done right out of the box when I got the car by a performance shop. While the car runs true and doesn't wander that doesn't mean it was set to correct camber specs.

Is it possible the 18s might also "wear" a bit more on the outside due to increased flex of the sidewall vs. the 19s with "stock" camber?

I am running 33psi front and 35psi rear.

I will post pictures of the tire when I get it back from the body shop. (Some a**hole scratched my front bumper in the parking lot.)

vernonpat wrote

I am running 33psi front and 35psi rear.

I will post pictures of the tire when I get it back from the body shop. (Some a**hole scratched my front bumper in the parking lot.)

Cool.

Sucks about the front bumper, I'd be so .

Finnegan wrote

Meh, I do go pretty hard on the back roads, but I'm not suicidal or risking other folks on the road, but you know how subjective that can be (well, I never worry the wife at least).

Probably should have gotten the alignment done right out of the box when I got the car by a performance shop. While the car runs true and doesn't wander that doesn't mean it was set to correct camber specs.

I've found that unless camber is really extreme, it's usually bad toe settings that are ruining tires. Unfortunately, sometimes in shipping when the cars are cranked down too hard, you can bend the suspension arms, especially if they are incorrectly used as tie down points. I'd get your alignment checked and I bet you'll find that you have some degree of toe in both front and rear. Camber wear up to 1.5-2 degrees is not that bad and you should be able to visually notice if you have that much. (and it'd hard to get that much in the front with the crash bolts in)

kitw wrote

I've found that unless camber is really extreme, it's usually bad toe settings that are ruining tires. Unfortunately, sometimes in shipping when the cars are cranked down too hard, you can bend the suspension arms, especially if they are incorrectly used as tie down points. I'd get your alignment checked and I bet you'll find that you have some degree of toe in both front and rear. Camber wear up to 1.5-2 degrees is not that bad and you should be able to visually notice if you have that much. (and it'd hard to get that much in the front with the crash bolts in)

Bent control arms? Yikes.

I'll get the alignment checked. Might wait as I'm looking at the Dinan S2 suspension, and tires need replacing, so might get it all done at the same time.

Finnegan wrote

Bent control arms? Yikes.

I'll get the alignment checked. Might wait as I'm looking at the Dinan S2 suspension, and tires need replacing, so might get it all done at the same time.

Interested in how you feel about the Dinan S2 Suspension.

kilinko wrote

Interested in how you feel about the Dinan S2 Suspension.

We'll see. I'm really waffling on the whole springs/suspension. The Ground Control kit, at 900, is comparable in price to the Dinan springs and really seems to provide a more performance oriented set-up. I think power is more than sufficient with this car (for me at this point at least) but I want to tighten up the handling a bit. The GC kit sounds like it might fit the bill, and I can always get the anti-roll bar separate.

Take a look at the GC thread and the Poll thread on springs. Those show other viable options.