Does inner tire wear indicates bad alignment? When driving, my car goes pretty straight when I let go of the wheel. Does that mean I have good alignment?

 

Could be. Alignment, toe, camber....All these could cause inner wear.

 

yeah, just bad camber.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by xbn83 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Could be. Alignment, toe, camber....All these could cause inner wear. </TD></TR></TABLE>
correct!
My cb7 had perfect camber but the toe was way off, it drove perfectly straight but my tires wore prematurely on the inside and my car was doing whats called bear crawling.

 

All of the previous posts are correct. You have an insufficient camber angle (you're in the negative (-) range); Ie: the top of the tire is tilted inward excessively, thus wearing the inside edge of the tires. Usually indicative of worn upper control arm inner bushings.
Generally, a car will pull to the side which has the greater (+) camber angle. But this can be offset by excessive caster angle which naturally trys to center the steering. So you could concievably have a worn upper control arm bushing (in the rear position) which would increase caster and decrease camber. Surprisingly, you could wear tires 'till the cows come home, but it wouldn't pull.

P

 

Most of the posts are correct. Toe and camber will cause tire wear, and if they are equal from side to side... won't cause the car to pull or the wheel to be crooked. The only point not covered is lowering springs. If you have lowered your car with aftermarket springs or, god forbid, cut your stock ones.... your camber angle will be excessivly negative... top of tire tipped in. Also stated is worn parts, such as a upper control arm. This is also true. Alignments don't just "go bad" With age and normal wear, and potholes and such... your alignment can be off, but not usually enough to cause any dramatic tire wear. There are also cases where a tire starts to go bad... one of the belts in it can shift and cause it to wear oddly, or make the car pull. This is somewhat common, but it wouldn't happen to BOTH front tires at the same time. I would suggest you get your front end checked for worn parts and have a quality alignment done, your problem should be fixed.

 

how much should an alignment cost?

 

go to a firestone or whjatever and find out

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by accordredliner &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">how much should an alignment cost?</TD></TR></TABLE>

50-70 bucks

Camber, and toe are THE biggest reasons for excessive tire wear but toe is mainly the culprit.

 

^^ exactly. toe completely fucked me up last year in regards to tire wear. this year was pretty good

 

got an alignment when i installed my camber kit, for 60 bucks at les schwab.

 

have the alignemt checked........make sure to let them know that you want fixed what is wrong ,since camber is not adjustable a lot of these shops just set the toe and send you on the road.....get a print out of the before and after readings and have them explain you the readings ,,,if you got stock components and camber is off most likely you got some worn or bent suspension parts , some shops give the option to install a camber kit , thus bringing reading to specs ,,it is a lot cheaper than replacing suspension parts ,,,,but it will not fix the actual cause that camber was off in the first place .but it will keep the tires from wearing ............if u can,, and get an alignment,, get the end readings and post them here ....

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by deserthonda &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">have the alignemt checked........make sure to let them know that you want fixed what is wrong ,since camber is not adjustable a lot of these shops just set the toe and send you on the road.....get a print out of the before and after readings and have them explain you the readings ,,,if you got stock components and camber is off most likely you got some worn or bent suspension parts , some shops give the option to install a camber kit , thus bringing reading to specs ,,it is a lot cheaper than replacing suspension parts ,,,,but it will not fix the actual cause that camber was off in the first place .but it will keep the tires from wearing ............if u can,, and get an alignment,, get the end readings and post them here ....</TD></TR></TABLE>

So an alignment will not fix my problem but will tell me what I need to replace??

 

An Alignment will not fix your problem IF there are worn or bent components. As stated by deserthonda, Honda makes no provisions for alignment other than the toe adjustment.
A trip on the alignment rack will tell you if the car is off-spec, and if it is we (you) must determine what happened that made it so. As I stated before; worn bushings (not uncommon) or bent (from impact) components or subframe will cause an out of alignment condition like what you discribed.
Honda's implyed position is that nothing ever wears, therefore the only thing that can concievably ever need adjusting is toe. But the real world tells us differently, thus you have companies making offset bushings, alignment kits and adjustable control arms.
I would ask you take deserthonda's suggestion and post the alignment specs once you get them. We (us) can then get a better handle on what you're up against

P

 

i noticed the inner tire wears when I went to get new tires. Could the inner tire wear caused by out of balanced tire?? I never paid at attention to the balance of my old tires.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by accordredliner &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i noticed the inner tire wears when I went to get new tires. Could the inner tire wear caused by out of balanced tire?? I never paid at attention to the balance of my old tires.</TD></TR></TABLE>

out of balance will wear tire as well but with a different pattern ,also if out of balance u would notice the steering whell shaking at highway speeds

 

Of the possible wear patterns you can find on a tire...
camber adjustment off spec: Biased tire wear inner (or outer) edges
toe measurement off spec: Feathering (sawtooth pattern on edges of tread
grooves. (felt as the hand is drawn across the tire
tread in one direction)
out-of-balance condition: Cupping, flat spots worn around circumference of
tire (as it bounces along)

 

HAYNES MANUAL explains abnormal tire wear + reasons for and solutions, gotta love 'em