2003 S Wheel Alignment

[jborchel]

I am putting two new rear tires on my 2003 S after the current set expired from excessive wear on the inside of each tire. I expect this is caused by excessive camber but I don't actually know. I have heard that Porsches often have this excessive wear pattern because of the design of the suspension. I'm an old guy and do not drive the car aggressively or autocross it.

Is this a fact and should I expect this kind of poor wear in the future? Or is my car so much out of alignment that this is the problem? If it is a design issue can you set the alignment .5 to 1 setting over the factory recommend setting in order to solve the problem?

I think the tires were relatively new as they were on the car when I bought it and were the second set. The car only had 21,900 miles at that time. I've only put 4,500 miles on it and they are pretty shot.

Any advice is welcome. I am having the work done Wednesday, 8/04.

Jack

Edited August 4, 2010 by jborchel

[N41EF]

My 03 S also wears the inside edge of the rear tires, I've heard it's the design of the suspension. Anyway, my tires were wearing bad at Christmas when I replaced the axels, somehow I agrivated it, noticed when I changed the oil last weekend that the right rear was worn to the wear bar, the left tire was fine.

I ordered tires through Sears, they had the same price as tirerack, and had them installed today with an alighnment.

I was very, very impressed with Sears and the alignment. THey had the latest abd greatest laser machine, he asked if I had the stock S or if I had modified the suspension, and asked me about any work I had done affecting suspension. He showed me that wear was to be expected and showed why, they showed me on the computer what was out and how to fix it. The computerd had pictures of the suspension and told what to adjust which direction to change what. The tech was an older guy, we joked about the old days using string and flashlight with mirrors. The alignment was $69 and took about an hour and 15 minutes including the diagnosis and discussion.

The nearest dealer is an hour away, and they don't have alignment service. As long as Glen works at the Aiken Sears, He'll be doing my alignment.

[jborchel]

Thanks for the reply. I had the alignment done with two new rears. I had a similar discussion with the Service Manager who was very knowledgeable. They showed me the computer "before" printout that had the wheels in spec in green and the wheels out of spec in red. My readings were one wheel completely out of spec and one very close to out of spec. He said this was why the tires wore down on the inside. But when discussing whether the in spec settings would prevent inside tire wear he was evasive. He kept saying that if you wanted Porsche handling you had to be in spec. He didn't like my idea of setting the camber to 0 as then I wouldn't get true Porsche handling.

Somehow I expect that I will eventually see inside tire wear even though I don't drive the car hard.

Jack