Crazy New Camry Tire Wear

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SumpChump

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My Camry is a 2013 and has JUST 15k miles and is going in for it's third , religious, tire rotation. It has the crummy EL400 tires with the joke treadwear rating of 260 that's no excuse though,

But she is getting loud on the road. and I see that I have a bit of heal-to-toe type wear on the inner of all four tires. I suspect the rear camber. Should I be able to actually NOTICE the camber tilting in on the rear!? It isnt ridiculous like something is broken, in fact she has looked a bit squatty from day one. Doing some searches yielded several people with the same inner tire Camry wear.
 
Sounds normal to me. Most cars run a small amount of negative camber; -1 deg is common. My Prius runs about -1.5 deg in the rear and I have no problems getting 40-50k out of a set of tires.

More importantly, how much tread depth is remaining?

My mother's V6 Altima has about 25k on the original EL400s. Sure, they've gotten noisier (compared to when new) and are now down to about 4.5/32", but I do not see anything unusual about this behavior.
 
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i see some of the suv's on the road and some look like they are way out there ...some of the hondas and toyotas and even Hyundai and kia... They just look out of align to me
 
We had a OEM set of those on our Fit when it was new. Horrible tires. At the end they didn't even hold air since one of them bubbled the sidewall without hitting anything. I was glad one of them did me the favor of self-destructing in the driveway so the set of new tires that had just arrived could be installed.
 
I was lucky to get 30,000 miles out of the OE Bridgestones on my Camry.

Go to Sams and get some Michelin Defenders on it.

You'll be in good shape then.

There's another thread about negative camber on a Camry SE.

I assumed it had something to do with the wider tires/wheels on the sport model.

Instead, it may be a spec change from my 2010 and 2011 Camry's to the current production model.
 
+1 on the Michelin Defenders -- have 'em on my Wife's Camry & love them.
 
my 2004 new highlander had bad toe in or out (can not remember which ) on the front tires, took to dealer at 3000 miles , they told mechanic only check alignment, they did not tell him I had a wear complaint, they rotated tires that just moved new tires to front where in 3000 miles they were wearing too. took it back again , no mention on ticket of the wear, I ran into the mechanic in the lot afterwardsand told him and he said bring it in again!!!!!! early one morning, before work!!! he fixed it on his own time. strange
I use costco michelin tires now, 50K or more no wear
 
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Yea, I don't like too much negative camber! My daughters '06 Mazda 3i has neg camb and it caused wear on the inside edges of the tires. Neg Camb causes the smooth wear on the inside edges. Too much toe-in causes the cupping/feathering which causes the noise most of us experience.

Correct these two alignment issues while still staying in spec and hopefully the problem goes away. But, it won't help with tires that already have the wear pattern.
 
Some of the newer SUVs look scary with the amount of negative camber they have! I got passed by a CR-V that was going at least 90, loaded up for vacation. It had so much negative camber, that the sidewalls were on the road. I don't think any of the tread was touching the road.

My Focus burns through its right rear tire. The LR tire wears a bit on the inner edge, but the right rear it destroys.

The LR tire has -1.1* of negative camber, but it doesn't wear bad. The RR tire has .7 degree of negative camber, but much more toe out - and that's the one that burns off.

The fronts ... don't wear.
 
Originally Posted By: Miller88
Some of the newer SUVs look scary with the amount of negative camber they have! I got passed by a CR-V that was going at least 90, loaded up for vacation. It had so much negative camber, that the sidewalls were on the road. I don't think any of the tread was touching the road.

My Focus burns through its right rear tire. The LR tire wears a bit on the inner edge, but the right rear it destroys.

The LR tire has -1.1* of negative camber, but it doesn't wear bad. The RR tire has .7 degree of negative camber, but much more toe out - and that's the one that burns off.

The fronts ... don't wear.


You need to get an alignment shop to work with you in getting this remedied. It may cost more than your standard $70-$80 4 wheel alignment.
 
Originally Posted By: Char Baby
Originally Posted By: Miller88
Some of the newer SUVs look scary with the amount of negative camber they have! I got passed by a CR-V that was going at least 90, loaded up for vacation. It had so much negative camber, that the sidewalls were on the road. I don't think any of the tread was touching the road.

My Focus burns through its right rear tire. The LR tire wears a bit on the inner edge, but the right rear it destroys.

The LR tire has -1.1* of negative camber, but it doesn't wear bad. The RR tire has .7 degree of negative camber, but much more toe out - and that's the one that burns off.

The fronts ... don't wear.


You need to get an alignment shop to work with you in getting this remedied. It may cost more than your standard $70-$80 4 wheel alignment.


Just put the camber bolts in over the weekend so I can now bring it to a shop and have it fixed.
 
I seem to be having the opposite experience as everyone else. I really want to put Michelins on my Subaru but the EL-400's are wearing pretty well. Just over 15K miles and they still have 9/32" left.
 
Originally Posted By: SumpChump
My Camry is a 2013 and has JUST 15k miles and is going in for it's third , religious, tire rotation. It has the crummy EL400 tires with the joke treadwear rating of 260 that's no excuse though


My dad's 2012 Camry with 45k miles on the Michelin eco tires just came back from the toyo dealer's inspection and tire rotation. It had the rotations up till 25k then another one at 45k. 6/32's left on all four according to the report.
 
Camber vs tire wear depends on the car, the tires and driving style. Different combinations of the above will require different amounts of camber for even wear.

Toe, however, can cause really screwy wear if it's off. And too much toe in or out can drastically magnify camber wear as well.

With good toe, it's surprising how much camber you can run and still get even tire wear, especially if you aren't a grandma in corners. Heck, I've seen cars with sticky performance tires that are driven hard, have 2 - 3+ degrees of camber, slight toe out and still show outside edge wear like there's not enough camber.
 
Excessive toe (in or out...) is what eats tire. Camber will cause sliglhtly uneven wear, but usually toe WITH camber is causig the problem.

Find an alignment shop that will do a custom spec alignment... NOT a good enough within the VERY WIDE manufact. specs.

Ask for 0 toe , and reduce camber if possible ...

Usually will require a race shop or alignment specialty shop to get it done RIGHT.
 
If the toe is off, nothing will work right. It's like dragging your tires down the road sideways in opposite directions. Even shops that just set the toe, and collect the dough can't get it right.
 
Originally Posted By: sciphi
We had a OEM set of those on our Fit when it was new. Horrible tires. At the end they didn't even hold air since one of them bubbled the sidewall without hitting anything. I was glad one of them did me the favor of self-destructing in the driveway so the set of new tires that had just arrived could be installed.


I actually think the EL400s are pretty good tires...at least the OE ones on my mother's Altima are pretty good. They have good steering feedback, good ride and traction and okay noise. This goes to prove that the OE fitment is built to specs determined by the automaker and not the tire mfg.
 
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