# Excessive rear tire wear with being lowered - caution



## ProjectA3 (Aug 12, 2005)

So i just wanted to put this out there.
I was on coilovers for quite a long time and wanted to let everyone know that they cars will eat through rear tires rather quickly once lowered. 

After the coils were installed I had a proper alignment done ASAP, and noticed that in under 9,000 miles of 97% highway driving my Michelin Pilot Super Sports were just about bald from the inner tread block outward.

Now that I am on air ride, i have done another alignment which allowed things to be even more in-spec than before, but I will get into the process of rotating my wheels/tires every 2-3k miles just so I don't have to be buying 2 new tires so quickly. 

So just a word of warning, this MQB chassis is a tire eater when you go low.


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## flk (Oct 5, 2014)

In my experience a lot of -camber with *toe-in* will cause inner tire wear. Being lowered/slammed shouldn't affect tire wear directly, but it does change geometry and you will have to dial everything back. 
Post up your alignment specs from the shop that did it, i'm interested to see what the toe settings were. 
I prefer -2.5 F and -2.0 R camber with 0 toe F and 0.05 toe-in R for high speed/braking stability. I run this setup on all my AWD cars. A less aggressive setup would be -2.0 F and -1.5 R with 0 toe.
You can do 0 toe all around if you want more -camber.. you still shouldn't have uneven/premature wear on only one axle.


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## ProjectA3 (Aug 12, 2005)

I have a picture on my phone I'll post in a few of the print out after it was aligned with the air setup on it.


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## mikeygar (Nov 14, 2014)

How big was your drop from original height?


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## ProjectA3 (Aug 12, 2005)

not slammed but not just lowered on springs. I think around 2". I never measured it. but it wasn't slammed on coils.


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## mikeygar (Nov 14, 2014)

Hmmm. Will see how it pans out and hope you correct it. These just arrived 30 minutes ago. 











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## illmatic41 (Aug 17, 2014)

mikeygar said:


> Hmmm. Will see how it pans out and hope you correct it. These just arrived 30 minutes ago.


Those are linear springs correct? Hope to hear how they work out for you. opcorn:


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## FLtrooper (Jul 16, 2012)

mikeygar said:


> Hmmm. Will see how it pans out and hope you correct it. These just arrived 30 minutes ago.


Sweet! What's the part number? If they are a tad lower then the H&Rs I might consider them. Make sure to get FTG measurements!


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## reyoasian (Feb 22, 2015)

ProjectA3 said:


> not slammed but not just lowered on springs. I think around 2". I never measured it. but it wasn't slammed on coils.


In your OP you said coilovers...now you say springs. What is it? 

If you're on springs, you should not align ASAP. You need to drive (preferably over a lot of bumps) few hundred miles for them to settle.
Once the springs settle you will be slightly lower again and your alignment will change.
If you daily your car, then one week should be sufficient depending on mileage driven.

Coilovers have the same affect but not as much.

Once you get an alignment, you need to make sure TOE is right on spec.
I'm not too sure about S3 but I always, ALWAYS do 0-toe front, and 0.10-toe rear (when you accelerate, they will toe out to 0) on my current and soon-to-be-old car.
Camber itself does NOT wear out tires fast, so having -0.5 to -2 camber is not bad at all.
Toe, on the other hand, will eat your tires like the cookie monster eating cookies.

If you can get things into the proper specs then you need toe/camber arms to adjust, but I remember reading that S3 rear factory camber is actually adjustable (someone confirm?)
And seeing your car is probably quite new, I doubt anything seized to the point where you need aftermarket control arms.


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## bz0n3 (Sep 12, 2006)

FLtrooper said:


> Sweet! What's the part number? If they are a tad lower then the H&Rs I might consider them. Make sure to get FTG measurements!


I dont even thhink this guy is in the US (bummer) I would still like to hear what model of A3 he owns and he part number for the pro kit... maybe we can inport it


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## ProjectA3 (Aug 12, 2005)

I meant ride height wasn't like I was lowered on springs. my bad. I never had springs. 
Here are my current alignment specs with the Air Lift kit. 
Top is before alignment. Bottom is after 










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## flk (Oct 5, 2014)

ProjectA3 said:


> I meant ride height wasn't like I was lowered on springs. my bad. I never had springs.
> Here are my current alignment specs with the Air Lift kit.
> Top is before alignment. Bottom is after
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


It goes without saying that the alignment specs before (on coilovers) were garbage with ridiculous toe in. This is definitely why your tires got ruined.

Here's what our front heavy AWD needs for a balanced aggressive street alignment:
-Inflate your tires properly then *sit inside* the car while a tech does your alignment at a real shop. 
-Aim for -2.0 front camber with 0 toe (reduce tread lift and increases your camber thrust)
-Set between -1.0 to -1.5 rear camber and minimal toe (i.e. +0.05) to help with stability and braking.


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## tekmo (Nov 30, 2013)

Are those Eibach springs being put on NA car?  According to Eibach USA springs are not available for our cars here yet...


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## mikeygar (Nov 14, 2014)

ProjectA3 said:


> I meant ride height wasn't like I was lowered on springs. my bad. I never had springs.
> Here are my current alignment specs with the Air Lift kit.
> Top is before alignment. Bottom is after


So the 'after' are corrected values already? Would you remember what the factory alignment specs are?



FLtrooper said:


> Sweet! What's the part number? If they are a tad lower then the H&Rs I might consider them. Make sure to get FTG measurements!


Will get the after measurements, I left the car in the shop and will be getting it tomorrow with the springs installed. I saw the car on the ground already, but haven't rolled it yet but significant change from my old height. I'll update here once I get it. I had the option of H&R's but decided against them because there's too much compromise in ride comfort with them. 



tekmo said:


> Are those Eibach springs being put on NA car? According to Eibach USA springs are not available for our cars here yet...


Am in the Philippines buddy  and my car is a 2.0 TDI FWD. My distributor had to do a special order from Germany because USA doesn't have them yet. Took a gamble because the German catalog has different spring sets for each model on the MQB platform. Took awhile though, from Germany to Manila with problems with port congestion, took around 3 months to get to me :-(.


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## ProjectA3 (Aug 12, 2005)

flk said:


> It goes without saying that the alignment specs before (on coilovers) were garbage with ridiculous toe in. This is definitely why your tires got ruined.
> 
> Here's what our front heavy AWD needs for a balanced aggressive street alignment:
> -Inflate your tires properly then *sit inside* the car while a tech does your alignment at a real shop.
> ...


I work at an Audi dealership and my friend who is also an Audi tech of 10+ years did the alignment both times thus it being a real shop He did say with the air setup he did have more adjustability in the rear and the problem I had with the coils should be significantly reduced. But I will still get in the habit of rotating every 2500 miles or so just to prolong tire wear.


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## mikeygar (Nov 14, 2014)

Quick update on my lowering; got the car from the shop and car looks really good with the eibach springs. Drove off and ride is barely different from stock. Body roll is minimal on hard cornering and so far, bumps are not jarring. Glad I got the eibachs instead of H&R because I've always found them too stiff. Just hope that when the car is full that I don't bottom the shocks.

Will be getting an alignment in a day or two and hope that things get sorted out. Eyeballing the rear tires shows a lot of toe in which I want to correct...


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## mikeygar (Nov 14, 2014)




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