Plaid 21” rear tire woes - factory defect?

[Sam1]

@macboost - per

"These are custom machined specifically for the palladium suspension. This keeps things simple. Symmetric, Easy to install. No need for a realignment after if your toe was good to begin with. You get the camber you should have had from the beginning. Better grip, better tire wear. It's a no brainer and they easily pay for themselves quickly. FWIW Camber asymmetry is usually a function of roll and height calibration. Adjusting arms to compensate is treating a symptom and not the problem."

Any time you change a setting on the suspension, it changes the other settings, does it not? So if you change the camber, it might change the toe.

 

[supermac]

@macboost - per

"These are custom machined specifically for the palladium suspension. This keeps things simple. Symmetric, Easy to install. No need for a realignment after if your toe was good to begin with. You get the camber you should have had from the beginning. Better grip, better tire wear. It's a no brainer and they easily pay for themselves quickly. FWIW Camber asymmetry is usually a function of roll and height calibration. Adjusting arms to compensate is treating a symptom and not the problem."

Any time you change a setting on the suspension, it changes the other settings, does it not? So if you change the camber, it might change the toe.

Yes.. But our kit is different. It is engineered so that camber is adjusted to the new spec and toe is where it was before without requiring an alignment visit. With no special alignment equipment. You save time, money and aggravation.

 

[byeLT4]

Jumping head first into this issue. New to me '21 S and when I got to check it out, low rear driver tire. Purchased from an Audi dealer and they are covering at least the one tire, possibly both rear. They were nice enough to put it on a lift and let me check it out.

 

[dbeiler]

Yes.. But our kit is different. It is engineered so that camber is adjusted to the new spec and toe is where it was before without requiring an alignment visit. With no special alignment equipment.

On a new model S, adjusting camber more negative will result in rear toe moving outward and adjusting camber more positive will result in rear toe moving inward. How do you propose rear toe be adjusted back to spec without an alignment?

 

[supermac]

On a new model S, adjusting camber more negative will result in rear toe moving outward and adjusting camber more positive will result in rear toe moving inward. How do you propose rear toe be adjusted back to spec without an alignment?

We reduce camber. it becomes less negative. I know the math and lingo is confusing. We include everything you need in the kit, including simple instructions. No re-alignment is necessary if your toe is already within spec.

You get more useable grip and better tire wear. We adjust camber it to where it should have been from the factory.

I make performance upgrades for many vehicles and have been in business for 18 years. I'm in the business of making happy customers. I'm used to critics that never tried my products. I do offer tech support and guarantee you will be happy with the results.

 

[n2mb_racing]

Tesla aligned my car while they were working on it. Here are the specs. I'm not sure why they put negative toe in the front, but I think the rear looks good in terms of toe. Camber is too much in the rear, it seems, and they didn't / couldn't adjust it.

 

[Awiner]

Tesla aligned my car while they were working on it. Here are the specs. I'm not sure why they put negative toe in the front, but I think the rear looks good in terms of toe. Camber is too much in the rear, it seems, and they didn't / couldn't adjust it.

View attachment 924832

The front needs a little negative toe to turn in better. Rear camber isn’t adjustable without aftermarket arms or shims.

If Tesla did this they measured in Medium height. In LOW you will be greater than -2 degrees of rear camber with potentially rear toe going into the negatives as well.

 

[n2mb_racing]

The front needs a little negative toe to turn in better. Rear camber isn’t adjustable without aftermarket arms or shims.

If Tesla did this they measured in Medium height. In LOW you will be greater than -2 degrees of rear camber with potentially rear toe going into the negatives as well.

Yeah. They could have balanced the camber by shifting the subframe it sounds like, but that is hard. They probably did it in medium, although I asked for them to do it in low.

I don't know why they increased the toe in the front. It seems like they made it worse.

 

[Awiner]

Yeah. They could have balanced the camber by shifting the subframe it sounds like, but that is hard. They probably did it in medium, although I asked for them to do it in low.

I don't know why they increased the toe in the front. It seems like they made it worse.

Tesla won’t touch the subframe as it’s not part of their factory alignment procedure.

If they even tired you would gain negative camber in the side they shift it away from which does you no good. Better having equal camber numbers on each side.

Go aftermarket to reduce it and get it aligned in low if tire wear becomes an issue.

 

[Sam1]

Tesla won’t touch the subframe as it’s not part of their factory alignment procedure.

If they even tired you would gain negative camber in the side they shift it away from which does you no good. Better having equal camber numbers on each side.

Go aftermarket to reduce it and get it aligned in low if tire wear becomes an issue.

+1 for all of this. And absolutely go aftermarket of some sort to get the camber corrected. With a proper alignment and 1 degree of camber in low, you can easily see how the camber wears down the rears. Couldn't imagine how bad it would be @ 2 degrees. With a bad alignment, the tires were wrecked before even having a chance to be worn down.

 

[sorka]

Yes.. But our kit is different. It is engineered so that camber is adjusted to the new spec and toe is where it was before without requiring an alignment visit. With no special alignment equipment. You save time, money and aggravation.

Several questions:

1) Do you shim BOTH upper arms? Because if you're only shimming one, then the toe will change and need to be adjusted.
2) Can you explain why longer bolts aren't needed since the shims reduce the number of threads on the bolt mating with the cradle. The outside wheel, in a turn, will experience a lot of pull and there will be fewer bolt threads grabbing.

 

[whenryb]

We reduce camber. it becomes less negative. I know the math and lingo is confusing. We include everything you need in the kit, including simple instructions. No re-alignment is necessary if your toe is already within spec.

You get more useable grip and better tire wear. We adjust camber it to where it should have been from the factory.

I make performance upgrades for many vehicles and have been in business for 18 years. I'm in the business of making happy customers. I'm used to critics that never tried my products. I do offer tech support and guarantee you will be happy with the results.

I installed the Macsboost shims this evening. Relatively straight forward. Took a bit of wrangling to get them in but as recommended I rolled them in back to front while pushing down on the brake rotor and got them in.

As for camber change is was right about what is advertised. My S is lowered with N2tive links. At the low setting, (rear link set at 7mm), the rear is lowered just under 1 inch from factory. Before the shims I measured camber at -2.25 on each side. Way too much. Post shims I'm right at -1.5 which is also where camber was from the factory at the medium setting. I did not adjust toe. I'll likely take it to my local alignment shop to set toe front and rear.

Given my lower ride heights adjustable arms would probably be best to reduce camber another 0.5 or so but the shims should suffice for now. I'll monitor tire wear and see how it goes.

 

[TLLMRRJ]

I installed the Macsboost shims this evening. Relatively straight forward. Took a bit of wrangling to get them in but as recommended I rolled them in back to front while pushing down on the brake rotor and got them in.

As for camber change is was right about what is advertised. My S is lowered with N2tive links. At the low setting, (rear link set at 7mm), the rear is lowered just under 1 inch from factory. Before the shims I measured camber at -2.25 on each side. Way too much. Post shims I'm right at -1.5 which is also where camber was from the factory at the medium setting. I did not adjust toe. I'll likely take it to my local alignment shop to set toe front and rear.

Given my lower ride heights adjustable arms would probably be best to reduce camber another 0.5 or so but the shims should suffice for now. I'll monitor tire wear and see how it goes.

From what I have been told, Macboost recommends -1.5, so it sounds like you are good.

Do you by any chance measure how thick their shims are, or see that measurement anywhere?

 

[sorka]

Does this mean they are good for a 0.75 adjustment? My rear camber is -2.5 on my X at low (not very low) so I need to take out at least a degree. -1.5 would be acceptable but would rather shoot for -1.3 on each side.

Are the shims made at different thicknesses?

 

[whenryb]

From what I have been told, Macboost recommends -1.5, so it sounds like you are good.

Do you by any chance measure how thick their shims are, or see that measurement anywhere?

I did not measure the shims but I would say they are around 4-5mm.

 

[whenryb]

Does this mean they are good for a 0.75 adjustment? My rear camber is -2.5 on my X at low (not very low) so I need to take out at least a degree. -1.5 would be acceptable but would rather shoot for -1.3 on each side.

Are the shims made at different thicknesses?

Just one size as far as I can tell. Correct my measure was about 0.75. Not an alignment rack so its not precise.

 

[Awiner]

I did not measure the shims but I would say they are around 4-5mm.

That’s sounds about right. I had to adjust my aftermarket camber arms about 10mm longer than factory length to get my camber down to -.90 degrees in low. I a also lowered via N2itive.

 

[n2mb_racing]

I did not measure the shims but I would say they are around 4-5mm.

I haven't looked. Do the bolts have enough extra thread that adding the shims doesn't reduce the number of threads securing the parts together?

 

[Sam1]

From what I have been told, Macboost recommends -1.5, so it sounds like you are good.

Do you by any chance measure how thick their shims are, or see that measurement anywhere?

-1.0 works much better. I had the shop set mine to -1.5, they launched it a couple of times and changed it to -1.0 and handles better in a straight line.

 

[whenryb]

I haven't looked. Do the bolts have enough extra thread that adding the shims doesn't reduce the number of threads securing the parts together?

The bolts are plenty long. At least six or eight turns before torque to 80ft lbs.