Like the title, do I need new camber arms? I'm thinking about pulling the trigger one the new Plaid 23' with these new prices. What should I keep in mind/ do you guys still think it's a good vehicle despite all these things about negative camber, shudder, and vibration? I plan to use this car as my daily driver, thoughts!
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Purchasing Plaid MS soon, do I need aftermarket camber arms etc.?
- Thread starter Workmailman
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All that does is mask the underlying problem but there are some benefits to them. Even if I go to 19's I will still fix the camber issue.
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Pretty simple, excessive camber. Excessive camber results in reduced tire contact patch. This can impact braking and acceleration as well as accelerate tire wear.
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“impact braking and accel”?
Tesla Plaid with stock brakes brakes shorter from 100 mph than a BMW M5 CS (see Car and Driver) — and triggers the ABS the whole way down. the brakes are fine for normal street use. If you will overheat the brakes with repeated hard braking, use components designed for high temp use. changing camber won’t help braking.
Affects “acceleration”? smh. I think the acceleration of the Tesla Plaid just fine with the default suspension.
What you don’t mention is performance when cornering. I wonder why?
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I think Tesla did ok with braking, and handling, and accel with the OEM neg camber in the rear. I wouldn’t fuss with it. But I would make sure to have properly inflated 19”.
btw, of course most braking is with the fronts. what’s most important for the rear tires to do is not oversteer —> neg camber.
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I m currently retired (70) from the Automotive auto parts, engine rebuilding business and have had every kind of classic performance car; ( I love and live for HP & speed
lol) I’ve now sold my last one, and just wanted a Plaid but my wife said NO
So we compromise and got. MYP.. not bad but, can’t get a Plaid out of my mind
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Why would you settle for something that obvious isn't ideal for your usage if you can easily, and affordably fix it? I am not pushing my car hard in the turns on the street. Why would I bias my settings for rear camber for something circuit track based when 99.99% of the time my car won't be on a road course? Tesla setup the camber fairly aggressively biased more toward the track than the street.
Too much negative camber will keep the car tire from being as flat as possible which is necessary for maximum braking and acceleration. So for the street, why run a camber setup that just results in increased rear tire wear, with absolutely no benefit on the street? If Tesla had given adjustable camber to the rear this wouldn't even be a discussion.
I had 19's on my LR and have 21's on my Plaid. There are pluses to both for me. I shouldn't have to be forced to run 19's because of their stupid camber settings or when running 21's burn through rear tires for no real benefit. If 19's were the only way to go, then Tesla shouldn't have even given us an option. If you want to run 19's then do so.
I am for making incremental improvements, even if they may seem minor, as aggregately they can make a real difference. Read the book Atomic Habity to get an idea of what I am talking about. If I improve camber, lighter rotors, make adjustments in wheels/tires, setup toe properly, optimizing inflation pressure, etc. can add up to a real difference. As for braking, I will tend to exercise the accelerative capability far more than the cornering capabiity of the car. I found that even on my LR, I got brake fade doing some of the backroad runs. I got maybe 2-3 good stops from triple digits and they were already overheating. So first on my upgrade list for the Plaid is better brakes that will handle repeated fairly hard braking use while not going with a setup that will only work when the brakes are up to temp. Sort of a street/track balance.
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Tesla doesn’t optimize their cars for the track. The slight neg rear camber isn’t optimized for the track. It is optimized for best, and safest, every day handling.
I’ve had multiple S’s and two flavors of Plaid, S and X. Always went with 19s (or 20s) and never had any problems with tire wear.
The benefits of 19” over 21” are well documented in many other threads.
If you want to adjust your camber for track use, get the track appropriate components.
But for nontrack use I can’t imagine harming your handling (definitely making it worse, the only question is how much worse) in order to use bigger wheels and save a few bucks on tires.
I’ve had multiple S’s and two flavors of Plaid, S and X. Always went with 19s (or 20s) and never had any problems with tire wear.
The benefits of 19” over 21” are well documented in many other threads.
If you want to adjust your camber for track use, get the track appropriate components.
But for nontrack use I can’t imagine harming your handling (definitely making it worse, the only question is how much worse) in order to use bigger wheels and save a few bucks on tires.
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At 4k it is hard to tell
It is an illusion. You will be their shortly
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Maybe dumb question, haven't been here in a while. Has anything changed between 21 and today? I have a refresh 21 MS LR with 21K Miles on original rear tires. Just ordered a MSP(with 19's this go around), partly to avoid paying for the new tires all the way around!!! might as well invest that cash in a plaid. Anyway, wondering if the camber arms are different on Plaid or if there have been updates in the last few years(i didn't think so)
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They're the same part # in the catalog, so nothing has changed. The 19" ride better than the 21" anyways, you're not missing out on anything.
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I have instructions on making shims yourself, or you can buy a set of shims from the last run I made for $40.
Alternative, DIY refresh Model X rear camber correction
I was thinking about this over coffee. Anybody who is considering spending $400 for the Macsboost kit could DIY this for next to nothing. I need somebody to confirm the relationship between the spacer thickness and the camber, but I don't have a refresh X. If anybody is in the Bay area I'd be...
teslamotorsclub.com
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I don’t know if I’d call -2° excessive. I’ve run similar (and more) on other cars without wear being anywhere near as extreme.
I’m convinced the problem is more a defect in the 21” PS4S Tesla uses and that reducing the camber masks that particular problem. It’s not typical for camber wear to manifest as sidewall separation with otherwise even tread wear. Especially when pretty much all other wheel and tire combos seem to wear fine.
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It's because excess toe is dragging the tire, not camber. Camber just makes the toe wear worse. It's absolutely not a fault in the tire.
A defect in the tire would not make the car scrub the inside shoulder/sidewall of the tire across the pavement like what is happening.
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A quick peek at alignments will confirm this. Yes, camber contributes but toe is the real killer. We can reduce camber and reduce toe. Ideally we'd correct both. It just depends how much people want to spend.
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