tire alignment question

[bktiger86]

I recently purchased a Model X and waiting for delivery. I have a friend who's been a Model X owner for years and mentioned that when I get my car I should immediately do an alignment at medium height settings. Apprently at factory they do their alignment at the highest settings. Because of this our tires will get worn down quite heavily on the inside. Is this true? Just curious.

 

[DCGOO]

I recently purchased a Model X and waiting for delivery. I have a friend who's been a Model X owner for years and mentioned that when I get my car I should immediately do an alignment at medium height settings. Apprently at factory they do their alignment at the highest settings. Because of this our tires will get worn down quite heavily on the inside. Is this true? Just curious.

It is my understanding, the factory does no alignment at all. Cars the are bad enough are aligned at the service center. But the advice is sound, unless you find the tire were is nominal. I always drive in low myself. I did get an alignment very shortly after delivery, even though it felt fine, because the energy consumption was high. Turns out the right front toe-in was off.

 

[IvesSM]

The inside tire wear you mention is the rear camber alignment that is spec anywhere from a -.5 to a -2.5 and it's probably around a -2.0 to -2.2 on your car. There is NO ADJUSTMENT on rear camber on the X or the S. The X normal suspension height setting is LOW. If you want to "correct" the rear camber you can
1) set your suspension height to MEDIUM and lock it in.
2) add shims/spacers on the fixed camber control arm to get the camber alignment back to a normal setting of between -.8 and -1.2 with a suspension set to LOW. MACSBOOST (easiest and cheapest.)
3) Change out your fixed camber control arms for adjustable arms.

Tesla service has two alignment options:
1) Full alignment - balance & align all wheels. Around $250
2) Alignment Check - just gives you a printout of current alignment settings. No wheel balance. No alignment changes. Around $70

I had the $70 check done and am going with option 2 to reduce camber by about .8 from current settings.

Good luck. Let us know what u do.

 

[towndrunk]

The inside tire wear you mention is the rear camber alignment that is spec anywhere from a -.5 to a -2.5 and it's probably around a -2.0 to -2.2 on your car. There is NO ADJUSTMENT on rear camber on the X or the S. The X normal suspension height setting is LOW. If you want to "correct" the rear camber you can
1) set your suspension height to MEDIUM and lock it in.
2) add shims/spacers on the fixed camber control arm to get the camber alignment back to a normal setting of between -.8 and -1.2 with a suspension set to LOW. MACSBOOST (easiest and cheapest.)
3) Change out your fixed camber control arms for adjustable arms.

Tesla service has two alignment options:
1) Full alignment - balance & align all wheels. Around $250
2) Alignment Check - just gives you a printout of current alignment settings. No wheel balance. No alignment changes. Around $70

I had the $70 check done and am going with option 2 to reduce camber by about .8 from current settings.

Good luck. Let us know what u do.

Any more you can tell us about the shims for camber? Are you able to get toe within spec after that too?

Seems a lot cheaper than spending $1,000 on adjustable camber arms. I'm ready to order a PX, but tire wear worries me.

 

[towndrunk]

To answer my own question, here's more: Alternative, DIY refresh Model X rear camber correction

 

[IvesSM]

Any more you can tell us about the shims for camber? Are you able to get toe within spec after that too?

Seems a lot cheaper than spending $1,000 on adjustable camber arms. I'm ready to order a PX, but tire wear worries me.

I just received the shims from John @ MACSBOOST. It's going to be a few weeks before I get around to installing them. I like John's aka MACSBOOSTs solution for the simplicity, cost, & ease of installation although I have not installed yet but the instructions were well detailed with pictures and John is available with answers to questions. He's West Coast, I'm East Coast so time is to my advantage.

Also the MACSBOOST solution is a single shim for each side so no dealing with dropping individual shims never to be seen again under the car.

I'll update after I install.

 

[awd_rails]

I'm curious about the solution using shims to solve the camber issue. Being that the Tesla camber spec is such a wide range (-.5 to a -2.5), does this mean that it can vary with each car and even on each side? Being that the camber arms are fixed, would that mean that what's causing the variation in camber could mean that 1 side might be different than the other side? For example, the right side could be -0.7 and the left could be -2.2. Adding shims would adjust both sides by the respective shim's spec, but never the same. And if your camber is already at the far edge of -.5, adding the shim could theoretically take you out of spec into the (+) range?

 

[towndrunk]

Ideally you'd have it checked first ($70 at the SC), then see how much you need to correct for. I hope to have that done before I take delivery. I want this corrected before I wear out a set of tires.

I just don't know that I want the SC to align it with shims in place.

 

[awd_rails]

True, but if the camber is different on either side and the difference between them is significant then the shims won’t address that issue. Do the shims allow you to do incremental adjustment, e.g. different thickness based on number of shim pieces? I thought they were just 1 piece 1 thickness

I went with adjustable camber arms because of this concern.

 

[awd_rails]

I just don't know that I want the SC to align it with shims in place.

Also the benefit with going to an outside alignment shop is that you can ask them to adjust using your preferred right height setting and use a tighter range that you prefer that’s still within the Tesla spec.

 

[IvesSM]

I'm curious about the solution using shims to solve the camber issue. Being that the Tesla camber spec is such a wide range (-.5 to a -2.5), does this mean that it can vary with each car and even on each side? Being that the camber arms are fixed, would that mean that what's causing the variation in camber could mean that 1 side might be different than the other side? For example, the right side could be -0.7 and the left could be -2.2. Adding shims would adjust both sides by the respective shim's spec, but never the same. And if your camber is already at the far edge of -.5, adding the shim could theoretically take you out of spec into the (+) range?

Generally what your going to find is that the current camber setting on your X is going to be somewhere between -2.0 to -2.2. putting the shim in is going to correct your current camber by a +0.8 so a current -2.0 will be a -1.2. That will flatten out your rear wheels and further alleviate your inner tire wear.

Attached is the result of my alignment check 2023 MX LR about 5k on the tires. I have LOW set on suspension.

 

[awd_rails]

I guess what I’m wondering is if it’s possible or typical that the camber on one side is significantly different than the other side? In which case it would be better to have adjustable cambers to dial both sides in to the same value

 

[Mensra]

I went with adjustable MACSBOOST. Took the shop the better part of a day to dial in exactly what I wanted. There’s only so much toe adjustment when you change the camber. So they had to adjust the camber set the toe a number of times to get the best. I managed to get about -1 at medium height. my total price is a little over $1000. We’ll see in 20,000 miles if it makes the difference. That price included a complete alignment. The vehicle drives exactly the same.

 

[awd_rails]

I went with adjustable MACSBOOST. Took the shop the better part of a day to dial in exactly what I wanted. There’s only so much toe adjustment when you change the camber. So they had to adjust the camber set the toe a number of times to get the best. I managed to get about -1 at medium height. my total price is a little over $1000. We’ll see in 20,000 miles if it makes the difference. That price included a complete alignment. The vehicle drives exactly the same.

I see. For pre-2021, they have adjustable camber arms which are the same as other offerings. For refresh 2021+, they only have fixed shims.

 

[ngng]

I have an extensive thread that goes into the problem and a solution. I have shims you can buy or you can do it yourself with the information in the thread.

Any more you can tell us about the shims for camber? Are you able to get toe within spec after that too?

Seems a lot cheaper than spending $1,000 on adjustable camber arms. I'm ready to order a PX, but tire wear worries me.

 

[IvesSM]

I went with adjustable MACSBOOST. Took the shop the better part of a day to dial in exactly what I wanted. There’s only so much toe adjustment when you change the camber. So they had to adjust the camber set the toe a number of times to get the best. I managed to get about -1 at medium height. my total price is a little over $1000. We’ll see in 20,000 miles if it makes the difference. That price included a complete alignment. The vehicle drives exactly the same.

So you say you have about a -1 at medium height. Do you know what the camber will go to in low range?

 

[towndrunk]

So you say you have about a -1 at medium height. Do you know what the camber will go to in low range?

I was wondering the same thing.

 

[ngng]

So you say you have about a -1 at medium height. Do you know what the camber will go to in low range?

It increases significantly as you lower the car

 

[IvesSM]

R u planning on staying @ MEDIUM or go to LOW (the now recommended setting) for normal driving?

I have not installed the shims yet but they are supposed to add a 0.8 to the current setting.

Attached is a recent alignment check I had done by Tesla. I don't know what suspension settings were when these measurements were taken.

 

[towndrunk]

R u planning on staying @ MEDIUM or go to LOW (the now recommended setting) for normal driving?

I have not installed the shims yet but they are supposed to add a 0.8 to the current setting.

Attached is a recent alignment check I had done by Tesla. I don't know what suspension settings were when these measurements were taken.

That's a lot of rear camber. It would be nice to know at what height it was measured.