Wheel alignment results

[Aganan]

Hi all, upon switching out the summer tires to my winter tires, I noticed I had significant inner wear on all 4 of my summer tires.

I've been told that innerwear on tires is common but even so I felt it was best to get an alignment check just to be sure.

I live in Sendai, Tohoku, and my nearest Tesla Service center is down South in Tokyo. So my Tesla Mobile Service guy recommended I do the alignment at a 3rd party shop locally in Sendai.

I've attached the wheel alignment results.

https://imgur.com/a/hvvK5J6

It's my first time taking a car into having a wheel alignment and so I wasn't really sure what I was looking at when they gave me the printout. From my limited Japanese ability, I understood that the back axle was fine, but the front needed some changes.

After sharing the results with my car enthusiast friend, he said that there shouldn't be any corrected alterations in red (far right column) and that they should all be in green. Further, he was confused as to why the only change they appear to have made was to the front left 片側トー which was originally green but is now red.

If anyone could have a look and advise if this is normal or if I've been cheated, that would be appreciated.

Regards.

 

[hiroshiy]

@Aganan ,

Typically, Model S and Model X have strong negative cambers. This means that the top of the tires is slanted towards the center of the vehicle, and thus, unfortunately, we will see heavy inner shoulder wear on the tires.

I compared my Model X spec, your model S spec, and your actual alignment values.

The first thing I noticed was that the spec values are a little different from my Model X - I guess this is because of the model difference. You can see that Tesla allows significant negative cambers (big red number) - zero camber means tires are standing straight. Negative means tires are slanted towards the inside.

The second thing I noticed was that your car's cambers are all within spec, but especially rear camber is on the bigger side. As you might already know, cambers on Tesla vehicles are not adjustable, so it didn't change much after the alignment check.

So - to prevent inner tire wear, you need to install adjustable camber arms, which are not approved for vehicle inspection (shaken) in Japan.

https://number-373.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/tbr.pdf

I had these installed on the rear suspension on my Model X. It helped reduce the inner tire wear, but not completely. In the Tokyo area, these items are in a "grey zone" - some strict maintenance shops (especially approved ones) try to avoid them and ask me to revert to the original camber arms before the inspection. Tesla Service Centers usually refuse maintenance work on suspensions with these adjustable arms.

 

[Aganan]

@hiroshiy

Thank you for taking the time to put together these numbers. It's much appreciated.

Is it common practice in Japan that the wheel alignment inspection and alteration are separate? I'm from the UK and usually, when we take a vehicle in for an alignment check, the cost includes any alterations that need to be made, providing no parts need to be replaced.

But my Tesla Mobile Service guy is saying no alignment changes were made to my car because they were within or close to the target specs and that if I wanted to have the wheels aligned, then I would need to pay an additional fee. I wasn't made aware of this in advance, so it was a bit of a shock, as I was expecting alignment alterations to be done.

I wasn't aware that the cambers aren't adjustable on Tesla vehicles. Thank you for letting me know. I would be hesitant to make any alterations to my vehicle that might prevent passing shaken and preventing Tesla Service to work on my car. Living in Sendai, I'm heavily reliant on Tesla Service, as I haven't been able to find any other garages locally willing to work on my car.

My Tesla Mobile Service guy is going to come back to me with a quote for making alignment alterations to my car. I hope it's not too expensive as I would like my vehicle to be within spec to limit the amount of wear my tires will experience. I'm just confused as to why they would feel having the car be out of spec would be acceptable.