A4_Jax

and recently when my car got a flat tire, it couldn't be replaced under warranty by Discount Tire because the tire was worn unevenly (rear tires had inside tread worn out). What burns me is that I paid $100 a few months ago to have this alignment done right, but I end up having to shell out $300 for new tires because the camber is obviously on the negative side. I'm told that I may have to pay for another alignment since it's been a while...do you think it's fair for them to charge me $100 again to re-do the alignment? I would've taken it back sooner had it been something obvious as pulling to one side, but how was I suppose to know about negative camber?!

diagnosticator1

The inner edge wear, is a result of excess 'toe out', in combination with the camber settings. I found that having the toe set to zero, or just slightly 'toe in' eliminates the edge wear. I also had the rear camber reduced set more positive than before. There needs to be some negative camber.

A4_Jax

i wasn't aware of toe causing inner tire wear, but this makes sense. i know it's not an exact measurement, but i did notice when i stand direcly in front of the rear tire and look down over the rear fender, it appears as if the tire is pointing inwards slightly (toe-in?). i understand that some negative is necessary for proper handling, but i'd like it to be more positive if it's causing the inner tire wear. mind you, i have stock sport and no after-market setup except for H-Sport sways...could the sways have anything to do with it? also, i noticed that the dealer's alignment spec print-out indicated "2002-2004" model years, which makes me wonder because aren't latter 03 models - early 2005 models riding higher up...wouldn't the alignment specs be different for them? makes me think that Audi decided to sit the cars higher (resulting in more wheel gap) to prevent tire wear.

diagnosticator1

From my experience with this problem, the toe setting spec is excess positive.

A4_Jax

not sure how to represent the numbers, but the last print-out shows 0.16 for both left and right rear, total toe 0.31. the before measurements were 0.28, 0.18, and 0.46 respectively.

diagnosticator1

The angles defining the suspension settings are either in decimal degrees, or hours.miniuts'seconds" arc length. Either way, positive numbers are toe-out, and negative numbers are toe-in, with zero being the wheels are exactly parallel. My current toe in the rear ('03 Avant w/OEM sport suspension,added this year, 17" 35 ET wheels) is set to +0.05 just a tad toe out from zero, so that the forces from drive torque will pull the wheels toward zero toe under road load. Less toe-out, will increase straight line stability, increase understeer, and reduce or eliminate inner edge wear.
From my experience, and the experience from others, it seams the toe spec from Audi is excessive positive.
In addition, my A4 "tramlines" or wanders, lots less with the toe setting almost zero compared to the spec setting.