Mazda 6 Forums banner

Alignment suggestions?

5K views 5 replies 3 participants last post by  Archerfish 
#1 ·
Hey gang!! I'm looking to see what some others are running for alignment specs.

I have (and still am) been replacing a lot of front suspension parts this past week in prep for a 1000 mile plus family trip. Obviously I need to get the front aligned once I finish it up. The tires on all 4 corners will be replaced at the time as well.

The front tires didn't look that bad but they have the main wear in the middle of the tires. It's even between the right and left and with the amount of parts that needed to be replaced, I'm not surprised on how they wore out in 2 years. I'm just glad that they wore evenly between the two.

Synthetic rubber Tire Tread Automotive tire Auto part


The rears on the other hand, they have their main wear on the insides. These have been on the car in the same spot for 4 years due to not being able to rotate them to the front. The tire shop that put the tires on the rims got one of the rotations of the tire backwards. If I had moved it to the front I was worried about the water channels not being able to clear properly.

Now, I know that we have some - camber but wow is all I can say. I didn't know just how bad off my rears were until I had the wheels off to do the rear brakes. Under normal walk around inspection and hand feel, they had no signs of significant wear. However I should have gotten on the ground and look a little better but I'm glad that I had caught it before our trip. Yet again, the wear is even between the two rears.

Synthetic rubber Tire Automotive tire Tread Auto part


Is there a certain spec for the rears outside factory that anyone runs/likes? I will be getting a 4 wheel alignment when getting tires and would like a little less - camber. I will be running a 225/50 17 for a little wider tread and would like the rears to sit better lol. If factory is best then that's fine too. I will be able to rotate the tires on a regular basis with new tires. I'll make damn sure that the tire rotations are correct before leaving the tire shop this time.:wink2:
 
See less See more
2
#2 ·
Mazda 6 Alignment Specifications Mk1 (2003-2007)

Hey gang!! I'm looking to see what some others are running for alignment specs.

I have (and still am) been replacing a lot of front suspension parts this past week in prep for a 1000 mile plus family trip. Obviously I need to get the front aligned once I finish it up. The tires on all 4 corners will be replaced at the time as well.

The front tires didn't look that bad but they have the main wear in the middle of the tires. It's even between the right and left and with the amount of parts that needed to be replaced, I'm not surprised on how they wore out in 2 years. I'm just glad that they wore evenly between the two.

View attachment 228346

The rears on the other hand, they have their main wear on the insides. These have been on the car in the same spot for 4 years due to not being able to rotate them to the front. The tire shop that put the tires on the rims got one of the rotations of the tire backwards. If I had moved it to the front I was worried about the water channels not being able to clear properly.

Now, I know that we have some - camber but wow is all I can say. I didn't know just how bad off my rears were until I had the wheels off to do the rear brakes. Under normal walk around inspection and hand feel, they had no signs of significant wear. However I should have gotten on the ground and look a little better but I'm glad that I had caught it before our trip. Yet again, the wear is even between the two rears.

View attachment 228348

Is there a certain spec for the rears outside factory that anyone runs/likes? I will be getting a 4 wheel alignment when getting tires and would like a little less - camber. I will be running a 225/50 17 for a little wider tread and would like the rears to sit better lol. If factory is best then that's fine too. I will be able to rotate the tires on a regular basis with new tires. I'll make damn sure that the tire rotations are correct before leaving the tire shop this time.:wink2:

Howdy Ray, those new suspension parts are going to be quite nice. I'm sure you know this but make sure you set you final torque when the car is at its normal ride height. For most of them it meant that I had to pull the spring out (an easy enough job) and jack the spindle/hub to the right level. I then attached the spring and set the car on the ground with the wheels and torque the bottom bolt of spring.


Tire center wear is from being overinflated. Drop you pressure a bit and that should sort itself out. If it starts to wear the inner and outer tread it's underinflated. I run my stock 17's at 32 cold


The rear inner wear I have completely eliminated with setting the camber at -0.4°. At one point I too was surprised (with bloody fingers) to find a completely exposed inner edge of steel as a result of the wear.


 

Attachments

#3 ·
Thanks Doc!! -0.4 sounds great to me.

I currently have both front corners under load by 2 jacks under the knuckles and about to do the final torquing of the last few nuts. I have my tires at 32lbs but they still wore down like that. I did have front wheel hop/suspension rattle in a bad way while driving and coming to a stop. I also had a slight shake at about 50-70.

Hopefully with all that I've done will either eliminate all of that or at least make it safer for the trip.
 
#4 ·
Thanks Doc!! -0.4 sounds great to me.

I currently have both front corners under load by 2 jacks under the knuckles and about to do the final torquing of the last few nuts. I have my tires at 32lbs but they still wore down like that. I did have front wheel hop/suspension rattle in a bad way while driving and coming to a stop. I also had a slight shake at about 50-70.

Hopefully with all that I've done will either eliminate all of that or at least make it safer for the trip.

Great. I just want to mention that I could not get the corners to 14.5in (my resting center to fender) but settled on 15.25in (possibly because the front was in the air and some weight was rearward). That difference meant that my front upper and lower forward control arms failed inside of 3 years.
I didn't think it was enough (and maybe it wasn't the reason) to cause failure but they failed. Just my 2 cents mate.


You are not using the gas station gauge to measure pressure are you? nah, of course not.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top