Hello, I just noticed this and I'm not sure if it's always been like this and I never noticed. I was thinking it could be a bad suspension element, but I don't know enough about it to say. I've read through the articles and saw some about camber, and that the crossfire has a slight angel in the rear wheels, but I think this is beyond. Thank you all in advance.

 

It would appear that the tires are at near end of tread, but they look worn evenly.

If so, there is no problem here.

 

Hey PizzaGuy, thanks for the quick response. That's what stuck out to me, the tires are worn very uniformly, so I was thinking this angle is something that has changed recently, and I know it's a little extreme but my first thought is the wheel is going to fall off, somethings lose, etc. Maybe I've seen too many movies...

If this angle had been there the entire time, I would think to see a lot of wear on the inner side of the tire. No?

 

Mine looked the same when I purchased my car. But I have some extra items in the trunk area which exaggerates it more because of the weight. My tires seem to wear normal until about 12,000 miles, then the insides were gone overnight. I put the adj camber arms on it for tire wear and looks.

Most sport cars with independent rear suspension run noticeable neg camber for handling.

James

 

You should see some of the tilted tires I see going down the road. Never ceases to amaze me what people do to their cars to make em ride like they do. I also have that slight tilt, both sides, and the tires are wearing even as well. Maybe the inside sidewall flexes just a little bit more than the outside sidewall? Car track straight, no uneven wear, not a rough ride (especially given the tires are 7 or 8 years old now) so I wouldn't worry about it if the tires aren't wearing abnormally.

 

Thanks James! I think it's time to add the adjustable arms, I may just change the suspension at the same time. I'm at 107k, feeling a bit rough now.

 

Thanks for the confidence booster. It's probably been like this but never paid attention.

 

that is the normal look..... but an upgraded suspension would be nice with those miles...or nice at any miles....

 

Er? By design you mean? What about if the tire is put on the other side?
It obviously has to to keep all the rubber on the road.

 

Hello everyone, thanks for the answers. I am going to upgrade the suspension. It is obviously time, and it will stop me from over worrying about this. I appreciate all the help!

 

If the tire/rim is 'flipped' to the other side, the same thing happens. The inside bottom rim of the rear wheels are closer to the pavement (on a level road) than the outside bottom of each rear wheel. By the fact that if the wheel is tilted 'top towards the centerline of the car', then the inside sidewall (on a flat road) are slightly more compressed 'inside' of the tire/wheel assembly than on the outside of said tire/rim assembly. If that inside bottom tire wall isn't flexing more than the outside bottom sidewall, then you would expect the 'inside-to-middle' tread to have more wear than the tread from the middle to the outside tread footprint. Again all this is 'given' the balance/load is about equal from either side. Since the tire wear is not an issue, and I have seen a number of the XF rear tire/wheel combinations tilted like they do, I have to conclude both bottom inside walls of the rear tires are compressing more than the bottom outside tire walls. Whew!

 

Are you saying you want the tire/wheel profile perpendicular to the pavement? I wonder how that will effect the cornering ability 'stickiness'. The rear wheels may be tilted in (the tops) by design but I know not what was going through the engineers when they built them. Just seems too many XF's that I looked at, have the same 'tilting in' of those rear wheels.

 

I think I have to concur with that. Thanks!

 

I'd jack it up and put your hands on various opposite sides of the tire, wiggle it. It if does not move, then you're ok. My XFs both look a little bow-legged, so this is normal.

 

As Captain Quint said in Jaws : "Here's to swimmin with bowlegged women"

 

Obviously the inner sidewall compresses more as all the weight is first applied to the inner tire edge, I misread your post because you added the word design if you see my point.

 

When I first bought my '88 Reatta and put 38mm offset Enkeis on it there was quite a bulldog stance (and 225x60x16s looked a lot better than 215/65/15s). Measured it (I have a guage) and found 2 degrees negative but the Micelins wore evenly. In the back it is not that critical.

With a "high profile" tire down to say a 55, tire roll in hard cornering on a live axle makes a difference (and can see on the sidewall). With very low profiles tires and IRS, much less so.

Back in the day Herb Adams used to remove the tubes from Firebird axles and weld them back at about a degree and a half negative. Said it really helped cornering.

 

Nobody's perfeckt! I do sometimes add a word here or there that while typing seemed like a good choice. When proofread before 'submit reply' I usually had corrected them (for the most part). A very long time ago I had a large class of exchange students lament to me that the English language was the hardest encountered. No telling what is going on inside my mind, suffice to say I generally get it right. Oh well, maybe next time?