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Discussion Starter · #1 ·
My car, a 2012 ford focus se, had gotten new tires and an alignment 6 months ago. It is currently on Raceland's coilovers. The tires are GT radial 70,000 mile tires. Odometer says it’s been 10,000 miles since they have been On. The rear passenger tire is already at the wear bars and both rear tires look worse than the fronts. The fronts look to what I’d assume they should I’m confused as to what could have caused this. Looking for any help.
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Rears look like they're over-inflated, worn out in the middle vs the edges. What PSI are you running them at? Did you get a quality four wheel alignment after installing your coil overs? Are you at stock ride height or lowered? If lowered, did you do alignment AFTER lowering car? The wear does look a little lopsided, but the middles are far more worn than the outside, so that screams over inflation.
 

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Discussion Starter · #3 ·
The first thought I had was overinflation, but they all read 32. Per door jam label they are all aired to 35 psi now. The car is slammed to the ground and the coilovers were settled in when I had the new tires put on balance and aligned. Could it be too much camber in the rear? It’s odd the fronts aren’t more of a problem then the rears being there is more suspension aspects going on up there. It’s also in the back of my head that maybe they never did that tire because the driver side rear isn’t as bad, but still worn prematurely.
 

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Negative camber won't wear the center of the tire out. Obnoxious levels of negative camber will wear the inside edge. If you post the alignment printout, it might help (the after specs).

Raceland suspension... it could be the dampers too. They are bottom barrel quality so that's also a variable at play here.
 

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Agreed with hEaT.

If your tires were at 32psi, they were underinflated. Under normal circumstances (alignment being right, weight distribution being normal, etc) then at 32psi consistently, you'd see the outer edges wear evenly and the inner not wear as it wouldn't be making as much contact. Now that you're at 35psi, you'll notice increased wear in the middle until you fix what else is wrong.

I am by no means a suspension engineer, and I know nothing about Raceland suspension and the quality of their products. But, if you have coil over suspension and you have the car slammed, that's going to do interesting things to the rest of the suspension. It's going to put it normally at the extreme end of it's travel, as though it's always responding to a bump. That's got to ruin your ride quality first and foremost, and secondly may be putting a lot more wear on the center of the tire due to positioning.

Again, I'm not an expert on that. So I'd take it to a good alignment shop, preferably one that has experience with race cars (if you have a dirt track in your area, or any kind of amateur racing, find out who they go to for alignments. More than likely there's a shop that at least sponsors a car, if not owns one. I know in my area, I go to the alignment shop of a guy who has a dirt track car, and he's the best alignment guy I've ever had. Very consistent, very fair in price, and won't align a car that has worn out parts as once you replace them, you just have to come back and do it again.
 

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2003 ZX3 2016 FoST
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Definitely need to see the read out from the alignment. Camber except extreme amounts do not typically cause significant tire wear. Toe is usually the culprit. The center of the tire being more worn than the edges is typical of over inflation as noted above. Tire rotation is crucial to maintain even wear on tires but I can attest I am terrible about keeping up with it. I tend to burn through tires every 10-20k miles and usually forget to keep up with rotation but I also used to run slightly odd alignment specs because I autocrossed my focus.
 

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Definitely need to see the read out from the alignment. Camber except extreme amounts do not typically cause significant tire wear. Toe is usually the culprit. The center of the tire being more worn than the edges is typical of over inflation as noted above. Tire rotation is crucial to maintain even wear on tires but I can attest I am terrible about keeping up with it. I tend to burn through tires every 10-20k miles and usually forget to keep up with rotation but I also used to run slightly odd alignment specs because I autocrossed my focus.
If your tires last more than 10k, they aren't sticky enough 😄
 
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