[warniegt]

My old mans 159ti has worn it's front tyres down to the canvas on the inside despite them being on there for only 5-6000 miles and trust me, the guy drives like a typical 63 year old in terms of his into 6th gear by 30mph! So there's no chance that he's abused them..

The tyres are nankings which I told him would be a bad idea but as they were £100 a piece he went ahead and also had the alignment done.

He's only done 3-4k since the last mot and the suspension was said to be in good shape so I'm wondering if the alignment was done correctly now. Anyway he needs some new front tyres so has anyone got any recommendations that won't break the bank?

I believe that some of you run 245's instead of 235's on the 19 inch ti wheels? if so why is this and do they improve things wear wise?

I've also told him to get the alignment done at an Alfa specialist next time as well.

 

[Dakster]

I usually buy online and have them fitted by a local independent tyre centre. Suggest you try the usual suspects. I find there is often quite a difference in cost between even the cheaper sellers.
I just got a set of Uniroyal Rainsport 3 and they feel much nicer than the Pirelli P zeros they replaced.
Cost me c£103 a side plus fitting (quick look on eBay and you can get for £190 a pair)
At around the same time found some Acceleras for £43 a side.
Standard 235 fitment.

As for tracking consider going to Peter Cambridge PCA Dynamics who is in West Mids he should be able to track a 159 properly.
My experience of garages tracking cars is hit and miss.

 

[warniegt]

I usually buy online and have them fitted by a local independent tyre centre. Suggest you try the usual suspects. I find there is often quite a difference in cost between even the cheaper sellers.
I just got a set of Uniroyal Rainsport 3 and they feel much nicer than the Pirelli P zeros they replaced.
Cost me c£103 a side plus fitting (quick look on eBay and you can get for £190 a pair)
At around the same time found some Acceleras for £43 a side.
Standard 235 fitment.

As for tracking consider going to Peter Cambridge PCA Dynamics who is in West Mids he should be able to track a 159 properly.
My experience of garages tracking cars is hit and miss.

Cheers.

Just been on ebay but cannot see them for £190 a pair. You couldn't link it could you?

 

[alcooker]

Here you matey http://www.alfaowner.com/Forum/alfa-159-brera-andamp-946-spider/262263-steering-alignment-with-correct-data-in-post-1-a.html

Ask the garage if they'll use differnt settings to what might come up on their system then go with the alignment in the thread above. Assuming the suspension is all fine, you'll not have a problem with tyre wear with the fronts set to zero.

 

[lovelyred159]

Try Camskill for Uniroyals

 

[SanRemo78]

I can recommend a visit to Autolusso to get the car checked over - I think Ned does a free 30 minute look over on a Saturday, worth a call. If there's any wear in the bushes that won't help matters! He did mine (at the same time as polybushing it but you don;t have to go that route) and I've not had any uneven tyre wear front or back since I've had the car. Winter tyres just came off and wear is low and even after 7000 miles.
Recommended
Guy

 

[Dakster]

warniegt
can't find the eBay Uniroyals now - sorry
Try tyre leader which is where mine came from, cheapest at the time
Dave

 

[W1NST]

Thread link for the camber / alignment that one of the previous posters highlighted is a useful one. I always used to use Acceleras on my ti when I had it, would normally get about 12k miles off them at about £220 per pair. Lots of posts on them if you do a search. Plenty of people like them but there's a fair few haters out there as well. Anyway, I'll just go and get a drink and some popcorn sit back and see if many comments come back.

 

[Greener123]

Nankangs arnt bad, it's certainly not the tyres which have caused the issue, it will be the tracking that's wrong

 

[kandlbarrett]

Most wheel alignment centres will be using the original Alfa settings which are known to wear front tyres very quickly indeed and that is regardless of using cheap or expensive tyres.

Have a read of the following thread and you will get a feel for the number of people who have suffered this and options on solutions:-

http://www.alfaowner.com/Forum/alfa...-alignment-with-correct-data-in-post-1-a.html

The setting I use for my wife's car is -2 minutes and that seems to work well. You will have to tell the alignment centre to over-ride their machine (they can do it but don't like to) and tell them you want it spot on not just near enough. Different people recommend different setting but I like these. Our front tyres last about 12,000 miles on the 2.4 that is remapped to 239bhp but my wife drives the arse off the car racing anything in sight and lots of stop start driving. prior to changing the settings were were averaging about 4,000 miles for front tyres.

Some people will say set them to zero meaning straight ahead and that also works but be careful telling the alignment centre that. Some operators will consider that to be zero deviation from the manufacturers recommendation so you won't get any alteration from what you already have. Setting to a different setting to what the centre's machine is programmed to will mean that your print out will be red at the front for toe.

If you aren't confident with this then if they aren't too far away speak to either of the following:-

Ned at Auto Lusso

http://www.autolusso.co.uk/

or

Peter Cambridge of pcadynamics:-

http://www.pcadynamics.com/contact/

 

[warniegt]

Thanks guys much appreciated.

Here is the readout from when he had the alignment done last including the readings before.

I'll be honest I still don't understand what they mean fully. But it looks as though they may have made it worse?

What do u guys think?

 

[Old Engineer]

Minus 17' total toe! That's even worse than the Alfa settings of Minus 14' Total Toe. Before they started the Toe was set to a very respectable Minus 4' Total.

 

[warniegt]

One quick question before I order him some tyres!

His rears are ok for the minute, but I would be ordering the 245's for the front. Would it be ok to do that considering he has 235's on the rear? Or would he be better off buying all 4?

I think the rears have a good 4-5000 miles on them, which is a years driving for him.

 

[lussoman]

My old mans 159ti has worn it's front tyres down to the canvas on the inside despite them being on there for only 5-6000 miles and trust me, the guy drives like a typical 63 year old in terms of his into 6th gear by 30mph!

I know that's an exaggeration, but if he has the 1.9 DERV, he'll kill the gearbox in no time at all.

 

[kandlbarrett]

Personally I wouldn't mix and match tyre sizes but that is personal choice. If I did mix and match the wider ones would go at the rear. Front end ploughing on (understeer) is much easier to control than the rear end coming around.

Regards the print out the final toe settings for the front are within Alfa tolerance but it is the old setting. To save you struggling to understand the information what you really want is a front toe setting that is -0 ̊02' each side or a total toe of -0 ̊ 04'. (You will note that the new recommended total toe is what it was previously set at. If you were getting excess tyre wear at that setting then ask for 0 ̊ 00' each side and that obviously gives 0 ̊00' total toe.)

Rear toe should be +0 ̊ 11' each side or a total toe of +0 ̊ 22.

Alfa do stipulate a tolerance for front and rear settings:-
Front tolerance is +/- 0 ̊ 07' per side but you will see that if you are at the extreme limit of the tolerance you are at or beyond the tyre shredding -0 ̊ 07' so get the setting as close as possible to -0 ̊ 02'. A good operator can get it spot on but it does take patience.
Rear tolerance is +/- 0 ̊ 07'. You may find that the rears run out of adjustment before the correct toe or camber is achieved. If that happens the key task is to get as close as possible to the recommended setting, but most important, get both sides the same.

The camber and castor on the front are not designed to be adjustable but Autolusso (possibly others) do have special bushes that can be fitted to make the camber adjustable.

Personally, if you can persuade him and he can afford the cost I would visit either Autolusso or Peter Cambridge.

 

[tony4hop]

Here you matey http://www.alfaowner.com/Forum/alfa-159-brera-andamp-946-spider/262263-steering-alignment-with-correct-data-in-post-1-a.html

Ask the garage if they'll use differnt settings to what might come up on their system then go with the alignment in the thread above. Assuming the suspension is all fine, you'll not have a problem with tyre wear with the fronts set to zero.

Defo this :yes:

I got 5,000 out of my previous fronts that were worn to slicks on inner edges!
I told my garage to use the print out from that thread - he wasn't too happy he said it made his system light up like a christmas tree, but he done it to those settings.

8,000 miles in and wearing evenly... and slowly :biglaugh:

 

[ChrisH77]

Had 4-wheel alignment done as soon as I got the car, a year ago, at The Wheel Alignment Centre in City Industrial Park, Southampton. They confidently ignored the AR settings, and set the fronts to 0.0. Front tyres then had less than 1k miles, and after another 17k miles are evenly worn down to 3 mm.

The factory fitted rears were replaced at 21k miles with Michelin Primacy HP from local independent at £131 each fitted. Again wear was pretty even across the tyre (a bit more on inside edges) with toe of +3mm.

That's on 17" rims, so not a direct comparison with TI tyres.

 

[warniegt]

Personally I wouldn't mix and match tyre sizes but that is personal choice. If I did mix and match the wider ones would go at the rear. Front end ploughing on (understeer) is much easier to control than the rear end coming around.

Regards the print out the final toe settings for the front are within Alfa tolerance but it is the old setting. To save you struggling to understand the information what you really want is a front toe setting that is -0 ̊02' each side or a total toe of -0 ̊ 04'. (You will note that the new recommended total toe is what it was previously set at. If you were getting excess tyre wear at that setting then ask for 0 ̊ 00' each side and that obviously gives 0 ̊00' total toe.)

Rear toe should be +0 ̊ 11' each side or a total toe of +0 ̊ 22.

Alfa do stipulate a tolerance for front and rear settings:-
Front tolerance is +/- 0 ̊ 07' per side but you will see that if you are at the extreme limit of the tolerance you are at or beyond the tyre shredding -0 ̊ 07' so get the setting as close as possible to -0 ̊ 02'. A good operator can get it spot on but it does take patience.
Rear tolerance is +/- 0 ̊ 07'. You may find that the rears run out of adjustment before the correct toe or camber is achieved. If that happens the key task is to get as close as possible to the recommended setting, but most important, get both sides the same.

The camber and castor on the front are not designed to be adjustable but Autolusso (possibly others) do have special bushes that can be fitted to make the camber adjustable.

Personally, if you can persuade him and he can afford the cost I would visit either Autolusso or Peter Cambridge.

Brilliant and thank you.

The original place has now offered to have a look at it as they have now had a new sparkly machine in! But because they haven't really done anything wrong I doubt they will do it for free, although he is having his new tyres from them as again they are the cheapest so here hoping as it will save him £65+ vat.

If they don't do it today then it's booked in tomorrow at an alfa specialist in Wolverhampton to have it done amongst other things.

Do you know what? he phoned up autolusso just before he changed his tyres last time inquiring about having the bushes powerflexed, but he must have caught the guy at a bad time as the guy at autolusso couldn't wait to get off the phone so he didn't bother.

1st impressions and all that...

Thanks again

:beer:

 

[kandlbarrett]

Whilst I rarely use Autolusso (just too far away) I have always found each of them very helpful and Ned especially so.

Shame to hear your in law had a bad experience especially as you can see the reports that are now appearing on the power flex thread.

 

[kandlbarrett]

By all means print the info I have given and hand it to the guy doing the setting. Even if he doesn't want to follow it just insist and stroke his ego telling him you know it might be tricky but if he can get it spot on and to your required settings you will spread the word amongst your Alfa owning mates.

Don't know why but guys respond well to ego stroking.