[lymbic]

Replaced a bunch of front end suspension parts on my 2005 S40 T5 FWD 6 spd MT. Lower control arms, tie rod ends, end links.

Took the car in for an alignment today and found the front right tire camber is significantly negative (see image). I just bought the car so I don’t know it’s history other than clear title. The front right tire is definitely wearing down the outside edge faster than other tires on the car. I’ve also noticed the front struts don’t match - it looks as though the front right strut was replaced recently and the front left is old.

Additionally, I measured ground to top center of wheel well on all four tires. Front right, rear right, and rear left all measured 27”. Front left measured 26”, further confirming this is likely an old strut. However I don’t know that this would significantly alter the camber at the front right. Any thoughts?

 

[lymbic]

First of all, the shop has pulled the spec sheet for a Nedcar, not a P1. The P1 front camber should be between 0.1 to -1.3 degrees at factory ride height; I believe the factory lowering springs and sport option allow up to -1.8 degrees.

You want to have negative camber, not positive and not zero. Otherwise the car will be a lot more prone to understeer under relatively tame driving conditions.

-1.6 degrees is nothing extreme and Volvo will even say up to -2 degrees is acceptable with age. That additional -0.3 degrees from factory spec could even be from the tire not being fully inflated.


That does not make sense based on your alignment sheet. More negative camber means more wear to the inside.
Let's also clarify that up to -2 degrees camber does NOT wear your tires faster, it simply changes the location of the contact patch of the tire.
Once you go more extreme than -2 degrees, that's when you will likely start seeing faster wear due to more weight being applied to a narrower section of rubber.

To have more outer wear, it sounds like those tires may have seen positive camber, toe out, or not been properly inflated for a while. If your old LCA bushings were really worn, that could have been the main culprit on the tire wear.


You want the front suspension components to be matching.
There's over a dozen factory front strut options for these cars, so if it's mix and matched, you could have a softer strut on one side.
The option that you replace it with does not matter, so long as it is the same on both sides.

Ground to fender measurements usually won't give you much information unless you are on a perfectly level surface such as a four post drive-on rack.
The car should have a raked stance where the rear sits about 0.5-1" higher than the front.

With the left sitting lower, I would expect that corner to read more negative camber.

Based on your alignment sheet, it is correct that the driver's side of the vehicle is going to have a bit less negative camber than the passenger side. This accounts for about 200lbs being placed in the driver's seat, balancing out the alignment specs on each side for neutral handling. This is a factory consideration that most people don't take into account when installing coilovers; corner balancing is key with adjustable suspensions.

Thank you for the long, informative post! I’ll add a some additional details given your input.

The ground to wheel well measurements taken were not on a level surface. Garbage in, garbage out I suppose. What would be a better measurement reference regardless of surface?

The rear bushings on the LCAs were cracking a bit. The front right previously had a bad wheel bearing and cv axle. Both parts were replaced. Maybe this could have added to the accelerated wear at the outer edge of the tire? Unfortunately, I do not have any pre-repair alignment measurements to compare, so I can’t be sure of what the camber was then.

After driving it for a while today, the car is definitely pulling to the left.

At the very least, I will begin looking into strut replacements and check tire pressure again. Do you all have any recommendations as far as suspension parts? I don’t want to lower original ride height too much.