A year or two ago, while the world was locked down, I had replaced the rear upper control arms in my road trip CR-V with adjustable units, so that camber could be adjusted. To prevent wearing out the tires, I decided to get an alignment prior to the Rocky Mountain Breakdown rally.
After the Lemons Rally, I noticed a bit of a growl coming from the rear tires. I did my usual practice of swapping the tires front to back, only this time, I did not also swap them from side to side.
The growl was a lot worse than I remember it after the rally, and returning home after the Asheville trip, they have gotten extraordinarily loud. I probably could have gotten another 10k miles out of this set of Kumho Crugens, but thanks to a poor alignment, I now have to replace the set of four.
And we all know what tire prices are like…along with everything else these days.
I had trusted an alignment to dial things in properly to prevent the tire wear from happening. Only now, I’m stuck. Another road trip is coming up in 2½ weeks and I have to get new tires shipped in, mounted and balanced, and get the alignment corrected.
I paid for a “one year” alignment from the local Belle Tire but honestly, since they’re the ones that screwed it up, I am not comfortable returning to them to mess it up further on a brand new set of tires. My nearby Honda dealer used to offer alignment specials at the same price as the local tire shops, but they have not offered that special in a couple of years. I may check a handful of other dealers in the area to see which ones are offering alignment specials.
I also suspect that the tire shops go by their own alignment specs, not the original factory specs. I could have just gotten a bad alignment this time, done by an inept mechanic. Or they could be using specs that they think is appropriate for the vehicle, not what the manufacturer specifies.
Given the “cupped” wear on the tires, I suspect the rear toe is out of spec. It also looks like the camber is also set too far negative. If memory serves, the factory spec is 1° of negative camber and 0° toe-in for the rear wheels. If I had the equipment, I would correct this myself.
I also considered having the wheels taken off of the TSX powder coated so I could use them on the CR-V, but I don’t have time to get this done before I would get new tires, and the inner surfaces are too corroded to use (the reason we replaced them in the first place).