Alignment Needed?

P

puhahacj

Member
After the 20" OEM wheels upgrade from 18", I noticed the car slows down dramatically when rolling in neutral compared to when I had the 18"s. Are alignment specs setup different from the factory for the 20" vs 18" wheels? If so, f'ing alignment costs $100!!!!

Any opinions? Am I just paranoid? Or do I really need the alignment service?
 
I really don't see the need for an alignment just because of wheel size change. Maybe you ran over something and something else other than the change in wheel size is causing your problem?

$100 for an alignment is a bit high. I think I pay $80.
 
you should not need an alignment from a wheel change. When you let go of the steering wheel does it go straight? Did you have any other work done when you changed the tires? Brakes...stuff like that?
 
changing the wheels shouldn't make a difference. going from the 18s to 20s are the same radius anyways.
 
radius

the 20"s are slightly bigger, maybe less than 0.5" I'm just being paranoid, the cup was being half empty.

Damn So. Cali rain, car is so f'ing dirty.
 
actually believe it or not, the stock 18's with stock tires are bigger than the 20s with tires .

18s -
Radius: 387.6mm
Diameter: 775.2mm
Circumference: 2435.4mm

20s -
Radius: 386.5mm
Diameter: 773.0mm
Circumference: 2428.5mm
 
I don't think 2.2 mm will make any difference at all. That's 1/11" or a .28% difference. There is a bigger difference in diameters between different brands of tires labeled as the same size than that. According to the Miata tire calculator, the 60 series will have 661 revolutions per mile and the 50 series will have 663 revolutions per mile. That boils down to no difference in actual use. The change you made in your wheels should have no affect on your alignment.
 
Hey guys, do your tires wear on the front inside or wears evenly almost flat? I just checked my tread and the inside of the tires on the fronts are VERY smooth.
 
puhahacj said:
Hey guys, do your tires wear on the front inside or wears evenly almost flat? I just checked my tread and the inside of the tires on the fronts are VERY smooth.
Click to expand...

I just noticed this too on mine. I didnt notice when i bought it but i will certainly haveto replace two of them by year end.
 
The Goodyear RSAs generally wore out evenly flat across the tire. Just before spring installation my alignment was out and my tires were wearing on the insides.

After 3 months I did another alignment and rotated the tires. I do not see any uneven wear, but I'm watching...
 
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