Just replaced my Nangcangns tires (or whatever the name is-horrid tire) on the rear of my SRT w/Falken 452's. The china tires were put on by a pervious owner. The older tires showed scary amount of wear on the inside 3 inches. The tire on the right was worn down to the steel belt in places and the left was very worn in the same place. The unusual wear did not seem to be uniform around the tire. This seems to indicate a camber problem. It is my understanding that the rear camber is not adjustable on a XF. Other threads here have discussed the need to put an adjustable camber arm on any car that has been lowered because otherwise there will be very excessive tire wear on the inside of the tire. Exactly where my tires have worn badly. Since I just put on $500 worth of tires I would like them to last. My ?'s are: Is there any way I can find out if my car has been lowered? Is this a camber problem or something else? The tire place also indicated that the right front upper ball joint was worn and needed replacing. I looked at the part diagram and couldn't find an upper ball joint. Lower yes, upper no. Is this guy incompetent or b.s.'ing me? He also said I need a left front wheel bearing. He wanted to fix the rear camber problem but said he couldn't until the front problems were fixed. True? I know I made some assumptions here, but I'm willing to be corrected. Any advice some of you could give would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! p.s. I have just bought new Koni's for the car, so do you think putting these new shocks on will help/solve the problem?

 

I can only speak for what I know (not much) about the SLK32 AMG.

There is a designed amount of negative camber on the rear wheels. This is to allow for aggressive driving/cornering. My Michelins were down to steel when I replaced them. From what I've ascertained, 10K - 15K miles is what you should expect out of rears IF you are driving the car the way it was designed. So your wear pattern is consistent with this design.

I'm not a doctor, but I can't see how any front-end issues would have any significant impact on rear tire wear.

As far as "correcting" the rear wheel camber, I would NOT make any changes based upon one person's opinion. You are correct in that rear camber is not adjustable.

Regarding whether or not your car has been lowered: if your car has the stock spec tires and OEM shocks/struts, I doubt it has been lowered. YMMV, member FDIC.

Remember, free advice is worth what you paid for it.

 

The car has after market wheels. I don't know why the person who owned the car before got rid of the stock rims, but he did. I think everything else is stock but I know one owner tried to modify the front aero by adding a splitter under the front bumper. Not a really good idea in my opinion because you cannot just add downforce like that without building up suspension bits to handle the added "weight" created by splitter's downforce. I know that there were some members here that were familiar with my car and may be able to help here. I have gotten a lot of good advice on this forum that has saved me $$ and I really appreciate the comments. Thanks!

 

I am definitely not an expert either but the rear stock camber arms (on my SRT-6) can not be adjusted and if the car has been lowered your camber will be messed up. I replaced my rear camber arms with adjustable arms from speedybenz.com. I don't remember the owners name but he is an engineer who manufactures the arms in his garage. He is very helpful an can answer your question. I would contact him at his website.

 

a wheel bearing being bad, will allow for some wheel movement, so he is correct that it should be replaced. There isn't any adjustment to the rear, but it still needs to be checked with over all alignment. Just because it isn't adjustable doesn't mean it is in alignment.