[Lotus7]

Looks like your initial settings were not really far enough off to be causing the tire wear you were seeing, especially at the front. The setting tolerances are very tight, but a camber change of -0.1 to -0.4 (LF) and -0.7 to -0.5(RF) is really insignificant. The rear camber changes are slightly more significant, but still not major changes. The settings of -1.4/-1.5deg. on the rears will slightly improve handling at the cornering limit, but will have little effect in normal driving and may actually increase the inner tire edge wear.

The front caster settings mostly affect steering feel and self-centering at high speeds and changes of one degree or so will have little or no effect on tire wear. the reason they didn't get the caster setting exactly the same is because they're set with a combination of adjustments and the installation of "shims". This limits the "resolution" that can be achieved. In addition, removing the vehicle from the alignment rack and then re-installing it will give different indicated readings. The repeatability of the measurements has a wide enough error range that there is no point in trying to make very fine adjustments.

Hope your tires wear better now, but from the measurements, especially at the front, there does not seem to be an "alignment-related" reason for such severe wear. Of course, I'm no expert, particularly about small alignment errors and their interaction with run-flat-tires. The much stiffer sidewalls may make them much more sensitive to tiny alignment errors. Who knows?

[Radioactive]

All the stars lined up the wrong way. Will interesting to see if the winter tires develop the same wear pattern.

[Nahoa]

Thanks for the info.

So, now I'm in that funky territory of trying to figure out if there's something amiss or if I'm thinking too much about the car.

The steering wheel is dead solid up to 60 mph or so except for road defects. From about 70 to 80 a vibration occurs. Not like the steering wheel moves or my fillings feel like they're falling out, just a vibration I can feel via the steering wheel. Wouldn't think a thing of it driving another car, but since it's not there at lower speeds and those last tires were trashed, I end up wondering if it's right.

Y'all have that feeling in the steering at higher speeds?

[Want the thrill]

No vibration at any speed up to 90mph so far.

[pufahl]

Originally Posted by Nahoa

Just pulled off the 309's and put on Pirelli Sotto Zero II's on some Enkei rims (following the lead of others here).

The OEM 309's with Conti SSR's had heavy where on the inside and cupping on the outside on the front; just the cupping on the back. I'd noticed road noise, but hadn't realized how significant it was until I drove the Winter tires. Expecting them to be louder; found them essentially silent compared to the 309's with the Conti Summers.

What should I be looking at here? Alignment off? Something else?

Anyone else experienced this?

The ride has always had a bit of "light chop" to it since day one. Figured it was something to do with xDrive or the suspension, but figured it was normal since it was always there. Y'all have that?

I have DHP and drive almost exclusively in the Sport setting.

I have a 2009 X6 5.0i xDrive with the sports package with 67000 miles on the car. The car has been maintained by BMW since delivery. In the last year I have had problems with tire noise when driving. The noise is worse when driving on smooth surface such as a newly paved road. The tires have 17k miles and appear to be cupping, tire alignment/balancing has been checked by BMW several times and each time the alignment was acceptable. They have replaced the tires once at no charge but now say this is the way the X6 wears tires and nothing can be done. I suspect the shocks are worn which would cause the tires to hop and thus cause the tire cupping. Anyone with the same problem? If so have you solved it? I'm going back to BMW tomorrow to confront them about my theory but suspect they will want me to go away.