I am experiencing excessive tire wear on the outer edge of the front right tire on my '99 XC. I recently had the car aligned and the technician said that Volvos do not allow for the adjustment of camber or on the front end, only toe (the camber angles for Front L/R are 0.1/-0.1 respectively). Has anybody experienced similar tire wear problems?

I am going to replace the tires and want to make sure that I don't chew up the new tires prematurely. BTW, I have about 38k miles on the original Conti's (what sort of mileage did others get from their OEM Conti's?).

I was able to find a document on the volvotuning.com site that describes how to change the front end camber on the XC but I forsee a difficult time convincing the tire store to try anything that is not VCNA approved.

http://www.volvotuning.com/camber.pdf

Thanks,

Eric

Hi Eric,

I got the same song and dance that you seem to have received "Camber is not adjustable". Well I said bunk to that statement and found someone who understood my problem.

Camber is adjustable. My 99 XC was wearing the out side as you describe. I took my car to an independent Volvo shop and he set my camber to 0deg as described by Volvo for an 850. My tires are wearing great.

Hint: Set the tow to the minimum specification. These AWD do not like a lot of tow.

Also make sure the sub-frame bolts are toque down to specification. Mine were loose causing the tow adjustment to be in a state of flux.

Steven---

I just want to clarify, that it is toE and not toW.

Also what do you mean by "These AWD do not like a lot of "?

To add to the other's input. It could also be bad ball joints. Although, since it is a '99 it is unlikely. My '93 850 would wear tire outer and inner edges away about 3-4 times faster than the center. Replaced the ball joints, use a little bit more air pressure,and so far (soundly knocking on wood) the wear has been just fine.

Sounds to me like you have excessive toe-in, which many FWD/AWD Volvos are afflicated with. Check for feathering. If you have it, it's DEFINETLY excessive toe-in.

Did you get your car aligned at a Volvo dealership? If not, then do so. The camber should be able to be adjusted, I know I do got mine adjusted cuz I had excessive inner wear on my tires.