Okay, weird circumstance here. Short story... I referred my friend to a Mitsu dealership. (I did not purchase my car there, but I thought their customer service was great, so I referred him). He bought a 2006 Mitsubishi Eclipse GT V-6 the fully loaded one with body kit, etc. Anyway, to return the favor, they offered to give me a free oil change. Since I was fortunate enough to have bought my car from a dealer who offered me free lifetime oil changes, and free lifetime inspections. (Non-mitsubishi dealership). I opted out for the oil change... My car has Tanabe springs, and I knew I need an alignment so a week after installing springs I had them give me (Mitsu) an alignment. They did, but yesterday, I was at a Tuning shop, and they pointed out extreme wear on the inside of the driver side front tire. Alignment probably obviously. How should I approach this. 1) I didn't pay for it. 2) Even though, I didn't pay for it, I did give them a 30,000.00 sale. 3) If I would have paid for it, I would be beating the door down to get it fixed 4) I'm sure they will tell me that it is because it's lowered , but regardless of that, it's not a warranty issue. 5) They obviously didn't do the alignment right. By the way, the car only has 12,000 miles on OEM tires. Tell me what you guys think is the best way to approach this.

 

The wear on your tires could have been before you had the allignment. If you put on springs and did not get the car alligned soon there after well that could be your issue. There is no way you can prove that Mitsubishi did the allignment wrong with the information you provided us.

 

How long was the time period & miles from the alignment to the time you found your tire wear?

You need to get current alignment readings, only then you will know if previous settings were done incorrectly.

FYI, I had my alignment at -2deg camber, went for a 500 mile trip and killed the tires on the inside. Prior to that, I put on over 10K of city driving without issues. The constant straight road trip killed them in.

So it realy depends what your settings were set to, what type of driving you did and what your setting are now. Only then will you be able to determine what caused your inside tire wear.

 

It's not unusual for high performance cars to wear out tires unevenly. It's just the nature of the beast.

 

Sorry but this is and incorrect statement. Alot of evos from the factory are out of spec on the alignment. When aligned correctly your tires will wear evenly.

 

Well, here is the update. I was told that the alignment that I had at 8,000 miles was a good alignment and that the springs were the reason for the wear (sure)..... So I am just going to opt to get my new rims new tires and possibly get an alignment plan like my friend purchased from N T B where for a specified amount of time, you get free alignments. What do you guys think? And what tire would you recommend for longevity as well as performance? I have researched, just wanted to get a couple specific opinions. I am planning to go to 18's and it will be daily driven.

 

Understand that a lifetime alignment doesn't mean that much except that you will keep coming back. If the mechanic or the equipment is "weak" then you will still pay the price. Evo's come with a bit more negative camber than the average car due to the design of the car, but with it only wearing one tire excessively it is a toe issue, more than likely on the opposite side. It could be caused by negative camber and you just didn't see it before. Also, when a car is shipped you have to realize that it is shipped on a Big A%% truck. The way the drive assures he doesn't loose a car is by letting some air out of the tires, tightening all of the straps and then airing the tires back up. This can cause all sorts of issues and if a dealer doesn't realign cars after being off loaded you could have had an issue from the get go.

 

Dont let them put your car on the black list. Dont be cheap and take it to a tire shop and have them do the alignment it only cost 60 bucks. Another thing with that you dont have to worry because you have 6 months or 6k miles to get it fixed if its off.