alignment with new tires?

I am replacing my tires today on my C4S - went with the Sumitomos for now - should I get an alignment at the same time? The car feels like it is aligned - no abnormal tread wear on the old ones. Thoughts? J

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If you like the way it drives & treadwear of previous tires just monitor new treadwear & air pressure.

leith porsche in cary nc ....is/did have a free alignment check....if anything is out of spec then they do the alignment and charge you...if not, no charge.....see if the local dealer will do that for you....all they can say is no

if prior tire wear is good, and it drives well leave it alone. why fix it if it is not broken?

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+1 My rears were well worn on the inside due to wheel camber which is normal for these cars, so I left mine 'as is'

I'd get free check done - but make sure tech knows how to align a Porsche. If you are in Norcal i'd recommend Borelli Motorsports for tires/alignment - they order the tires from tirerack for you ( I believe - or at least they matched those prices on my sumi's) - and have race mechanic who really knows what he is doing - would not take my car to regular discount tire shop ...

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Well, no it is not normal unless the alignment is not correct. The inside edge tire wear is due to incorrect rear toe. With a proper alignment the rear tire wear should be even although with a bit of heavy throttle foot the one rear tire will wear faster than the other tire. In the USA it is the right rear tire because right hand turns are more common and are sharper than left hand turns. In the UK the opposite is the case.

Really? I have always thought that the insides will always wear before the outsides in the rear, just not excessively so, if alignment is correct for your driving style. Well worn on th einside wih half tread on the outside is not correct, but I've never heard of even wear on the rears of these cars. I've always changed tires due to age or hatred before they are worn away.

Since all looks good, leave it alone. These free check can be shady, chances are good they will say it needs it, just to make money.

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leith porsche showed the specs of my car and where porsche recommends them...then i chose to proceed......i don't think any porsche dealer free checks are shady...i mean damn, they show you the numbers

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It looks as if camber is the cause of inside edge tire wear but over the years with my Boxster and 996 Turbo always when there is excessive inside edge wear the toe is the setting that is out. In the case of my Turbo after having the car in for some deer damage repair the dealer service department -- unbeknownst to me at the time -- screwed the pooch on the alignment. I learned this the hard way when around 8K miles later when I was having the car road worthy inspected at another dealer prior to a road trip and was informed the rear tires were shot. Not believing this I looked for myself and sure enough the inside edge wear had belt material showing. New tires were fitted and an alignment done and the rear toe was out. In the case of my Boxster I had it in at Custom Alignment in Mountain View for new tires and after the new tires installed an alignment. The manager told me the car was done but the rear camber was at its max allowable setting. He said it could of course be brought into spec, put right on the money, but the cost would go up. (As an aside the cost was nearly as much as I would have paid at a dealer...so much for indy's being cheaper than a dealer.) I asked him about the possible negative effects to the the car's feel/handling and to tire life from leaving the camber as it was. He told me the car's handling/feel would be unaffected as would tire life. Based on this I agreed to accept the car with its rear camber as it was. 'course before I got too far away from the shop I gave the car a road test and found the handling/steering to be perfect as it always is after a proper alignment. And over the miles tire life was just fine. In other cases while the camber settings have been right on the mark tire life has always been good and tire wear even. The last set of rear tires on the Turbo lasted nearly 23K miles and would have gone a bit longer but a nail ruined one tire and I had to replace both. The good news was when I bought the tires road hazard protection was added to the bill -- $7/tire IIRC -- and because of this and because the tire tread depth was above 2mm (it was 3mm) the road hazard protection the ruined tire was replaced at no cost to me. Given my usage: street and highway driving; rear (and front) tire wear is even and tire life is pretty good with whatever camber setting is acceptable though most of the time the setting is right on the mark and the other adjustments are as per Porsche too.

^^^^Why the life story??? So much bable that all the relevant info (very little), gets lost in the sea of irrelevant monbo jumbo. Keep it simple and to the point. This isn't Oprah's book of the month club.

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Then don't read it. Rude.

Imo000, Please put Macster on Ignore. Macster, You have a pair of very unusal Porsche cars. There are many who will not agree with you on 911/996 (no personal experience with 986) tire wear being even across the tire if alignment is spot on factory setup. 32K on Turbo rears has to be close to a record.

I always appreciate Macster's input and experience shared. Thank you Macster.

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This is a technical forum. people look for accurate and relevant information. Not reading or putting him on ignore will not do a thing from stopping this kind of a long winded, jam pack posts. His replies are always drawn out, marathons with so much different scenarios that it confuses the hell out of pretty much anyone reading. When I was doing my research on engine tear down, I've noticed this and stopped reading his replies because they were useless and confusing. Now I'm a fairly good DIYer and can filter out nonsense from good suggestions but many others aren't. The only thing worst than not being able to find good info is misinformation.

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THAT'S F'N funny!!!!!! LOVE it!!!!!

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RL is not just a technical forum. And you are just being rude. In contrast to Macster, your advice is usually along the lines of "take it to a shop". Thanks for that.

I have a question in regards to alignment. Porsche dealer is replacing the rear shocks on my car as part of the pre purchase agreement. Should they check the alignment after a repair like this? Thanks.

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You are dead wrong but whatever floats your boat.

I would suggest getting your alignment checked and compared with what porsche recommends. Just because tire wear is even, or feels like it handles fine does not mean the alignment is good. Alignment checks are recommended once a year for a reason, where I am from anyways because driving on ****ty roads aka pot holes bumpy roads, manhole covers, and other stuff will eventually throw out your alignment. I check my alignment every time I change tires from summer to winter and always find that it is out slightly, more than what can be accounted for in roll out differences

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23K miles. I typed 23K miles.

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Ask the dealer. If you hear "no" I would push for an alignment. Anytime suspension/steering hardware is R&R'd there's the very likely chance the alignment is upset. If you need something else feel the tread of all 4 tires for any signs of feathering, or other surface characteristics that is a sign of tires not tracking true. Be sure you get a before and after printout. BTW, if the rear struts were shot this can have the rear tires cupped and they may cause vibration which can make the results of the strut replacement less than satisfactory. So feel those tires!

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Sorry little dyslexia crept in there. 23k is still impressive for rears on a turbo.

The tires have an impressive replacement cost so right from the outset of my time with my car I want to know the car is properly aligned so I can enjoy the car like I like to enjoy it and yet maximize tire life. The best thing I have found is to ensure the alignment is correct. (Of course proper tire inflation pressure is important too.) I can also state it is my experience even if the alignment is not out that bad that tire noise -- in my particular case front tire noise -- was so bad that I drove out of my way on a long road trip to get the car to a dealer thinking the front wheel bearings were going out. The bearings were found to be ok. Tire wear (scuffing) pointed to alignment issues. (The result of a few days earlier late at night when pulling into a hotel parking lot just bumping both front tires against the low edge of the sidewalk. My usual carefulness was undone by being just plain too tired. I should have stopped earlier than I did.) Two thousand miles later -- all driven with the tire howl -- back at home I had the car aligned and this quieted the tires and extended the life of the front tires. As for tire wear: My experience has been with a bad alignment -- yet with no signs at the steering wheel the alignment is bad -- a set of rear Turbo tires can be gone in 8K miles of driving that with a proper alignment with the same driving can have the tires lasting easily 2x to nearly 3x that number of miles. It is second nature to me to avoid encounters with curbs or anything that can upset the car's alignment. This way I do not have to have the car aligned that often, only when the old tires' wear patterns indicate there's an alignment issue.

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Thanks for reply. I actually already got a NO from a dealer, that's why i was double checking with you guys. I am gonna try hard to get one out of them, if nit i will just pay for it, i believe it's about $250. As far as checking old tires, it's too late, they were not Porsche spec (N4), so dealer replaced them before i picked up the car. I got brand new Pirellis out of the deal, so one more reason to make sure the alignment is ok. On my Alfa, when i bought it, the alignment was so bad that inside edge of the front tires was so worn out you could see the wires, while the outside still had about 70% thread left. The car went strait as as an arrow on the highway even at 160km/h and i never heard any noise. Wise to check that alignment.