Good morning all. I knew something had been up for a while as I was experiencing a lot of extra noise above 65 mph coming from the rear, so I asked a tech at the local shop (where I bought the tires originally) to inspect the rear when he had it up for my last oil change (about 3,300 miles ago). He said he didn't see anything unusual. Needless to say, a few weeks ago I removed my 19" Axis Hiros with Toyo T1Rs to realize that the inner rubber on the rear tires was nearly bald and the tires appeared quite wavy where they were bald. It's obvious he didn't even look at them when I asked him to.

Long story short, I'll need two new rear tires come spring. Upon further inspection, it appears that I have a decent amount on negative camber, which I'm assuming began when I lowered the car (Tein S-Tech) last March. After lowering it, I took the car to Mazda for an alignment, but I'm assuming the tech didn't try to adjust the camber back to an acceptable level.

So, my winter wheels and tires are now on, and I feel like I don't have quite the traction I did last season, especially when turning corners. I have an appointment next week at a different local shop to try to have the camber corrected. My question is: can/will negative camber decrease traction in winter driving conditions?

I apologize for this post being so long, but I wanted to get all the info out there. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated. Thank you!

 

I don't think it would, if anything, it should help out.

If there's less tread width on the ground while it's snowing, it's better for grip. Though, camber doesn't change it much, it's something.

 

Negative camber only comes into play under hard cornering. Since you likely won't be cornering hard in the typical winter conditions it will hurt traction in general. Less contact width for the typical RX-8tire sizes is a myth, especially if you have real winter tires.

 

Negative camber is not really the greatest for winter driving from what i have experienced with my car, I had really negative camber, it chewed up the inside edge and didnt allow the car to stop efficiently