I'm looking for a bit of advice. I took my car in to have it aligned at a garage I like and have used for a while and from a mechanic I trust. He's also the owner. However, the alignment resulted in some heavy wear on the inside of the front tires within a few thousand kms. I want to know what I should say to him, and what I should ask for. Also, is this just par for the course for a "performance alignment"?

It was last July I took the car in. I brought the specs recommended by Mike Shields and Prodrive (recommended with their springs) not being sure which one to get. He said don't worry about it, he'd give me a performance alignment. I don't know what the specs were other than the car felt like it was surfing on its front tires. It didn't feel planted at all. Slow to tun in and loved to plow too, I didn't like it.

I should mention this mechanic has a lot more experience with Hondas and VWs than Subarus.

The tires, Yokohama AVS ES100s (225/45/17), had maybe 2000kms at the time, probably less. I put maybe another 2-4000 on them before dismounting them for the winter. For completely unrelated reasons the car was realigned in November.

The tires (and wheels) have been back on for about six weeks now. When the tire shop down the street remounted the wheels they mentioned something about scrub and put the ones that were in front on back. Just two nights ago I found out the "scrub" was pretty severe on the insides of the former front pair.

My question, in agreeing to a "performance alignment", was I agreeing to have the insides ground halfway to the wear bars within 2-4000 Kms? I'm not sure what specs I got: would the Prodrive or SPD specs have done the same?

Also, for those who've had similar problems, have you gotten anything from the place that did the alignment? I'm going to talk to the mechanic this week. What should I say, and what should I ask for?

They can do printouts for you. I just watched the guy do mine last week, saw the read out on the machine so I knew what I had.

What exactly did you have them set it at?

And btw, there have been alot of cars having bad wear problems with the ES100's

That's the thing: I don't have the specs. They shop may have them, but after almost a year I'm doubtful. My question really is, would Prodrive or SPD specs cause wear like this? If not, are alignment specs you'd use for FWD cars--Honda and a little bit of VW--likely to cause heavy front inside wear?

If it's the former I'll live and learn; if it's the latter the guy made a mistake and I'd like some compensation.

Who else has been reporting poor wear on the AVS 100s?

If prodrive gave some extra toe at different spots, that will effect wear alot. Ive found that 0 toe all around and like -1 camber up front and about the same in the rear creates a nice even wear. The key is to also use the right tire pressures along with that alignment to keep it wearing properly.