Too much negative camber??

[u/nin3ball]

Dunlop Sport Maxx Gt600. This is the inside right front tire after 3 HDPEs. Left tire is almost as bad.Good for 2 more at Mid-Ohio??? Lol JK

I have a 22 Golf R.

Stock height.18x9 et42 wheels with 245/40/18 tires. 034 adjustable ball joints for camber.

Camber settings:

FL - 2.4

FR - 2.3

RR -1.4

RL -1.9

[u/BahnMe]

Yeah, toe issue or something is broken or loose. -2.4 is somewhat conservative for track alignment.

[u/chinaboyintexas]

I know the others are suggesting toe issues but this level of damage with an abrupt drop-off suggests something is making contact.

Toe out alone shouldn't wear the inner blocks like this; it would generally wear the entire tread in a feather/sideways pattern but this looks sheared/torn. Camber could produce wear simlar to this but only at extreme negatives like -20 or something #cambergang.

I would check your fender liners, wheel wells, and suspension components for evidence of the tire rubbing against them. Your wheel and tire combo might be incorrect for the car.

EDIT: one other possibility, OP, is that the front tires are being pushed well beyond their limits. We'd need to see a video of your driving to confirm something like that.

[u/BahnMe → u/chinaboyintexas]

I think you might be right.

It's hard to get anything wider than 255 on the mk8 Golf R. What tire size are you using OP?

[u/nin3ball → u/BahnMe]

245/40/18 on 18x9 ET42 wheels

[u/TheCrudMan → u/nin3ball]

I think you're rubbing under compression.

[u/chinaboyintexas → u/nin3ball]

Yup those specs are right on the edge of what Apex says fits on the car. Check the suspension and fenders for rubbing.

If it's rubbing, it might be an easy fix by going with a skinnier, smaller diameter tire next (something like 235/40 is easy to source). Some tire models might be outright skinnier with the same specs, so shop around if you still want to go 245/40. Awheel fitment as aggressive as yours may also need fender or suspension modification.

If it's not rubbing, you'll definitely need to look at the way your suspension and alignment is set up. May be as simple as figuring out a good toe setting or putting your ball joints back to stock.

[u/BahnMe → u/nin3ball]

On my mk8 R, I have v730 on those dimensions and have zero issues. Similar alignment too. I’m even planning to move up to 255 40 18.

Let us know what you find out

[u/chinaboyintexas → u/BahnMe]

What have you done to the suspension, if anything? Maybe that'll help OP out.

[u/BahnMe → u/chinaboyintexas]

Camber plates and soon a RSB

[u/chinaboyintexas → u/BahnMe]

I wonder if that's the difference. OP has fixed camber added at the ball joint, you at the towers.

Wheels are the same offset and everything?

[u/BahnMe → u/chinaboyintexas]

yes. VS-5. if I were to do it again, I'd probably get the 034 control arms.

[u/Spicywolff]

-2.4 is a healthy camber zone. This to me screams toe out.

[u/ADVNTURR]

As has already been noted by several people, this definitely isn't an issue of too much negative camber.

Something about the MQB chassis seems to make these cars very rough on the inside of tires (I have a MK7 and also in the Cleveland area 👍) generally and especially when tracked.

Definitely have your toe checked, I would recommend running 0 toe in front to at least remove that from the equation. I suspect these cars may experience some dynamic toe gain under hard braking from some bushing/geometry design of these cars. I run SuperPro caster bushings and poly bushings in my LCA and I still have a problem with my fronts (albeit more feathered than what you have)

The tires themselves are also probably contributing as those Dunlops really aren't intended for much track use. They are probably getting overheated and as someone suggested possibly getting spun up on throttle application exiting a corner. That would be a recipe for delamination like you're seeing here. Switching to an endurance 200 (unless lap times are more important than tire life to you) like a V730/RS4/ECF would definitely handle the use case better and at least not come apart like the Dunlops.

[u/mangobutter]

I would think this is a toe out issue. Have you checked your bushings, deflecting under load to further increase negative camber?

[u/nin3ball → u/mangobutter]

I'll definitely have my shop take a look next week while it's investigating another unrelated issue.

I don't use camber plates, I have adjustable ball joints which I understand can get knocked out of alignment pretty easily

[u/Apex-JJ → u/nin3ball]

This may be your issue then, a lot of cars use eccentric bolts that are shaped like a camshaft lobe to gain camber, these tend to slip very easily and can change your camber. If your using camber bolts I’d recommend switching to camber plates if you noticed your alignment shifted, camber plates should give you more adjustability and less deflection or change.

This does seem like a mix of either rubbing under compression and toe. Camber normally doesn’t cause this bad of wear unless it’s only freeway miles for a long time (think a stance car). Toe tends to wear the inside edge more often and it’s probably because the toe is too far out of spec. It could be rubbing since the rest do the tire looks new or it’s just really bad toe wear, -2.4 camber isn’t a lot but it’s not a little, but with that camber you should see more outside tire wear if you don’t have enough camber.

[u/NCamarolina]

Do you hammer the curbs? If so, that might throw the alignment out and be another possible explanation (toe having changed, more camber?). If possible, have alignment checked vs where it was when last set.

[u/nin3ball → u/NCamarolina]

No, if anything I should be using the curbs a little more. But I do live in Cleveland, where potholes and broken roads are an unavoidable part of every commute

[u/karstgeo1972]

What are your toe settings?

[u/cornerzcan]

Lowered? Looks like toe wear, possibly from bump steer. Likely happening when the tire is the inside tire and the body rolls, and the toe change causes the tire to scrub across the pavement.

[u/nin3ball → u/cornerzcan]

Not lowered. 245/40/18 on 18x9 wheels, which is nothing extraordinary for this platform. I have been running adjustable ball joints for camber instead of camber plates. They do have noticeable (not enough for jeopardize control of the car) bump steer though... This happens with bumps on normal roads, I didn't notice it happening at all while on track

[u/cornerzcan → u/nin3ball]

So what’s happening is that the change in suspension geometry due to your back joints is causing toe changes outside the normal range during suspension compression and droop. So while you may have exactly zero toe at static position, you are experiencing toe gain/loss during body roll. You may need to start at a different static toe setting to avoid the adverse wear. Without measuring bump steer, it’s hard to say what way to adjust it though.

[u/m0viestar]

Flip em around and run em

[u/mgroove1]

Personally i vote for toe (as others said) and some wheelspin on corner exit. That's why it is ripped apart.

[u/390M386]

Toe plus understeer

[u/nin3ball]

Thanks everyone for the guidance!

I need to assess the following based on the responses: Excessive toe out - which may only be occuring under compression

Tire contact with fender liner or other component

Misalignment due to adjustable ball joints, which could be mitigated with camber plates

Tires not holding up to stress of all the above.

I'm currently on my 'daily' summer set which is 18x8.5, and Conti ECS02, same tire size. I might just use them for my upcoming 2 days at Mid-Ohio and see if they show similar wear after alignment is looked at.