elpiar

I guess I'm a true cheapskate. Does anyone knows how to do alignment (front toe, rear toe) by ourselves? I don't have a camber kit and paying them $70 to do just front toe and rear toe is kinda ripoff.

If only I have these alignment measuring machine I can adjust these toes in 10 mins after the instrument is set up.

Ideas?

AutoXer

https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=267237&page=1

https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1157053

https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=597192

I'm thinking of doing the last one myself.

fireant

It depends. I'd say there are two conditions where a DIY alignment is appropriate:

1.) Its a track only car, and you have a baseline alignment to go by

2.) You're doing something to get you by for the short term

The easiest way to at least get the toe set is to lay a 2'x2' wood panel (or something better- maybe even glass) up to each tire (carefully centered with the wheel center), then mark a line on the floor with it. You can measure the ends of the lines and see immediately if you have some toe issue or not. It's more accurate if you use a helper to hold the tape measure. If you're on your own, use something stiffer than a tape measure and mark it... a long peice of flat aluminum works very well. With that quick-and-dirty technique, you can at least set your toe somewhere close to zero for a temporary fix. You'd have to get more creative to figure out how to do a front-to-rear track that way, though.

suspendedHatch

If you only compare the front wheels to the rear, you will give yourself toe out. The reason being that the front wheels stick out 5mm more on each side than the rear because of the track difference. If you adjust for that with a spacer or something, you can make it work. You might have problems with the lug nuts or rims sticking out so that you don't have a flat surface to work with, or with getting the steering wheel perfectly centered. Remember, the board would have to be in the center of the rims otherwise uneven front to rear camber will affect your reading. If the steering wheel or the play in the steering cause both wheels to be pointed to one side even one mm, it's going to look like you need an alignment. For these reasons, use a method that compares the wheel with the wheel on the same side, and the wheel on the same end.

You can get the toe as good as they will get it on those expensive alignment machines at your typical alignment shop. They're capable of higher accuracy, but they don't bother, trust me.

I do my own alignments. A few months back I got some tires at Evans for the free alignment, they put it on the rack and told me it doesn't need an alignment. They already took the equipment off before I could ask for a printout.