velvetjones

on my hatch the alinement is off and the wheel slants a little in. i just wanted to know if anyone knows how to do it without taking it to a shop

xXx Justin xXx

no b/c they put it on a machine that reads everything and tells them how to adjust it..to fix the toe a little you can break the nutt on the tie-rod loose and spin that... it will slowly change it. but by all means just take it to a shop and spend the $40 to have it done the right way, and save yourself the trouble.

sshaikh01

First of all its alignment ok.
Second no you can't do it, because what the guy above me said.
The shop, puts the car on a machine, which tells them which specs to set the aligment to.

You can adjust the teo of your car, but i wouldn't suggest it, unless you really know what you're doing.

scdarksol

sure I can make your car go straight, but I don't know how long your tires going to last you! IN OTHER WORDS NO!

tominos

even if you do it yourself, you still need the equipment to do it right, be it an alignment rack, or the alignment turntables.

Who Said

when you mess with a any cars suspension...whatever specs the alignement machine has wont do you any good because those are set for factory.

the slant that you say you have is normal when you lower a car without using a camber kit. to prevent fast tire wear just rotate the tires and take them to a shop to have them flip them around...(does that make sense?)

oh and if its not going straight thats cause your toe is out of spec...that you could get fixed


[Modified by Joe Millionaire, 8:29 PM 3/11/2003]

tominos

so you're saying an alignment won't do any good on a lowered car?

it's only camber that can't be adjusted, toe can be adjusted to factory specs.

all stock

like what jaeone is going around saying "it's toe that eats tires." which is true. getting an alignment sets toe to factory specs. if you are even more concerned, get a kit on the front and throw some washers in the rear. bad camber + bad toe = bad tire wear/uneven tire wear.

IM ALL BOB

I know the ROADRACING forum did have a post on this sometime last year good luck.. and they were able to do it in there own garage

frankdatank

camber and toe both wear tires. caster is the only reading that doesnt

Who Said

once you lower a car you cant adjust your camber according to the manufactures specs. unless you get a camber kit...no im not saying the alignment wont do any good cause you could fix the toe like i stated the first time...not the camber...it would have to be a custom set up

Frosty_spl

I DL'ed an option video off someone on HT about sus setups and it shows how to align your own car. It looks kind of hard but its possible.

@irborne

yep yep; eyeing isn't accurate as computer's

PatrickGSR94

iTrader: (1)

Yes but it's not nearly as exact as using a laser alignment machine. And when you're lowered and don't want to bother with a camber kit (like me), then you have to have the toe set to EXACT specs, I'm talking to within hundreths of a degree. I had my alignment done the other day, and the rear right tire was in spec, but the left rear was slightly out of spec for toe. We moved the adjusting bolt on the front end of the trailing arm about 1/16" out to get it in spec. When measuring toe yourself you usually measure across the tires, and moving the trailing arm that little amount would not even register on the tires most likely. I don't think you can check thrust angle by yourself either, which has to do with the car driving straight down the road. Spec for the rear of my car is 0.16 total toe, or 0.08 on each side. I have about 0.22 total which is within the range of spec. My thrust angle is also 0.00 so that is very good.

With toe set exactly like this, I was able to go 25K miles before having to replace my tires, and that is with -2.3 deg. camber. As of this past Sunday I had -2.3 on both sides in front, and -1.9/-2.1 L/R in back. Keep that toe in check using an alignment rack (Hunter is usually the most trusted brand of machine) and you should be good.

rodrez.

Can't you just pull up next to a curb and park, then turn the wheel really hard to smack the tire against the curb? It used to work on my Huffy

Ya@inlinePRO

why do people SWEAR the camber is the only thing that effects TIRE WEAR???? get your toe's adjusted, camber will help. and alignment is for safety reasons AS WELL... take it to someone who knows or its your ***.