I was wondering if it's possible to do an alignment at home to try and fix some of my camber. What exactly do mechanics do when they are doing an alignment anyway?

 

Get the latest issue of "Grassroots Motorsports," they have an article on alignment.

 

It is possible but it would be a very lenghty desciption and it much easier to just take it somewhere where they do computer alignments. Camber adjustment is not difficult to make if you have camber kits installed on your car, you still have to get it right though. You would need to buy a camber gauge from one of the harcore racing supply companies like True Choice or Race Central. But if you lowered it then your caster and toe is off also and that is very hard to do in the garage. Save yourself the trouble...get some camber kits if you don't have them yet and pay the $60 for an aligment.....its less headaches.

 

There are a lot of thing that will mess up an alignment job if it's done at home..
1.) if the surface is unlevel.. it can cause things to get messed up..
2.) you have to move the car and bounce it to resettle the suspension unless you have turn plates..
3.) is' a pain in the *** to get under the car to turn the tie rods to adjust toe especially if you car is lowered..
you really need to have a toe bar to do at least a decent job.
If you take it to the shop...it will save you time and the headache...
make friends with the alignment shop or garage

 

thanks a lot for your replies guys, i appreciated, one more thing, this "toe" stuff, why do you say it's more important that camber, isn't camber what wears out my tires, and what exactly is toe?

 

Toe / \ (above view)
Chamber / \ (back view)
Caster / | \ (side view)

 

save yourslef a hassle. here in socal, you can get a full alignment for $45, they do it electonically, computer generated. check out your local wheel shops or a car dealership, wait... dealerships will run you around $85, which is ridiculous.

 

Camber will kill the inside of your tire...
where toe will kill the whole contact patch.. or just the middle of the tire....

think about it..
looking down from the roof
_......_
\_\ /_/

if your tires look like this....they will wear too.

So not too much camber and not too much toe...
if you are racing..

max camber 1/8 to 3/16 toe out = minimum tire wear max handling

street
min camber zero to 1/16 toe in = best tire wear ... normal handling