alignment

[nolig2278]

anyway to do an alignment at home?

i really just want to check on the toe and straighten out the steering wheel.

thanks

[Mooneggs]

I remember reading an article in sport compact car years ago about how to do this. Something about using plumb lines and stuff.

I just googled do it yourself alignments... I'm sure you can figure it out

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=do ... ign&aqi=g1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[rekognize]

I'd spend the $80 to get a proper alignment.

Do it once, do it right.

[umcamara]

I can kinda see where the OP is coming from though.

I did the ZX-2 Tokico swap over a year ago and haven't had an alignment yet (camber is really bad in the back).

Plus I'm working on swapping the GS rear-end, and GS steering rack. All of these things done at separate times.

It'd be nice to be able to eyeball my alignment until I'm done everything, then go for a real alignment.

I drive an hour on the highway to work everyday, and my tires will punish me for this later.

[nolig2278]

who has 80$ to spend every 6 months

i have the lifetime firestone but they have decided not to touch lowered cars any more


my alignment (toe) is always out of wack as i have lived in some of the worst areaa for roads

[Nd4SpdSe]

who has 80$ to spend every 6 months

Unless you have coil overs and raise and lower your car for summer and winter, there's no need to get it done every 6 months.


I've only done 2-3 alignments in the life on my Mx-3. I guess one of the tricks would be to do preventative maintenance while you're working and replacing other components. It not only save you money in the long run, but helps keep the car performing at it's best and reliable.

Alignments are computerized for a reason. If the toe setting is just 1/32-inch off, that tire scrub almost 3 1/2 feet sideways every mile. What you save in alignment cost would cost you more in the long run with premature tire replacement, along with the needed alignment.

My best friend picked up a Civic that the suspension was returned to stock and the alignment was never corrected for that, it had significant rear camber. He never wanted to pay for an alignment and figured it would last the summer. Kid you not, less than 2 months later, he finds out the inner of the tires are worn to the belts and not only had to spend $100 on used tires, but ended up paying for that alignment when they put on the new tires so this time they would last.

[nolig2278]

my first set of front tires, on my brand new unaltered mx-3 lasted 5000 miles. alignment got out of whack
my toe is off every 6 months from causal use.

now maybe if you live in a perfect world without speed bumps and potholes then your alignment might last longer
miami, new york city and philly along with i95 have not been good to my car

[Whisper]

I run my car at Pacific Raceways, and that's a ROUGH circuit - sections of old pavement, cracks, seams, even a couple of small potholes, I kid you not. Alignment goes south after pretty much every session, so it would be awesome to have some kind of affordable at-home alignment system...

Gonna go in for my second alignment this summer.

[Inodoro Pereyra]

now maybe if you live in a perfect world without speed bumps and potholes then your alignment might last longer
miami, new york city and philly along with i95 have not been good to my car

I don't know why you're having that problem. I have lived (and driven) in Miami for the last 9 years, and have NEVER had an alignment problem in my car (and 8 tickets are a clear testimony as to my driving... )

Anyways, the toe is the single hardest parameter to adjust in a car (when it comes to alignment, of course). You have to be able to measure the distance between the front of both wheels, and between the back of them, ACCURATELY and REPEATEDLY, while the car is sitting on a perfectly level floor, with the wheels dead center. If any of those requirements is not achieved (that is, if the floor is not perfectly flat and level, or if your steering is not perfectly centered), your measurement, and obviously your toe will be off.
Also, if your camber is other than "0", the place on the wheel where you take your measurement becomes critical.

Can it be done at home? Yes, if you really know what you're doing, and you can provide a perfectly flat surface.
However, you can NOT expect to be able to do it based only on a forum's thread. No matter how good everybody's intentions are here, there's just no way you'll get here all the knowledge needed to do such a job.

[wytbishop]

I've never done a home alignment so I can't speak to the validity of any claim a home kit maker might make, but there are home alignment kits available that will give you all the measurements that the alignment bench in a shop would...albeit probably not with the accuracy that a good alignment bench would. Like anything I'm sure there are higher and lower quality home kits out there.

As far as actually making adjustments, there's not much that can really be adjusted on the stock MX-3 so it's fairly simple if you can get the measurements correctly. The front Camber/Caster are limited to the settings which are attained by turning the strut mount as shown in this page of the manual.

http://www.mx-3.com/manuals/showimg.php ... /R-008.gif" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Without using camber bolts or aftermarket strut mounts this is the extent of the C/C adjustability. Toe is pretty simple to adjust, but yes not simple to get right. Although, having said that the factory tolerance is +/- 0.4º which sounds tight but is actually pretty loose. It's best to err on the slightly toed in side. A slight toe in (.3º positive toe) is designed in to preload the wheel bearings. If the toe is exactly zero, the wheel would be constantly trying to find center and actually wear out the bearings a lot faster.

There are lots of DIY type sites that offer different methods of trying the determine Toe In accurately at home. Unfortunately, toe is the last adjustment you make in the alignment process as it is affected by both Camber and Caster. On my own car right now, I'm riding on an eyeball job with pretty good success. No serious tire wear in the past 2 months since I changed struts, ball joints and outer tie rod ends. I know my C/C are way out, but I got the toe pretty close by eye and the car is handling fine. After I'm done installing the polyurethane bushings once and for all I will get a professional 4 wheel alignment.

[Nd4SpdSe]

now maybe if you live in a perfect world without speed bumps and potholes then your alignment might last longer
miami, new york city and philly along with i95 have not been good to my car

Ha, I have a fair amount of bumps and I only took it easy if I was going to bottom out. I've even gotten the car airborn. I go full speed over train tracks and have hit my share of holes and bumps, especially with my kidney-killing suspension.

[Ghostcloak]

Can anyone recommend some auto-x alignment specs, something mildly aggressive for the street that aren't harsh on the tires?

I was thinking:
Front:
1/16" Toe In
-1.5* Camber

Rear:
0" Toe
-0.5* Camber


Thoughts or suggestions?

[Ghostcloak]

No one?

[Alexmdb]

I did a pretty aggressive toe out on my Escort once just to try it out and this is what my tires looked like after 1500 miles! They were new haha!



I did the alignment pretty simple, though please don't flame me if it's a bit newbish. Since I figured I could only adjust it by one turn at a time I just put an equal amount of turns on each side of the rack and then with my wheels off and rotors tightened down with lug nuts I clamped a steel tube to each side. They were both identical, both were measured to be parallel with the ground, and I made sure I mounted them both perfectly in the center as to be as mathematically precise as possible. Then I just siply measured the distance between the front and rear rods and that's it. It wasn't super precise, but it got the job done.

As for the extreme toe out angle, tread wear absolutely sucked! But I loved the handling. I don't know if it was also the negative camber (from weight reduction of 650lb and having chopped one spring) but the car went further in a straight line without steering than any car I've ever rode before in my life. And cornered exceptionally well, it would switch lanes almost like on autopilot, I'd give it a little tug on the steering wheel and that's it. My friend even joked that it's good for tired driving, if I fall asleep behind the wheel I can wake up 5 minutes later and still be on the road.

[Ghostcloak]

I figured 1/16" Toe IN was pretty neutral... I'm not looking to Toe out at all. I want to keep thread life pretty reliable.

D'oh, I've got it backwards. The car is going to Toe IN under acceleration, so I want it to toe out more than factory spec, but not to the point where my tires suffer longevity.