DIY Alignment - front toe

[Cujet]

Well, how are the results? Keep in mind that toe out has a distinct, wandering feel, and it can be difficult to keep in your lane (at times) at highway speeds. Certainly the road crown and wind can do the same things, but when it happens too often, toe out is often the problem.

 

[Kestas]

I stick a pin on the back of each front wheel and measure the distance. Then drive forward until the pins show on the front of the tire and measure that distance. Using the specified toe-in angle for your car and high school geometry, you should be able to figure out what the difference in measurements should be, and adjust the tie rods accordingly.

The measurement usually results in a 1/4-inch difference for toe-in.

 

[D60]

Yeah older thread I realize but I rarely have success with the "count the number of threads" approach. TRE's and their castings just vary way too much

Honestly the best for me on IFS is to get it close, back it up and drive forward and then stand in front and eyeball it. On 2 occasions I got a CX-9 really good this way, meaning it drove beautifully, no pulling and great return-to-center. But this was still only to get it ~35 miles to an alignment shop. I would never use an "eyeball alignment" long term

For live axles I clamp straight edges to the rotors and measure with a tape.

 

[92saturnsl2]

I ended up doing my DIY alignment with a tape measure. I simply picked a tread block that was square in circumference (outer tread block in this case) and measured between tread blocks front vs back of front tire between the two sides. I didn't think this up, there were plenty of mentions of it on other forums and Youtube.

Before doing this, I used another one of my cars with a known good alignment to test the theory. From what I gathered, normal toe on most passenger FWD cars would be about 1/16 further out in the front when measuring this way. My '96 Maxima (which has good alignment) was pretty much on the money, 1/16 wider in the front of the tire.

So I copied that to my Grand Prix, dialed in the steering wheel nice and straight, and it seemed to work. I've put perhaps 5k (if that) on it since then, and don't notice any unusual tire wear or handling issues. I still need to replace all the suspension components (I've been dragging that out till my workshop w/ lift gets built this spring) and will definitely get a true alignment at a shop then. This was basically a temporary endeavor so I don't have to pay $100 on a real alignment twice. I realize this method ignores the rear, camber and other variables, but it seemed to work fine for setting the toe, which is the only thing I messed with.