Has anyone done their own alignment?

[peepsalot]

What procedures are involved, special tools, difficulty?

 

[mountjonas]

isn't there like a special machine/rack that checks alignment. i almost remeber something along the lines of lasers and s*** to check for alignment. that tells me that it most likely can't be done at home... unless you live in an alignment shop.

here's a smiley(spin)

 

[peepsalot]

Well, I don't know about any machines, but hell, I can get a laser for like $2 these days. I read on here someone was saying you could do it simply with rulers and string or some crap like that.

 

[garretts77]

Alignments usually invlove fractions of degrees. You may be able to get your car to drive in a straight line with some string, but it won't be correct...

 

[mountjonas]

i'm all for doing your own maintenance and stuff, but i dunno, doing your own alignment just doesn't sound like a good idea. i mean, since 1 degree neg. camber is most likely within factory specs and 3 degrees isn't, unless you've got a perfectly flat surface and the best pendulum, how could you tell?

 

[mountjonas]

i think toe would be harder to measure also.

 

[Protege52003]

i think it is like $79-99 for a 4 wheel alignment......worth getting it professionally done so you don't go through $85-1XX per tire when you wear them out in less than 10K miles.

 

[Junior]

has to be done electronically to be correct....

"if we really wanted to we could also try and drive with our feet, but that doesn't make it OK" Chris Rock

 

[garretts77]

Mine was $55 for a 4 wheel alignment. Much cheaper than replacing 4 worn tires prematurely...

 

[peepsalot]

Ok, I guess I will not be busting out the string and laser pointers and yardsticks then. So will a place like jiffy lube or walmart do it, and will they do a decent job?

 

[garretts77]

I would take it to an alignment shop. Tire shops will usually have a rack too. Should be around $50-$60 for 4 wheel...

 

[apexlater]

I've been doing my own alignments for years now with no problems. I did an alignment on my friends WRX after we installed springs, camber bolts and rear camber rods. I did the camber and toe settings. The car steered straight, and when he went to the alignment shop to check it out I was spot on with the toe. The camber was off by 1/32 degree from what I told him I thought it was.

I have a crappy camber guage, but I'm getting a better one so I can be much more accurate setting up our Spec Miata.

Home alignments can be done with patience, accurately. I do take my car in to get "zeroed" out about once a year on a laser machine so I can start from scratch.

 

[Dexter]

id just take it to a d00d and have him do it. im all for DIY, but i wouldnt have the patience to do it myself.

 

[apexlater]

It actually doesn't take me that long to do a 4-wheel toe alignment. About 45mins. just like a shop.

I haven't had any bad tire wear or anything, and I do my auto-x alignment a couple of days before an event, so that it can settle and I can check the night before. Then I go back to my "street" alignment for my long ass commute.

Doing camber takes me longer since I have to jack the car up and make sure the floor and car is level to be accurate.

 

[cbcbd]

Some general maintenance things are just too much of a hassle to do on your own.
If you do it enough times so it's actually cost effective and you can practice doing it (like apexlater for auto-xing), then do it.

But I don't think I'd consider myself experienced and practiced enough if I only did an alignment on my car twice a year. By the next alignment I probably would forget everything anyway.

Now, if I had an alignment machine at home then I'd do it... if I had a wheel mounting and a wheel balancing machine at home I'd do those too

 

[Dexter]

How do you do it? Loosen some bolts or what? I'm an alignment n00b.

 

[cbcbd]

How do you do it? Loosen some bolts or what? I'm an alignment n00b.

Yeah, we could use an alignment How-to

 

[peepsalot]

I just realized I don't have a garage or basically any source of level ground, so nix that idea completely.

 

[apexlater]

There is a nut on the tie rod that "locks" the rod to the steering knuckle on the control arm, loosen that. You take a wrench and thread the rod into the knuckle for toe-out and back the rod out for toe-in.

You measure from front of tire to front of tire and rear of tire to rear of tire. That gives you your base alignment. Should be toe-in stock. From there I adjust both sides with equal turns of the tie rod.

After an adjustment, roll the car back and forth a few feet and compress the suspension a little and "wiggle" the steering wheel to let the alignment settle.

Re-measure the front and back of the wheels for the new measurements.

Put some magazines under the tires to allow them to turn freely and make threading the tie rod much easier.

That's the quick and dirty version.....maybe I should write a thread on how I do my alignment with pics and all....hmmm...

 

[Boston5761]

I recently just had my car aligned at kaufman tire (4 wheel alignment) an my car will still pull to the right most of the time, is my car aligned correctly or shouldnt my car drive pretty much straight when i let go of the steering wheel, i mean i would hope that a company like kaufman tire wouldnt have not aligned my car correctly or whatever.