What is an alignment, what should I know?

[aero]

I am not finished, but just wanted to get this opened up. If you have any suggestions of what to add, post up, and I will get it into the writeup asap.

Alignments

An alignment is just the readings of how your tires are positioned compared to each other, the center line of the car, and how they touch the ground. There are quite a few terms which get people all confused, and its a pretty good thing to know what you are talking about, especially when you have a lowered car.

Very basic terms -
*contact patch - The part of the tire that is contacting the ground at any given time
*tie rod ends - simply put, they allow you to steer the car, they are your final connection to the wheels.



Camber

Camber is a reading stated in degrees which compares how perpendicular the wheel is to the road. Here is what it means, looking at the tire from the front/rear.

The right side of the picture is the inside of the car. When your tires "leans" in at the top, it is called negative camber. When the top is pushed out, that is positive camber. To see negative camber, you have to look at the tire at eye level from the front or back of the car.

Toe

Toe in/out is the reading in degrees of how the tires sit compared to the centerline of the car. The picture below shows a car with "Toe In" since the front of the tires are pushed in towards the middle of the car. (Picture is from the top, looking through the engine bay)

Toe is the easiest to fix, all you have to do is adjust the tie rod ends which all cars come with stock. This adjustment though is the one that will make the most difference on whether your tires wear quickly.

To see toe, you would have to look from the top (on top of the hood), and see how much it is "turned" You really shouldnt be able to see the toe, or your tread will be gone in a month or two.

Caster

Caster is the reading of the imaginary line that is drawn through the upper and lower ball joints. (left side of picture is front of car)

That line that is drawn through the ball joints is angled so that when the line would meet the ground, it would do this just before the contact patch of the tire (to the front of the tire).

Doing this keeps the car stabile at speed, and makes it so the car does not wander and go wherever it wants to.

Camber is often thought of as the KILLER of tires. In reality, it is the combination of that and excessive toe.

A good way to see what I am talking about is if you have one of those ab roller wheels, like the one below. If you take one of those, and lean the wheel over while doing it.. it really isnt any harder. (this demonstrates camber)
.

If you turn the wheel to one side (like you are trying to turn) but force it in a straight line ahead, it is much harder to push. This is why it is harder on tires, because you are virtually dragging them across the pavement at a small angle. (this is like toe on your car)

[aero]

DIY Alignment

After knowing that my toe was messed up for the longest time, I decided I would try to get it set back to 0 by myself. The technically correct way to set it to zero is find the centerline of the car from front to back, and then make sure the front of the wheel is exactly the same distance from that line as the rear of any wheel.

Obviously its not too easy to find the centerline nor a measurement device that is accurate enough for that since one degree can mess you up.

*this how-to is not a perfect method, just an easy way to set the toe pretty close to perfect. If I stuck my car on an alignment machine I am sure it would be within 1/2 of a degree which is good enough for me.

My alignment was off pretty good, I did this before running up to orlando (7hour round trip) and tires wore much better than before.

*this DIY is not for you to do if your tires are already aligned. BUT if you just put on a new set of tie rods or dropped your car and dont want to pay 60-100 for an alignment, this is a good way to save some dough. It will only do your toe, but that is the worst thing for your tires, so your good to go.


Tools needed:

9/16" open end wrench
3/4" open end wrench
^ may be different depending on your tie rod ends
jack
jackstands
lazer level that will show a line instead of a dot... preferrably a vertical line.
piece of wood to go behind rear wheel

Instructions

1. jack up car so front wheels are just off ground
2. put on jackstands
3. loosen the retaining nut on tie rod ends (dont turn the tie rods any.. just that nut)
4. get in car, and center wheel so it is sitting straight ahead
5. put piece of wood behind rear tire as shown in pic
6. get level, and aim it so it projects a vertical line towards the rear, and level with the middle of the wheel.

7. see picture below, the object is to make that slim lazer line hit the front and rear edges of the front tire (just graze past) and then line up to do the same for the rear tire.

8. you will want to do the same on the other side(if both are pointing too far to one side when looking from the front, then the steering wheel may be turned too much one way or the other.

9. the piece of wood is to see about where the lazer is. If it is too far to the outside, the wheel is toe'd in.

10. then you just adjust the tie rod about 1/2 turn at a time and re-align lazer and see where it is pointing at. Do this for both front tires, and should be better than it was.

[Straight Success]

Stock Suspension Geometry

I couldn't find this information anywhere on the site, and since I have it readily available, I figure why not add it.

*Note: All angles are the same for the left and right side of the car.

Primary Angles:

Front:

Specifications
Minimum ::::: Maximum

Caster:

2.00* ::::: 4.00*

Camber:

-1.00* ::::: 1.00*

Toe:

-0.15* ::::: 0.15*

Note: Total (the sum of the left and right side angles) toe should not exceed -0.25* or 0.25* when +/- together.

Rear

Camber:

-1.0* ::::: 0.0*

Toe:

0.00* ::::: 0.15*

Note: Total toe should not exceed 0.30*.

[evil_demon_01]

Added to "Common suspension Info"

[Straight Success]

Added to "Common suspension Info"