Agreed^
I worked at a dealer for over 16 years. I once tried the do it yourself alignment in my garage with a portable FE aligner that an old friend had. Did an alignment on my Dads car,(was a 01 Buick Park Ave.) took it to work & put it on our Hunter FEA machine, the toe was dead on, camber was within 0.3 but caster was off quite a bit on the left side. I set it @ +0.8 & the Dealer machine showed +1.9. I think that was because he didnt have the swivel plates that are needed to do it right. If you know what you are doing, it can be done with good results.
is there a way to check caster with the string method?
there is no possible way to do a proper alignment this way all the suspension components have to have a load on them to align it with out a machine and second of all string? how accurate do you think this will work…this is a horrible idea! why isnt it drivable? if you just need to set toe jack it up and adjust it your self and then drive it! not worth spending money for someone to set toe then to have another person align it for 70 bucks
Do you people read at all? It is very possible to do your own alignment. I too have done this and gotten many cars very very close. As previously stated (though you can’t read apparently) many racers do this for their own vehicle. It can and has been very accurate in the past. Just because something isn’t done on a $45,000 machine does not mean it isn’t right.
those are race cars though, not street driven vehicles that have specific specifications for best tire wear/ride comfort.
I do my own toe alignments by feel(of how the car drives) but caster and camber are best done with a machine. Especially caster.
my car was done by me and so far after like 700 miles i see no uneven wear marks on my tires. I replaced EVERY tie rod, ball joint and controll arm and its still driving straight with no fucked up tires.
mindless does his car too.
i race stock cars and i did my hatch in the fall and still have no uneven wear on my blizzaks… find somebody with some time buy a 12 pack and have at it for a couple hours… if you play with it long enough you can get near perfect.
I’ve been doing a lot of research because I’m planning on doing my own alignments. It’s actually very feasible and like previously stated what you need the most is time.
I’m doing my car myself because I cant afford to spend $150+ every couple of weeks trying to tweak for an optimum auto-x setting. I know that the OP is probably just going to do it once and then leave it but he could still save a few bucks doing it himself.
The one negative thing I have to say about a driveway alignment is that most people who do it themselves say they get better at it each time they do it (duhh) … so if your only going to do it once and never again I’d have to suggest going to a shop once you get it ‘close enough’ to drive. Otherwise if you can get someone experienced to help you at home then you should be all set.
65,000-70,000 machine*
then you have to worry about breakin the jam nuts free, its a pain in the balls to do it with the right tools, imagine doin it on ur back in a drive way! thats just my theory…
surprise surprise, 2 pages of replies, yet not a single one useful
:tup:
alright, i really need someone to come over and set the toe. thats all i need is the toe done. i cant pull the car off jackstands until this is done.
car is on jackstands, front rims removed for easy access. like I said, doesnt need to be perfect, just good enough to get it off jackstands and to drive to a shop. All tools on hand w/ compressor if needed.
Car is on 03 chevy cavalier if that matters to ya.
You can’t do an alignment with the car in the air, the suspension needs to be at ride height. It’s not very hard to do yourself even if you’ve never done it before and even if you get it way wrong, the car will still be drivable and you’re not going to burn your tires up driving 10 miles to get it done by someone you trust. You’re an auto enthusiast, you should at least have the motivation to try it yourself first.
Not sure if this will help, but here goes:
why not AAA it to a shop that does alignment, while telling them something else is wrong?
free tow, get it straight first time through, without having to drive it there. Shit. If i were there, I’d offer to do that for you.
just an idea. i know you’re getting a lot of other ‘answers’ in this thread, but didn’t know if you considered that idea (if it is even an option) or not.
thats not a bad idea. I appreciate it!
and Cavi Mike, ya i thought about trying it myself, and may end up trying today. I got a TON done to get the car ready yesterday, so i think I can spare the time to at least try.