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Car Forum / Driving, Maintenance, Tuning / Maintenance and Repair / July 2007

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Wheel Alignment

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Joe Smith - 05 Jul 2007 04:48 GMT
I just got a wheel alignment done. The car didn't seem to pull, but
because there was more wear on the outside of the front right tire than
the inside, I assumed it needed to be done.

I have a couple questions about the printout from the before/after and
the guy at kal-tire wasn't exactly helpful. The results show that there
was hardly anything done. Before the alignment, everything was within
spec except LF toe (which was fixed) but afterwards, they seem to have
put the camber further out of spec. Since it was wear on the outer edge
of the RF tire that prompted the alignment in the first place, I would
have thought that increasing the camber on that tire would make it
worse, which the results also show was done.

Having said that, the car seems to run ok now, though I haven't had a
chance to take it on the highway yet.

My questions are:

- Do the tiny changes that were done actually make much of a difference?
In most cases, it was a small fraction of a degree that was changed. Do
small differences like that actually justify an alignment being needed
in the first place?

- Do the results shown below look ok? Is it ok that there's negative
camber on one side and positive on the other? Does the fact that they
took the camber farther off center and increased cross-camber
dramatically cause any concern?

Here's the results:

Camber
LF - Actual: -0.10 - Before: +0.01
RF - Actual: +0.12 - Before: +0.07
Spec Range: -1.00 to +1.00

Caster
LF - Actual: +1.64 - Before: +1.64
RF - Actual: +1.71 - Before: +1.71
Spec Range: +1.65 to +3.65

Toe
LF - Actual: +0.02 - Before: +0.14
RF - Actual: +0.01 - Before: +0.03
Spec Range: -0.08 to +0.08

Cross Camber
Actual: -0.22 - Before: -0.06
Spec Range: -0.75 to +0.75

Cross Caster
Actual: -0.08 - Before: -0.08
Spec Range: -0.75 to +0.75

Total Toe
Actual: +0.03 - Before: +0.17
Spec Range: -0.16 to +0.16
Ashton Crusher - 05 Jul 2007 06:30 GMT
>I just got a wheel alignment done. The car didn't seem to pull, but
>because there was more wear on the outside of the front right tire than
[quoted text clipped - 23 lines]
>took the camber farther off center and increased cross-camber
>dramatically cause any concern?

It all looks well within specs.  I don't think you have anything to
worry about.  You can change most of those things, except the toe, a
fairly large amount before you really notice much change.  I've had
cars that were way out of spec and they drove fine and got them
aligned and you couldn't tell the difference.  I've also had one car
that worn the hell out of the edges of the front tires no matter how
well aligned it was (Chevy Corsica).

>Here's the results:
>
[quoted text clipped - 24 lines]
>Actual: +0.03 - Before: +0.17
>Spec Range: -0.16 to +0.16
Joe Smith - 05 Jul 2007 15:06 GMT
Thanks. It just seemed weird to me that they even changed the camber
when it seemed to take it further out of whack than when it started.
Guess that's why I'm not a mechanic... =)

> It all looks well within specs.  I don't think you have anything to
> worry about.  You can change most of those things, except the toe, a
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> that worn the hell out of the edges of the front tires no matter how
> well aligned it was (Chevy Corsica).
 
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