unsure if u need an alignment? heres a quick and easy way to check ur toe. toe is what affects tire wear the most, not so muchcamber as most ppl think. if u want to check ur camber, u'll need special tools to do so. for toe, u can use the string method and its simple. alot of autox and road racers use this method to check/self align since they make many modifications to their suspension and most cant afford to spend $60-80 a month on alignments.

first tie string on the front of ur bumper. i tied it on the grill on my bumper.


then wrap the string all the way around ur car back up to the front bumper and tie the other side of the string to ur bumper. make sure the string is touching or atleast close to touching each wheel.

line up the string to about the center of ur wheels. dosnt have to be perfect but close as u can get.


now heres how u check ur toe. look at each side of the wheel where the string might/should be touching. if the string is touching both sides of the wheel, then ur toe is correct.

heres my left front wheel. the first pic is of the left part of the wheel and u can see the string is touching it.

heres the same wheel but of the right part of the wheel and u can see the string touching it.


like i said, both strings are touching each side of the wheel so my toe is correct for my left front wheel. all of my other wheels seem to have correct toe, except for my right rear wheel.

here is a pic of the right part of my right rear wheel. the string should be touching the wheel but as u can see, it is not.



here is that same wheel but the left part of it. u can see the string is touching the wheel.


since one part of the wheel is touching the string and the other is not touching it, that means my toe is off and i need it to be aligned.

there is a way to correct the toe with simple hand tools that most of u guys prolly have tho im not 100% sure of how to do it yet. if/when i figure that out, ill write up about it. any questions, feel free to ask.

 

Man that is good info.

 

id rather pay 100bucks and have the computers tell ya its right.LOL

 

same, but i'd also rather put that 100 bucks to more suspension parts. this is a good way to see how much ur toe has been affected after utake parts of ur suspension off. remember that when ever u take off just about any suspension component(ie: springs, shocks, lca's, damper forks, hub assembly, etc..), u'll most likely need an alignment afterwards. this is also a quick and easy way to see if u need an alignment after say u hit a curb or something along those lines. i know a few hardcore autoxers that do this quite often and i kno that many racing teams also do this for their track cars. research it, u'd be surprised how often its done and how reliable it can be if done correctly.

 

I never thought of that, thats cool. My problems that I knew I needed an aliment was either my car turns a certain way really hard when I let go of the wheel (my truck), or in my civics case, I put the steering wheel in the right position, and the wheels are turning a diff direction.

 

yeah, i've heard of that method, there's another one where you can use some tape and tape measure to fix the toe, i used to know another one for camber, but it's not as effective as getting a professional alignment. i refuse to pay someone to align my car and rely on some computer to tell me what to fix. i just do it the old fashion way, which is most effective (imo) and it's free

 

Good info!

 

yeah, it's a neat trick.

rear toe is pretty easy to adjust, it's just one bolt. you loosen it and slide the whole rear trailing arm left or right. I posted a picture here: https://www.hondacivicforum.com/m_42.../tm.htm#429268

 

thanks Marnie! i finally got around to doing it, late yaa, but o well.it was easy, took just a couple mins to do. i kno its not perfect but better than having a lot of toe in.

how u adjust the rear:
jack the car up enough so the wheel isnt touching the ground. loosen the bolt that connects the compensator arm to the body(shown in pic). once loose, push the wheel in or out(depending on if u have toe it or toe out). tighten the bolt sligtly, then lower the car and check the toe with the string, if its still off, adjust again. once u see the toe is corrected with the string, tq that bolt to 47 ft lbs and ur done.

with my toe corrected

 

yay old threads!

i ran my car over the alignment test plates at my work the other day just to check and passed. beats payin $50+