I've decided to lower after the 60k maintenance on the car. The wheel gap is becoming unbearable and I can't sleep at night.

My question to you folks...

Is it possible/recommended to perform an accurate 4 wheel alignment myself? I've been doing some research on the internet and there are many gauges and tools available for reading camber, caster, and toe.

Checking camber is the easiest, my concern lies with setting the toe-in properly and thrust in the rear wheels. Can this be done accurately? I just feel with the boneheads working at alignment shops, I can do a halfway decent job with the proper research and information.

Has anyone attempted an aligment by themselves? If so any suggestions/tips would be appreciated. Thanks for your time.

Don't waste your money on those gauges and tools. Spend $50 and let a professional with commercial grade equipment perform this task. Plus, you'll have a pretty little readout. If you don't go any lower than 2", you shouldn't have much trouble finding a place that can do it.

I agree. Let a good, reputable shop do the alignment. They use computer aided machines, and laser light to align all 4 wheels. You can't go wrong with that. For 50 bucks, its worth it. Using the tools you can buy, i'm sure you can get a somewhat accurate reading, but i personally would get it done by a pro, esp after lowering, trust me, i'm haveing probs with my alignment as we speak, since i lowered..Just trying to get the necessary camber kits and such..

I did mine myself at a auto hobby shop. The rear is adjusted by an eccentric bolt the fronts by tie rods. You can make crude adjustmeants but they ain't worth it cuz believe it or not it takes precision. If your toe is off by a little then it can have a big effect on your car. Take it to a shop

alvin

Shops use a $40,000 machine to align the car perfectly. Do that.

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at our shop we use sensors with lasers in them. we have one for each wheel and thy cost 2g's a peice. and that is old equipment. pay the 50 bucks. and you don't have to worry baout the thrust angle in the rear to much because we're front wheel drive. as long as the toe is straight in the back thrust angle will be fine.

yeah the last time I got an alignment I got it aligned on this badass hunter alignment rack. This thing was awesome it used infrared to calculate the alignment. Not laser beams or lights it really tight, it even had these long ass ramps for lowered cars!

Anyway I've aligned my own car haha guess how by eyeballing it! You can adjust your own camber with a camber gauge, but you'll need camber adjusters, you don't want to use spacers only because it'll be a bitch taking off spacers and putting back together again. you NEED adjusters to make your life easier. now TOE that's a hard on you need to use a light beam of some sort to align that. I tried aligning my rear camber by eye and man I it doesn't work. I mean I can get the wheel to steer straigth when driving but after I got a real alignment I felt the difference.

yeah 50 bux is too much for poor people like me :(

So bottomline just get an alignment at a shop. It'll be done right, just make sure they give you the print out so you can see what's up. Unless your a hardcore road racer that does his own alignment and sets the car up for track racing you don't need to do your own alignment. I autox a lot and I don't align my stuff.

Ahhh yes I was just thumbing through this months Sports Car magazine (you get it free when your an SCCA member ^_^) and I found alignment tools. Oh yeah haha a way to check your camber is to get some kinda flat bubble gauge and place it on your rotor in the middle or a long bubble level across the sidewalls or the rims of the wheel. THIS IS A INACURATE way! Just to check :P

SMART CAMBER GAUGE = 194.91 + Hands free adapter 39.95
(I swear I could so make my own camber gauge with the little bubbles for cheaper than that :P )
RIDE HEIGHT GAUGE = 189.95 (haha I didn't even know they had these)
ART Laser Toe Plates = 399.98 (woohoo that takes the cake)

Now lemme see 500 bux for weak on the go alignment tools. That' like 10x alignments! Haha just get the alignment dude!

specially if you goto a place like where i work and you get a warranty on your alignment for 6 months so if something fucks up you can go back and they'll straighten it for you free

Here's the perfect solution: Get lifetime alignment plans or even a 3 year alignment plan. For me, lifetime alignment was 100 bucks and it's every 3k miles or whenever I need it (they don't really check mileage). Most places should be under 175 bucks for a lifetime alignment deal. I've already gone three times in less than a year.

NE1 know a place around the bay area that will do that lifetime alignment deal? Haha shit before every autox I'll slam the car align it race it align it.