Check the toe in your garage in 15 minutes

In one summer I got my car aligned on a laser machine every two to tree weeks and I was still not happy with the result. I remember going at the Formula-1 pit access grand prix in Montreal, the Ferrari engineers were aligning the F-1, (I'm not sure if it was Barrichello or Schumacher) using big 3 foot diameter disk instead of the wheels with a carpenter level. NO lazer machine. So I started to search the web on Do It Yourself alignment. I found some very good instructions.

Doing the toe alignment in my garage, I  was able to find that the Laser machine was incorrect at the garage I was going.

So if you want to check the toe of your car in 10-15 minutes, read that post. If you want to do the complete alignment, read the DIY in the link below.

I read a few DIY alignment on alignment. Doing a complete alignment is more complex, but checking the toe is easy. You can do it in your garage in 15 minutes. You take 2 jack stand and a rope and put it about 3 inches from the wheels. That gives you an idea if the toe is correct or not. It works. I did it twice before getting the car aligned. The first time, I found that the rear passenger wheel had toe in. The second time, I told the guy that I had toe out on the front wheel. Each time, the technician told me I was right. I would not do it to align the car myself, but just to check if the toe is ok. Jack stand and rope :
 
You measure the distance from one side of the rim. Then you measure the distance on the other side. If you have more than 1/8, you should have your alignment checked. Here is the front wheel: As you can see, there was 3 1/4 inches on left side of the wheel
 
And 3 inches on the right side.
 
So a difference of ¾ of an inch was a go for an alignment. That was after lowering.


Additionnal information:
Some guys put a push pin in the middle of the tire thread and they measure from there. It is better to measure at the middle of the wheel. The fender of our cars goes so low that it is difficult. Some guys puts push pin at the middle of the wheel and with a rope and a metal washer to make some weight. Then you can measure at the rope. My car is still of four jack with no wheel. I will take a picture later.


For autox some toe out is recommenced. I went to more than 1/8. There was not <wanding>. Only big tire wear. I destroyed a set of front tire on the street with too much inside tire wear in a few weeks.

You can go to -1.8 front can -1.5 rear camber. If you go more than that, you will pay the price in tires. However, too much negative camber cause less tire wear than too much positive toe.

I tried a caster of 4.5 but did not like it. That was more for road racing. The car is now set at 6.5. Big caster is more for high speed. I would try a caster of 4 or 4.5 for autox.

I drove for 50k miles last season and destroyed too many tires with aggressive alignment. My C5 is my daily driver. I went back to standard alignment.