Computerized alignment vs. by hand

[madoka]

My local tire shop swears they are more accurate by hand than by computer when doing alignments. Any opinions?

 

[Apex]

Honestly, it really comes down to the individual shop. In general, you'll get more uniformity from shop to shop with computerized. However, there are some seriously skilled folks who do it by hand.

 

[DivideBYZero]

One of the best four wheel alignments I have ever had on any of my cars has been by a guy doing it by hand with string. He set up racing Lotus' and his skills tuned out the natural understeer on my Impreza Turbo so that it felt so well balanced it was unreal.

 

[Apex]

One of the best four wheel alignments I have ever had on any of my cars has been by a guy doing it by hand with string. He set up racing Lotus' and his skills tuned out the natural understeer on my Impreza Turbo so that it felt so well balanced it was unreal.

There's a guy like that here too. He's very popular with the folks who track their Porsches and EVOs. I've taken my cars to him. All alignments done by hand, with driver sitting in the car. You can specify if you want anything done to the handling. Cornerweighting done too. Unfortunately, it takes forever to get an appointment time. During track season, it's like trying to make a reservation at French Laundry.

 

[thescreensavers]

for racing I could see why by hand would be ok but for least wear I would say computer has the edge

 

[boomerang]

I crewed on a racing team for about 10 years and we did our alignments by hand. You still need some equipment though, especially to do Caster.

We would create a level surface by building up three of four spots the car sat on with linoleum tiles on a fairly level part of the shop. The tiles worked real well under the front wheels for checking Caster because the tiles would slip on one another as the wheels were turned.

We used a Snap-On alignment tool that was hand held. We had to make an adapter for the wheel hub. The alignment tool was magnetic on the end and the adapter would snap onto it. You held the alignment tool to the wheel hub to check Camber and Caster. As I said, the wheel would have to be turned to measure Caster.

Toe was done with strings and a scale measuring off the rim of the wheels. Jack stands were used to support electrical conduit running in front and back of the car. We cut notches in the tubing so the strings would stay both stable and parallel with each other. The jack stands were used to get the height of the strings as close to the centerline of the wheels as possible. The conduit could be moved side to side to get the strings equidistant and parallel to the car measuring off the hubs using the adapter mentioned above removed from the alignment tool. We just used a pocket scale from the adapter to the string.

Then, you could measure toe off the leading and trailing edge of the rims.