DIY Wheel alignment tool

[stevieturbo]

Anyone heard of this ? Seems almost to good to be true, but at the same time also plausible. Although perhaps not fully available with Android devices it seems

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYN6vv9_I78

[GreenV8S]

I've never heard of that before.

Camber seems trivially simple and I've no doubt that would work - same as using any 'spirit level' app.

I suppose the toe measurement must be using the phone's gyro sensors to keep track of its orientation since the magnetic sensor would not be reliable around a car. That would be highly sensitive to drift, and I find it hard to believe it can maintain anything like that accuracy over such a long time duration. So I'm skeptical - but I'd be interested to hear from anyone independent who's used it and verified the results.

[Ambleton]

I have a trakrite i use for toe in my three wheeler and whilst it's a bit of a pain, is a very simple bit of kit.

No garage will touch it because you need special ramps for a three wheeler and, even if you have those, then most tracking systems need to have rear wheels to compare to/work. Camber and castor are fixed so the only thing you can change is front toe.

[Crudeoink]

GreenV8S said:

I've never heard of that before.

Camber seems trivially simple and I've no doubt that would work - same as using any 'spirit level' app.

I suppose the toe measurement must be using the phone's gyro sensors to keep track of its orientation since the magnetic sensor would not be reliable around a car. That would be highly sensitive to drift, and I find it hard to believe it can maintain anything like that accuracy over such a long time duration. So I'm skeptical - but I'd be interested to hear from anyone independent who's used it and verified the results.

+1 id be shocked if it could accurately keep track of the measured toe angles to 0.01° as displayed in the app. IME a change of toe of just 0.1° is easily noticable and I struggle to believe the accelerometer is accurate enough to be able to keep track of angle changes that small when walking from one side of a car to the other and just holding a phone in your hand to do the measurements?

[stevieturbo]

GreenV8S said:

I've never heard of that before.

Camber seems trivially simple and I've no doubt that would work - same as using any 'spirit level' app.

I suppose the toe measurement must be using the phone's gyro sensors to keep track of its orientation since the magnetic sensor would not be reliable around a car. That would be highly sensitive to drift, and I find it hard to believe it can maintain anything like that accuracy over such a long time duration. So I'm skeptical - but I'd be interested to hear from anyone independent who's used it and verified the results.

I downloaded their android app, and it lets you do a test against a solid surface. In the case of my phone, it seems unhappy with the result as not being accurate enough.
Also just tried my old phone, Android again, and it said it was unhappy with the test result as not being accurate enough.

The test itself does seem reasonable given what it is trying to achieve.

[GreenV8S]

I didn't realise they had a free beta. I had similar results - it took a few attempts to pass their test, and when I tried to do a toe alignment check on my desk it said I 'moved too much'.

It doesn't help that the 'fore/aft' alignment feedback uses the opposite sense to the 'left/right' feedback. I can't think of any reason to have done that deliberately so I guess they just got a sign wrong in their calculation and didn't have enough QA to notice it.

[stevieturbo]

[jimmyhackers]

for DIY, I prefer the friend and a peice of string method myself. flat/even ground and a tape measure helps.

for the amount of money id spend on any other "proper" tool (or a professional) to do my tracking....paired with the "play" in most peoples steerings as it is.
Im not sure the extra resolution in the readings/setup is really worth it. or that it would be dialed in any more of a better/noticable way.

to boot, most stock cars will have limited adjustability as it is, mine has front tracking adjustability only, making an expensive alignment tool or proper garage job kinda pointless.

however, if your not comfortable doing it the hillbilly method, just get a proper alignment shop to do it.

they should have better alignment tools and maybe even corner weight scales etc.

tip: a good alignment shop will ask you how much you weigh or to weigh you and simulate your weight in the driver seat during setup.

[GreenV8S]

jimmyhackers said:

tip: a good alignment shop will ask you how much you weigh or to weigh you and simulate your weight in the driver seat during setup.

Somebody corner weighting a competition car might do that, but I wouldn't expect an alignment check of a production road car to consider anything like that.