I'm looking for some info on the "at-home" front end alignment kits. I've found one by Longacre that looks pretty good....but are there better ones out there? I'm tired of paying $80 every time I mess with the suspension on my Mini to have a front end alignment done....looking for a better option.

Are these do-it-youself kits better/worse than having a shop use those laser alignment tools on your car? I want an accurate alignment....but I don't want to pay $80 every time, and I'm not a fan of other people working on my car....I like doing it myself.

Any info would be great!! Thanks

 

I cut and pasted this from a post of mine from a half a dozen years ago:

You might already have most or all of what you need at home.

Tape measure for toe-in. Go from mid tread to mid tread front and back
as far up as you can (but same height front and back of tires).
String squared around the car on jack stands (or something similar improvised)
at mid-tire height also works well for toe-in, and gets the individual rear toe.
Remember that the track is about 1/2 inch less wide on the rear.
This tool and a small steel rule for camber:
http://www.sears.com/great-neck-saw-...1&blockType=G1
If you're not on a perfectly level road (many are angled down toward the curb),
then you can turn the car around, measure again, and average the two readings.
Oh, and a calculator than does inverse sin function helps. You might need to
look at a math book if you don't remember some simple trigonometry from high school.

 

No other systems out there except the one from Sears?

 

Can also mate a digital angle level to a straightedge. The longacre things are nice but I think they cost more than they should.

I also have a cen-tech toe wheel alignment gauge to measure toe that harbour freight used to
sell for about $20 but a simple tape measure gives me the same accuracy if done properly.
The trick with the tape measure is to be sure you're measuring the tread the same height up from
the road front and back. Not an issue at all when camber is close to 0 degrees but the more
the camber differs from 0, the more important it is to have the same height when measuring the
tread to tread lengths. Some tires have tread patterns that make this a little challenging
(like Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3) but most have a vertical line of tread blocks that you can
easily match from side to side.
I can't seem to find the cen-tech tool online anymore, but it was basically a long adjustable length
strip of metal with a fixed spar on one side and this gauge on the other side.
http://images.harborfreight.com/cpi/...0199/30167.gif