I got a "four wheel" alignment today at Merchant Tire. My right rear tire has a toe of .40 degrees, but the tech said he wouldn't put shims on because they would mess up my ABS. Is there any truth to that, or is it total BS? If it is BS, then I will be interested in using shims to correct the alignment as a lot of other people on Prius Chat have done. From my reading, I have discovered that the dealerships won't put shims on for me, and apparently Merchant won't either. Can anyone advise me on who might do this kind of work? I have also learned that Galaxee sells shim kits, which tempts me to attempt the install myself. I am not very knowledgeable about cars, but I follow directions very well. Is there a write-up online anywhere about how to install shims on a Prius? I haven't found one in my searches.
I suggest you look for a shop that specializes in wheel alignment. (One that doesn't sell tires or perform general auto repairs.) Call and ask whether they will install shims on the rear beam axle, to correct excessive toe-in. I do not see how correction of excessive toe-in would negatively impact ABS.
The technician at one of the alignment shops I went to also thought that installing shim(s) could affect ABS, but this is not true. The shim is installed between the backing plate and the axle beam. It does not affect the ABS sensor which is built into the sealed hub assembly. I got my shim(s) from Galaxee and her DH and I installed them myself. Galaxee provided a link with some basic instructions. You may also be able to find an independent shop to install the shim for you. At the time that I installed my shims there weren't any aftermarket shim sets for the Prius, but that is not longer true - there are a least two companies that offer shim sets for the rear axle of the Prius.
Moog or SPC has shims available. The technician is both correct and wrong at the same time. Anytime you perform an alignment on a vehicle equipped with Toyota VSC, you are supposed to perform a zero-point calibration. A lot of times you can get away with not doing the calibration if you are only making minor adjustments, but if you add shims, then it's probably a greater adjustment and a calibration is probably well-advised. So, your shop needs to either have an aftermarket scan tool that can perform the zero-point calibration or they need a tool such as the Hunter Codelink.
Thanks for your help, everyone. I won't worry about the ABS, then. Since it looks like I will need to have the zero-point calibration taken care of after shims are put on, I will go ahead and look for an alignment shop to do the whole job and forgo trying to install the shims myself.
