After a few recommendations from some of the awesome people on this site, I purchased Goodyear Assurance TripleTreds to replace the awful Integritys that came on my 2006, Package 9. The shop did a wheel alignment, and I am afraid that they got it wrong because I have seen comments on this site about the fact that alignment on the front wheels should be toe in by a degree or so and the guy at the shop did not do that. Here's the readout from the shop's system: LEFT FRONT camber: -.08 caster: 3.1 toe: 0.00 RIGHT FRONT camber: -.08 caster: 2.9 toe: 0.01 FRONT total toe: 0.01 steet ahead: 0.00 LEFT REAR camber: -1.4 toe: 0.29 RIGHT REAR camber: -1.2 toe: 0.13 REAR total toe: 0.42 thrust angle: 0.08 Does this look right, or do I need to go back and have the alignment redone? Many thanks.
Hi Julia, I'm assuming that your results are expressed in degrees. Front total toe-in should be as close to zero as possible, so you are good there. Front camber spec is -0.58 degrees +/- 0.75 degrees - so your camber is within spec. Front caster spec is 3.17 degrees +/- 0.75 degrees and is not adjustable. You are within spec. Rear total toe-in spec is 0.3 degrees +/- 0.25 degrees. Rear camber spec is -1.5 degrees +/- 0.5 degrees. Hence the rear is within spec. The rear wheel alignment is not adjustable per Toyota repair philosophy. In brief, your alignment looks fine.
The front looks about perfect. But the back: As Patrick pointed out, Toyota and most other shops don't do rear wheel alignment. IMHO, your rear wheels have more toe and camber than I care for. The target should be -0.8 degrees camber and 0.0 degrees toe. I see you are in New Mexico. You need to find a shop that will do a '4-wheel alignment.' This is a specialty alignment and you might have more luck by calling some of the speed shops and asking if they can recommend someone who does '4-wheel alignment' using either shims or the specialty products EZ SHIM. You might give Specialty Products a call, 1-800-525-6505 and get the contact information for a local dealer. Then call the dealer and ask who they recommend. You can also ask about the price of getting EZ SHIMs for your Prius, #75800, you'll need two. Although not strictly required, they also have a nice dial chart, #75910 (I've put the numbers in your text), but they also have a good web application. The shims look like this: I shoot for minimum camber and toe on the rear wheels. This is not a difficult task but it helps if you have a torque wrench that can go to 50 ft-lbs, 44 ft-lbs on your car, a set of metric sockets and a floor stand so you can work on the rear wheels safely. A plastic headed hammer is desirable, a can of WD-40 or 3-in-1 oil and small flat screw driver are needed. Bob Wilson
