Altering alignment for mpg
 

Has anyone here changed their toe in, if that's the right term, to get better mileage? Is toe in a standard amount for all vehicles or does it change depending on the type of vehicle? Is it legal to change? Can I go to an alignment shop and have then change my alignment to something more efficient? Any success stories out there? Yes, I do understand that a vehicle becomes less stable with less toe-in.

John David

I checked the alignment on my car to see where it was, then made sure the toe was set at zero. The predominant feeling I get with zero toe is that the car feels 'busy' when trying to go straight on the freeway. I'm constantly correcting, the car likes to wander, doesn't want to go straight. It's just a slight tendency, nothing dangerous, only slightly noticeable. I've been driving it that way for about a year or more, it keeps me awake. :)

Most alignment shops will refuse to go outside the specs. But, if they are willing to tweak all the way to one end of the specs for you, it can make a difference. Back when I was following early Prius stuff, the drivers were on this tightrope of wanting near-zero toe for max mpg, but also wanting some toe-in to keep a reasonable level of stability. A normal level of toe-in could cause big change in gas mileage vs near-zero toe.

DRW and Bill,
Did you see any improvement in MPG that you can attribute to the alignment change? Changing toe-in seems like some great low hanging fruit.

If I'm not mistaken, the Honda Insight spec is 0 for toe in. Several reviews also mentioned its on-center tendency to wander.

I noticed recently my alignment is slightly off - the wheel has to be held about half an inch (measured on the rim) off center to go straight. Must have been a pot hole.

I'd be interested in having it set to zero.

I didn't have a Prius, I just hung out with Prius people. I have never personally seen a mileage decrease or increase attributable to alignment. But, I do think that it is important if you want to squeeze out the last bit of mileage.

Sounds like a characteristic of zero toe :p

We had that problem with this year's HPV -- if you shifted your mass at high speeds (pedaling really hard), the wheels wanted to catch a new direction :thumbdown: Even crosswinds would take advantage of the wheels searching for "straight" (given our caster and trail angles) :thumbdown: We adjusted for .5-.75 degrees of toe in (hooray adjustable design!) and all of that went away... And our top speed did NOT change :thumbup:


To be honest, I'd take steering stability over fuel economy any day :)

At the time I was playing with different settings, I was doing it for better cornering, so I didn't really look at mpg. I did notice it seemed to roll easier when coasting to a stop or pushing it. It was just a coincidence that I found the best compromise in cornering and stability was with zero toe. I don't consider it unsafe; I've had my car over 110mph and there's no instability.
Of course I was being very attentive at that time too. For those moments when you want to cruise on the freeway and relax, more toe-in works better.

Anyone want to see how I built my own toe gage for $18 worth of parts from the hardware store? :D It seems relevent right about now. :thumbup:

Um, yes please!

I've been thinking of making a tool using a couple of cheap laser levels. Am I close?

wow, lasers! cool
here's how I did it. https://www.gassavers.org/showthread.php?t=3322

I adjusted the toe in on all 4 wheels of my Swift using a 9' long straight edge made from steel U channel. Just park on a level surface, set the straight edge up on a cinder block along side the door so it lines up with the center of the wheels front and back, then check the distance between the straight edge and the front and back of each rim. Quick and easy with nothing to fabricate.

Q

I just got my 5 realigned today and the toe was the aspect that was off. I did notice that I'm now getting more 'vagueness' on the freeway as explained above. It's too soon to tell, but I think this may have played a significant role in my mileage.

Usually I can get 30-40'ish miles on the trip odo before the fuel gauge on a full tank starts to move from the tippy top. Well just today after the service I filled up, and drove with A/C on and 34psi tires (oem spec) and I'm at 70 miles and the needle is still maxed out. Very premature conclusion, I know... I'm really interested to see what'll happen once I get the tires back up to 40psi and A/C turned off. It'll have to wait though since I'll be out of town all next week, bummer. BUT I'm going to see my bro-in-law in Tulsa and he owns a Prius, should be fun if I can get my hands on it sometime during the week :)

Alignment last Tuesday. Zero toe front & .12 total toe rear ,camber to minimum oem specs . Tracks well. had some decent 'in town' FE this weekend : all cold starts ,all short hoppers= 39.9/39.5 mi (sunday was 49.5/12.2 miles!)

Though I could be completely wrong here, I was under the impression that you wanted a little toe in when aligned because when the car is in motion, the suspension arms flex a little that while driving, the front wheels are actually neutral.

Toe in – front: car is stable going straight. Turn in is average
Usable range: 0-1/8th inch
Symptoms of too much adjustment: car has slow twitchiness under braking; feels odd; kills outside edge of tires

Toe out – front: Car turns in well; works pretty well on FF car as they tend to toe-in under load.
Usable range: 0-1/4 inch
Symptoms of too much adjustment: Car is really twitchy under braking; car wanders on straight road; kills inside edge of tire

ive got access to a free tire alignment at my school :)
usually there arent specs to change caster but it gives specs to change camber and toe and both, if not to specs, I would say, give you worse gas mileage. Its just a turn of a bolt!

For cars with a lot of camber, such as lowered Hondas, I've always heard adjusting toe to zero will minimize inside tire wear vs. adjusting it to factory specs.

My one friend has done that on his integra, and about 30k miles later with it lowered about 2 inches with no camber adjustment, no tire wear. I'm going to attempt the same on my VX using one of these home made methods since the car has never been aligned though the height was changed about 4 times since I've had it.