Tires: do I need an alignment?, rear camber, steering wheel

Question
Do I need an alignment?

When I bought new tires the old ones were wearing evenly. The tire store offered a free alignment check.  My numbers were all within tolerance, except the front “Toe” which were as follows.

      Min      max        mine

Left      -.05   .05     -.21
Right   -.05   .05     .17
Total     -.10   .10     -.04

On the rear camber, the tolerance is between .10 and .30. Mine is .20, but they say it needs to be aligned to .15.

They claim I “really need an alignment”. Is this true or are they just trying to sell it to me?

Thanks,

Jo

Answer
Jo,

Yes, you need an alignment.  But before I start, I want you to know that my experience says that published alignment tolerances are too wide by half.  Put another way, The alignment needs to be within the inner half of the spec.  With that in mind, let's examine the readings:

Toe:  Well, the total toe is within the inner half, but each side is out.  That should mean the steering wheel isn't straight or the vehicle is dog tracking (perhaps because the frame isn't straight).

The rear camber - I sort of disagree about what "they" think it should be - but I can understand where they are coming from .  But the big thing is it's right in the middle of the spec.

So except for the front toe, it looks OK.  If you want to live with the front toe situation, then you can.