1) What is the toe-in setting and why does it need to be realligned?
there are three major alignment settings for a wheel
1 - Caster
2 - Camber
3 - Toe
Caster is the amount of rake ( measured in degrees ) in the spindle. as with your front bicycle tire, which has the axle out in front of the steering axis, the bottom ball joint will be forward of the the top ball joint some amount. more rake makes the steering return to center harder. nobody puts the top ball joint forward of the lower one, that makes steering extremely unstable.
Camber is the amount ( measured in degrees ) that the top of the tire leans in or out relative to the bottom of the tire. racing setups always bias the top of the tire in unless it's something like circle track in which they only turn left in which case the LF front will be biased out. OEM setups usually push the top of the tire out. this is because the OEMs prefer a car which pushes over one which is loose.
Caster and Camber are measured independently of any other wheel on the car.
Toe is the amount that the front of the tire is "In" or "Out" ( measured in fractions of an inch or degrees ) relative to the back of the tire. this is measured across both front tires at the same time, you take the difference in measurement to be your "Toe Setting". racing setups use a small amount of Toe Out ( <3/8", more toe for tighter tracks ) while the OEMs usually set it slightly toed in. once again, because they prefer cars to push.
on a street car, you want to set the front suspension so you get maximum tread life from the tires. if you're wearing the outside of the treads, you'll want to see about setting the toe out more or changing camber to move the top of the tires in, etc.
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