Right, you did a front toe set. You set the toe so the car tracks straight and the steering wheel is straight. Did you adjust the camber or caster during your "front end alignment"?? The rear toe being out of adjustment won't effect how the car drives?? It does.

While it is a little more expensive to have a 4 wheel alignment done, it does benefit all 4 tires and if you're replacing tires all the time due to the car being out of alignment, a 4 wheel alignment will benefit your wallet

 

wait wait, i never said that the rear tires being out of alignment wouldn't affect driveability, thats just obvious, but the rear tires dont get out of alignment very often at all, so its not always neccessary to get them aligned along with the fronts (which seem to get knocked out of alignment ALL the time lol)... and as a matter of fact we did set the camber, and caster, it has always been my understanding that when you get a front wheel alignment, they adjust everything, not just the toe, thats just the information i've aquired from having numerous cars aligned, from my probes, to my bronco, to my dakota, etc etc, and also from taking a few automotive courses as well, 300 bucks wasn't bad for a semesters worth of lift and air tool time every saturday ... whenever i get an alignment its usually because i notice my tires starting to wear oddly, now if the camber isn't adjusted they are going to continue to wear out unevenly, and after each alignment they stopped :shrug:...

this is just my experiences over the years, take it for what its worth i guess...

 

I'd like to chime in to JHew's comments...I totally agree with him...no need for a 4 wheel alignment as much as bwhite seems to think is needed, IMHO. Obviously, if tires are constantly wearing out, then it may be time to get the rear's check and aligned if needed as well, but just don't see them as needing it very often...also, my fronts don't need it very often either....have 70K miles on my Prot. and got a front wheel alignment for the first time about a month ago....before that, I never had an issue with out-of-alignment until the last set of tires, like I mentioned in my previous post. Now, the car rides more steady than it's ever felt....like my Kumho's...I know they help....but there is absolutely no unever wear and ABSOLUTELY NO VIBRATION, etc. out of the rear either...like you might feel if there was an alignment problem back there....my 2cents too....

 

Your car has 4 tires right?? Aren't all 4 tires touching the ground??? Then all 4 of them need to be in proper alignment. FWD vehicle's have the rear wheels aligned and then the front to the rear. All 4 tires are hitting the road flat and straight. You personally do not have to get a 4 wheel alignment done on YOUR car. That is your decision. My point was I bought my car brand new with 3 miles on it. I brought it to work as soon as I picked it up from the dealer and had the alignment checked. Both rear tires were pointing to the right (known as dog tracking). The car was BRAND NEW! After the 4 wheel alignment was done, it drove even better.
Most manufacturer's build the first car for the model year, do a 4 wheel alignment, and then build every other model to those aligned spec's. If your car was, say, 150,000 cars later, the alignment is bound to be off. But if you never have it checked or corrected, it will effect the way the car drives.
If you have never had a 4 wheel alignment done, how do you know the car won't drive/ride any better??????
If you are having a vibration issue, it is not alignment related. It would be tire or tire balance related.

 

i'm not saying that if you rear tires are out of alignment that it is unnessesary to get a 4 wheel alignment lol, read my posts more thuroughly, what i'm saying is that to get your front wheels (just the fronts) aligned and set to spec you dont have to get the rears aligned at the same time, now if your rear wheels are out of alignment by all means get them aligned, but rear wheels rarely need an alignment anyway because there really isn't much play to begin with since they are mounted a hell of a lot more solid than the fronts and dont turn at all, so its alot harder to knock them out of alignment, so the need for a 4 wheel alignment is not as needed as a front end most of the time... and yes, i've also had 4 wheel alignments done, when i bought my bronco i replaced a bunch of front end parts (tie rods, brakes, wheel bearings...) and when i put my 31" street tires on it i went in and had a 4 wheel alignment done on it, which is recomended on 4x4's anyway...

regardless, the discussion at hand is that to get your front end aligned properly you dont need to have the rears aligned as well, a front end alignment consists of just that, adjusting the toe, camber, and caster to align the front tires, and all of that SHOULD be adjusted without ordering a 4 wheel alignment or your getting ripped off and need to find a better shop now have a beer on me and lets forget this

 

yep,yep

 

BW raises a good point. I had the P5 thrust-aligned by the dealer (one free under warranty within the first year) when I mounted a new set of 17 ADRs with Goodyear FZ-D3s. A couple of toe #s were outside spec. The car had less than 2K on it and hadn't seen a pothole or been curbed. After alignment, tracking was obviously better.

I've always checked all four on my cars as a matter of course.

 

well, first off i dont really trust dealer mechanics, i dont trust mechanics period, but dealer mechanics have always rubbed me the wrong way , 2nd most alignments get knocked off just slightly as soon as you leave the shop, not enough to make any sort of difference, but even hitting a speed bump at the slightest wrong angle can make a difference sometimes... and also when you change the overall diameter of the wheel (going from a stock sized rim, to a 17 inch rim, or even keeping the same sized rim, and getting a tire with a different profile) it is going to throw off your alignment as well, just because you have that extra amount of wheel there that hangs over where the other wheels were aligned, so when you get new rims/tires its always a good idea to get them aligned as well... i could try to explain it, but i'm finding it hard to put into words without writing a novel and even confusing myself i'm sure haha, if you want i can try and draw up some kinda diagram in mspaint with an explanation to go along with it...

 

My tires steer straight...absolutely no shimmer or vibrations....ride is as smooth as I've ever experienced in my car....I think a lot is attributable to the Kumhos on my car (which when I installed, I had a front end alignment done, and nothing else)....I'm totally satisfied with my ride...and so I'm happy and feel no need for any more tinkering!