Toe in measurement

Have just fitted 2 new front tyres. Old ones were scrubbed on outer edge.
Tracking must need adjusting but garages want £25 to do it! Can do it myself
if i knew what the measurement was, anyone any idea please.
Daihatsu Hi-Jet 1.3 EFI 2001.

i spoke to a tyre guy about my 993. he asked me if i had a large spirit level.
park on level ground, he said to take off the hub caps, place the level on the metal rim edge and see if the rim is 100% vertical.. or not. this will give you an idea of how far out it is.

Using a level will give you an idea of the camber angle which I don't think is adjustable on a hijet. This is how much the top of the wheel is leaning inwards or outwards. The hijet has a bit of lean inwards like most cars. Also the level trick is only as good as the level of the ground the van is sitting on.

What the garage is talking about is the tracking or "toe in", which is how much the front wheels are steering into or away from each other. More toe in causes the vehical to drive straighter while toe out causes the vehical to want to start to turn easily.

If you have problems with scrubbing first check to see if your lower ball joints, wishbone bushes, track rod ends and upper strut bearing assemblies are all in good condition and free of play. Then you can have the tracking done. If you try to track it while you have excessive play in the components the tracking is meaningless as the wheels will float about due to the movement from the bushes.

You can attempt to track a vehical up DIY with some bits of steel clamped to both the front wheel rim edges and use a tape measure from one wheel to the other. If you measure in front of the wheels, and then behind the wheels it will give you an idea of how parallel the wheels are pointing. But its very crude and inaccurate. The garage will have a lazer wheel allignment setup where they hang some thingiemajigs on the wheels with little lazers that project to the thingiemajig on the other side. As they adjust the tracking (via the trackrod end) the lazer beam moves across a gauge and gives them the angle in degrees. £25 is a fair price for such trickery!

sorry popeye, I didn't answer your original question... I don't know what the factory tracking angle is, but if in doubt I tend to go for about 0.5 to 1 degree of toe in. A few cars turned up at one of the places I worked at that we couldn't get any allignment data for, so I set them with a little toe in (0.5 to 1 degree), unless it was a sports orientated machine e.g. CRX, s2000 or MR2 etc, then a little toe out instead. Right or wrong, it seemed ok.

Thankyou for replies. Fitted the tyres myself Saturday morning and then put them
back on van and took them to get balanced. While i was there asked if they would
do Tracking cheaper than £25 and they said £15 so agreed on that. Set it all up
and it was well within tolerance so no adjustment needed and no charge, result.
So why are outside of tyres wearing? Answer, Camber is way out on nearside wheel.
Put a level on drivers side first and it showed top of wheel 2mm in from bottom which
looks about right. Nearside wheel is showing bottom of wheel 9mm! in from top hence
wear on outside edge of tyre. I think both tyres had wear because i probably swapped them
over at some time. Jacked van up to have a look and obviously there is no Camber
adjustment, not a surprise as its a fairly basic design. The lower ball joint is fine, the
hub to strut bolts i loosend and then retightened and managed to gain 2mm but still
not enough really. I think it probably was made like this but will get back under again
soon and have another go.

Maybe its hit a kerb hard at some point in its history or something? Possibly the strut is bent?

I would hope it came out of the factory straight, being Japanese Daihatsu tend to manufacture to tight tolerances. Employees probally get sacked or hung or both for running the manufacturing line out of spec.

Yes i think you are probably right. I'm going to drop the strut out at
the w/end and take a look. Will let you know if i find anything.