Shim Kit for rear toe adjustment?

Thanks for the recognition of the effort that I, as well as other techs put forth. I'll get a car on the alignment rack without centering it and post the numbers as soon as I can.

 

tumbleweed,
How did you obtain the correct materials to make metal shims? I need to make some for my Gen III, and I already have the template. Thanks.

 

You can get "shim stock" from any auto parts store. You can get brass (easy to work with and lasts long enough) or stainless steel (very hard to cut and drill but lasts forever).

Wow Josh. The only thing I've ever seen the guys at my local dealer do is run a customers car into the door jamb. (It's true BTW).

 

There are a lot of posts /threads here about out-of-spec rear wheel alignment. This begs the question of a root cause. Are the vehicles being delivered this way? Do the axles bend in service? Or could all of this be the result of improper jacking ---- by dealers, independent shops and tire shops?

If the axle is bending, then re-alignment by any means will be temporary.

 

I think I have an idea. See my post in this thread:

http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii...ignment-shim-hub-bolt-torque.html#post1544102

 

I sounds like these bushings allow you to adjust the thrust angle of the rear axle as a whole and not the relative toe between the right and left wheels. A slight error is thrust angle will not wear tires; it just means that the center line of the vehicle will not be exactly parallel to the direction of travel. But some owners here seem to be experiencing abnormal tire wear?

 

Correct, though the individual toe settings will constantly vary - as evident from my experience with the various alignment results.

The Gen II owners did have complaints about tire wear, but the Gen III does not appear to have this issue so far.

 

I recently installed a Yellow shim kit #75600 (O'Reily can get them -- about $13 each) on rear hubs of a Gen2 Prius. Pretty easy to install. Hardest part was cutting out the pieces of the shim for hub bolts without breaking the shim. Cut carefully on the thin lines between the "petals" starting from the inside then break off the tabs.
Specialty Products Company - Yellow Shims for Prius


Here's a video from the manufacturer of the process;

And they even have a nifty web app to help calculate how to use the shim
(You'll need the alignment report from alignment shop first)
http://www.spcalignment.com/ezshim/includes/application/selection.swf

 

Here's a good laugh.........

I went to the same dealer I bought my 2012 from 3 wks ago to get the alignment done after installing my H&R springs only to find out that they can't do the alignment yet cause they don't have the 2012 specs........Wth......ur the dealer who sold the car.......how can they not have the specs!!!!!!

 

Hunter probably doesn't have the 2012 specs in winalign yet, but the factory service manual has them.

MB860 ? 2

 

SPC shims did not work for me, as they completely cracked when torqued to the Toyota recommended spec of 66 lb-ft for the rear hub bolts.

The shims sold under the NAPA Chassis label worked great as they were much thicker and durable. They were also less expensive than the SPC shims, and since they are not two-piece, the shim spacers for the caliper bolts are also not required.

The only downside is that you cannot get super precise adjustments with the NAPA shims but the increments are not too bad.

I previously had 0.33-0.35 on the LR corner. I cut the NAPA shim to reduce the toe-in by 0.19 and this was the result:

 

This is real! I mean the rear axle centering thing. I just did the old fashioned string DIY method for toe measurements and the rear axle did twist some depending if I drove into the garage front in vs backwards. The difference in rear axle trust angle was 0.27 degree while the total rear toe was constant +0.18 (in specs). There front has a mild toe out condition and I will look into it.

I also did the same thing in a Corolla with similar torsion axle and the numbers didn't change in the rear axle. That surprised me a bit.